A History of Maryknoll in Kenya

A HISTORY OF MARYKNOLL IN AFRICA 1966 TO 2011 PART ONE THE GRADUAL MOVE INTO KENYA INTRODUCTION Major decisions are not made hastily or haphazardly. They usually result from months or even years of analysis, discernment, and planning. Sometimes important decisions can be made quickly when a clear opportunity presents itself requiring a rapid response. Maryknoll’s decision to open apostolates in Kenya came as a combination of both, and probably falls in between the two types just outlined. Perhaps a better metaphor is evolution, eventually leading to a sudden crossing of a threshold. Maryknoll went to East Africa in 1946, with the prime objective of establishing a viable local church. In accordance with the missionary practice of that day, Maryknoll was given charge of an apostolic territory, called a Prefecture, after, of course, several years of tutelage in language, inculturation, and catechetical practice under the White Fathers, today called the Missionaries of Africa. This Prefecture was in Musoma, located on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria in Tanganyika, and which bordered the southwestern corner of Kenya. In the mid-1950s, as Maryknoll personnel greatly increased, Maryknoll expanded to the neighboring Prefecture of Shinyanga, to the southeast of Musoma and both Prefectures shortly after were elevated to dioceses, with Maryknoll Bishops in charge of both. By 1962, however, at the onset of the Second Vatican Council, there had been no mention of Maryknoll doing pastoral work in any other part of East Africa. A few Maryknoll priests had worked outside of Musoma and Shinyanga, but in Tanzania. Two Maryknoll priests, Gerry Grondin and Del Robinson, had been the Secretaries General of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference and stationed in Dar es Salaam (and later Fr. Bill Collins was Secretary General), and two others, George Weber and Mike Pierce, had been working at the Bukumbi National Pastoral Institute near Mwanza, Tanzania. It should be noted that these were not parish assignments, but what is referred to as ‘specialized apostolates.’ Likewise two or three Maryknollers were stationed at the Society Regional House, which had been built in Nairobi in 1953, but their presence was by definition not pastoral. The decision to put the Society House in Nairobi was made precisely to separate internal Maryknoll regional matters from diocesan and pastoral matters in the two Tanzania dioceses. But beginning in 1962, coinciding with the election of Fr. Joe Glynn as Maryknoll Regional Superior for Africa, changes in both the wider society and within the church gradually brought about new perspectives regarding Maryknoll’s purpose and mission in Africa. Twenty years may seem like a short time, but by 1965, the end of the Second Vatican Council, an amazing amount of excellent work had been done in Musoma and Shinyanga, perhaps in part due to the youth and energy of the scores of priests, Brothers and Sisters who were assigned there. In both dioceses there had been a ten-fold increase in parishes, a high school seminary had been established in Musoma (for both dioceses), an indigenous Congregation of Nuns was started, schools and hospitals were built, and 1 several catechetical and family life training centers were in full operation. Fr. Joe Corso (deceased 1989), who moved from Tanzania to Kenya in 1970, reflected on Maryknoll’s good work in Tanzania, saying, “Two huge contributions were the leadership programs and lay ministries. Even prior to Vatican II we were looking ahead, and talking more about lay ministries. The marriage programs at all these centers also made a lasting contribution to that part of Tanzania, and were the beginning of my involvement with marriage programs. Another big development was the emphasis on small Christian communities.” Great progress had been achieved, and there were still many more personnel coming out from America. The theoretical conceptualization of mission was also being changed by Vatican II. Dioceses were no longer to be called mission territories, to be administered by a European or American Religious Society, but were now called local churches. Already Africans were being made bishops of dioceses, and the local church was, at least in official terminology, to be fully responsible for its own ecclesial affairs. After Vatican II mission no longer meant quasi-colonial control of ecclesial territories by expatriate missioners (the three countries of East Africa – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – gained independence in the years 1961-1963), but assistance to young, local churches that were being led by native bishops and priests. In effect, this meant that Maryknoll as a Society was no longer, from a strictly canonical perspective, in charge of the two dioceses, even if in fact both dioceses were still totally dependent on Maryknoll. There was to be a