The COLOURFUL life and times of Charles Stokes
By D. Karanja, AjabuAfrica.com
New Bedford, MA
06/19/2008
dkaranja@ajabuafrica.com

As explained previously in this column, the mode of teaching history in official curriculums deprives the student of a lot of interesting material. Not only is some of this interesting from a strictly academic perspective, some is interesting from a human perspective. Indeed some of it is hilarious and some so scandalous, it would make a tabloid editor rub his hands in glee. One that falls in the last category is the story of a lay missionary called Charles Stokes.

He was a restless, dashing but easy-going Irish man who while holding down a dreary desk job in Liverpool in the mid 1870’s, read Henry Morton Stanley’s famous letters in The Daily Telegraph. Like many others readers, these imparted in him a desire to participate in the evangelization of Uganda. Arriving in East Africa as a lay staff member of the CMS, he was sent to Mpwapwa to serve amongst the Nyamwezi. While there, he began moonlighting as a trader.

When Ellen Sherrat, his English wife died after a brief marriage (1883-1884) and the birth of a daughter, he got involved with the daughter of a leading chief and later married her at Zanzibar in 1885. The two had several children and it is said that in part due to the influence of his new father in-law, he got along pretty well with black Africans.

Because his new wife was not a believer, the CMS dismissed him from service. However he took it all in stride and remained on such genuinely good terms with them that he continued serving as one of their main suppliers. (To the surprise of many upon his death, 75% of his ₤20,000 in savings went to the CMS in accordance to his will.).

After his dismissal, he turned to trading full time and in May 1889 during his first major trip to Uganda (his caravan was met by Frederick Jackson in September that year near Lake Naivasha), he allied himself with Mwanga (who at the time had his back to the wall and was losing in a civil war) and the French missionaries. In a later trip to Uganda, he brought a large number of guns and ammunition which Capt.

Lugard however managed to confiscate them by clever stratagem. He (Stokes) would later get a second wife from Uganda at the suggestion of Kabaka Mutesa and when asked about it would explain that he did not want to offend the Kabaka by turning down the offer. In any case, experience had taught him the need for always having a spare on-hand.

Meanwhile and because most of his activities were in German East Africa, he took service as a staff officer of the German colonial Government and in 1894 started with a caravan 1000 strong to found a government station in the N. W. region. While on this trip, he suggested to the British administrator in Uganda (Henry Colville) that he be allowed to take Wadelai, but he was firmly rebuffed and told off British territory.

From here he went towards the Congo Free State to meet with Emin Pasha's murderer; Hamdi bin Ali. As he rushed to meet him (Hamdi bin Ali had already been arrested by the Belgians for Emin’s murder), Stokes was captured by Henry Colville, and was found in possession of incriminating evidence tying him to not only the Congo rebellion (siding with chief Kibonge) but also to gun running and trespassing.

On January 14th 1895, he was put before a court martial at Lindi where he did not deny guilt but instead appealed for leniency. On the same day he was convicted and then hanged by Major Hubert Joseph Lothaire a Belgian officer, on January 15th 1895.

But that was not the last chapter in his colourful life. Because he was a British citizen based in German East Africa and arrested in the Congo, the manner of his death caused an international incident. In November 1895, his trial was said to be illegally constituted and unfair to Stokes because it denied him (Stokes) the right of appeal and had also gotten him executed by hanging instead of shooting. Major Lothaire was therefore tried for murder but was acquitted even though he was found to have exercised undue haste and precipitation in the trial and execution of Mr. Stokes.

Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events of the Year p.140
War in South Africa and the Dark Continent from Savagery to Civilization p. 166
An Irish History of Civilization
Gendered Missions: Women and Men in Missionary Discourse and