Introduction European interest in sub-Saharan Africa (aside from the Portuguese and the Boers in South Africa) came late and largely from the activities of . The best known was Dr. Livingstone, as much an explorer as an evangelist. In his generation Catholic societies were founded specifically for work in Africa: the White Fathers (French), the Holy Ghost Fathers (French), the Society of the African Missions (French), the Mill Hill Fathers (English), and the Verona Fathers (Italian). These would later be joined by the Kiltegan Fathers (Irish). The Xaverian Brothers, originally a missionary congregation but not, of course, with Africa in mind, would have dealings with all of these missionary societies laboring in British East Africa.

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The Xaverian Brothers were the third of the American brotherhoods to take up missionary work in British East Africa. They would be preceded by the Brothers of Christian Instruction, who came to in 1926, and the Sacred Heart Brothers, who came to Uganda in 1931. The Xaverians, who went to Uganda in 1949 and to in 1957, would be followed by the Christian or in Kenya in 1958, the Holy Cross Brothers in Uganda in 1959, and the Marianist Brothers in Kenya in 1961. Others would follow in the period of independence.

Three Brothers were primarily responsible for the Xaverian missionary effort in Africa: Brothers Paul (Scanlon), (Driscoll), and Oswald (Schmitt). Brother Paul was the Superior General from 1928 to 1937 and then the second General Councilor from 1937 to 1947. It was he who began the Xaverian missions in the Belgian Congo. Brother Ambrose, the Superior General from 1937 to 1953, began the Xaverian missions in Uganda and Nyasaland. Brother Oswald was the American Provincial from 1944 to 1950 under whom the East African missions began and the Superior General from 1953 to 1965 under whom the missions in Kenya and Bolivia were inaugurated.

Interestingly, unlike the Belgian Xaverians, the Americans never founded a school anywhere in East Africa during this time except for those dealing with their African formation program. In every instance, they always took over a school that had been founded by . It was not until Brother Robert Dailey began St. Kevin’s in Lodwar during the 1990’s that the Xaverians would be involved with building up a school from scratch. PROLOGUE: THE CONGO (1944-1947) The arrival of American Xaverians in British East Africa had its roots in the Belgian Congo in 1944 when three Americans volunteered to fill the gaps created by the war in the missions of the Belgian Province of the Xaverian Brothers. Beginning in June of 1942, Bro. Julien (Vandekerckhove) wrote several letters to Brother Ambrose requesting 3 or 4 American Brothers to help with the personnel shortage in the Belgian Congo. Given the wartime conditions several of these letters never reached Ambrose and it was not until late 1943 that he learned of this request. Ambrose then acted with dispatch. He made personal visits to the Brothers he had in mind for such a mission and talked it over with them. He wanted this to be voluntary and he gave them time to think it over. He spoke to at least 4 Brothers, three of whom volunteered for this mission during wartime. They were Brothers Leonard Francis (Hopkins), Mauricius (Lauer), Nathanael (Twombley), and Vincent Engel. The latter three agreed to go. Brother Julien, CFX

Exactly why Brother Ambrose approached these Brothers is unknown but several facts do stand out. Each one had proficiency in the , the language of instruction in the Belgian Congo and each had taught French at some time during his teaching career. Indeed, Mauricius had his Masters degree in French and German and had taught these languages to student Brothers at the Mount summer school for many years. Each had served a period as an administrator:

Brothers Vincent Engel, Nathanael (Twombley), and Mauricius (Lauer) in 1944. Mauricius as Principal at St. ’s, ; Vincent as Principal at several schools and then as the Supervisor of schools for the American Province; Nathanael as assistant principal and organizer of the new Cardinal Hayes High School in City.

Perhaps most importantly, both Vincent and Nathanael had spent some time in Belgium. Vincent had made his novitiate and scholasticate in Bruges before World War I and Nathanael had taught there for three years in the 1920’s. They both knew and were known to many of the Belgian Brothers already in the Congo.

Brothers Vincent, Mauricius, and Nathanael left New York City on September 25, 1944, arrived in Jadotville (Likasi) on Thursday, All Souls Day, 1944, and began work on Monday, November 6.

The three Americans were destined for Sacred Heart. One of the primary reasons for this was Brother Nathanael’s ability to teach Greek and Latin. As in so many cases connected with Belgium, the language question reared its head. As all of the Xaverian Belgians were Flemish, French was not ordinarily spoken in community, only during lessons in the school, and the Brothers’ house was looked at as a haven for all visiting Flemish speaking missionaries, especially the priests. As the Americans could only speak French, this caused some awkwardness, particularly when they were entertaining visitors.

With the end of the war and the subsequent resumption of communication and the ability to send Brothers from Belgium again, it would have seemed that these first three American Brothers’ sojourn in Africa was doomed to come to an abrupt end. Nathanael, at least, wanted to stay. He believed that his ability to teach the classical languages was a definite advantage for the Brothers’ school for European boys in Jadotville and that these classes would cause the school to flourish. However, the Belgium government itself in 1947 decided that it did not want any foreigners teaching in its colonies. The Americans left and went to Belgium to brief the Belgian Provincial before going to to await their return to the USA. They had no thought of a return to Africa but events were occurring that would bring about that outcome. Appeals were being made for the spread of the Church in missionary lands. The Xaverian Brothers, for example, received a request from the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide early in 1947. Thus, when Vincent, Mauricius, and Nathanael went to England, it was to await the decision of the American Province concerning the location of its first foreign mission and to acquaint themselves with the British system of education.

LIRA, UGANDA (1948-1968) It was a request from the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in the Vatican that turned the attention of Brother Ambrose to British East Africa. On March 17, 1947, Propaganda Fide sent an urgent request to the Generalate, now located back in , for four American teaching Brothers to go to missions run by the Consolata Fathers in Nyeri and Meru in Kenya. Mentioned also were possibilities in Port Victoria in the Seychelles Islands, but the greater need was in Kenya. The government wanted teachers whose native language was English. The first negotiation was to staff a school run by the Italian Consolata Fathers at Nyeri in Kenya, but at the last minute the American Sacred Heart Brothers were assigned this mission, and the Xaverian Brothers were offered a school of the Verona Fathers near Lira, Uganda. At the invitation of Angelo Negri, then vicar apostolic of the Equatorial Nile with his seat at Gulu, Nathanael and Brother Aloysius Wiseman, a general councilor from the United States, traveled to Uganda in the summer of 1948 to negotiate with the Verona Fathers the staffing of a school at Ngeta in the township of Lira in northern Uganda.

They arrived in Mombasa on July 3 and immediately began to run into graduates of Xaverian schools. The first was the American consul, Edward Mulcahy ‘39, an alumnus of Malden Catholic, who invited the two of them to the Fourth of July celebration at the Consulate the next day. Mr. Mulcahy would later put Aloysius up in his own quarters when he could not find room in any hotel at the end of August. When they arrived in Lira, they would have another pleasant surprise, as the top British official there, Steve Walsh, was an old boy from Xaverian College in Manchester, England. Aloysius, Bishop Negri, and the Verona Fathers came to tentative agreement on Lira in early August, subject to the approval of Superior General Ambrose and his General Council. When the contract was signed, the Brothers were each to receive a salary of 2,500 shillings a year for teaching. This was somewhat lower than the government salary, but the diocese would cover all school capital and maintenance costs. The British pound was worth $4.03 at this point. The British Government would devalue the pound down to $2.80 one month after the formal signing of the contract later that fall but there would be no change in the contract of the Brothers’ salaries. While this had no immediate effect, it would provide the basis for future difficulties.

Nathanael had remained at the mission compound living with the Verona Fathers after the departure of Aloysius, working on the grounds. The arrival of Vincent and Mauricius on January 21, 1949 enabled the three of them to move into the Brothers’ house across the road.

The two newly arrived Xaverians found that they had arrived at a mission compound that consisted of a Church, two primary schools—one for boys and one for girls—a training center for catechumens, a training center for teachers, a junior secondary school for boys which the Brothers were to take over, a dispensary, a dining hall, and housing for the students, lay teachers, priests, Sisters, and Brothers. Between five and six hundred people lived on the compound, so that it was really the size of a small village.

Bishop Negri was overjoyed. On January 27, 1949, in writing to Ambrose to inform him of the

Original Brothers House at Lira in 1951 Brothers’ safe arrival in Uganda, he would state that as soon as the Governor of Uganda heard at the end of the holidays that the Brothers were coming to teach at Lira, “he granted to me all facilities both for personnel of the Verona Society and for land where to build new missionary stations. The Delegate Apostolic his Grace Arch. David Mathew is of the opinion that, owing to the coming of the Xaverian Brothers, conditions in this Vicariate are quite normal. And this is certainly a great Grace of God.”

On February 2 1949 the three pioneer Brothers took over St. Junior Secondary School for boys with Vincent as headmaster and Mauricius as treasurer. They initially counted 56 boys (34 in Form I and 22 in Form II) who ranged in age from about 15 to 20. Ugandan (and Kenyan) youth entered school at more advanced ages than did American boys. At Lira most were of the Lango tribe, but there were some from the Acholis, Madis, and other tribes. In 1956 the school would be restricted to the Langos, a beneficial regulation because of the tribal animosities that sometimes flared. June 15, 1949, Mauricius died suddenly of a heart attack and was, according to law, buried the same day in the cemetery of the mission compound. His death came as a profound shock to every one. All the British officials from Gulu and Lira came to the funeral mass, celebrated by Father Paul, one of the Ugandan priests, as well as priests in the area and the Sacred Heart Brothers. The next year two young Brothers, Amandus (Perkins) age 28 and Francis (Burns) age 27 arrived at Lira, Amandus on January 15 and Francis on June 11. Amandus was the Brother Francis, a Verona Father, and Brother Amandus replacement for Brother Mauricius and Francis was the already agreed upon fourth Brother to be sent to help expand the school. Their assignment was the first time that the Superior General, Brother Ambrose, did not take a direct hand in the development of the African mission. Brother Oswald, the American Provincial, announced at the end of the summer retreat at the novitiate at Old Point Comfort that he had to look for someone to replace Mauricius. Brother Amandus immediately put up his hand and said, “I’m your man!” Since someone was needed to teach the math and science and he had just completed his B. S. degree at Fordham, he soon received a letter from Oswald informing him that he indeed was the man going to Uganda.

