Maryhill High: A school built on the foundation of missionary work

The Missionary Sisters of our Lady of Africa (MSOLA) were founded in 1869, in Algeria, by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers.

Cardinal Lavigerie saw the importance of women apostles among women and recognized their transformative role in society. Their first Superior General was Mother Marie Salome.

They were soon known as the “White Sisters” because of their white habit, which resembled the clothing worn by Arab women.

Cardinal Lavigerie had a very different approach to missionary work. He was keen for his missionaries to be close to the people they were ministering; eating their food, knowing and respecting their culture, learning their language and respecting different faiths.

The sisters were sent to different parts of Africa, North Africa first then West and Central Africa, Tanzania(1894), Congo (1895), Malawi (1897), Uganda(1899), Zambia (1902), Burundi(1906) and Kenya (1907).

On 21 April, 1907 a group of six Sisters arrived at the coastal town of Mombasa at the request of Bishop Allgeyer, Holy Ghost missionary, and then Apostolic Vicar of Zanzibar.

They were assigned the task of opening the first MSOLA mission in Mang’u, Thika. It will be recalled that the Gospel Missionary Society (GMS) had been allocated an area stretching from Northern Kiambu to the Southern tip of Murang’a.

The Sisters bought land on which they planted coffee and fruit trees to provide finance for their new projects. The climate and the soil were ideally suited for coffee and the undertaking flourished.

The Sisters quickly learned the Kikuyu language and the customs of the local people. With time, they started visiting people, teaching catechism. A maternity, dispensary, orphanage and a school teaching basic skills, were established on mission land.

Whereas, during this period education was provided for Europeans, Asians and Africans, admittedly at very different standards, children of mixed-race families were often marginalised. In response to this social need, the Sisters started a boarding school for these children in 1933.

Trevor Noah, the famous South African comedian, often reminds us that he is the product of an illegal relationship, his father being white and his mother black in the days of an apartheid South Africa. By law, white and black people were not allowed to enter into relationships.

The historian of British Empire, Ronald Hyam (1986b) claimed that “the expansion of Europe was not only a matter of Christianity and commerce, it was also a matter of copulation and concubinage”, adding that “Sexual opportunities were seized with imperious confidence”.

Freed from repressive Victorian morality, European men could fulfil their libidinous desires with the colonies sexually decadent “natives”.

White men having liasons with black women was seen as one way of asserting dominance and subjugating the native in a master and servant relationship. The black women were seen to be simply submitting to the wishes of the master.

On the other hand, in a rather convoluted way of thinking, a white woman having a relationship with a black man was regarded as taboo and a disgrace to the white race, for stooping so low as to engage with a depraved beast.

In Kenya, there was no formal law forbidding interracial relationships but they were frowned upon socially. However, that did not stop the liaisons and the fact that a special school was started for the offspring of such relationships speaks volumes.

The missionaries themselves were not unknown to engage in these liaisons with local girls in what must have been “moments of weakness” without deploying appropriate counter measures.

The massive displacement of Africans from their native lands early in the twentieth century forced many women to look for alternative livelihoods notably in the Eastlands of Nairobi where prostitution was rife. The military barracks were not far away.

All these factors created a fertile breeding ground for interracial relationships.

Returning to our story, the school became known for high standards of discipline and a very strict traditional Catholic code of conduct.

Post independence

In 1955, Archbishop McCarthy entrusted the formation of a new Kenyan congregation to MSOLA, which was named Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Nairobi. The government of the congregation was transferred to a local council under the leadership of Sister Marie Theresa Gacambi in 1970.

Shortly after Kenya’s independence in 1963, the school admitted the first African girls and was regarded one of the more prestigious schools in the country.

In 1976, the school was handed over to the Assumption Sisters and Kenyan staff. Today the school has expanded tremendously and has a population of over 1,200 girls. The school has been performing consistently well in the KCSE national exams.

The “White Sisters” were also involved in the establishment of the Star of the Sea School, Marycliff Primary School, Mama Ngina Secondary School all in Mombasa, St. Joseph the Worker in Kangemi, Mukuru Primary School in South B, and Mitume Centre in Eldoret to name just a few of their projects.

This vibrant group is still active after over 100 years. It is no longer a diocesan congregation but it is of Pontifical Right.

The Sisters serve in a number of dioceses in Kenya; in education, medical, pastoral and administration ministries.