CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section IV: Africa Missions

Part 8:   Nigeria - Yoruba Mission, 1880-1934

Part 9:   Nigeria - Yoruba Mission, 1880-1934

Part 10: Nigeria - Niger Mission, 1880-1934

Part 11: Nigeria - Niger Mission, 1880-1934 and Nigeria - Northern Nigeria, 1900-1934

Part 12: West Africa (Sierra Leone) Mission, 1881-1934

Part 13: West Africa (Sierra Leone) Mission, 1935-1949 and Nigeria Missions, 1935-1949

Introduction to Part 9

Part 9 completes the Nigeria- Yoruba papers for 1880-1934 begun in Part 8. Earlier parts in Series IV containing material for Nigeria - Yoruba are Parts 3 and 4. Part 9 contains the remaining Original Papers for 1904-1934 and Précis Books for 1880-1934.

The Original Papers are the incoming papers sent by the mission to London. They contain letters regarding all manner of subjects: Church constitution, mission statistics, reports of missionary activities including arrivals, departures, furloughs, engagements, weddings and deaths. Material is also included on the Native Agents who worked alongside the missionaries. Some of the most fascinating items are the extracts from the Journals of the missionaries chronicling their work and experiences such as the Journal of E M Lijadu of Ode Ondo describing his travels to outlying areas where among other things he preached to converts (some of them ex pirates), settled quarrels and gave lectures to students.

There are reports of all kinds: from the Secretary detailing discussions on the number of homeward passages to be allocated to missionaries; the Girls’ Seminary; the CMS Grammar School; the Training Institution; reports of conferences; reports from various areas of the mission with details of converts and itineration; persecution of Christians; number of baptisms and catechisms; reports regarding the examination of candidates for Holy Orders; reports from the local Superintendents describing meetings of local agents and delegates from the churches to discuss work done, increases in salaries, marriages of the local people, funds and schoolmasters needed. There are also many reports from the Medical Board stating whether a said missionary was fit to continue their work.

Minutes of various meetings are included: Minutes of the Executive Committee, the Abeokuta Church Council, meetings held at the CMS training school, the Ibadan Native Church Council, the training class for Scripture readers, the Ladies Conference in Lagos.Financial items include details of the expenditure of the mission, missionary allowances and salaries, the Native Agents’ Superannuation Fund, statements of accounts.

Miscellaneous items include: newspaper cuttings from papers such as The Government Gazette and The Lagos Weekly Record. Issues of The Western Equatorial Africa Diocesan Magazine are included and booklets such as On Christian Marriage and The Training of Children by the Mother’s Union. There are missionaries’ medical certificates, translations by missionaries of religious material, plans for mission houses, documents regarding the future administration of the Yoruba and Northern Nigeria Mission and the threatened split of the Society after the resignation of Dr Bardsley.

The Précis Books contain a printed précis of the incoming papers prepared for each meeting of the Group Committee. The précis gives the date, writer, date received, summary of contents, proposals for committee action to be taken and/or the secretary’s remarks. A file copy of the précis was pasted in the précis book on the left-hand side and on the right-hand side the committee clerk entered the relevant committee action and notes of secretarial action.

As the Précis Books contain incoming papers the topics covered contain the same issues which can be found in the Original Papers but in précis form. The Précis Book P 1 covering 1880-1881 includes in its first agenda a list of missionaries and agents with their stations and a lengthy review of the mission as an introduction for the new committee. Précis Book P 2 has an interesting minute about slavery which was adopted by the Committee of Correspondence on 5 June 1888.

The following extracts give some flavour of the type of material to be found in the Original Papers:

The extract below, written by the missionary Herbert Cane, describes his journey from Lagos on his return to the mission station Owo in Southern Nigeria

CMS Ondo
December 1908

We had intended to travel by Steam Launch to Okiti-Pupa and thence by canoe and road to Ondo, but we had to change our plans and go by train to Oshogbo and thence by road to Ondo. We spent several days at Oshogbo waiting for carriers. It was good to have this opportunity of meeting so many old friends and also to see so many signs of progress in the work….. We left Oshogbo on Thursday Nov 12th and stayed Friday at Ilesha passing on to Ipetu on Saturday where we halted for Sunday…. I conducted their first Harvest Thanksgiving Service and baptised twelve young men, the first fruits of Ipetu.

