Archdeacon Shaw
Encyclopedia
Archdeacon Archibald Shaw (8 June 1879 – 1956) was a pioneer missionary amongst the Dinka people with the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in southern Sudan in the first half of the 20th century.
. His father was Walter Shaw, manufacturer of Machine Tools who was described as "a man of integrity" and a Christian. His mother was Julia Waterhouse of Billesley
Hall, Kings Heath
, Worcestershire
before her marriage. Archibald was one of five children - 2 sons and 3 daughters. Archibald Shaw was a proud Englishman whose conversion to Christ
led him to love and serve Africans.
, and Ridley Hall, Cambridge
, and ordained by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1903 serving his curacy at Walcot
, Bath. But it lasted only 2 years for he soon began his distinguished missionary career.
He was accepted for missionary service in the pioneer work of the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission of th Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) in 1904. C.M.S. was one of the societies invited by Lord Cromer, the British resident in Egypt, to begin work in the Southern region of the Sudan
.
(later to become Archdeacon, then Assistant Bishop to the Bishop in Jerusalem and finally Bishop of Egypt and the Sudan.) They were delayed some months in Khartoum
making preparations to sail southwards. A large boat was purchased and extensively refitted and enlarged. With two sails it could travel under its own power but was also towed on occasion by a river steamer. Gwynne led the party and Dr Albert Cook
came up from Uganda
to meet them on arrival at their Dinka
landing place.
The Endeavour, as the boat was named, sailed from Khartoum
in December 1905. They landed and set up their first camp at the small village of Malual, on the East Bank of the Nile. It lies about 6 miles south of the government post, Bor
and 4 miles north of Malek. It was some time before the confidence of the local Dinka folk was won and progress was slow. Archibald Shaw was the only one of the pioneer party of six to return from leave and carry on. He too might have given up had he agreed to leave his post when very ill with malaria
and pressed by the Governor General to do so when he called with his steamer at Malek. But Shaw believed that if he had done so that would have been either the end or at least considerable delay in getting the work established. Shaw continued to make the East Bank Bor Dinka his speciality throughout his mission. To Malual and Malek was added an outstation at Gwalla about ten miles inland from Malek.
. This occupied more and more of his time in the last years of his active missionary service and was continued with considerable success after his retirement despite the obvious difficulties caused by being away from Sudan. At great personal expense he took Dinkas about with him and almost always there were one or more with him in Kenya and indeed on occasion in England.
He recognised the obligation of translators to make a real contribution to vernacular secular literature also and his work in this field included a Reading Primer, a hygiene book, a manuscript issued by the Ministry of Education entitled "Travel by Land", which reached 14 pages with pictures, and was circulated by the Department for use in schools.
From early days Shaw set himself to produce, and from time to time increase, and improve, the Dinka Prayer Book
. In this way he did his best to provide a framework for worthy worship in the liturgical services. First there were two books - one containing prayers and services, the other a hymn book. At first he insisted on confining hymn tunes to the pentatonic scale. He recognised on the one hand that educated Dinka boys soon found that they could manage the semi-tones to complete the Octave as in Western music, and on the other hand that natural Dinka singing embraced a scale beyond both. But Western tunes had to be pentatonic - either originally or by adaptation. So when the Dinka Prayer and Hymn Book in Bor dialect was published in 1930 it revealed a long step forward in Dinka worship which was both liturgically sound and accurately "Dinka".
, Bari
and Moru
tribes. In 1922 Shaw was made Archdeacon
, and this was his identity as he was from then on always known as Archdeacon Shaw. He remained archdeacon until her retired in 1940.
Archdeacon Shaw never married, but he brought up many Dinka boys as if his own sons. He retired in 1940 and went to live just outside Nairobi
in Kenya
. He died in 1956 and was buried in Langata
Cemetery outside Nairobi.
Joe Aruor, the first baptised Christian at Malek, said about Shaw after he retired:
“years ago, before the white men came, when the Dinka wished to send an important message, they chose the strongest and bravest warriors to go. And when you first brought the message of the gospel to us you sent your strongest and bravest warriors like Archdeacon Shaw and Bishop Gwynne.”
An Englishman by origin
Archibald Shaw was born on 8 June 1879 in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. His father was Walter Shaw, manufacturer of Machine Tools who was described as "a man of integrity" and a Christian. His mother was Julia Waterhouse of Billesley
Billesley
Billesley may refer to:*Billesley, West Midlands, a district of Birmingham,*Billesley, Warwickshire, a village near Stratford-upon-Avon....
Hall, Kings Heath
Kings Heath
Kings Heath is a suburb of Birmingham, England, five miles south of the city centre. It is the next suburb south from Moseley on the Alcester Road.-History:...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
before her marriage. Archibald was one of five children - 2 sons and 3 daughters. Archibald Shaw was a proud Englishman whose conversion to Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
led him to love and serve Africans.
Education and calling
Shaw was educated at Bromagrove School, Emmanuel CollegeEmmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
, and Ridley Hall, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, and ordained by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1903 serving his curacy at Walcot
Walcot, Bath
Walcot is a suburb of the city of Bath, England. It lies to the north-north-east of the city centre, and is an electoral ward of the city.The parish church, on The Paragon is dedicated to St Swithin and was built in 1779-90 by John Palmer....
, Bath. But it lasted only 2 years for he soon began his distinguished missionary career.
He was accepted for missionary service in the pioneer work of the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission of th Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) in 1904. C.M.S. was one of the societies invited by Lord Cromer, the British resident in Egypt, to begin work in the Southern region of the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
.
