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Marion Scott Stevenson (18 May 1871–1930) was a Scottish missionary with the Church of Scotland Mission in
British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was a British protectorate in the African Great Lakes, occupying roughly the same area as present-day Kenya, from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Cont ...
(
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
) from 1907 until 1929. Stevenson worked at first for the church's
Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: *Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya * Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cen ...
mission at Thogoto, then from 1912 for its mission at Tumutumu in
Karatina Karatina is a town in Nyeri County, Kenya which hosts a municipal council and serves as the headquarters of Mathira East subcounty. Karatina municipality had a total population of 6,852, all classified as urban in the 1999 census It has six elect ...
, set up by Rev. Henry Scott and Dr. John Arthur in 1908. She established and ran a girls' school, which became Tumutumu Girls' High School, taught sewing, knitting and hygiene, worked in the hospital, trained teachers, and helped to translate the Bible. According to theologian James Karanja, citing a Church of Scotland memorandum, in 1929 Stevenson coined the term "sexual mutilation of women" to describe what was then known as female circumcision, a practice of great importance to the Kikuyu people, Kenya's largest tribe. The Kenya Missionary Council followed suit and began referring to it that year as sexual mutilation, rather than as circumcision or initiation. The practice is now widely known as
female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. Prevalence of female ge ...
(FGM).


Early life

Stevenson was born in
Forfar Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town ...
, Scotland, to Agnes Barron and her husband, Robert Stevenson. Her older brother, William Barron Stevenson, became Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages at the
University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...
. She attended
John Watson's Institution The John Watson's Institution was a school established in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1762. The building was designed in the Greek Revival style in 1825 by architect William Burn, FRSE (1789–1870). Following the closure of the school in 1975, th ...
and the Ministers' Daughters College in Edinburgh. Unable to study at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
because she was a woman (they first admitted women in 1893), she went to lectures organized by the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women, then studied music and languages in Germany.McIntosh 1969, p. 245, n. 127.


Missionary work

In 1892 and 1906 Stevenson attended lectures by
David Clement Scott David Clement Ruffelle Scott (23 April 1853 – 18 October 1907) was a Scottish born polymath who became a Church of Scotland missionary in Africa. He was the supervisor in Blantyre until he was relieved in 1898. He then went to Kenya in 1901 wher ...
on missionary work in Africa; Scott was related to Stevenson's father's first wife. Stevenson subsequently applied, in 1907, for a job in Kikuyu with the Church of Scotland Mission where Scott was then based and he died in that year. In Kenya locals called Stevenson ''Nyaruta'', "the one with much saliva who speaks a great deal".McIntosh 1969, p. 243, n. 125. She was also known as ''Nyamacaki'' or ''Namachecki'', which her biographer, I. G. Scott, interpreted as "one who possesses many cheques" or "the one who lost a cheque-book" in the
Kikuyu language Kikuyu or Gikuyu ( ) (also known as Gĩgĩkũyũ) is a Bantu language spoken by the Gĩkũyũ (''Agĩkũyũ'') of Kenya. Kikuyu is mainly spoken in the area between Nyeri, Kiambu, Nairobi and Nakuru. The Kikuyu people usually identify th ...
. Stevenson acquired the name, Scott wrote in 1932, when her chequebook was stolen and she refused to give evidence against the suspected thief, who had worked in her home. According to Scott: ''Namachecki'' can also mean "the thin animal" or "the thin one". According to the historian Derek R. Peterson, this reflected local suspicion about Stevenson's diet; rumour had it that she and the other missionaries ate human flesh and used human skulls as drinking cups. Stevenson was thought to have eaten Chief Kariuki, who died in Tumutumu Hospital in 1915., citing Scott, I. G. (written as Mrs. Henry E. Scott) (1932). ''A Saint in Kenya: A Life of Marion Scott Stevenson''. London: Hodder & Stoughton, p. 125. Stevenson taught Raheli Warigia, the mother of Gakaara wa Wanjaũ, the Kikuyu writer. Warigia and other Tumutumu women formed an organization called the "Shield of Young Girls" to protect girls from FGM. The group wrote: "People are being caught like sheep. One should be allowed to follow her own way of either agreeing to be circumcised or not without being dictated on one's own body." Stevenson died in Glasgow in 1930.''Missionary Review of the World: 1878–1939'', Volume 53, Princeton: Princeton Press, 1930, p. 562.


See also

*
Hulda Stumpf Hulda Jane Stumpf (10 January 1867 – 3 January 1930) was an American Christian missionary who was murdered in her home near the Africa Inland Mission station in Kijabe, Kenya Colony, Kenya, where she worked as a secretary and administrator. Stu ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Marion Scott 1871 births 1930 deaths Presbyterian missionaries in Kenya Activists against female genital mutilation Scottish Presbyterian missionaries People educated at John Watson's Institution Female Christian missionaries British health activists