Voice on the Mountain

High above the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, a voice boomed over the frigid slopes of the Aberdare Mountains: "Come out of the forests, my children. You must stop this senseless war. Come out and I promise you good treatment." For ten days and nights the loudspeaker blared its message in Swahili, but its only answer was the rustle of the forest and the sounds of the beasts. Finally, the Rev. William Wellesley Devitt and his nine native companions picked up their gear and returned to Kijabe (Place of the Wind), where a cluster of grey stone buildings clings to a cliff 7,000 ft. above the valley.

There, in the heart of the Kikuyu country, is the African Inland Mission, nucleus of a vast parish supervised by U.S.-born Baptist Devitt. For 25 years 51-year-old William Devitt and his wife Edith have labored among the Kikuyu, traveling 25,000 miles each year through the Rift Valley to direct the mission's 80 schools for Kikuyu children. The natives affectionately call him "Bwana Jambo" (Mister Hello) because of his friendly greetings. When the Mau Mau revolt began in 1952, Devitt organized Kikuyu of his area to protect themselves. For his pains, he was put on the Mau Mau murder list.

Lately the Mau Mau terror there has been reduced by police drives and by surrenders induced by government promises of good treatment. But a diehard gang of natives still hides out in the mountain forests, and Missionary Devitt decided to appeal to them directly. With little thought for his own safety, Devitt gathered eight surrendered terrorists and a Kikuyu clerk and went up the mountain, unarmed, with his portable sound equipment.

When it was all over, Missionary Devitt was sure that he had failed. Then two terrorists ran into town and surrendered. With them they brought hopeful news: many others also wanted to surrender, but were being prevented by their leaders from coming down the mountain.

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