ABSTRACT
The Christian settlement of Rabai stood as one of nineteenth-century coastal Kenya's more striking anomalies. Rabai's development was the result of the administration of clergyman William Henry Jones, missionary in Rabai from 1882 and sole missionary-in-charge between 1884 and late 1888. Once under Jones's charge Rabai changed rapidly, as it had when Jones took over from Binns in 1878. Jones promoted himself as a protector of the Rabai by arbitrating internal disputes, entering their clans, and aiding in their defense against hostile outsiders. Jones further expanded the mission community by violating Church Missionary Society (CMS) policy and admitting runaway slaves from the Muslim coast. Jones built Rabai by protecting fugitive slaves when other missionaries and British officials would not. Harboring runaways violated the 1880 accord between the CMS, coastal slave owners, and the British consulate in Zanzibar.