Francis also took charge of the work periods and agricultural activities, Boy Scouts and the school newspaper. Francis apparently loved the missionary life but returned to the United States in August of 1951. He soon left the congregation and married. Amandus took over the sports program which consisted of football (soccer), volleyball, handball, and basketball, while at times sharing the work periods with Francis. He also did most of the errands into town for the school. Nathanael had taken charge of all the landscaping at the mission from the time when Aloysius had left him behind in the fall of 1948 to await the coming of the other two Brothers. When he was doing the landscaping, he had charge of the work period. In order to conduct proper labs, he also spent time in fabricating science equipment. In the five short months before his death, Mauricius had laid out, leveled, and grassed a superb soccer field, the one exception to Nathanael’s landscaping.

Brothers Anton (Metzger) and John Baptist (Neylon) arrived October 4, 1951. Anton replaced Vincent as superior and headmaster. In light of this change, Vincent would write in his diary. Nathanael left soon after to join the English Province. Two years later he would be chosen to head another Xaverian effort in Africa, in Nyasaland. Vincent remained as a teacher. When the school at Lira had opened for the new school year in February 1952, the student body had grown to 94: 50 in Form I, 28 in Form II, and 16 in Form III. Regularity and discipline in both the school and Brothers' home continued to improve. Vincent wrote at the beginning of 1953, "It is indeed a change from former years, when boys straggled in weeks late." By 1954 there were five Brothers and 159 boys. Brothers Francis (Quigley) and Callistus (McHugh) had been sent over in 1953. Schools in Uganda and Kenya were run according to the English system. Boys and girls usually went to separate schools and were grouped into three major divisions: Primary, Junior Secondary, and Senior Secondary. These divisions were all very fine, but they did not take into consideration the fact at that time that many African children did not start Primary school until they were 10 or 12 years of age. Thus when they reached Junior High they could be 16 to 18. It was not uncommon to have ‘lads’ of 22 or 25 years of age in a form designed for boys of 14.

Although the government paid the majority of the costs, all students were required to pay some fees. Many times the entire extended family helped to contribute toward the education of a child, or a family saved up for years to send the oldest boy to school. Consequently a very strong sense of his obligation to perform well and an obligation to aid his family after his education was inculcated in the student. One feature of the Ugandan school day, which was absent from the American system, was the work period. This usually consisted of an hour to an hour and a half of working in the large garden, although other projects around the mission compound were worked on at times. This was a real necessity as there was not enough money to operate the school. The Brothers’ salaries were not adequate as expenses were one and a half times greater than the income and continued to go up. They could only meet their bills due to large donations from the states. The cost of living had tripled since 1948, but the Brothers were still only receiving 2,500 shillings a man, a total of 10,000 shillings. The Government was paying 34, 732 shilling for their work and the Diocese/Verona Fathers were keeping the difference of 24, 732. Another difficulty was the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya that had begun in the early 1950’s. While there was no unrest in Uganda, many foodstuffs, grown in Kenya, were no longer available at all or only in small quantities at substantially higher prices. The garden put food on the table.

Another way the Brothers added to their food stores was by hunting. While it may seem incongruous to some of those in the states who knew them, all of the Brothers in Uganda in the 1950’s went hunting and fishing, particularly around the lake, for ducks, guinea fowl, and antelope in order to put meat on the table and for relaxation.

In the school, slate blackboards were non- existent. Instead, every few months a piece of wood was painted over to serve as a blackboard. Lira had no electric power. Oil lamps and candles were used Brother Amandus and students from Lira after a hunt until the installation of a generator and the wiring of the compound for electricity on July 3, 1952. These improvements all resulted from a donation from Xaverian College in the U.S. and not as a capital improvement from the diocese

Part of the Mission compound in Lira with a side view of the Brothers’ house in 1951. as the contract stipulated. Brother Vincent notes the occasion as one of the memorable dates in the history of the mission. Usually the Brothers operated the generator for four hours a day, from 6 PM to 10 PM in the evening. This allowed the students to have light to study by and allowed the Brothers to listen to the radio as they prepared their lessons.

When Brother Anton took over from Brother Vincent as the new Superior and Principal at Lira, his most pressing problem was the finances. As was mentioned earlier, the Brothers’ salaries were not sufficient to run the house. Article 293 of the Xaverian Constitutions stated at the time: “No house may be founded unless it can be prudently judged that its own revenue, ordinary alms or other resources shall assure for its members suitable habitation and support.”

John Baptist, writing years later, said, “We shared a common dining room which was an eyesore, the worst dining room I ever saw in Africa. That is going some. I often wondered why some student didn’t just put a match to the old, filthy thatch roof for then the diocese would build a new one. I was often tempted to do it myself.” The contract specified that all fees were to be turned over to the diocese, and that the diocese was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all the school buildings. Despite the fact that the Bishop had kept asking for additional Brothers to come, the Brothers’ house had never been finished and there were only 4 bedrooms. John Baptist had to sleep in one of the schoolrooms until Nathanael left for England. The house was solvent only because of hefty donations from America from both the Province and the families and friends of the Brothers.

Despite these financial difficulties, things were being accomplished. John Okuja ’50 was the first St. Francis Xavier graduate to go to a university and become a teacher. In January of 1953 he began to teach Brothers Vincent, Amandus, and John Baptist the Acholi language, the tongue of one of the two major tribes that had students in the school. The first African teacher, Vitalis Opoti, joined the staff on Feb. 4, 1953. This was because the school was now taking in an additional class or going from a single stream to a double stream school, as the British would put it. In May the school became a member of the Headmasters’ Association after having tried for four years.

1954 saw the addition of an entire mission chapter to the Manual of Customs and Advice. There is some evidence that Brother Vincent Engel was the author of this, as he was just into his first year in Rome on the General Council. The Brothers in Africa would find much to reflect upon in this chapter, especially the following:

The object of the foreign mission work is not primarily to convert pagans, but to establish the in non-Catholic lands…The future of the Church in missionary countries depends principally upon the development of schools. In their schools the brothers train good Christian citizens. The schools furnish native teachers, leaders in Catholic Action, and volunteer catechists. From the schools come good fathers of families as well as vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

In 1955 Anton was heavily involved with the writing of a new contract. The road was a rocky one and he wrote frequently to Brother William, the Provincial, and to Brother Oswald, the Superior General. There was a big push for an expansion of the educational system. The British government was afraid of an imminent rebellion throughout all of Africa. It wanted good schools with a strong, Western and tradition, with the hope that the colonies would stay within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Bishop Cesana again wanted the Brothers at Koboko and there was also talk of starting a senior secondary school at Lira so as to forestall the Protestants from building one. William and Oswald were both wary of taking on any new responsibilities without a new contract, a clarification of terms, and remedies to the difficulties that had occurred at Lira. Anton bore the brunt of the negotiations, particularly with regard to the fees and salaries, and a new contract negotiated in 1955 and signed in 1956, finally gave the Brothers the salaries to which they were entitled.

In August 1957, Brother Sylvere (Bishop) replaced Anton as superior in Uganda at the conclusion

Fatima Teachers Training College in1960

of Anton’s normal term as Principal and superior. Sylvere continued as superior in Uganda until 1959, when he went to Mumias in Kenya as headmaster of St. Peter's College, a secondary school. He was replaced at Lira by John Baptist for a brief period and then by Brother (Ford) on October 3, 1959. Before he left, however, Sylvere negotiated the new contract by which the Brothers took over Fatima Teacher Training College and closed St. Francis Xavier Junior Secondary School.

In 1960 the American Province was divided, and the East African missions, present and future, were placed under the Northeastern or St. Joseph Province. All of the Brothers then in East Africa were members of the new province. Sylvere was named provincial delegate for the Xaverian missions in British East Africa (see Chapter 5). In 1960 the Xaverian Brothers took over the adjacent Fatima Teacher Training Centre, with Cyprian as principal. It had been conducted by the Verona Fathers, although Xaverians had taught English there earlier: Brothers Callistus, Amandus, John Baptist, and Jude (Blake). They had all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and John Baptist would say years later that Father Pasetto ran the best school he had ever experienced except for Brother Cyprian. The college counted some 160 students and followed the same trimester schedule as the junior secondary school. Its course of studies ran for four years, unlike the teacher training colleges later taken over in Kenya, which ran for only two years. Fatima had originally been the Vernacular Teacher Training College.

In their Christmas letter of December 10, 1959 to the Superior General, the Lira community comments:

After ten years at St. Francis Xavier (Junior) Secondary we feel rather sad that the old school is closing to make way for a Senior Secondary, COMBONI COLLEGE, named after the Founder of the Verona Fathers who will staff it. December 15 is moving day, so by the time you receive this little message we shall be in our new residence. We wish you could see it. Soon we shall send you pictures so you can appreciate what we are going into. Nothing has been left undone by the Verona Fathers to make our new home most comfortable…The move is only a few hundred yards and… we are not new-comers to Fatima College. At least one Brother has been teaching there for the past five years … 160 young men will make up the student body all graduates of Junior Secondaries. We shall have a four year programme so that each year the Diocese should receive 40 Xaverian trained teachers. Much good work has been done here in Lango over the past ten years beginning with the efforts of Brothers Vincent, Nathaniel, and Mauricius (R.I.P.). We know that good work will continue in this new, larger venture.

Comboni College was going to be a private secondary school not funded by the government; hence the Verona Fathers could teach there. The bishop had been unable to get government approval for the school and had decided to go ahead anyway. Thus he pulled the priests from the teacher training school and the Xaverians took it over.

