A "Spiritual Pilgrim": The Life of Rasoah Mutuha, an East African Quaker

A "Spiritual Pilgrim": The Life ofRasoah Mutuha, an East African Quaker Elisabeth McMahon* "With Mrs. Conover she [Rasoah] went into the heathen villages and helped with the singing and telling ofthe Way. That early training still lives in her heart. She is happiest when out in the villages preaching the gospel today." —Helen K. Ford, 1942 Introduction Rasoah Mutuha (also known as Rasoa and Rose by the missionaries) arrived at the Friends Mission of Lugulu in 1919. This was an auspicious year for the Quakers because World War One had recently ended, allowing the missionaries to reopen their work in Lugulu. However, a famine engulfed part of Uganda and the western region of the Kenya Quaker mission's "sphere ofinfluence," which brought many people to the mission seeking work and assistance with food. There were also outbreaks of smallpox and influenza.1 Additionarlly, 1919 brought the first female enrollments in the Lugulu Friends School. All ofthese events converged to bring Rasoah Mutuha to the Quaker mission, where she would find her true calling to the Christian ministry. Rasoah continued to participate in the Quaker community until her death in November 1996. Rasoah's arrival atLuguluFriends epitomizedherlife choices and strong will. Her family was originally from across the Uganda border but moved in with relatives in the Kitosh area, near the Lugulu mission.2 She was in a precarious social position in the village; many ofthe young men returning from the war wanted wives and her refugee parents were unable to resist the demand of Chief Murunga's family member for her as a bride. Instead of marrying this man, Rasoah fled to the Lugulu mission and enrolled herself in the Friends School against her father's andthe Chiefs wishes.3 The death ofRasoah's father left her subordinated to ChiefMurunga, yet she repeatedly refused his relative's marriage proposal. Rasoah told the Chief, "[he] could behead her ifhe wished, but she would not return to that household."4 Because of Rasoah's adamant stance about being educated as a Christian, the local missionaries, Jefferson and Helen F. Ford, defended her right to stay on the mission.5 Although the colonial government usually sided with aChiefoverthe missionaries inmarriage cases, Rasoahwontherightto stay. * Elizabeth McMahon is an assistant professor ofhistory at the Behrend College, Penn State Erie. Her current research project includes an examination of secular education for Muslim women during the 1940s and 1950s in Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa. A "Spiritual Pilgrim"45 This important step set her on a path ofChristian learning which she never left. Moreover, it exemplified Rasoah's persistence, in the face ofa patriarchal culture, to live as she felt was right for her. I reconstruct Rasoah's life from two important documents, a brief biography ofher early life written by Helen K. Ford in 1942, published in the Friends Missionary Advocate, and a short autobiography transcribed from anoralinterviewwithRasoah's son-in-law, ElishaWakube, inJanuary 1989. Othermentions ofRasoah exist in various documents that flesh outthe story ofher life. Rasoahwas representative ofthe generation ofearly female converts who believed in gender equality in worship, education, and respect between spouses. However, with subsequent generations of female converts , the local Abaluhya system ofpatriarchal dominance reasserted itself into Quaker society. Moreover, the missionaries unconsciously reinforced this shift by placing the power ofthe Meeting into the hands oflocal men, starting in 1946. Although several strong-minded female missionaries worked in the later years, the girls they trained were not able to break into the power hierarchy created by male converts and male missionaries.6 Evangelical Friends During the nineteenth century a revival movement began among Protestant groups in the American heartland. The evangelical revivals of the SecondGreatAwakeningrecreatedaspace forQuakerwomento participate in the ministry.7 The involvement ofwomen exceeded that ofmen and, as Winthrop Hudson suggests, offered women "a new sense ofpsychological and social space."8 Through the conversion process, women gained more confidence and self-esteem as well as becoming accepted as public speakers at revivals, giving them a feeling ofequality in church matters. The Quaker women who participated in the revivals and called themselves "holiness" or "evangelical" Friends brought a new energy to Meetings, not seen in the Women's Meetings for a...