From Maasai Land to Jesuit Centre

The land where Mwangaza Jesuit Spirituality Centre now stands was once part of Maasai land. In the late 1920s it became part of the 3,000-acre Bror and Karen Blixen coffee plantation. After the plantation failed, the two plots on which Mwangaza sits were transferred from Karen Blixen to Muriel Hickman in October 1939. On 15 December 1944, Mrs. Hickman transferred the land to Mrs. Phyllis Morton Talbot, who later sold the property to the Jesuits.

The birth of Mwangaza

The story begins with Fr. Alfred Fernandes, an Indian Jesuit of the Calcutta Province of the Society of Jesus. Answering a request from Maurice Cardinal Otunga, Archbishop of Nairobi, Fr. Fernandes set out to establish a retreat house. In April 1974 he bought a property at the outskirts of Nairobi, in a place called Nyahururu, and — while alone — began to receive a few retreatants.

In 1975, Fr. Tony Sequeira, an Indian Jesuit of the Goa-Pune Province, came to work with him. This first Jesuit retreat house in Eastern Africa was called Manresa. The house soon proved too small for the growing need for spiritual renewal. In September 1979 Fr. John Stack, a Jesuit of the New Orleans Province in the United States, joined them, and the three could now envision a larger project for the promotion of Ignatian spirituality.

Manresa becomes Mwangaza

Fr. John Stack, S.J., and the then Jesuit Superior of the Independent Region of Eastern Africa, Fr. Polycarp Toppo, S.J., bought a house built in 1938, together with a newer neighbouring house, from Mrs. Talbot and her daughter Mrs. Diana Denison. The property faced the Ngong Hills near Karen, a suburb of Nairobi — 38 acres of beautiful, quiet land.

And so, on 15 October 1978, Manresa became Mwangaza — a Swahili word meaning “light, knowledge, know-how”, three terms that together capture the idea of wisdom.

Today the property is covered with indigenous and fruit trees, shrubs and flowers, and a great variety of birds fill the air with their song. On the grounds the retreatant finds a Way of the Cross and a Labyrinth, and over two kilometres of pathways for walking, prayer and rest. This quiet, natural environment has for years proved a great help in creating a space for prayer and contemplation.