By the time Mother Kevin and her companions arrived in Uganda (1903), generally in the whole of Mother Africa, women were treated less importantly than men. Whenever it came to decision making, they did not participate. The roles of women mostly consisted in carrying out domestic chores such as housekeeping, child bearing, fetching water, collecting firewood, cooking, and tending to low community services.

When Mother Kearney Kevin came to Uganda, the Girl Child had been left behind as far as Education was concerned. This was due to the mentality which existed in society concerning the role of a woman in the home. Men thought that women’s duties did not require formal education at all. In addition, the colonial government required every home to keep a coffee and cotton plantation. This kept men busy on these plantations, while the women worked hard at cultivating sufficient food for the family that would consist of five to fifteen children. In this case only boys were sent to school to get formal education. It was hard for Mother Kevin to keep regular numbers of pupils especially girls in the school during the planting, weeding and harvesting time. However, she never grew weary of visiting homesteads to encourage the parents to send their children to school. Sr. Louis writes about Mother Kevin’s determination to educate the children, “well, if they won’t come to us, we shall go to them.”[1]  For some parents, sending girls to school was a cause of great pain, who saw the white women as destroyers of the future of the girls. Mother Kevin’s persistence earned her great respect after some time when the chiefs and others continued to bring their children to study in Mother Kevin’s Schools.

Having established a dispensary under the mango tree mainly to take care of women and children, she established a Midwifery Training School at Nsambya, later included the training of nurses. Mother Kevin made sure that almost at each convent there was a School.  A domestic Science school that she started later at Nsuube became the source for would be wives of chiefs both within and outside the country. Thus, she became an icon of women empowerment long before any modern organization came up with the idea.

Sr. Mary John, in her book, Service in the Heart of Africa, said that most chiefs were very anxious to send their daughters to Mother Kevin’s Schools.[2] The type of education she introduced uplifted the status of a woman in Uganda. Subjects taught included English, Mathematics, Sewing, Singing, and Cookery. In other words, she uplifted the status of a woman from a lowly one to a recognized position in society. By the time of her death in 1957, a good number of women had acquired skills for the management of their domestic roles, and men’s concept on women’s roles had improved.  In all the schools started by Mother Kevin, learners were subjected to practical as well as theoretical subjects. Hence, she offered all round education to the girl child, leading to women empowerment.

As a conclusion to this section, one can say that in her life time, Mother Kevin made a great contribution to education which continued to thrive even after her death.  This is evidenced in the institutions that have been set up by the Little Sisters of St. Francis and the FMSA.  These institutions are availed in appendix page No. 36 on words and from page 48 on words.

A Postulant of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis teaching children at Nsambya by 1926[3]

The role of religion in Uganda and Mother Kevin’s contribution

This section focuses on the Servant of God, Mother Kevin Kearney’s role in the interplay of the various religions in Uganda and her contribution.  Africa is a vast continent with diverse cultures and traditional religions.  As it was in the early twentieth century, so it is today.  Although Mother Kevin reached other parts of East Africa, my point of focus is Uganda because it was the cradle of her missionary activities, and where she established the Mother House of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis.

Various cultures and ethnic groups in Uganda had a vague belief in the Creator God.  They believed that God made the world but somehow remained remote from the day to day lives and activities of the people.  For the Creator to be reached there were intermediary gods who acted on behalf of the petitioner.  There was a god for water, rain, thunder, birth, death and many others depending on the community one found himself or herself in.  These secondary deities were reached by priests, diviners or the head of the family or clan, who carried out rituals and sacrifices on behalf of the community or individuals.  Sacrifices included goats, sheep, chickens, local beer, food and many others.  In his article, The Catholic Church in the African Context, Msgr. Dr. Lawrence Kanyike states thus, “Prior to the arrival of Christian Missionaries from the West, Africans, with a culture that is intrinsically communal, had their longing for God among them… The symbols they used to have God be among them were for example a tree of a particular shape would be reflected to be a manifestation of God’s presence among them.  Rituals would be performed around the tree and even sacrifices of animals.”[4] Thus these smaller deities acted as quick intermediaries between the people and their inaccessible creator.

This is the kind of situation that the Servant of God found in Uganda.  Animism, witchcraft and sorcery were rampart.  From the Christian point of view, the people were basically heathens.  Sister Kevin and her companions had a lot of work to do in the field of evangelization, though they were few in number, they set out with diligence and commitment to save souls for Christ.  She used to say to the Sisters, “Education alone is not enough; our first duty is to give Christ to the people.  Souls are won by grace…the times require heroism Sisters.  Let us do everything in our power to give Our Lord souls for which He died, no matter what the cost to ourselves.”[5] Saving souls was at the heart of the Servant of God’s missionary endeavours.  She and the Sisters differed from colonial settlers who had come to Africa to curve out chunks of land and wealth for themselves.  Like Christ they were servants with the sole purpose of spreading the Reign of God in Africa.  To those who were flagging in their zeal for souls she would remind them thus; “We have come to Africa as servants, Sisters, not as settlers.  Our stake in this country is a spiritual one.  Never forget that.”[6] Sister O’Hara says the following about Mother Kevin and the pioneer Sisters, “The building of the Church in heathen Africa was the spiritual challenge in which they were to play an important role.”[7]

