This letter from Fr Michael O’Rourke SMA to the African Missionary describes his experience in Nigeria a few months after his arrival. He was born Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin in April 1893 and ordained priest in June 1924. After arriving in Nigeria, he was appointed to Lokoja, in the Vicariate of Western Nigeria. He served there from December 1924 to 1929. He was incardinated into to Archdiocese of Cardiff in 1934. He died in August 1975.
The letter was published in the African Missionary Magazine of September – October 1925 and given this introduction by Fr John Francis Lupton SMA, the Editor at the time.
“The following letter from the Mission Front will help our readers to visualise the Missionary, as he pursues the “even tenor of his ways” beneath the tropic skies. We are sure they will congratulate the writer on the hard-fought victory which the latter portion of his letter describes, and their prayers will go out to him, and to his fellow Missionaries, for the many smaller victories in a long and fruitful apostolate.”
Lokoja, Western Nigeria
After a long journey up the Niger, I arrived here on December 14th, having dropped my companions, one by one, along the way as their respective destinations were reached. Lokoja is one of the hottest stations on the banks of the Niger. My arms are already mahogany colour, and my face, well, I don’t know what that is like, as I have no looking-glass. So far, thank God, I have enjoyed good health. I am not fatter, certainly, but, I believe, not much thinner, either. Lokoja is chiefly a Mohammedan town, with a sprinkling of Catholics. The school is fairly good, but the attendance is not all that could be desired. The numbers are ever rising and falling, just like the Niger. High water, more pupils. Low water, numbers decrease. This is due to the fact that the people travel up and down trading or visiting their native districts.
The little children are wonderful, they seem to be at home at music, they can go right through a Gregorian Mass, and are very proficient at plain chant, especially when they delve into a word having several notes on it. Many of their native refrains savour very much of this style, all their verses ending on suspension notes.
In catechism, they are, in truth, well ahead of Europeans, their knowledge being more reasoned. Of course, this is due to their teaching. At home, children memorise their catechism, and having the faith, little explanation is needed. But here, dark souls have to be illuminated, and many explanations must be given.
So far, I have been privileged, have had the privilege of baptising four children, and there are a dozen others on the list for the end of the month. No candidate can be baptised unless he has at least a preparation of one year, a knowledge of Christian doctrine that would secure him Confirmation. In that way we are fairly sure of our boys.
Now, to leave missionary topics and come nearer home. I have been alone for a little while past and my first fever has arrived. It came just like a tornado, as insidiously, as quickly, and from goodness knows where, as do all things in the tropics. Sufficient to say that I am Victor, though I must admit it was a tester.
At first, I found it difficult to perspire, while the temperature increased by leaps and bounds. When the thermometer registered 104 degrees, I was not alarmed, but I knew I should sweat. When at 105 I said it was time to be anxious and so as a last resort, I told the boy to boil a flannel. This I wound around my body and still the pores remained stubborn while temperature rose to 106 degrees. At this point I said to myself well you must either perspire or expire. and I rather enjoyed the joke just then the first beads came out, and soon I was flooded in perspiration all of this happened in the space of two and a half hours. At a temperature of 104 I took the precaution of sending for a doctor but alas he was absent – away up river. He got my note long afterwards and came to see me to find me alive and crowing. Now I am quite all right again. M. O’R
Fr Hugh Harkin SMA