Running a teacher training college was a different kind of work from that which most Brothers were used to. Brother Kieran (Kinsman), who had come to Fatima in 1960, would describe the routine for American readers in the Easter, 1962 issue of Working for Boys.

The African school day for the Xaverian starts at dawn with the lighting of the old-fashioned kerosene lamps in the school chapel. Hardly are the Brothers’ prayers over when a slithering sound made by nearly 160 pairs of bare feet tells us that the students are filing in for Holy Mass. The school teaching, which starts shortly after a breakfast of corn meal mush called posho, comprises regular academic subjects plus methodology.

We find much more time is required to prepare for these classes. Courses in methods which we feel are valuable to the students are mathematics, English, Geography, art and blackboard, together with religion and general methods. Because of the woeful lack of teaching materials in the area, the boys of Fatima College are given a practical arts course whereby they can make such essential equipment for their future classrooms as portable blackboards, board rulers, chalk compasses, mathematical clocks, flashboards for primary reading, and such gimmicks as they have a yen for—providing it doesn’t run us too much into the red. After completing two years of college work the students are introduced to an actual practice teaching assignment in laboratory fashion. Briefly, it is this: The members of a class are told that they are to be ready for a practice teaching session in the morning. All the information concerning the lesson is advanced to the class at the Student teacher in a bush school. evening study period. The rest of the evening is then spent in making out a plan of work…In the morning a primary class of little African boys comes marching into the demonstration classroom of Fatima College. One of the student teachers is chosen to take over and the remaining students, with a supervising Brother, retire to the rear to take notes…On the following day the students will be back in their regular classrooms to participate in the evaluation of the student-teacher’s lesson of the previous day.

One by one the remaining students take their turn in the same fashion, and sooner than one imagines the term’s work is drawing to a close. Shortly after the opening of the second term the entire class is sent out to the various ‘bush schools’ for a period of four weeks of more practice teaching and more supervision on the part of the Brothers and government education officers. From all indications our boys are well received in the little villages, some being considered as ‘returning heroes,’ especially by the young. We American Brothers have been taken aback, so to speak, to see our young students being actually bowed to in a manner reminiscent of old Japan.

Teacher training is a very tedious and its services not readily accepted. At times it must probe the very character and personality of the novice in order to ‘temper the steel’ for more effective work. This part of the training is usually met with tungsten steel resistance, because it attempts to strip the newly Christianized African of some of his deeply rooted pagan notions. If grace builds on nature, then we must be, as the Bishop of our diocese insists, ‘patient, patient, patient.’ Pray for us and for all missionaries. The work is short, the reward eternal.

Despite the seriousness of the work, there were humorous moments. One such, perhaps apocryphal, occurred when a Brother went out to a bush school to supervise a Geography lesson. The student teacher was instructing his pupils about the Artic and how the Eskimos would make igloos out of ice blocks. Of course, living right on the equator, none of the pupils had ever seen snow. One of them asked what happened when the sun came out. Why didn’t the sun melt the igloo? Without missing a beat, Brothers Kieran and Cyprian in 1966 the student teacher replied, “They just go over to the banana tree, get some leaves and cover the igloo to protect it from the sun.” The pupil sat down, quite satisfied with the answer, and the student teacher had saved face.

During Cyprian's three years as principal, Uganda became an independent nation. Before he left for Kenya in 1963, Fatima Teacher Training Centre had won from the new Ministry of Education a citation as the outstanding teacher training college in Uganda in 1962 and 1963 across all levels, whether it was for the primary or secondary level. It was also during Cyprian’s tenure that Brother Vincent Engel, Lira’s first superior and beloved by all who had known him, died back in America on May 25, 1962. This has given rise to a somewhat intriguing story. Before the news of his death was sent from America, the Brothers at Lira were approached by some of the Africans at the mission compound who said, “Brother Vincent has just died” and offered their sympathies. The requests for his death cards were great.

By 1967 it was apparent that the Lira mission would not survive. The Ministry of Education of Uganda intended to create four large teacher-training colleges, one in each province, as a substitute for the then current pattern of many small institutions. Fatima was not to be one of these centers, and it was to be closed. Nor were the Xaverian Brothers invited to join the staffs of the new colleges, a result of Africanization. Fatima closed its doors in 1968.

The Xaverian Brothers had been in Lira for exactly twenty years. The local school Board thanked the Brothers for all their good work. The abandoned TTC facilities were taken over by the Verona Fathers’ Comboni secondary school. A last minutes attempt by the new, African bishop of Gulu to have the Brothers stay on failed as neither the Provincialate staff nor the Generalate staff wanted to have to deal with the Verona Fathers again. Energies were focused on the expanding role of the Brothers in Kenya. And any regrets were soon put to rest by the rise of two years later. Amin, who would soon be labeled as the “Butcher of Africa”, overthrew the elected government of Uganda, had himself named as president for life, and embarked on a murderous reign unknown in Africa up to that time. The educated and the Christian clergy were particular targets of Amin.

THE NYASALAND MISSION (1953-1960)

With the establishment of Lira and its placement under the American province, only England did not have a foreign mission field to work in. Before his first visit to Uganda in 1952, Bro. Ambrose had instructed Brother Anton to gather information about possible future sites for expansion in all of British East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika and Nyasaland (Malawi). Nyasaland had first been suggested by David Mathew, Apostolic Delegate to British East Africa, in 1951. Bishop John Baptist Theunissen of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary (the Montfort Fathers), the Apostolic Vicar of Shire, Nyasaland, immediately began writing to Ambrose about the Xaverian Brothers taking over all the schools for boys in the area.

When Ambrose arrived in Kenya that September 1952, he spent considerable time conferring with Archbishop Mathew in Mombasa before proceeding on to Uganda. October saw him visit the Belgian Congo before going on to Nyasaland. He spent almost two weeks in November visiting with Bishop Theunissen, who personally conducted him to places that the bishop hoped would be taken over by the Xaverians. The bishop wanted the Xaverians for schools for both African and European boys, much like the Belgian Congo. Ambrose’s reaction to this was as follows: “Listen. If we agree to come to Nyasaland, it will be first as missionaries to teach Africans. But once we are here, we shall also accept a school for non-Africans. You may rely on it.” The bishop was so desirous of obtaining the Brothers that he said that he would turn over all government grants, salaries and school fees to the complete control of the Brothers and guarantee that, if at any future time they would become insufficient, the diocese would make up the difference, a distinct contrast with Uganda.

In his opening remarks at the Sixteenth General Chapter on March 30, 1953, Brother Ambrose announced that the Brothers would enter a third mission field, Nyasaland, the following September. It was to be staffed by a representative of each of the three provinces, an American, an Englishman and a Belgian. The Brothers to be sent there were Brother Nathanael as superior, Brother Henry (Hatherly) from Mayfield and Brother Godfried (De Vlieghere) who had spent some years already in the Belgian Congo and whose blood brother would be elected the Belgian Provincial the following year.

The June 1953 issue of The Xaverian (p. 10) would tell its readers that the mission at Mzedi would be opened in September with Brother Nathanael, then at Brighton College, England, its superior and a Brother from England and another from Belgium. On August 2, 1953 Vincent wrote in his diary, "God bless Brothers Nathanael, Godfried, and companion on their way to Mzedi." It was well known that Nathanael would now be involved again in Africa as a founding

Brothers Joseph (Booth) CFX and Brother Nathanael , CFX Vincent Engell CFX. member of a second African mission, this time for England. This, however, was not to be.

The plan was for the Brothers to leave for Nyasaland immediately at the close of the English school year in July. Brother Henry was replaced by Brother Justin (Corrigan) in June.

With a week and a half to go before the departure date, disaster struck. Nathanael went to see the doctor for a last check-up before leaving. He had earlier undergone an operation but all had assumed that this would cause no difficulties. The doctor pronounced him “absolutely unfit for life in Africa” and refused to give him the necessary medical clearance. A new superior had to be found immediately. This was Brother Joseph (Booth), at that time the headmaster at . Under British law, a headmaster could not be withdrawn without giving at least four months notice to the education authorities. Thus, the earliest Brother Joseph could leave would be the following December. All the bookings had to be changed and a Montfort Father would have to remain at the school to assist Brothers Godfried and Justin until Joseph could arrive. They sailed August 12 on the Braemar Castle just after the General Council had officially turned over control of any missions in Nyasaland to the English province. Joseph left to join them that December after a sendoff from Clapham which most of the English province attended.

The school was called St. Patrick’s and was gradually developed by the Brothers into a senior secondary school designed to prepare students for the Cambridge exams and the University. Like other schools in British East Africa, it had a student body whose ages ranged from 12 to 21 or 22. In 1954, the bishop asked Bro. Oswald, the new Superior General, to have the Brothers open a school for European boys, immediately rather than later on, as he and Bro. Ambrose had discussed. The size of the Catholic European population in Nyasaland had increased far more rapidly than expected and he asked for four more Brothers, in addition to the fourth one who was to go to St. Patrick’s, in order to begin such a school. Oswald had to turn him down, as no province had the manpower to fulfill this request and to be able to meet the need for additional Brothers in the home and other foreign missions which they staffed. Oswald wrote, “ I have studied your Lordship’s second appeal for more Brothers…They bespeak a real need, which…leave one with a feeling of frustration when confronted with the knowledge that it is impossible to help.”

The English province was, however, able to meet the commitment for St. Patrick’s and in 1955 Brother Godric (Malone), who would later play an active role in Kenya, joined the community. Brother Joseph and one of the students were tragically killed by lightning in December 1957. Brother (O’Reilly) replaced him as superior but Bro. Justin became the headmaster of the school. Brother Osmund (Roberts) came in 1958.