The fruits of Mother Kevin’s zeal for souls were steadily manifesting.  She devised a way of reaching out to the people especially the adults who were reluctant to embrace the Faith.  She went out to their homes searching for little children, encouraging their parents to send them to school, pregnant mothers to visit the antenatal clinics and dispensaries she had built for medical management. O’Hara writes, “they never forced themselves on the villagers but were always ready to help when approached…It was the children who paved the way to friendship.  The mothers could not remain immune when their offspring were so forthcoming.  Besides, they reasoned, this small cheerful lady had the magic far superior to that of the witchdoctor, and never demanded a goat or a sheep.”[8] Mother Kevin and the Sisters gave free service to the people bearing in mind the poor and needy.  Whiling working among the people they used it as an opportunity to talk about God.  The Servant of God wrote about the rich harvest they were making through their apostolates; “The work among the sick is really grand work and very often we are able to get souls through it.  It is consoling when the people respond to our talk about God and His love for them.”[9] Under the leadership of Mother Kevin Kearney and her exemplary life, crowds of people were gradually converted to the Catholic Faith.  Due to her life of holiness lay men and women who wanted to live a much deeper Gospel life came to her for guidance.  These became Third Order Secular Franciscans and are still vibrant in some parishes doing great work in the area of evangelization.  Their motto ‘From Gospel to Life and from Life to Gospel’ has raised saintly men and women both in Uganda and beyond.  It all started with Mother Kevin. She was a beacon of light for many people and for all walks of life.  Through her fearless effort and tireless work, heathen girls and boys, men and women, old and young made their way to the fold of Jesus Christ.  The Servant of God, Mother Mary Kevin Kearney made a long and lasting impact on the spiritual growth of those she came in contact with.  A good number she helped became Priests, Religious Brothers and Sisters.  It was a thorough turn-about process, from pagans to staunch Christians!

Most outstanding of all her missionary activities was her founding of a Religious Institute of African Sisters at the time when religious life in African culture and setting was minimal.  The place of an African woman was servile; to marry and produce children for her husband.  She was meant to be married off so as to provide dowry for her brothers and to enrich her father’s home.  This stereo-typed way of life was put to question when eight girls in Mother Kevin’s school came knocking at her office door and begged her to allow them become Religious Sisters like her!  She had her doubts, for the Catholic Faith in Uganda was still in its infancy and it was too early for the African girls to understand the depth of a religious calling.  Though she tried to put them off she later said, “Well they seem very anxious to enter religion and I think they are utterly sincere in that. They have a very good idea of what this our way of life means.  The Bishop knows we have not over-encouraged them.  In fact, we have tried to put them off.  Their very persistence gives me hope that they may truly have a vocation.  After all, further, there were Martyrs (of Uganda) among these people not very long ago.”[10] In the May of 1923 permission was given by the Right Reverend William Campling to start a purely African Religious Institute: The Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. This Institute later comprised of an amazing group of girls from over 48 cultures, all living together in peaceful harmony which was unheard of in a Continent that was torn by tribal wars and conflict.  When asked by a visiting high-ranking Anglican dignitary how this was possible, she led him into the Chapel and pointed to the Tabernacle and said, “He is the reason why we live in peace and charity.”[11]

In 1926 the Servant of God relocated her young Religious Institute away from the growing city of Kampala to Nkokonjeru which was spacious, with fertile land for expansion and agriculture. On arrival at Nkokonjeru on September 16^th 1926, she found the evidence of spirit worship of a local god to whom votive offerings, in the form of white hens, were laid at the foot of a tree.  The village of Nkokonjeru received its name from these white hens, for “Nkokonjeru” means white hen.  The tree was right in the land she had come to occupy. As it had started showing signs of drying up, she wanted to cut it down to get wood for burning bricks for the construction she had started; the natives would not imagine the abomination.  Armed with undaunted faith in God, Our Lady and Little Saint Therese, she prayed for God’s intervention.  On September 17^th the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, she began to dig the foundation of the Little Sisters’ Mother House.  She writes, “On that morning the infamous Nkokonjeru tree for so many years the abode of the devil, crushed to the ground.  The news spread like wild fire and crowds of people from the surrounding villages came rushing to the spot.  The falling of this tree without any apparent cause, was an omen that set the natives shaking; there was wild consternation among the worshippers.”[12] God had intervened on her behalf.  Since she badly needed wood for burning the blocks for the chapel, she asked the local workmen to start chopping it to pieces.  Shaking with fear, they adamantly refused to do, as none of them was willing to die as a participant in the destruction of the shrine to their god.  Unafraid of any spirit’s retaliation she got an axe and started chopping the tree and when the people saw that nothing had actually happened to her, they took courage and began cutting the evil tree.  However, to protect themselves from their god’s anger, they chanted as they chopped down the tree branches:

Lubaale, it not we who are cutting you
it is this white woman.
We did not give you blows
It is she.
We do not want to leave us
It is she who is driving you out.
It is Kevina who is driving you out.[13]

Mother Kevin got the wood to burn the desired bricks and with this she erected the Chapel that became a place of worshipping the living God; from the remaining timber she made benches for the new Chapel.  This incident became a source of conversion in Nkokonjeru village and surrounding areas.  A good number of natives gave up their spirit worship and worshipped the True God.  It is interesting to note that the place where the tree-shrine once stood, the Servant of God built a Grotto in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes, which has become a converging place of prayer and devotion for the Sisters and the villagers.