Monday’s march was a very tiring one, nearly nine hours through the forest, with not a single village or even a farm shed to be seen the whole way. Fortunately the path had recently been cleared, so my wife was able to use her hammock most of the way, but it was impossible to cycle and I had to walk. We slept at Ekun and reached Ondo about eleven o’clock on Tuesday morning, when we received a warm welcome from the Pastor and his wife, the Schoolmaster and the Christians.

The Annual Meeting of the Ondo Provisional Church Council was held here on Dec 7th. Distinct advance has been made during the year, the Churches in the Ondo District having contributed £182.4.6. This is £54.0.0 more than last year and we have a balance of £88.0.0 to begin 1909 with. We have previously been responsible for the support of one Catechist, two Scripture Readers and for the partial support of two clergy. Next year we are proposing in addition to undertake the full support of one of the clergy and two more Scripture readers…. I cannot close without mentioning that once more a serious gap has been made in our already thin ranks by the death from Blackwater Fever of Mr Dear at Oyo on Dec 22nd. Your sympathy and prayers are asked for the bereaved widow and relatives. Who will volunteer to come and take up the work our brother has laid down?

The next extract is taken from a report of a mission tour to the Eastern district of Lagos undertaken by Thomas Aylgumbiyin from 7-31 July 1908:

On the day of my departure it rained so heavily that we could not start before 10am and even then it was under a drizzle but I was cheered with the fact that I was leaving with the prayers and good wishes of my parishioners, a representative number of whom saw me off.

Epe was reached at 9pm under good sail but as this is a known town for ill-disposed people keeping vigil about it at night I slept in the canoe under the rain; as soon as it was daybreak I went up under showers of rain to take the Rev D Olubi by surprise, but to my own surprise he was already in the Church in his rain coat conducting the morning prayer for a very few Christians.

Saturday the 12th was spent at Leke where we arrived the day before in examining candidates for baptism….

Monday July 13 Accompanied by Mr Olubi I attended a meeting of the parochial Committee as a visitor. The chief topic for discussion was the Schoolmaster’s salary; it seems the fund was exhausted and there was a difficulty to raise what was wanted even for the current quarter; the Bale of the town, a Mohammedan was invited into the room to have a say in the discussion and out of the interest he has in the education of the young of the town, readily promised to do all he could to get his co-religionists to lend a helping hand. I understand that he has since got them to promise £6 annually towards the fund…..
Friday July 16 I left Atijers, where I arrived on the previous day about 4pm under a heavy downpour of rain in a canoe manned by 18 young men from Igbo-Egunrin who came specially to ferry me over to their town some 3 hours’ good paddling up the river. It was the eve of the time honoured market day and market people of both sexes were streaming in in their small “dug-outs” from different directions of the river Ofara as wild looking as I knew them years gone by; but happily they were not armed with any of those dangerous and deadly weapons which were wont to make them a terror to travellers….. Our ferry route was a tortuous one under a mighty grove with hanging branches close on our heads and obstructing stumps in the water; the rain was pouring in torrents, so that we were all drenched to the skin the umbrella being useless in the circumstances for about two hours, yet the young men heedless of the inclemency of the weather kept paddling the canoe simultaneously to the beating of the drum and their peculiar native airs. I must not forget to add that they were particular to enthrone me in a lounging chair placed in a conspicuous part of the canoe, little knowing that their object was to make a public display of me as a distinguished visitor on arrival at their town where we arrived at 2pm; their shout and yell called out almost the whole town and after a dexterous display of paddling on the river we landed in front of the mission house amidst an almost indescribable warm welcome: though I received the courtesy shivering, yet I was warm within from the thought of the wonderful manifestation of the Gospel’s power in these well known savage people.

The extract below is taken from a School Report for the Half Year ending Dec 1914 by the Principal E A Hobson:

During the half year there have been 17 admissions and an equal number of withdrawals…. The punctuality and attendance have been very good on the whole, the average attendance being 196.
Both the European and native staffs have undergone changes during the half year under revision. About the middle of August Miss Wait began with an attack of dysentery which lasted until she was invalided home in October…. Miss Davies and Miss Adekoye left at the end of September, both of them hoping to be married…. The Annual Inspection took place Aug 17-19, a fortnight earlier than the previous year, when 170 pupils were presented for examination. The report is as follows:- Organisation and Discipline – Excellent: Apparatus – Suitable and Sufficient: Registers and Records – Satisfactory and much above the average. Teachers’ notes and diaries extremely well kept in every class: Premises – Excellent.