The pioneer missionary
The pioneer party of six young missionaries were received by Llewellyn Henry GwynneLlewellyn Henry Gwynne
Llewellyn Henry Gwynne CMG CBE was the first Anglican Bishop of Egypt and Sudan.- Early life :Gwynne was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1863. While at the Swansea Grammar School, the headmaster encouraged him to follow the example of his beloved brother Charlie by working hard and pursuing his...
(later to become Archdeacon, then Assistant Bishop to the Bishop in Jerusalem and finally Bishop of Egypt and the Sudan.) They were delayed some months in Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
making preparations to sail southwards. A large boat was purchased and extensively refitted and enlarged. With two sails it could travel under its own power but was also towed on occasion by a river steamer. Gwynne led the party and Dr Albert Cook
Albert Ruskin Cook
Sir Albert Ruskin Cook, CMG, OBE, MD was a British born medical missionary in Uganda, and founder of Mulago Hospital and Mengo Hospital. Together with his wife, Katharine Cook , he established a maternity training school in Uganda....
came up from Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
to meet them on arrival at their Dinka
Dinka
The Dinka is an ethnic group inhabiting the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin, Jonglei and parts of southern Kordufan and Upper Nile regions. They are mainly agro-pastoral people, relying on cattle herding at riverside camps in the dry season and growing millet and other varieties of grains ...
landing place.
The Endeavour, as the boat was named, sailed from Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
in December 1905. They landed and set up their first camp at the small village of Malual, on the East Bank of the Nile. It lies about 6 miles south of the government post, Bor
Bor, Sudan
-Location:The town of Bor is located in Bor South County, Jonglei State, in central South Sudan, approximately , by road, north of Juba, the capital and largest city in that country. The town is located on the east bank of the White Nile...
and 4 miles north of Malek. It was some time before the confidence of the local Dinka folk was won and progress was slow. Archibald Shaw was the only one of the pioneer party of six to return from leave and carry on. He too might have given up had he agreed to leave his post when very ill with malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and pressed by the Governor General to do so when he called with his steamer at Malek. But Shaw believed that if he had done so that would have been either the end or at least considerable delay in getting the work established. Shaw continued to make the East Bank Bor Dinka his speciality throughout his mission. To Malual and Malek was added an outstation at Gwalla about ten miles inland from Malek.
’Macuor’ of the Dinka
Shaw was very dedicated to the Dinka people and learnt the language well. He was called Macuor by the Dinka, the name by which he is still remembered throughout Dinka land. The name Macuor was his Bull name, following the Dinka custom of naming young men by their favourite bulls. The prefix Ma- denotes an ox or bull and the word following usually derives from a natural object whose colour is similar to the particular bull. It is not a matter of character, only colour. The Archdeacon's bull was supposed to resemble a vulture's colouring and the choice of the name for the Arch. was nothing to do with Vulture characteristics!The translator
Shaw gave high priority to the translation and distribution of the BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. This occupied more and more of his time in the last years of his active missionary service and was continued with considerable success after his retirement despite the obvious difficulties caused by being away from Sudan. At great personal expense he took Dinkas about with him and almost always there were one or more with him in Kenya and indeed on occasion in England.
He recognised the obligation of translators to make a real contribution to vernacular secular literature also and his work in this field included a Reading Primer, a hygiene book, a manuscript issued by the Ministry of Education entitled "Travel by Land", which reached 14 pages with pictures, and was circulated by the Department for use in schools.
From early days Shaw set himself to produce, and from time to time increase, and improve, the Dinka Prayer Book
Christian worship
In Christianity, worship is adoration and contemplation of God.-Overview:Throughout most of Christianity's history, corporate Christian worship has been primarily liturgical, characterized by prayers and hymns, with texts rooted in, or closely related to, the Scripture, particularly the Psalter;...
. In this way he did his best to provide a framework for worthy worship in the liturgical services. First there were two books - one containing prayers and services, the other a hymn book. At first he insisted on confining hymn tunes to the pentatonic scale. He recognised on the one hand that educated Dinka boys soon found that they could manage the semi-tones to complete the Octave as in Western music, and on the other hand that natural Dinka singing embraced a scale beyond both. But Western tunes had to be pentatonic - either originally or by adaptation. So when the Dinka Prayer and Hymn Book in Bor dialect was published in 1930 it revealed a long step forward in Dinka worship which was both liturgically sound and accurately "Dinka".
Mission responsibilities
Shaw was Secretary of the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission from 1907 to 1936. He did much work to expand CMS work into other areas of southern Sudan. He pushed hard for CMS to open work amongst the ZandeAzande
The Azande are a tribe of north Central Africa. Their number is estimated by various sources at between 1 and 4 million....
, Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
and Moru
Moru
Moru is an ethnic group of South Sudan. Most of them live in Equatoria. They speak Moru, a Central Sudanic language. Many members of this ethnicity are Christians, most being members of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan . The Pioneer missionary in the area was Dr Kenneth Grant Fraser of the Church...
tribes. In 1922 Shaw was made Archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
, and this was his identity as he was from then on always known as Archdeacon Shaw. He remained archdeacon until her retired in 1940.
Archdeacon Shaw never married, but he brought up many Dinka boys as if his own sons. He retired in 1940 and went to live just outside Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. He died in 1956 and was buried in Langata
Langata
Lang'ata is a suburb of Nairobi in Kenya, lying south west of the city centre and east of Karen. The suburb consists of many smaller housing developments, referred to as estates. They include Nairobi Dam, Otiende, Southlands, Ngei, Jambo estate, Onyonka, Madaraka Estate and many others...
Cemetery outside Nairobi.
Joe Aruor, the first baptised Christian at Malek, said about Shaw after he retired:
“years ago, before the white men came, when the Dinka wished to send an important message, they chose the strongest and bravest warriors to go. And when you first brought the message of the gospel to us you sent your strongest and bravest warriors like Archdeacon Shaw and Bishop Gwynne.”