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

Abstract

Rasoah Mutuha (also known as Rasoa and Rose by the missionaries) arrived at the Friends Mission of Lugulu in 1919. This was an auspicious year for the Quakers because World War One had recently ended, allowing the missionaries to reopen their work in Lugulu. However, a famine engulfed part of Uganda and the western region of the Kenya Quaker mission's sphere of influence, which brought many people to the mission seeking work and assistance with food. There were also outbreaks of smallpox and influenza.1 Additionarlly, 1919 brought the first female enrollments in the Lugulu Friends School. All of these events converged to bring Rasoah Mutuha to the Quaker mission, where she would find her true calling to the Christian ministry. Rasoah continued to participate in the Quaker community until her death in November 1996. Rasoah' s arrival at Lugulu Friends epitomized her life choices and strong will. Her family was originally from across the Uganda border but moved in with relatives in the Kitosh area, near the Lugulu mission.2 She was in a precarious social position in the village; many of the young men returning from the war wanted wives and her refugee parents were unable to resist the demand of Chief Murunga's family member for her as a bride. Instead of marrying this man, Rasoah fled to the Lugulu mission and enrolled herself in the Friends School against her father's and the Chiefs wishes.3 The death of Rasoah' s father left her subordinated to Chief Murunga, yet she repeatedly refused his relative's marriage proposal. Rasoah told the Chief, [he] could behead her if he wished, but she would not return to that household.4 Because of Rasoah' s adamant stance about being educated as a Christian, the local missionaries, Jefferson and Helen F. Ford, defended her right to stay on the mission.5 Although the colonial government usually sided with a Chief over the missionaries in marriage cases, Rasoah won the right to stay.