Mary Slessor

Missionary

• Born: December 2, 1848
• Birthplace: Aberdeen, Scotland
• Died: January 13, 1915
• Place of death: Nigeria

Significance: Scottish Christian missionary Mary Slessor aided the people of Nigeria for decades in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She initially traveled to the country to Christianize the Nigerian people, but in time came to understand their culture and traditions and devoted herself to helping them rather than converting them.

Background

Mary Slessor was born on December 2, 1848, in Aberdeen, Scotland. She was her parents' second child. She eventually had several brothers and sisters. In 1859 the Slessor family moved to Dundee, Scotland. Slessor's father, Robert, was an alcoholic who struggled to stay employed.

Slessor and her mother began working in a cotton mill to support their family, but the Slessors remained impoverished. Slessor's father and two brothers died while Slessor was young. Her work thereby became even more important for helping her mother and sisters to survive.

Religion became important to Slessor during her childhood. Her mother was a devout Presbyterian. She often read about famed Scottish Christian missionary David Livingstone, who worked in Africa. Slessor's mother instilled in her children a love of Christianity and missionary work. As a teenager, Slessor taught Sunday school and read the Bible, eventually concluding that she should devote her life to performing God's work.

Livingstone's death in 1873 inspired Slessor to carry on the missionary's work by Christianizing the people of Africa. The United Presbyterian Church in Scotland agreed to send Slessor to the city of Calabar in southern Nigeria to convert the people there. Slessor arrived in Nigeria in September of 1876.

Life's Work

Slessor's most basic duties at the mission compound in Calabar included distributing medicine to the Nigerian people and instructing them in Christianity. Slessor also developed many of her own ideas for working with the Nigerians. While her fellow missionaries retained their European clothing and habits, Slessor sought to live among the Nigerian people and truly learn about their culture.

Slessor's fellow missionaries learned to speak Efik, the major language in the Calabar region of Nigeria. Slessor learned Efik, too, but she also educated herself in Nigerian law, religion, and social customs. She ate local Nigerian food, partly as a cost-saving measure, since she sent most of her missionary earnings home to her family in Scotland.

Slessor outright rejected and worked to eradicate some local Nigerian traditions. For instance, some Nigerians in Calabar viewed newborn twins with suspicion. They believed the devil possessed one child in every set of twins. No one could tell which child was possessed, so both twins were either killed or left to die. Slessor saved many pairs of twins by finding them adoptive homes.

Slessor's uninhibited habits in the jungles began to tax her health after about three years. Slessor had refused to wear "proper" European clothing as she traveled through the Nigerian wilderness, and she never purified water before drinking it. In 1879 Slessor developed malaria, a mosquito-borne disease causing fever, chills, and fatigue. She was forced to return to Scotland to recover.

A little more than a year later, Slessor returned to Nigeria, this time requesting a mission area deeper in the jungles near Calabar. By this point, Slessor had committed herself to living almost entirely like the Nigerians around her. Tea was the only European comfort in which she still indulged. The Nigerian people accepted Slessor into their communities because of her lifestyle. The people received her medicine and learned about Christianity while commenting among themselves on how well Slessor spoke their language.

Slessor became ill again in 1883. She recovered in Scotland for the next two and a half years and returned to Nigeria in 1885. Slessor again became restless with her mission area and desired to travel deeper into the jungles to live among the Nigerian people. She requested that her superiors send her to Okoyong. Most European missionaries believed this village was impossible to Christianize because several missionaries had been killed there in the past.

Slessor's mother and last sister died in early 1886. With no family left in Scotland, Slessor became even more determined to introduce herself to the people of Okoyong and live among them for an extended period.

The missionary supervisors approved Slessor's request to go to Okoyong in 1886. However, the missionaries first had to consult with the village's chief on the conditions of Slessor's stay there. Talks lasted into 1888. Slessor herself finally traveled four miles through the jungles to speak with the Okoyong chief personally. The chief allowed Slessor to occupy a home in the region.

Ultimately, Slessor lived and worked in the Okoyong area for the next fifteen years. The chief's sister helped Slessor save abandoned twins and rescue women and slaves from harsh conditions. The people of the region came to love Slessor so much that they named her the "white queen of Okoyong."

In the early 1890s, British authorities in Nigeria named Slessor vice consul of Okoyong. This was essentially a judge position that permitted Slessor to hear cases in the village's court. Slessor left Okoyong in the early 1900s so she could missionize other nearby areas.

Slessor became ill with a fever in late 1914. The illness lasted into the following year. Slessor died in Nigeria on January 13, 1915, at age sixty-six.

Impact

In the years after her death, religious figures and historians remembered Slessor as a true missionary who broke the traditional rules of her position to help others. John Chalmers, an official of the Church of Scotland in the 2010s, praised Slessor for dismissing the rigid dress code and other behaviors expected of European missionaries. Chalmers said Slessor had truly helped people because she learned about them by living among them.

A curator at the art and history museum McManus Galleries in Dundee, Scotland, where some of Slessor's papers were stored, said Slessor had begun her missionary career wanting to Christianize the Nigerians. Over time, as Slessor learned more about the people, she simply wanted to help them rather than force beliefs on them. Many Nigerians in Calabar continued to respect Slessor's memory in the twenty-first century.

Personal Life

Slessor was briefly involved with another missionary named Charles Morrison in the early 1890s. The two became engaged, but Slessor gave up marrying Morrison when her missionary board would not allow him to accompany her on her missions. Over her many years in Nigeria, Slessor adopted and raised six local girls and two boys.

Bibliography

"About Mary." Mary Slessor Foundation, maryslessor.org/mary-slessor/. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.

"Africa." Church of Scotland, www.churchofscotland.org.uk/serve/world‗mission/our-partner-churches/africa. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.

"Biography Brief: Mary Slessor." Awana International,missions.awana.org/site/DocServer/Mod1‗AAC‗tlkit‗maryslessorbio.pdf. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.

"David Livingstone (1813-1873)." BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic‗figures/livingstone‗david.shtml. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.

Hardage, Jeanette. Mary Slessor – Everybody's Mother: The Era and Impact of a Victorian Missionary. The Lutterworth Press, 2010.

Hardage, Jeanette. "Slessor, Mary." Dictionary of African Christian Biography,2 Jan. 2015, www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/slessor‗mary.html. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.

"A Heroine for Scotland." Church of Scotland,19 Apr. 2017, www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news‗and‗events/news/recent/presbyterian‗missionary‗to‗be‗celebrated‗in‗hall‗in‗heroes. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.

"'The Queen of Okoyong': The Legacy of Mary Slessor." BBC,2 Jan. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-30577100. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.