A history of the Quaker movement in Africa

by Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen

This study explores the absorption of Western religious ideas into African religious traditions, the emergence of independent African churches and religious movements and their connection with political protest. The Friends' African Mission, an offshoot of the evangelical revival in Britain and America in the late nineteenth century, took root among the Luyia people of Western Kenya. Quaker doctrines found a particular resonance with indigenous religion and spirituality but also divided African Quakers. Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen considers the work carried out in education, agriculture, industrial training and health care by the Society of Friends, and charts the development of an independent church (finally established in 1963). She traces the developing relationship between African Quakers and the emerging African nationalist movements, and the colonial administration.