By the late 1950’s, however, the English province was beginning to experience a significant decline in numbers, and even had to have some American Brothers come over to work in the British schools. Therefore, for lack of personnel on the part of the English Province, the Xaverian Brothers had to give up St. Patrick’s and the mission was taken over by the Dutch Brothers of the in November of 1960. Before this occurred, though, Brothers Thomas More and Justin had traveled to the Belgian Congo to visit the Xaverian schools there and see if they could get any ideas on how to better run a mission school. Brother Thomas More was also in correspondence with Brother Sylvere (Bishop) in Kenya over the possibility of having a student from St. Patrick’s who was interested in the Brothers join the Juniorate there but this never took place.

THE KENYAN MISSIONS (1957-1973)

The story of the Xaverian interest in Kenya actually begins back in 1948 with the initial contact by the Office of Propaganda Fide to take over the school in Nyeri. However Bishop Frederick Hall, a Mill Hill Father who had just been consecrated the bishop of the vicariate (diocese in 1953) of , began writing to Ambrose immediately after his consecration and before he had even left England to try and get Xaverians to take over a primary school in Yala. He wrote several times while Aloysius and Nathanael were on their exploratory mission in 1948 but they missed seeing him and the school. The General Council decided to concentrate on Lira, as it had been seen by Brother Aloysius Wiseman, one of the General Councilors. Bishop Hall would continue to write, proposing one place or another for the next ten years. He would finally succeed with Mumias.

KITALE In the summer of 1956 the Xaverian Brothers were again invited by Monsignor Joseph Houlihan, Prefect Apostolic (later bishop) of the prefecture (diocese in 1959) of Eldoret in Kenya to take Brothers Capistran, John Baptist, and Amandus being greeted by Monsignor Houlihan at Kitale in 1958. charge of the teacher training college at Kitale conducted by his society, the Kiltegan Fathers. Kitale was about 180 miles southeast of Lira, as the crow flies. Oswald, William (the former provincial), Nilus (the new provincial) and all the Brothers stationed in Africa were quite enthusiastic about the offer. Anton wrote to the Provincial in May of 1957 “ I have visited Kitale and think it desirable for us to accept it. A foothold there would enable us to branch out within the prefecture in the near future. Senior schools will develop there in the next few years and we would have the inside track for them.” Anton was delegated to do all the contract negotiations before Nilus arrived on his first visit in September of 1957. In a remarkably smooth transition St. Joseph's Teacher Training College began classes at the beginning of 1958 with Amandus as principal and superior, John Baptist, assistant and treasurer, Niles, and Brother Capistran (Hart) from Lira. In June Anton took John Baptist's place, and in August Brother Gordon (Foley) came from the United States to join the community.

Kitale was in the middle of what was referred to as the “White Highlands.” This was an area that had been taken over completely by European colonists, mostly British, some Italian and some South Africans, for farming. Although right on the equator, its altitude gave it a wonderful climate and it had the best soil in Kenya for farming. The resident Kikuyu had been entirely dispossessed of their lands and were used as hired labor for the extensive farms.

The advent of this teacher training college or normal school was not greeted with enthusiasm by all those in the area. While the Brothers had very cordial relations with all of their immediate neighbors, especially the Rosa family whose land abutted the school, some of the other white farmers were very much opposed to “too much education” for the Africans. They wanted to see nothing beyond Grade 4, for fear that they would lose all of their farm hands. In September 1960 Amandus would be succeeded as principal and superior by Brother Alan (Blute) who had been the head of Xaverian College (Silver Spring, ) in the early 1950’s. In 1967 Brother Barry (Donnelly), who had been at Kitale for a number of years, was appointed principal. The name of the school was changed from St. Joseph's Teacher Training College to simply Kitale Teachers College in accord with the Africanization that was taking place. As the result of a disagreement with a teacher Barry resigned (much to his relief) and was replaced by the government in 1968 with a Kenyan, but a number of Brothers remained on the staff. By 1973, however, there were only Brothers Michael Joseph (Hegarty) and Thomas Reidy.

MUMIAS

In 1957 Bishop Frederick Hall of Kisumu (from the Mill Hill Fathers based in London) offered the Xaverian Brothers St. Peter's College at Mumias while Nilus was on his first visitation in the summer of that year. St Peter's was actually a senior secondary school or high school which was newly established from an old TTC that the Mill Hill Fathers had begun years earlier. It should be noted that senior secondary schools were considered to be much more prestigious academically than teacher training colleges. Bro. Nilus (Provincial) decided accept the offer, even though the Xaverians had not yet taken over at Kitale. Nilus stressed, however, that his acceptance of Mumias was entirely dependent upon being given assurance that a Juniorate for African candidates to the Xaverian Brothers would eventually be able to be established there. Bishop Hall had no difficulty with this and Brothers were promised for the opening of the school year in January of 1959 when the school would have two of the projected four grades present. At the beginning of 1959 Sylvere as superior and principal, Gordon and Brother Hugh (Sullivan) took up residence there. Hugh, who had been the most recent Mission procurator, came over in order to construct a juniorate building as well as to teach at the new school. The transition from the Mill Hill Fathers to the Xaverian Brothers went as smoothly, if not even smoother, as the transition at Kitale. The Xaverians would continue to work extensively with the Mill Hill Fathers. Mumias was actually one of the oldest towns in Kenya, located about fifty miles northeast of Lake Victoria and sixty miles southwest of the Brother’s new mission in Kitale. In Mumias on October 4, 1904 St. Peter’s, the first parish in what was to become present day Kenya, was established by the Mill Hill Fathers. At this time Mumias, along with all the land area that is today western Kenya was considered to be part of Uganda and it did not become part of Kenya until 1920. Thus in coming to Mumias, the Xaverian Brothers were in one sense continuing their sojourn in Uganda and in another sense were connecting with the deepest roots of Catholicism in Kenya.

Brother Hugh immediately began the construction work for which he was to be noted. In the first two years he added two new dormitories, a new kitchen building, a new sisters’ convent for the African who were there to take care of the cooking and cleaning, and a completely separate Juniorate about which more will be said later. Gordon laid out extensive lawns and flowerbeds and planted hundreds of trees. Frankie Joe established a Juniorate farm complete with gardens, orchards, and poultry yards. Brothers Michael Joseph and Meinrad extended the existing sports fields and developed a whole new area using only a yoke of oxen to push a hill into a swamp. Father Cowan would admiringly declare that it had become the showplace of the diocese. Academically the school would have an outstanding record. No student would fail in the Cambridge exams over the next several years. Sylvere stayed only one year as headmaster before he took up the newly established post of provincial delegate. Brother Urban Francis (Shine), who arrived that year from the United States, was appointed headmaster of St. Peter’s in 1960 with Hugh as superior of the community, which consisted also of Michael Joseph, Gordon, and Brother Meinrad (Lynch). The following year Urban also became superior. When Urban first arrived in Africa in November, he had had no idea that, as a result of Sylvere’s appointment as provincial delegate, he was to be appointed the head of the only secondary school that the Brothers had in East Africa. Oswald did not want the provincial delegate to be superior of a house. Therefore Sylvere accepted the temporary post of regional diocesan secretary of education while the who held that position went on home leave for the year. Once Urban landed in Africa with Cyprian and Michael Joseph, they visited in Uganda for a short time and then drove to Kitale. There Urban first learned that he was being assigned to Mumias along with Michael Joseph. They went up to St. Peter’s and the next morning Urban was dumbfounded when Sylvere introduced him after prayers as the new headmaster. He was even more astonished because he had heard that Sylvere had remarked that he had asked for men with certain qualifications and that the “Pro” had sent him a bunch of outfielders. Urban was unaware that Sylvere and Nilus had been planning as early as May for him to be headmaster at either Lira or Mumias before Nilus had even formally notified him that he had been picked to go to Africa. Urban at that time had been finishing up a term as the principal of St. High School in Utica, New York. Sylvere’s remark had probably been a misunderstood attempt at humor, especially considering the Brothers who had come out with Urban that year. All three of these men were to make major contributions during their tenure in Africa to the Brothers, the

Brothers Urban Francis (Shine) CFX, Michael Joseph (Hegarty) CFX, Cyprian (Ford) CFX departing for Africa in 1959 state of Kenya, the educational system and the Church.

Sylvere moved to Mukumu for the year and ran the regional diocesan school office where he was in charge of 15,000 children and 400 teachers. This was still the colonial era and, under the British system, diocesan educational secretaries had real power, particularly since most of the schools in a district were mission founded and run. Father Cowan commented on Sylvere’s one year stay in an article he wrote for the Pilot. “To say that Brother filled it with distinction is an understatement. Not only did his office function very effectually but a new height in pleasant, personal relationship was achieved between the supervisor and everyone from the highest government educational officer to the lowest teacher in the smallest bush school. Even old missionary pastors, long a power unto themselves in their own area were docile under Brother’s winning ways and wise suggestions. And it was most remarkable that in this one year Brother Sylvere achieved the amazing record of obtaining from the government [the money for] and setting up eighty—count them eighty—new primary and intermediate schools. It is no wonder that the Bishop used every wile he possessed to get permission [from the Xaverian Superior General] for Brother to stay on as supervisor after the agreed-to one year had elapsed.” Sylvere, however, was instead sent to the next new Xaverian mission at Eregi.

Urban, meanwhile was getting his feet wet as the new headmaster at St. Peter’s. It was quite different from his experience in Utica. Not only was the climate very different from the cold and snowy Mohawk Valley, but Kenya had two factors not present back in the states: the drive for independence and the student strike. The former manifested itself in late February, barely a month after the new school year had begun, in a note left in Urban’s prayer book that said, “Americans go home! Africa for Africans! Uhuru!” [Freedom]. Both Sylvere and Urban quickly handled Brother Gordon in the Science lab at St. Peter’s Mumias in 1963. this by meeting with the students and demanding that the student prefects produce the author within 24 hours. They did.

