Pilkington of Uganda (1897) is the biography of George Lawrence Pilkington. Pilkington was a pioneer missionary with the Church Missionary Society (Anglican Communion) who committed his life to serve the people of Uganda. The biography is largely formed of Pilkington’s private letters, which are filled with colorful details about his life and work. The author himself served as missionary in west Africa, but returned home due to illness and became a lifelong supporter of Anglican missions. For a time period when missionary biographies were largely simplistic and fawning, Harford has put together an accurate and compelling portrait of a missionary pioneer who died young, and yet is well remembered for his positive impact on Uganda.

George Lawrence Pilkington is best known as a lead transator of the Bible into Luganda, but other missionaries remembered him as being a supporter of Africa’s evangelization and a proponent of Uganda’s culture in many respects other than language. Pilkington was a Cambridge graduate with broad interests in culture, sports (running, cycling, football), and science.

He seems to have had naturally a scientific bent of mind, rather than any particular taste for languages, and he was always anxious to learn about everything.

C. F. Harford, Pilkington of Uganda

According to the author, the choice of title is meant to reflect The Story of MacKay of Uganda (1891) by Alexina (MacKay) Harrison. The epithet “of Uganda” is also meant to reflect the consecration that both MacKay and Pilkington felt.

Anything “Ugandese” (if I may venture to coin a barbaric word) attracted and interested him, and I can remember how inexhaustible was his patience in answering all importunate questions on his favourite subject. He was equally at home whether he discussed the phonetics of the native languages, or detailed the varieties of plantains to be found in Central Africa.

Letter from Mr. Hyslop, a friend of Pilkington at Cambridge; qtd. in Harford, Pilkington of Uganda

Language Learning: Nature or Nurture?

Pilkington was widely regarded as having uncommon facility in learning languages. But he believed that language learning was not a matter of inborn talent or having the “knack”. Pilkington attributed his success to stick-to-it-iveness and methodological plodding:

He frequently stated that, in his opinion, it was not so much an essential to be possessed of rare abilities, as it was to follow definite methods of study . . .

Harford, Pilkington of Uganda, ch. 13

He encouraged all incoming missionaries to study phonetics—specifically, a book called Sweet’s Primer of Phonetics—before applying themselves to an unfamiliar language. He believed that background about language in general, rather than a language in particular, would help missionaries on the field.

Translation and Language Work

Throughout his letters, George Pilkington describes an apparently bottomless need for Christian literature in Swahili—the regional language of east Africa—and Luganda—the mother tongue spoken by the most people in Uganda.

Continuing the work of his predecessors, Pilkington carried on the translation of the Bible into Luganda to its completion. While he spearheaded the work, he had two native translators that worked tirelessly to give Pilkington a perfect grasp of Luganda usage: Sembero MacKay and Henry Duta. Henry in particular is mentioned as having worked daily with Pilkington on checking translations.

He writes that, not being perfectly equipped himself, several members of his team providentially had deeply honed skills they could use for Bible translation: they knew Swahili, were accustomed to translating from Swahili to Luganda, and also had discussed Christianity in Luganda for years in a discipleship setting. Monolingual speakers of English can hardly imagine what this means for an agglutinative, tonal language—let alone one that has not developed a writing system.

Pilkington’s team-oriented method sounds somewhat closer to modern translation methods. Previous translators focused on a single translator, usually a European missionary. In time, more stock was given to mother tongue translators. Today, exegetical consultants also check new translations for theological comprehension and doctrinal clarity.

Pilkington finished his translation of the Old Testament while on furlough. He was able to do this by first taking copious notes with Henry Duta, the lead mother tongue translator. Then he wrote the translation in Ireland with help from his sister and other helpers.

At the time of his death, Pilkington harbored hopes of writing a Luganda grammar and dictionary in the service of future work; and the plan for both was apparently already thought out and partly drafted. He also had copious notes on the vocabularies of languages closely related to Luganda. While the dictionary was never realized, a friend of Pilkington later arranged his notes into a book on Luganda grammar.

Revival: Personal and National

In the 1890s, many Anglicans came under the conviction of the need for the Holy Spirit. In particular, they believed in a “second blessing” after salvation, in the filling of the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). Late in 1893, after an extended time of discouragement, Pilkington experienced the filling of the Holy Spirit during a retreat at the island of Komé. The experience is recounted in Chapter 12, “A Revival.”

On December 7th, 1893, Pilkington returned to Mengo from Komé, and everyone noticed the wonderful change in Him. His very face told of the reality of the change.

Harford, Pilkington of Uganda, ch. 12

The title of the chapter has a double meaning, since Uganda also experienced a national revival. Near the end of 1894, Pilkington wrote in a letter:

To sum up, the year’s work has been by far the most encouraging that I have been privileged to witness, and I venture to think that the Church here is only just beginning its course of testimony and victory. I anticipate that next year will see an enormous accession.