Thus Mother Kevin was indeed relevant in her time and situation. She contributed tremendously to the growth of the Church both locally and internationally, for her work and influence cut across borders; Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Europe and America.  In all these places she sent her Sisters to evangelize, educate, heal and give hope to those in despair.  She prepared her African Religious Institute to be missionary to the entire Church. To the Little Sisters of St. Francis, she said, “You are missionaries, children.  That means that you must open your hearts to the whole world.  Your own little corner of the vineyard may be Africa, but remember the needs of the whole Church.  Your prayers must embrace Africa, China, India, Russia; the whole world, the whole Church.”[14] In this way her relevance continues to live on in the Church and in the world through the various ministries carried out by the two Institutes she founded.

At the wake of the 19^th century, Uganda had other religions coming in from Arabia, India and the West. By 1903, Islam, Hinduism, Anglicans, and Catholic Missionaries had established themselves in the Kingdom of Buganda.  King Muteesa the 1^st had for example embraced Islam and had learnt some Arabic and built a mosque in his court.  But by “the mid 1870’s Muteesa patronage of Islamic devotion, which contained no obvious threat to his position, began to change.  They criticized him and claimed that the uncircumcised Kabaka should not lead Friday prayers, which angered the Kabaka bringing a lot of conflict in the Kingdom.  When King Muteesa died and was succeeded by his son Mwanga, the wily King gave more freedom for religion to be taught in his kingdom. However, he started playing one group against the other which caused a lot of pain and conflict.  He became actively hostile and ordered the bloody massacre of the Christian believers.  “The year 1892 saw the outbreak of the sad civil war between the Catholic and Protestant parties.  Anti-French and anti-Catholic feeling among some British officials caused great sorrow and concern to the Catholic Missionaries who were unjustly blamed for lack of co-operation with the British authorities.”[15]  This was the scenario Mother Kevin came into in 1903.  Mother Kevin believed in the universal declaration of human brotherhood.  Humanity belongs to one Creator and Father.  She went beyond petty racial, tribal or religious discriminations and treated all with respect and love.  O’Hara says this about her: “Asians, as well as Africans, came for treatment and, although there were few recorded conversions of adult Hindu or Indian Mohammedans, these people became friendly disposed toward the missionaries. The Asians called Mother Kevin ‘the woman of God’ and held her in great veneration and that is what she was.  She truly loved people for what they were.

In concluding this section, one cannot fail to say that Mother Kevin made a great impact on the life of the people of Uganda, especially in the areas of religious instructions, social services including education both formal and informal, and health and the general wellbeing of people.  Given the demographics of Uganda particularly with regards to factors concerning the strange weather, multiplicity of ethnic groups, the means of transportation, the scarcity of resources such as familiar foods and medicines, the amount of work demanded of them owing to the extreme conditions the natives were facing, Mother Kevin and her companions did what was almost impossible.  However, whatever difficult situation had to be endured, Mother Kevin attributed her source of strength to be the Lord in the tabernacle, as she once said:

I often decided I could not possibly go on
but when I looked at the Tabernacle
I could only say:
I will never give in to myself Lord,
my life is yours. Give the grace to go on another day”[16]

[1] Sr. Mary John, LSOSF. Service in the Heart of Africa. Kolbe Press: Diocese of Meru, Kenya, 1992, p. 21.
[2] Ibid p. 70.
[3] Mill Hill Fathers Archives, London.
[4] Namuli, Antonia, Sr. et Al. Ed. The Catholic Church in Africa: The Uganda Perspective in the Pontificate of Pope Francis.  “The Catholic Church in the African Context”, p. 43. Marianum Press, Ltd.  Kisubi - Uganda, 2016.                 
[5] Leonie, Kindiki, LSOSF, Ed. Wisdom of the Servant of God, Mother Mary Kevin Kearney. Office of the Cause of Beatification of Mother Mary Kevin, OSF. Amil Products LSOSF, Iganga-Uganda, 2017, p.28.
[6] Ibid. p. 26.
[7] Love is the Answer, p. 49.
[8] Ibid. p. 70.
[9] Ibid. p.71.
[10] Love is the Answer, p. 126-127.
[11] Ibid, p. 210.
[12] Ibid. p. 140-141.
[13] Ibid. p. 141.
[14] Wisdom of the Servant of God, Mother Mary Kevin Kearney, OSF. p. 31.
[15] Love is the Answer, p. 26.
[16] Wisdom of Mother Kevin, p. 14.