Looking for Elizabeth Ruhubya: women’s biographies and problems of archival research in the Great Lakes region
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[At the turn of the twentieth century women in East Africa were becoming Christians in increasing numbers as missionaries – both African and European - reached their villages. Some women became local church leaders, known as teachers, evangelists or catechists. Occasionally they became missionaries themselves. Yet African women are doubly marginalised in an historical record that was usually written by white men. Although the Dictionary of African Christian Biography recognises that women were influential in the spread of the gospel and the development of church communities, its collection of women’s stories remains limited. There are a total of 2,445 biographies in English, of which only 317 are of women.5 This article examines the impediments to telling the stories of women. It discusses sources and their limitations. It considers how wider histories can be enriched by attending to women’s stories. It does so by attempting retrieve the life of one woman. Elizabeth Ruhubya and her contemporaries. They encountered the growing Anglican church in the Toro and Ituri areas of the Great Lakes region as it was spread through the evangelism of many Baganda people who had become Christians with the support of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). The article helps to retrieve the early efforts of women and concludes with some areas for further investigation.]
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