George Pilkington, Letter dated December 12th, 1894, qtd. in Harford, Pilkington of Uganda, ch. 12

I have not made space to recount all of the missionary successes in Uganda or the social forces at work. Suffice it to say, by the end of the book’s narrative, there are fifty baptisms a week in Uganda. Pilkington writes that baptisms began to decrease because, after many years of great expansion in Christian work, the country had reached a saturation point.

The increase in the number of adherents is not going on as it was two or three years ago. Why is that? . . . The greater part of the country has now been evangelised . . . Then again, a considerable number . . . don’t think it worth while to persevere.

George Pilkington, Letter dated May 19th, 1897, qtd. in Harford, Pilkington of Uganda, ch. 15

“Becoming All Things”

In his letters, Pilkington reveals a great deal about his missionary strategy and his approach to culture. An important aspect of missionary strategy, for Pilkington, was to live as natives do to the degree attainable. An important aspect of “becoming all things to all people” was simplification in travel. In subsaharan Africa, where roads were comparatively difficult, it was then stereotypical for Europeans to travel with large entourages of porters. But the easiest road from Uganda to the coast for Europeans, was not an easy road for Ugandans. Pilkington writes that he more than once came across travellers dead or near death on the road; there was a long section without water. It reduced the danger for locals if foreigners would pack more lightly, and travel more hardy.

Pilkington returned from furlough late in 1896. He left two months after the rest of his missionary party. In the interest of improving the road to Uganda—something much discussed by his predecessors Alexander MacKay and James Hannington—Pilkington decided to cycle much of the way from Mombasa to Kampala. This story is recounted in Chapter 17, “By Bicycle to Uganda.” Though he was in peril of wild beasts for much of the journey, he arrived in Kampala only 74 days after London, five weeks before his colleagues, who had left a full two months before him. He thus cut the usual travel time in half. Cycling was rather a new trend in the 1890s, and Pilkington had to deal with many vexing issues about improving his “kit” for overland travel where there were no roads—and it showed there was ample room for improvement in getting missionaries to and from the field.

Pilkington wrote in his letters about seeking self-sufficiency on the mission field.

My beans are growing splendidly. I have two little broods of fowls (four and six respectively), one hen sitting, and another laying; six goats, nine sheep, a ram, three lambs, a bull, fourteen cows and eight calves. . . . The produce of my flocks and herds supports me. Leopards are my bugbears. The rennet powder works beautifully; milk in various forms is my chief food; the other men despise skim milk—I think it the thing for this country.

George Pilkington, Letter dated September 3rd, 1892, qtd. in Harford, Pilkington of Uganda, ch. 10

Pilkington also wrote often of the evangelization of Africa. He believed that, given the time and resources, Uganda would send missionaries to many other countries in subsaharan Africa. He also keenly followed advances in missionary work in the Middle East, and longed to see Muslims turn to Christ both in Africa and Asia. Chapter 15 of Harford’s book, “The Church in Uganda: A Retrospect”, shows to what degree Pilkington’s dream was realized.

Pilkington was at the cutting edge in Bible translation and missiology, and there is more detailed missiology in his letters than I can fit in the space of this already-long book review.

The evangelisation of Africa must be carried out by Africans, and it will be accomplished when we have a hundred native evangelists to every European missionary.

George Pilkington, Address at the Conference of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union at Liverpool, in 1896; qtd. in Harford, Pilkington of Uganda, ch. 13

Conflict and Death

Not long after he finished his furlough and returned to Uganda, Pilkington was killed defending Uganda from a mutiny. In the 1890s, the British kept a number of Sudanese soldiers as security forces for Uganda. These mutinied twice while Pilkington was there, the second proving very dangerous for all the Europeans around Uganda. Pilkington acted as a translator for British officers trying to recover peace.

The sectarian conflict in Uganda had a unique flavor: Catholics were called Wa Ferenza (French) and Protestants were called Wa Ingreza (English). Uganda also had many Muslims, some of whom in this case turned to join the Sudanese mutiny.

Pilkington saw several Ugandans killed because of the conflict, which was really between Sudanese and the British. Pilkington told Henry Duta that he felt it was not right that so little British blood had been spilt; it proved prophetic, as he was shot while seeking to put down the mutiny. He was buried in Mengo, in a place called “Church Hill”. He was given military honors, and his colleagues Baskerville, and Henry Duta, the translator, conducted his funeral.

Conclusion

This book is filled with food for thought for missionaries and those interested in the mission field. Missionary biographies from this time period usually give plenty of air time to consecration and sacrifice, but do not talk enough about what doing missions was actually like; Harford’s book is thoroughly practical and grounded by letters by and about its subject. For this reason, this book is a definite standout among the missionary biographies I have read recently, and I recommend it heartily.