This incident also illustrates what was a major concern for the Brothers as they began to move into the mission field in Kenya; namely, what would be the effects of the drive for independence in Kenya and Uganda and, later on what would be the effects of independence on the mission schools. Many feared a bloodbath, keeping in mind the earlier Mau Mau uprising and these fears mounted as people learned what happened to the colonists in the Belgian Congo. The transition, however, proved to be very peaceful. Urban’s tenure as headmaster was characterized by a continued growth in the student body and in academic fame. As one of the primary responsibilities of the headmaster was to choose the new students for the incoming class, Urban made it a point to go around and visit the eighth grades of the neighboring intermediate schools. There he would administer his own little test to students so that he would get to know the boys personally and not just see names and test

Brothers Matthias, Barry, Kenney, Arcadius, Valerian, Urban Francis, Cyprian, Chad, Kieran, Alois, Bertrand, Hugh, Callistus, Meinrad, Alan, Michael Joseph and Gordon at Mumias in 1963. scores at the educational office in Kisumu.

With St. Peter’s continued growth in excellence, the government wanted it to change from a one stream to a two or possibly even a three stream school. During his 1965 visitation, Gilroy told Urban to resist this as much as possible since the province could send no additional Brothers for the school and the number of lay teachers would have to rise, diluting the effect of the Brothers.

In 1968 Meinrad, who at the time reverted to his baptismal name James, became headmaster when Urban went to . By then the school, whose name was changed from St. Peter's College to Mumias Secondary School, also the result of Africanization, had 140 students with three Brothers and three lay teachers on the staff. Curiously, however, this name change had come not as an initiative on the part of Kenyans but because Brother Urban Francis had wanted it. He thought that it would be helpful in the development of the Kenyan sense of nationhood (recall that the town of Mumias was the oldest town in western Kenya), and that it would be helpful for the school to have the area people identify with it. By 1973 there were 160 students and four lay teachers but only two Brothers. At the end of the year James Lynch, for reasons of health, resigned and returned to the United States at the beginning of the following year. EREGI Soon after he had offered St. Peter's College to the Brothers, Bishop Hall also offered a teacher training college with some 150 students at Eregi (whose post office was ) also conducted by the Mill Hill Fathers who were still having staffing problems. Brother Alois (O'Toole) arrived in September 1960 to observe operations there and joined Sylvere who had moved his base as education secretary to Eregi in August so that he, too, would have a chance to observe its workings. When St. Augustine's Teacher Training College began classes in January 1961, Sylvere was principal assisted by Alois and Francis Joseph from Lira.

Brother Arcadius and student in 1962

In September they were joined by Barry and Brother Arcadius (Alkonis), both of whom had just arrived from the United States. Sylvere returned to the United States at the end of 1961 in order to open a new school at Montvale, , and Frances Joseph succeeded him as principal and superior. Sylvere had not wanted to leave Eregi or Africa, and he had begged the Provincial, Brother Gilroy, his own blood brother, not to take him from Africa. Gilroy, however, was adamant about Sylvere being the founding principal of St. Joseph Regional in Montvale, so Francis Joseph took over St. Augustine’s. Under him the student body grew to about 250, the number of Brothers to five, and lay teachers to eight. Alois began an adult education program, taught by the student teachers. It was very basic, teaching people in the villages close to the school the rudiments of reading and writing, as most of the adult population was illiterate. This program was copied by the other Xaverian TTC’s, as well as by the schools of other religious orders and did much to both increase the literacy rate and give the student teachers a sense of their skill in teaching and a sense of accomplishment.

In 1965 Cyprian arrived from the novitiate at Kaimosi as principal as well as provincial delegate. In this latter role he was replaced by Brother Franklin (Mulloy) in 1967.

Sports as well as academics were taken seriously. Eregi had outstanding men and women's track. In 1968 its leading athletes were invited to join the Kenya contingent to the Olympics in Mexico City, where one won a gold medal, and in 1972 the Olympics in Munich. Ben Jipcho was the Olympian who was the silver medallist for the steeplechase. At the Pan-African Games and the British Commonwealth Games, Kenyan athletes excelled and dominated the track and field events. Cyprian went with Ben to the Olympics in 1972 and was officially classified as one of the coaches.

In 1971 in recognition of the unique service he had rendered to the young men of the tribe, Brother Cyprian was made an Elder of the Elgon Masai tribe, with a robe of monkey skins, scepter and cow tail swish to attest to the honor. Ben was a member of this tribe and brought this about. Brother Arcadius would recollect that “ It was very, very rare among them and the neighboring tribes. I can only recall two others in Western Kenya in my time (1961-1985) who were made honorary elders of the tribes, i.e. Alois at Tindinyo and Father Joe Kuhn who was our chaplain at Kaimosi.”

The school also excelled in music. Its choir often won the annual competition in Nairobi. In the annual inspection of student teachers, almost all passed, thus Cyprian coined the Eregi motto: 100%.

KENYATTA COLLEGE In 1968 Brothers Urban Francis, Thomas Pierce, and Emil (Dayon) went to Kenyatta College (later University) in Nairobi as instructors in the teacher training college section. The Provincial and Superior General had decided to expand there so that the Congregation could have a base in the capital and so that there would be a Xaverian community house for African scholastics to live in while they pursued higher studies. Two or three Xaverians continued to teach at Kenyatta College until 1973, when Brothers Kenny Randall and John McDonald returned temporarily to the United States and Brother Michael Foley moved to Mumias.

In the late 1950’s and through most of the 1960’s, the Xaverians in Kenya could be characterized as a close-knit body with a splendid esprit de corps. During his first visit to Kenya in 1961 Brother Gilroy (Bishop), first provincial of the Northeastern Province, was moved to write, " To a man all are happy, zealous and dedicated. This is the nearest I have come to perfection of the Xaverian spirit. I would love to stay here myself." At the same time, however, the missionaries' "tours" of five years was reduced to four (and later to two). The year 1966 would later be characterized as the "high water mark," at least numerically, with twenty-two "expatriates" (Americans) and three "patriates," or Kenyan temporary professed. But it also represented the peak year in terms of enthusiasm and expectations.

Despite the financial problems in Uganda by 1959 the African missions were completely self- supporting and beginning to build up a hefty surplus. That year saw the beginning of a building program for the African formation program and again the American Province gave the initial capital outlay for the construction of the buildings. Aside from that, the costs of the African formation program were borne solely by the Brothers on the missions. In 1960 they were able to support the cost of each aspirant on the interest alone of their contribution to headquarters. In 1960 Sylvere authored a report called Twenty Years of Xaverian Growth. In it one finds reflected the pride which the Brothers in Africa had in their work. It looks back on the accomplishments of the American Province just before it divided. It pointed out that from 1940 to 1960, the American Province had opened six schools in America, staffed with seventy-six Brothers and four schools in Africa with sixteen Brothers. These new schools in Africa were even more vital to the children and the Church than those in the United States. In Africa they were “bringing education where there is only a vacuum” and were “in constant competition with the heretical sects (many of them strongly backed with American manpower and money) for the souls of these children.” Since the area had so recently been Christianized and was still so close to its pagan roots, a good Catholic home was exceptional. Therefore, every school meant “so many hundred souls kept in the atmosphere of grace which is impossible to maintain in their native settings.”

Six years after Sylvere’s report the Brothers saw themselves following up the evangelizing missionaries and cooperating even more closely with the Church as it established itself more fully among the peoples of East Africa, working as educators hand in hand with the evangelizers. If they were working in an intermediate or secondary school, they were helping to bring education to poor people who had had at most only the bare rudiments. With the advent of independence, they saw themselves as providing an educated class that would enable these new countries to take their place among the nations of the world. Those in the teacher training area were raising up a group of teachers imbued with sound Christian principles who would help to spread these principles in all the new schools which were springing up after independence.

However, there were questions to be answered. The role of the missionary itself was undergoing intense scrutiny. How did it fit in with the new status of an independent, sovereign state? What kind of preparation was necessary for someone going to Africa from the West? What should be the role of the laity in an emerging Church in a new nation? What did the common life of the religious mean in such a context? How much Africanization was necessary for the life of the missionary? How should and could an ecumenical spirit operate in an area that had been the scene of intense denominational rivalries? Trying to answer these questions and others like them in the midst of living under these changing conditions created an unsettling atmosphere.

THE FIRST FORMATION PROGRAM (1958-1973)

On the last day of classes in 1951 an American Sacred Heart Brother asked Brother Anton’s permission to address the students in Lira to see if any would like to enter the Sacred Heart Brothers' juniorate in Uganda. Three of the graduates of the following year did apply. Throughout the 1950’s some students continued to go to the Sacred Heart juniorate. The Xaverians were therefore well aware that native candidates could be successfully recruited in British East Africa. In July of 1952 the Brothers at Lira learned that the Belgian Province would establish that autumn a juniorate for African boys in the Congo. Brother Vincent was very happy at the news and called it a Red Letter Day for the Congregation. On May 10, 1954, less than a year after he had taken over from Ambrose as the new Superior General, Oswald wrote to Anton that he had been talking in Rome to Brother James of the Brothers of Christian Instruction whose order already had thirty professed African Brothers. “That, of course, is something that we must face soon if we stay on in Africa, and I do not see how we can easily pull out when the Church is calling for more and more schools. It would be folly to continue long without thought of a native Community. I feel that the Belgians waited much too long.”

In a letter to Anton on May 16, 1956, Oswald states quite clearly what has been uppermost in his mind, “…further we have for 3 years been dodging requests for new missions in various parts of Africa. I consistently [sic] try to keep in mind that we owe it to our Brothers on the missions to so locate our foundations that they may have companionship at least once the year, if possible; also that we can concentrate on establishing centers of Formation, since the primary purpose of foreign missions is to found the Church in those lands; that means Native personnel.” In 1956 Nilus, then the American provincial, also wrote to Amandus concerning the latter's speculations about a mission at Kitale and himself suggested the possibility of a juniorate and novitiate there.

As stated earlier Bro. Nilus had said in his preliminary letter of acceptance of September 8, 1957, that his acceptance of St. Peter’s at Mumias was “dependant upon our being given full assurance that we shall be able to inaugurate the foundation of a juniorate at Mumias to accept African candidates for our Congregation.” Bishop Hall’s response to this on January 11, 1958, could not have been more welcoming:

Whilst extending this invitation I wish to state that I shall do all in my power to further the aims of your Congregation in that place.

