The Semliki Crossing

As well as a fascinating family history this book is a MUST for all serious students of the growth of the Anglican Church in Africa. It is largely comprised of the writings of Reg Palin and Dorothy Clayton who, as single young professionals in the mid 1930’s, went to live and work amongst the African peoples on opposite sides of the Rift Valley, she in Uganda and he beyond the Semliki in the Belgian Congo. His task was to consolidate the work of the celebrated Muganda missionary, Apolo Kivebulaya. Her task included the supervision of over 20 bush schools in Toro. Between their two stations lay a hard 3 day tramp with tent and porters, up and down the Rift Valley escarpments, across the mighty Semliki River by dug-out canoe and through the long grass of the Semliki Plain, sometimes dry and sometimes a waterlogged marshland - THE SEMLIKI CROSSING. Also included are some 1901 writings of Dorothy’s father, Rev. Herbert Clayton, the first CMS worker to take the Gospel into the Ugandan kingdom of Ankole.