transition, hopefully achieved as quickly as possible, to full authority by the local church. It also meant that Maryknoll no longer had to feel obliged to send personnel only to these two dioceses (even though both Maryknoll bishops were always asking Maryknoll for more personnel throughout these years.) By 1965 Glynn had already deliberated and talked with many Maryknollers about the value of expanding beyond Maryknoll’s traditional places of work. In June, 1964, he had written to the General Council in New York proposing that Maryknoll consider working in Kenya, either in Kisii or Kisumu, in response to a request from the Apostolic Nuncio in Nairobi. Two months later, in August, 1964, he again wrote to the General Council stating that Maryknoll had been asked to consider working in Zambia. At that time Bishop Comber, the Superior General, responded that Maryknoll was not able to consider working elsewhere in Africa, although in 1965 he approved Maryknoll’s move to Isebania Parish in Kenya. Apparently, Comber misunderstood the requests of 1964, thinking that Glynn was proposing that Maryknoll take on apostolic territories in those two countries, rather than selective parishes in certain dioceses. Glynn later reflected, “At that time we realized that we had to be more flexible. As a result of Vatican II, the word was out that Africanization of the hierarchy was imminent. So we were looking for alternatives. We began exploring opportunities in Kenya, such as Kisii and Nairobi Dioceses, and two other dioceses in Tanzania, Arusha and Dar es Salaam. Not all of our new endeavors came to fruition, but some did.” Maryknoll’s move into Kenya, and then into other neighboring countries, did not come in one startling stampede, but evolved gradually over the next fifteen years. In fact, even when the Kenya Region was started in January, 1979, Maryknoll was still viewed by most church people in East Africa as a missionary society working in rural Tanzania. 2 How ironic it is then that Maryknoll would by the year 2000 be the missionary society that opened more parishes in the ultra-urban city of Nairobi than any other missionary group, to say nothing of the many other apostolates it engaged in, not only in Nairobi but throughout the country of Kenya and in over a half dozen other countries in Africa. Beginning in 1962 Maryknoll embarked on a journey that would take it out of one relatively small corner of Tanzania to many, and very diverse, parts of Africa. It is worthwhile to say a few words here about the history of Kenya and the growth of Nairobi, especially as Maryknoll was to stay in Nairobi right up to the present. Kenya’s modern boundaries were more or less formed at the infamous 1884 Berlin Conference, at which European colonial powers divided up Africa among themselves, without any regard for the peoples and ethnic boundaries already there. Kenya was granted to Britain. As there was a race between Britain and France to lay claim to controlling the source of the Nile River, Britain decided its best option was to build a railway from Mombasa on Kenya’s coast to Lake Victoria and then on to Kampala, Uganda. This was done from 1898 to 1901. Nairobi, which was not a place at all in 1898, was established as the main railway terminal just to the east of the escarpment overlooking the Great Rift Valley. To make the railway economically viable – the ‘lunatic express,’ as it was called, cost the British exchequer a colossal amount – the British decided to plant cash crops, such as coffee to the north of Nairobi, sisal at the coast, and a few years later tea in the western highlands. In 1920, Britain made Kenya a Crown Colony, directly under the rule of a British Governor. The Colony expropriated half of the arable land (arable land makes up only one quarter of Kenya’s land mass), and by the 1930s 100,000 British Settlers had migrated to Kenya, farming and ranching the Rift Valley and western highlands. The blatant inequality of this caused persistent conflict between Africans and British, even if some Africans benefited from and preferred British colonial rule. Finally, the Mau Mau revolt erupted around 1950/51, leading to the arrest of Jomo Kenyatta and other leading Kenya figures. In the 1950s, in reaction to the nationalism of the World War Two era, and in accordance with the values expressed in the United Nations documents on Human Rights, European public opinion turned against the possession of colonies. The British government began preparing to grant independence to the Kenya people, a prospect strongly opposed by the British settlers, who nearly revolted against the plan. They were assuaged by adequate compensation payments for their farms and permission to migrate to South Africa, Zimbabwe and other places. About 20,000 Europeans (of whom 2,000 were of Italian descent) and 50,000 of Indian nationality chose to become Kenya citizens.

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