I have always wished to see African Brothers come to take their place in the educational world of the Dioceses and I believe that this can be brought about by the setting up of a Juvenate for the training of Xaverian African Brothers under the guidance and control of your Congregation. This I most heartily trust to you.

It is also my wish that the Brothers take over the Secondary School at Mumias. The contract for the establishment of this School has been submitted to me and signed by me and returned to the Reverend Brother Sylvere…Although the matter of the Juvenate is not mentioned [in the contract for St. Peter’s], I would like you to feel that it occupies perhaps the foremost place in my thoughts in the coming of the Brothers [in January of 1959] whilst in no way minimizing the importance of the school.

In January 1959 Hugh arrived in Africa to begin the construction of a juniorate. Though located at St. Peter's College, Mumias, the juniorate would be an entirely separate institution. On July 11, 1959, the Sacred Congregation of Religious granted the Xaverian Brothers permission to open a novitiate. Although a novitiate program was still in the future, this would permit the opening of a juniorate. The plan was for the juniorate to open in January of 1960 and for the juniorate boys to attend St. Peter’s Secondary School. It must be recalled that the majority of the students entering Grade 9 were not fourteen as in the USA, but rather at least two or three years older. The original plan, therefore, was that studies would be interrupted at the end of Form III or Grade 11 for the canonical year of novitiate. During the second year of novitiate they would resume their studies, finish the last year of high school and sit for their exams. Then, depending upon how they qualified, they would go to one of the TTC’s for training as a primary or junior high teacher. Beyond that, there were no firm plans; rather a “let’s-wait- and-see-what-works” attitude prevailed.

The new juniorate was to be called St. Paul’s. In December of 1958 Nilus had advised Oswald that “ Francis Joseph looked upon the African boys as being equal to the students that he had taught in the States. He befriended the native, he talked his language, he joked, laughed, and in general accepted their culture as a normal way of life.” In the event Hugh was appointed aspirant master and superior of the mission while Urban Francis became the Headmaster of the school as related earlier. Although Hugh had been in Africa only for one year, it was thought that he had the same kind of attitude as Francis Joseph. Subsequent events would bear this out.

January 14, 1960 was the opening day for St. Paul’s Juniorate. Ten of the eleven accepted aspirants showed up, six from Kenya and four from Uganda, including one boy from the now closed St. Francis Xavier Intermediate School in Lira. They ranged in age from 13 to 21. Six entered Form I (Grade 9), one entered Form II, two entered Form II, and one had to be put in the local parish intermediate school.

The day order there did not differ that much from the one then current in the American juniorate. There were morning prayers, Mass, breakfast, and a short study period before the start of the school day at St. Peter’s. Classes lasted until 4 PM. A work period, sports period, litany and the in chapel then preceded supper. After supper there was a study period,

Brother Hugh & aspirant Juniorate building at Mumias with some time set aside for both group and individual conferences on certain evenings. Night prayers and lights out followed at 10 PM. The small number of boys constituted some problems as far as sports and recreation on weekends were concerned.

Another thing that kept everyone busy during these first several weeks was preparing for the formal blessing and dedication of the juniorate and its grounds. The date which had been decided upon was March 12, 1960, the feast of the of St. Francis Xavier and the close of the Novena of Grace. There was going to be a gala celebration because the day would also mark the celebration of the Silver Jubilees of four of the African missionaries: Anton, Francis Joseph, John Baptist, and Sylvere. All of them had played critical roles in the ten-year history of the Xaverians in East Africa. in May of 1960, the American Province was split, and the African missions came under the new St. Joseph Province. Brother Gilroy, the blood brother of Sylvere, was named as the first provincial. Sylvere believed that his status as both a local superior and the Provincial Delegate might cause some complications and offered to resign. Rather than accepting his resignation, both Nilus and Oswald told him to come back to America to be present at the formal installation of his brother and at the same time, to give the new provincial a complete briefing on the African missions, particularly with regard to the formation program.

In January 1961 another Juniorate group was added, mostly from Kenya. These aspirants attended classes at St. Peter's College

In the meantime the Brothers were trying to decide where to locate their future novitiate. Land was then purchased at Tindinyo, whose post office was Kaimosi, some 63 miles southeast of Mumias, from Bishop Hall's vicar general, Father Joseph Kuhn, also a member of the Mill Hill Fathers. He volunteered to live there and serve as chaplain. He would also be reimbursed by the Brothers. Hugh began construction at once. He was also appointed novice master and superior, being replaced by Kenny (Randall) as aspirant master at Mumias.

On December 27, 1962, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novitiate was ready to receive the thirteen young men who arrived to begin their postulancy in the Xaverian Brothers. Three were from Uganda and ten from Kenya. Four (Seven?)(total disagreement between 2 documents) of them came from St. Paul’s Juniorate at Mumias while the other nine (six?) came from other schools. They ranged in age from 14 to 23 years old. These first postulants and their hometowns were:

Constantine Ogwal – Lira; Paul Ogwang – Lira; Thomas Anyika – Mukumu; Romanus Oyaro - Lira; Silfanus (Sylvanus) Onyambo – Nyabururu; Maurice Okumu – Kisoko; Paul Odhiambo - Amukura; Francisco Odhiambo - Butula; Oketch – Rangala; Joseph Mara – Port Victoria; John Omondi – Rangala; Ignatius Wasonga – Rakwaro; Felix Osodo – Port Victoria.

Within a month, the number was down to nine. The first had departed one week after arriving; saying that the weather at Kaimosi was “too cold” for him. The program that these young men had embarked upon was initially set up as follows. The period of postulancy would be for a year, with the last six months being considered as the canonical portion. During this time they would start a normal secondary school program with Form I (Grade 9). After this year of academic study, they would become novices, cease their academic work and have their canonical year, concentrating on such things as the vowed life, the Xaverian Constitutions, and prayer. In the second year of novitiate, some academic work would be permitted, as well as studies in the spiritual life continued from the first year. It was envisioned that some kind of social work could also take place, such as being a catechist in the local parish. After the first pronouncement of vows, full academic work would resume, at the level that the individual was capable of, either secondary school and university or teacher training college. Hugh, as novice master and superior, Cyprian, as the humanities teacher (while also serving as the provincial delegate), and Anton, as the math and science teacher, served as the first staff of the novitiate. It had been decided that the novitiate would be staffed solely by Xaverians so as to provide the strongest possible examples in the formation of the new Brothers. They would be supported completely by the wages earned by the Brothers in the other missions.

The postulants and the Brothers who lived at Our Lady’s found it a much different place from Mumias. When it was completed, the Brothers considered it to be the best plant they had in East Africa. The 18-acre site was magnificent, practically on the equator at an elevation of 5600 feet, giving it a mild climate with heavy rainfall year round. It stood on a small, level plateau, looking out in all directions on superb mountain scenery. The combination of warmth and heavy rain produced lush vegetation. The grounds were brightly landscaped with flowerbeds and blossoming shrubs. A valley side was planted with tea bushes, vegetable gardens and a blue gum plantation, sloping down to the Yala River. Its far bank marked the edge of a vast rain forest, a genuine equatorial jungle that today is one of Kenya’s star attractions.

All agreed that Hugh had done an outstanding job in the construction of the buildings, partly because he had been able to plan the entire site and build them from the beginning.

Chapel interior

By the time of the dedication, June 27, 1963, the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the number of postulants was down to six. There had been a “come and see” invitation issued to the many priests and religious associated with the various Xaverian–run schools, as well as to the families of the African members as a substantial part of the construction work had already been completed. Nearly two hundred people came. In Bishop Hall’s dedicatory remarks, he called Kaimosi “a crown on the work so well begun in Mumias and Eregi.”

Finally, in July of 1963, six aspirants became canonical postulants. Gabriel Oketch, Romanus Oyaro, Ignatius Wessonga, John Paul Ogwang, Silfanus (Sylvanus?) Onyambo and Felix Osodo became the first East African names recorded in the General Register of the Xaverian Brothers. This date had been picked so that all future rites would occur on the feast of the Epiphany. On January 6, 1964 fifteen years after opening the first Xaverian mission at Lira, three of them became novices and were given the habit: Paul Ogwang, who took the name Joseph; Felix Osodo, who took the name Martin; and Silfanus (Sylvanus) Onyambo, who took the name Lawrence. Kenya had received its independence on December 12, and shortly thereafter the other 3 postulants had left.

Brother Gilroy was unable to come for the acceptance of the first East African Xaverian novices, so he sent Brother Emil (Dayon), then the vocation director for the Northeast Province, as his representative to the festivities. The Mass at which the novices were received was presided over by Bishop Maurice Otunga, the first Ordinary of the new diocese of Kisii. Emil was greatly impressed with everything he saw, so much so that he volunteered to go to Africa when his term as vocation director ended in 1966.

Brother Cyprian had noted in the 1963 Easter edition of Working for Boys. “We think that if six of the present forty-two aspirants survive it will be very good. A local minor seminary celebrated its silver jubilee recently. In twenty-five years it has produced sixteen priests. That was enough to establish the diocese of Kisii. If in twenty-five years we twenty-one Xaverians here can replace ourselves with all local Brothers, it will be an achievement.” First Vestition in East Africa, January 6, 1963. Back row: Brothers Callistus, Valerian, Emil, Houlihan, Otunga, Kihangire, Brothers Alan, Cyprian, Chad, John Baptist, Franklin, Arcadius. Front row: Brothers Alois, Joseph Ogwang, Bertrand, Martin Osodo, Hugh, Barry, Lawrence Onyambo, Kenny, and Matthias.

Martin and Lawrence pronounced first vows on January 6, 1966, the first Kenyans to take vows as Xaverian Brothers. These vows were for three years, the same duration as those pronounced by their contemporaries in the United States. Thirteen aspirants then entered the Kaimosi Juniorate.