Ejide, the Mohammedan girl who was received at the Seminary last January after being cast off by her father, who is a noted Mohammedan priest in Lagos, was baptised November 22 at Holy Trinity Church. She is a very bright, earnest, Christian girl and a short time ago gave her testimony to a small gathering of heathen men and women ( including 2 Mohammedans) at a little village near the lighthouse….

Below is an account of the torpedoing of the “Falaba” in 1916 written by the missionary Alice I Wait who was on her way back to Africa:

We went to Hoylake and stayed there with my brother until Saturday 27th, when they both came and saw me on to the tender at Liverpool. Only passengers were allowed on board. Dr Fox and Rev A Field, as I expect you know, were also sailing on the "Falaba".

I made myself known to Mr Field soon after the “Falaba” started and that same evening became acquainted with the other lady passengers, of whom there were four. Next morning… just after 12 o’clock I began walking round. Mr Field soon joined me and in a few minutes we saw a ship in the distance. We watched her for a while, and then, it being very cold, we walked round once more. As we came to the same spot again, we found there were two ships, and they had apparently cut right across our bows. One was overhauling us rapidly….The Captain megaphoned us “ We are going to sink you. We give you ten minutes to get into boats”. I did not hear this. A soldier on the lower deck called out to another “Number one lifeboat is ours. Go to it at once”. Another replied “All right, don’t get excited”.

At this all, both soldiers and ordinary passengers, turned and went to their respective cabins. I did not see Mr Field after this.

A nurse Miss Winchester asked me if I had my money, I said “No”. She said “Well we shall want it” and I replied that we had better go and get it.

We went to our cabins ( she was opposite to me). I got my purse, and got down Mrs Hyde’s and my life-belts. The stewardess helped me put mine on. She did not realise the danger. Neither did we. I thought that people would probably laugh at me for having it on. However, I called Mrs Hyde to come and went up on deck.

Here I found that two boats were already lowered. The first had not gone down evenly (I did not know this until afterwards) but one end touched the water first and all its occupants were thrown out and many were lost.

The second was very full of men. (no ladies were on deck when these two were lowered) I looked at it and thought it was overcrowded. Eventually it capsized and nearly all were drowned.

I then went round to the other side. They were just getting the third boat ready and called out “Ladies first”. I and then a Mrs Bishop were the first to get in. Then the men quickly followed. Mrs Hyde came as the boat was being lowered and a soldier picked her up and threw her in and a Miss Palmer ( a Yoruba) after her; thus saving both their lives…..

shall never forget the sight of the “Falaba” being torpedoed. There was a terrific explosion, a great burst of black smoke right up through the centre of her. She instantly heeled over on her side and for five minutes gradually sank. She then turned right up on end and slowly went out of sight….

After rowing about for nearly two hours we were taken on board the drifter…. Words fail me to describe the work of the Captain and crew of the drifter “Eileen Emma”. They saved ninety-five people and at least one third of these were picked up one by one out of the water….

Of course, every passenger lost everything but what he or she was wearing, but I am sure no one thought of that at the time. We were all very grateful that our lives were spared….

The following are taken from reports written by missionaries in 1922 on the place of women in the church in the mission field:

W Dallimore who had been in the Yoruba mission since 1916 writes:

Amongst the Yorubas the education of women is still hardly thought of for the masses of women. There is however a decided movement amongst Christian men that women’s education is absolutely necessary for the progress of their communities and for the good of their towns and tribes.

The Native Christian Church is, up to the present, doing but little to meet the situation. Pastors, Catechists and School masters however are doing a great deal to persuade Christian parents and guardians to send their girls to school and to send them young.

Yoruba women have a good deal of influence in the life of the tribe. In Ibadan for instance ( a large native town of 200,000) there is a Iyalode ( chief of women) a woman elected for her character and powers of leadership. She has I believe considerable scope in settling women’s affairs and holds an honourable position in the town.

Miss M Y Martin, a missionary in the Niger Mission since 1900 reports:

Changes are taking place in the Niger District in regard to the education and position of women but the movement is extremely slow. Education for the women and girls is not desired by many, on the other hand there are those who are keen to have it for their women.

Social Life – There is a great desire among the women to be able to take a better place and hold a more dignified position as Christian wives. They are keen on attending conferences, and some are able to lead their meetings in a very creditable way.
Teaching – The work of teaching for the girls moves slowly but there are better prospects with regard to it in the future…..

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