A Thesis Conundrum

I now have two potential thesis topics and I'm struggling to know which direction to go.

Presbyterian Missions in Kenya
Dr. Eric Morier-Genoud has been one of the most helpful and enjoyable professors to work with here at Queen's. His work is in missions in Africa from a historical perspective. With my undergraduate background and interest in Africa, he would love for me to do something on the history of missions in Kenya. He also has great connections to friends and supervisors at Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of Basel in Switzerland.

If I go this route, I will likely focus on the correspondence available here of the Rev. and Mrs. E. Lockhart who lived in Kenya, but wrote prolifically to family and friends here in Ireland. Most of my research would be done at PRONI and the Presbyterian Historical Society, both of which are here in town.

Communism in Kenya: Peter Koinange, a Case Study
The other alternative, which has a more exciting edge to it, is to look into these 18 files that were released in 2007 by MI5 about Peter Koinange. There's been no work done on them so far, so any work mentioning Peter is in relation to his father (a key chief in Kenya) or in relation to Jomo Kenyatta. It has this "unexplored" excitement and edge to it that's appealing.

The challenge here is that the research would mostly have to be done in London at the National Archives in Kew. There's a possibility of getting funding from Queen's for it, but if not, it's on my dime and I'd likely need to spend up to 2 weeks there.

So, that's the conundrum...
Do I work with a professor who's young and excited to work with me on a topic that's interesting, but that I don't necessarily get super excited about? or do I pursue the topic that, at first at least, excites me - but I don't yet have faculty support behind? (although Dr. Morier-Genoud has been encouraging about this topic as well, it just doesn't connect with his work).

In trying to find an answer to this dilemma, I think I'm going to spend some time looking into both of them. I'll spend some time here in town looking at the Presbyterian missionary records and then I have three weeks off in January and I think I'll spend a few days to a week in London looking into those files. Hopefully that will give me enough of the flavor of what I would be working with to figure it out.