Joel Litu: Pioneer African Quaker (Pendle Hill Pamphlets Book 243)

The pages that follow are an attempt to record something of the life of Joel Litu, a pioneer Kenyan Quaker. Everything about Joel Litu was outstanding. When he walked his feet gripped the ground vigorously. When he spoke his voice rang out loud, unusually deep and very distinct. In his mother tongue, Luragoli, he was fluent and had a characteristically slow way of rolling his R's. . My main sources of information were interviews: I interviewed Litu's elder brother Masia, his sister Kahi, his wife Marita, his daughter-in-law Sarah Adede, and a good number of his other relatives, including his children and grandchildren. I also talked to other people who knew him, lived with him, and worked with him as far back as 1916. Further information came from letters which he wrote and letters which other people wrote about him, and from his speeches and sermons which were taped, especially during the later part of his life.