James Butterworth

Mokili in Congo: a Biography of William Millman and the Yakusu Mission James Butterworth

Publisher Marketing: 'Love with the urge in it' For forty years William Millman, known in Congo as 'Mokili', served the people of the Yakusu area amid trials and joys, disease, sadness, bereavements, failures, adventures, achievements, fun, laughter, and lifelong friendships. Missionary, teacher, self-taught medical practitioner, administrator of a rapidly expanding Mission, project manager and builder of houses, schools and a vast New Church that still survives today, Mokili devoted his life to his faith and to the people of Congo he had come to love. Mokili's daughter, Litwasi, was born in the Congo but was brought home in 1912 at the age of three to live with foster parents in Rochdale. In 1937 she married James, known as Jim, Butterworth. Over the next twenty years Jim, a committed Christian and theologian, would develop a very deep respect for his wife's parents and a strong mutual friendship developed. After Mokili's death in 1956 Jim determined that Mokili's immense achievements should be recorded forever and he commenced the intense research of this biography. In 1957 Litwasi and Jim journeyed to Yakusu to visit Litwasi's birth place and the scene of her parents' life work. Here they met Lititiyo whom Mokili had first met carrying home a human leg to eat. This young chief's son had been converted by Mokili and had become a Christian pastor. As Mokili's friend and colleague for over thirty years, Lititiyo was well suited to sum up for Litwasi and Jim the essence of Mokili's service to the people of the Congo: 'Love with the urge in it' Contributor Bio:  Marshall, Jane Edith Rebecca Millman, was born Edith Rebecca Stevens in 1866. In 1893 she married a Baptist missionary Walter Stapleton. Walter was a Baptist missionary in the Congo, known to the Congolese as 'Mangwete'. Edith travelled to Congo with him in 1893 where she became known as Mama Mangwete. Missionaries at that time rarely lived long and Walter died in 1906. In 1908 Edith became remarried to another Congo missionary colleague, William 'Mokili' Millman and became known as Mama Mokili. Their daughter, Litwasi, was born in 1909. Edith was to spend forty four years as a Congo missionary and throughout these years she would write copious letters home for her friends and Baptist supporters and for her two daughters whom she heartrendingly had to leave with foster parents in England. These letters and notes were chronologically assembled by her husband, William 'Mokili' Millman. Jane Marshall is the daughter of Litwasi, the daughter born at Yakusu to Mokili and Mama Millman. Surrounded by the love of Africa from a child, Jane gained an Honours Degree in History with Special Reference to Africa from London University (QMC/SOAS) in 1967. This study instilled in her the need for Africa to retain, recapture and nurture its history - and that all first hand eye-witness documents were of special importance. Hence, when Jane discovered the fragmented typescript of her grandmother's experiences, she reassembled the fading typescript, laboriously typed it into an ancient 1970s computer, added appropriate original photos, and, over the years, transferred it to floppy disc, to CD, to print and recently to Kindle. 'Mama Edith: Letters from Congo' by Edith Millman and Jane Marshall was originally published by AuthorHouse in 2009 as 'Mama: Edith Rebecca Millman Tells in Her Own Words of Her Remarkable 1893 Journey into Congo's 'Heart of Darkness' - and How, as 'Mama', she Gives the rest of her life to the Attempt to Spread Christian Light.' Jane has now reformatted and republished her original 2009 version as 'Mama Edith: Letters from Congo' (published by Createspace). It is now Volume 1 of the 'Mission and Tradition in the Congo' Series which she has edited, formatted and published (All available in Kindle and paperback format).