In justification of the fifty to sixty aspirants at Mumias, for example, only a small fraction of whom were likely to enter the novitiate, it was noted that those who dropped out would then spread Catholic ideals and morals.

The first professions of Brothers Martin and Lawrence seemed to bode well for the future growth of East African Xaverian Brothers, as did the assessment of the new recruiting techniques and the new aspirant class at St. Paul’s.

Brothers Lawrence and Martin had become the first Kenyan scholastics in January of 1966. As they had entered under the original plan of formation, they had completed only one year of secondary school. They now began their Form II (Grade 10) studies in class with the other three aspirants remaining from the twelve who had originally entered in the class of 1965. In 1967 Bro. Franklin, Provincial Delegate (Thomas Mulloy) was involved with negotiations to expand the Brothers’ apostolate to Nairobi so that the Congregation would have a base in the capital and so that there would be a Xaverian house in which future scholastics could live when they were pursuing higher studies. The negotiations commenced when Brothers Climacus and Edward Daniel from the General Council were on official visitation and were conducted with Mr. Obare, the government official in charge of teacher training and a former staff member at Eregi. Edward Daniel believed that a foundation there was most important as an interim solution for the scholasticate needs. Thus, in January 1968, two Xaverians went to teach at Kenyatta College.

On January 6, 1968, Andrew Irenge and Saverio Nyeti also became novices. . Saverio Nyeti and Lawrence withdrew at the end of 1968, but on January 6, 1969, Joseph Malusu pronounced vows for a year and a year later so did Andrew Irenge. They both went to Mumias to complete their secondary school education and lived with the Brothers’ community at the high school Brother Andrew Irenge with aspirants in 1970 itself and not at the juniorate. While at Kaimosi, Joseph Malusu had written a vocation paper in which he summed up extremely well the tensions that existed between the religious ideals of celibacy and community life and East African cultural and social customs. He closed with these words: “As you consider your possible suitability to this particular career, you must first realize that it is you who are going to live it. The ultimate say must rest on you and not on your parents or relatives. It is you who have got to decide.”

In May of 1970, everything seemed to be as usual when the formation committee met for their review of the program. The first order of business was to approve unanimously the continuation of recruiting for Standard Five at the Juniorate. Six weeks later, however, on July 17, 1970, the formation committee met again and voted to close the juniorate at Mumias at the end of the year.

The reason for such an abrupt change was the decision of the aspirant master, Brother William Ryan (Edward), to leave both Africa and the Congregation that July. No one had had an inkling that he had been having any difficulties, and his decision came as a surprise to all. Coming as it did in the middle of the African school year, the decision created major problems. Other Brothers were in the midst of an assignment or had already left on home leave. Manpower levels had been dropping since the high water mark of 1966, and there was no one to take his place. At the end of 1970 St. Paul’s Juniorate was closed and 7 group was transferred to the juniorate at Our Lady’s at Kaimosi. The older Kenyan Xaverians presented those in charge of formation with a number of problems. For instance, Lawrence Onyambo had in 1967 expressed his thanks for an invitation to join the Brothers at the coast, but, as he did not swim or play golf, he felt that he would rather stay at Kaimosi. In an undated letter, he said that he found community life very hard. At the end of 1968 he wrote that he did not think religious life was for him and so chose not to renew his vows.

Some of the American Brothers also felt a bit uncomfortable in having the Kenyans go with them on vacation, although obviously others did not. Those who did seemed to have picked up a bit of the British colonial attitude towards the native people or had difficulty overcoming racial attitudes learned back in the states. The fact that the scholastics lived with the Brothers’ communities in Mumias and Eregi caused talk among the expatriates, as this living arrangement did not exist among the congregations of nuns. On the other hand, Brothers such as Edwin Boissonneau and Kieran found it perfectly natural and said that they would have been uncomfortable with Brothers Ignatius, Stanislaus, Martin, Andrew, and Lawrence any other living arrangements.

Felix Osodo did well in his studies. For a time it was thought that he would attend College founded by the Sacred Heart Brothers in Kasubi, Uganda. However, before he left to go to Kasubi in 1969, he was accepted at Strathmore College, a school in Nairobi conducted by Opus Dei. This school was a “higher certification” school, something like a combined secondary school and junior college, very common in the British system of education. It was reputed to be the best such school in East Africa and it was considered a feather in the cap of the Xaverians for him to have gained admittance. It was a virtual guarantee of future admission to one of the few universities in East Africa.

Felix, however, did not live with the other American Xaverians at Kenyatta as originally planned, but at Strathmore itself. Nor would Joseph Malusu live with other Xaverians when he came to Nairobi to study. The reasons for this are varied. The staff house at Kenyatta was somewhat small and the extra bedroom was in constant use for visitors, both Xaverian and other religious who came to Nairobi. Because of its location on the compound, it was one of the few staff houses that were always assured of a constant water supply and electricity. There was a fear that if the Brothers asked for a larger house, it would have to be uphill, with the consequent loss of water pressure and other utilities. Funds were very tight and it was impractical to consider purchasing property for a house off campus. Strathmore itself was a good distance away from Kenyatta and, while it was possible to get there on public transport, it would necessitate Felix spending hours each day in traveling. Out of concern for the vow of poverty, giving him a car for his own use was not thought feasible. The American Brothers were already worried that the African Brothers, by sharing in Xaverian community life, were better off than most other Africans. Giving a scholastic a car to use on a daily basis, when only the richest Africans in Kenya could afford one, and when most of the American Brothers had access to a car only sporadically, was seen as very problematic. It seems that this was a local decision, fitting in with the new idea of having local communities make decisions and not the provincial or the general. Considering the fact that many things in Africa had been decided locally for years, it is not surprising that this decision was made based on very practical, local considerations rather than on an ideal which had been thought of several years earlier. Also in the background was the knowledge that the American scholasticate, Xaverian College, was closing down and new provisions were being made for the American scholastics. Brother John McDonald, who came to Kenyatta College in January of 1970, was asked to be the contact person for the scholastics.

When Felix finished at Strathmore he moved from there in 1972 to the University of Nairobi. When he finished his program at the end of the year, he withdrew from the congregation.

Joseph Malusu did equally well in his studies. In 1971 he entered Kenyatta College but lived in the regular college dormitories and not in the Brothers’ staff house. He was highly regarded by his fellow students, who elected him student president, a far more important position in Africa Brothers Joseph Malusu, John Okoth, Andrew Irenge, and Felix Osodo in than in American universities. It gave 1972 added impetus to the idea that he needed to live in the dormitories and be available to his fellow students. Thus when Mike Foley arrived and got another, smaller house next door to the original house, nothing was done to move Joseph into it. However, he was a frequent visitor at the house, lived in at that time by Brothers Kenny and John McDonald, and later, Michael Foley. Brother John recalls that Joe frequently had meetings of students and /or teas in the community room there. It was highly unusual for the other expatriate faculty members to have students at their homes, and it was noticeable that the Xaverians conducted themselves differently.

In 1973 Joseph entered the University of Nairobi. On November 7, 1973, he wrote that he did not think he was able to renew vows, but he could not thank the Brothers enough. "I shall always remember them and, God willing, work with them side by side." He continued his studies at the University of Nairobi. It was obvious by 1973 that the formation program was in serious difficulty. In the course of the year three meetings were held in May, two in November, and one in December at Eregi, Mumias, or Tindinyo (Kaimosi). All were attended by a majority of the Brothers in Kenya, including Andrew Irenge. The minutes for only two have been preserved. On May 21, however, Jim Lynch (Meinrad) reported to Barry from Mumias that the minutes he was forwarding did not completely capture the real opinions of several of the Brothers nor that a majority favored continuing the program in some form.

In August Alois returned to the United States for a visit, not to return until early 1974. Barry called a meeting for November 3 at Eregi. He wanted to know where each of the twenty Brothers then in Kenya (he included Alois, the two scholastics, and the two novices) planned to be the following year. He also wanted the participants' opinion on the future of the aspirancy program at Kaimosi. After considering the financial situation, the student body, and the future manpower situation, it was moved (10 in favor, 2 opposed, and 1 abstention) that Kaimosi be closed at the end of 1973. It was decided, nevertheless, to continue a formation program of sorts. "It was emphasized that this was an effort to bring together our African Brothers and suitable American Brothers to establish our first African community which hopefully would attract future African candidates and continue to serve the Church in Kenya alongside the remaining American communities." There was no attempt to consult with either the provincial or the superior general before this decision.

In November Brother Alphonsus Dwyer, Provincial of the American Northeastern Province, arrived in Kenya for an official visitation. Unofficially, he confided to at least one that he had difficulty perceiving any formation program at work. On November 18, he first met with Barry and his assistants, Cyprian and Edwin; they were later joined by the Tindinyo community and Jim Lynch from Mumias. Soon after the meeting, the students at Kaimosi (both Xaverian candidates and seminarians) were told that the school would be closed. It was also decided that the formation program would be phased out gradually. It was after this meeting that Joseph Malusu wrote to say that he would not seek to renew vows and wished to withdraw from the Congregation.

At the last meeting at Tindinyo, December 8, attended by eight Americans, one Englishman (Godric), and one temporary professed (Andrew Irenge) out of nineteen possible Brothers, it was decided that the formation program would be closed at once. After some further discussion, this statement was reworded euphemistically to "suspended temporarily." The vote for closure was six in favor, two against, and two abstentions. Alois, the novice master, on home leave in America since August, was not consulted and did not know about any of these decisions until he got arrived back in January. At the same time, Benedict Wesungazze was dismissed, and Andrew was refused renewal of vows by the regional superior and his council. These decisions caused puzzlement, even consternation among the Brothers. Most of the information was considered privileged. Letters of support were written for Andrew to renew vows. Andrew announced he would appeal to the judicial review board in America. Even before he learned of the decision of the board, Arcadius, reflecting the views of most involved, wrote in his diary, "These are very sad days for the Xaverian Brothers in East Africa."

The review board received the decision and the appeal late in December. They met at Shrewsbury on December 22 for over three hours and decided to uphold the decision of the regional council. The news of the decision reached Africa on Christmas Eve, putting a damper on the feast. There was still some thought of doing something with John Okoth, who would finish both his teacher-training program and novitiate in March. However, he withdrew in March. Thus, twenty-five years after Brothers Vincent, Nathanael and Mauritius opened St. Francis Xavier Intermediate School in Uganda, the first Xaverian formation program came to an end.

In An Echo in My Heart (pp. 142-43) Alois volunteers several reasons why the program failed: tensions because of different cultures, disparity of age, constant pressure on the candidates and temporary professed to live up to high standards, and the consequent insecurity among them. The temporary professed, he also explained, were richer than ninety-nine percent of their peers because the Americans shared their amenities instead of adopting the simpler life of the Africans.

The Xaverian formation program lasted for fourteen years from the opening of St. Paul’s Juniorate in 1960 to the closure of Our Lady’s in 1973. During this time period there were dozens of aspirants at the juniorate level. Most, it was recognized and even accepted, came for the chance of a good education. Out of these students and other recruits nineteen became postulants, nine became novices, and four took temporary vows. Three of these temporary professed withdrew of their own volition. What kind of judgment can be formed from these data?

From the time when Joseph Malusu became a novice in 1967, great changes occurred in the formation programs throughout the Xaverian provinces. It is noteworthy to observe that out of the 108 who became postulants or novices in all the provinces between 1967 and 1973 only thirteen eventually took final vows. The Belgians closed down their formation program in the Congo in 1973, the same year as the Kenya program was discontinued. The Brothers in East Africa tried to keep the program relevant to the changes occurring both in the Church and in the nation. Kenya and Uganda were both still colonies when the program began; they were sovereign countries when it ended. Changes in the program were made on the average of every two years as necessitated by experience and what those in charge saw as a proper response to changing conditions. The words of the reports, “flexible” and “adaptation” were certainly followed faithfully. MISSIONS FROM 1974 TO 2004

While the original missions were being closed, new ones were being staffed by Xaverian Brothers. At a meeting with the Superior General Harold Boyle in the spring of 1974, the Brothers were urged to seek out new apostolic opportunities, that things such as the fifty-five year age limit for employment in government schools be seen as an opportunity to contribute in other areas and not as a death knell to work in Kenya.

One of the first to respond to this way of looking at things was Alois. Upon his return to Kenya in 1974, Alois went north to the Turkana district to teach in Lodwar at Lodwar Secondary School, run by the Kiltegan Fathers.

By 1979 the contingent stood at six Brothers; from 1985 till 1989 it was three. Only two new recruits came from the States in the 80’s: Brother Robert Dailey in 1981 and Brother H. Lawrence Nyhan in 1989. When Brother Bob left the States in 1981, he did so with the stated intention of staying only for two years. He stayed for twenty.

When Kitale Teachers College was closed in 1974, it was replaced by the new St. Joseph's Secondary School, which moved into the vacant buildings. After teaching there a few months, Arcadius was invited to become headmaster in 1975: contrary to the Africanization policy that was being implemented. He resigned in 1976, however, as he found that administrative work was not to his liking. At the same time Michael Joseph was headmaster of Kitale's Girls' Secondary School downtown, a Harambee school operated by Kenyan sisters from Nyeri. He left there also in 1976.

MUKUMU Godric had come to East Africa from England in 1971 to teach in St. Peter's Minor Seminary at Mukumu near . In 1975 Anton joined him. Godric died after an operation in Nairobi on September 5, 1977, and was the second of three Xaverians buried in East Africa. At the end

Air view of St. Peter’s Minor Seminary in Mukumu in 1983 of 1977, Anton left to return to the United States for the last time, but Arcadius replaced him at St. Peter's in 1978. Over the next six years, with the closing of the schools already mentioned, Arcadius would be joined by Mike Foley, Bob Dailey, Tom McGuire, and Fred Kinsman (Kieran). In late 1984 and 1985, however, Mike and Bob went to new missions while Arcadius, Tom, and Fred returned to the United States for good. By the end of 1985, there were only three Xaverian Brothers left in Kenya.

TURKANA The Turkana district in the extreme northwestern part of Kenya. One author has described its "apocalyptic quality, utterly stark and relieved only by the stumps of worn-out volcanoes" and another has called it a "horizonless frying pan of desolation," with temperatures often 120 degrees in the shade, "as close as you can get to hell on earth."

Turkana is a land of nomadic pastoralists. The colonial government and the Kenyan government maintained Turkana as a closed area with travel in or out severely restricted. The way of life of the Turkana people, nomadic pastoralists, was completely unbothered by the events of the twentieth century beyond its borders. Then, in the mid-1970s, the Kenya government lifted travel restrictions to Turkana and built a road from Kitale to Lodwar. Exposure to civilization came rapidly with unsettling effects upon the poor, unlettered nomads there. The process of modernization-westernization that had occurred in the rest of Kenya in a relatively gradual manner over a hundred-year period occurred here in less than a decade.

View of Mount Lodwar, Turkana from St. Kevin’s School

It is the Catholic diocese of Lodwar that has done the most in trying to help these people meet the demands of the modern world by providing the children with an education. The diocese sponsors six of the nine secondary schools in the district, even though the Catholics number only eight per cent of the population.

In 1984, when Bishop Mahon, S.P.S., invited the Xaverian Brothers to return to Turkana, Brothers began teaching at Katilu Boys Secondary School. In 1986 Bob Dailey became the headmaster assisted by Mike Foley and later, Larry Nyhan. Bob taught Biology and ethics; Mike, mathematics and the sciences; and Larry, English. The work of these Xaverians maintained the fine educational tradition that the Brothers had established in their earlier schools in East Africa. The first graduating class of Katilu in 1988 was the first in the District in scholastic order of merit, an accomplishment practically unheard of for a brand new school, and one that continued for subsequent graduating classes. Mike remained there until 1990, a year after Bob had left for England. Today it is called St. Francis Xavier Secondary School. The current trend in Kenya is for the schools to re-assert their religious background by reclaiming their original religious names or by adopting new ones. After his sabbatical in England for one year, Bob returned to Turkana in 1991 when he was sent by Bishop Mahon to Tanzania for a course in African languages. Returning to Turkana in 1992, Bob was sent by Bishop Mahon to Kakuma Boys Secondary School, 101 kilometers northwest of Lodwar. However, he stayed there only one year as he joined with the bishop in building St. Kevin's Secondary School in Lodwar and became the headmaster.

The plan, as suggested originally to Bob by Brothers Louis Calmel and Mike Foley, was to implement a new concept as St. Kevin’s was to be a day school, while all the other schools in the Turkana region were boarding no matter who was their original sponsor. This would provide a good, quality education to the poorest of the poor of Turkana, because too many of the Bishop Mahon and Brother Robert Dailey in 1992 them could not afford the fees for a boarding school which the Kenyan government still requires for education. A day school would have much lower fees and would be more affordable for the people of the region. It was to be co-ed, a first in the region. In actuality, many of the students, sons and daughters of nomadic clans, would stay with relatives or friends in the town. Although a day school was not required to provide meals, Bob would make certain that meals were provided, perhaps the only food the students would have since the relatives frequently could only provide a place to stay, but not food. Construction began on the site in January 1993 while Bob organized the school at the Turkana Resource Center in town. The first class of forty-eight students was mainly rejects from the other schools who had scores that were too low for admission. For the first two months Brother Robert was the sole teacher in the school, teaching nine periods a day and all eleven subjects, from Agriculture to Physics to Kiswahili. He was able to acquire the services of four African teachers by the end of the first term and the beginning of the second. Both the government and the diocese provided funds for them. In the middle of that first school year, Brother Louis Calmel joined Bob. He remained at St. Kevin’s for the rest of 1993 and all of 1994. In 1995 Bro. Louis was asked by Bishop Mahon to join with Father Norman King’oo Wambua to try to save Kakuma Boys Secondary. The school had fallen on hard times in terms of finances and discipline after Bob Dailey’s short but successful sojourn there. Louis agreed to do so, and he and Father Norman succeeded in their rescue mission. (Father Norman would later become the second Bishop of and invite the Xaverians to start their second formation program in his diocese) Within two years, albeit with a lot of hard work and a great deal of opposition, the two

St. Kevin’s, Lodwar of them managed to transform the failing school. The first order of business was to see to it that the students were being properly fed as the funds for this had been put to other purposes. With their stomachs contented, the boys were able to settle down and respond to the educational reforms that the two of them instituted. The 1996 graduating class scored within the top one hundred District schools in the country on their national exams. When the results of 1996 became public, things became much easier for Father Norman and Brother Louis who remained at Kakuma until 1998, when he replaced Bob Dailey as headmaster at St. Kevin's. Meanwhile, Bob Dailey was building up St. Kevin’s. At first, because of the harsh desert climate and the lack of water, conditions in Turkana were even more primitive than the ones that the first pioneers encountered in Uganda. Gradually Bob was able to build up the physical plant and the educational facilities, as well as to help provide for the material well being of the students with assistance from donations from the diocese and from the USA through the Xaverian Brothers, their schools and friends. Most importantly, he was able to establish the basis of the traditions of St. Kevin’s in its discipline and high standards in academics and sports. When Bob left St. Kevin’s to go to work in Bungoma, he recommended to Bishop Mahon that Louis Calmel Brother Robert Dailey, first Headmaster of St. Kevin’s, with the future Brother replace him. Louis oversaw the enlargement of St. Kevin’s into a Haron. four-stream school, while continuing to add to its physical plant. The forty-eight students who began St. Kevin’s have expanded into a student body of over six hundred in June of 2004. Financial assistance for those too poor to afford even St. Kevin’s low fees, the majority of the students, has been provided by the Diocese of Lodwar, the Islamic Center, other Christian Churches and the national government of Kenya. The school compound has gone from five structures to twenty-nine in a mere ten years.