The Missionary Witness to Africa: Mary Slessor (White Queen of Oboyong)

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.(Matthew 29:19-20)

The 19^th century belonged to Great Britain.  Britannia ruled the waves.  The British Empire spanned the globe from India to Nigeria to Australia to the West Indies to Canada. At its height it held sway over 20% of the world’s population and 35% of its land mass.  Commerce was the main impetus that led to the British upper middle class leaving that their green island and travel to perilous climes and places.  But a second, equally powerful force, was the commitment among British Christians to spread the gospel around the world, whatever the cost.

The 19^th century missionary wave probably can be dated from the publishing of William Carey’s Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathens, which was called a landmark in Christian history, “the first and still the greatest missionary treatise in the English language”.  According to Viera Pawliková -Vilhanová, “Shortly after the publication of his pamphlet, Carey preached his famous sermon with its two heads, “Expect great things… Attempt great things”. Less than five months later, on 2 October 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, followed in quick succession by the interdenominational London Missionary Society established in 1795, the evangelical Church Missionary Society created in 1799, the Religious Tract Society and many others. The British and Foreign Bible Society founded in 1804 had the special task of promoting the translation and printing of the Holy Bible.

Who were these missionaries?  Some, such as David Livingstone, are well-known; others much less so. Take for instance, Mary Slessor.  She was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, December 2, 1848, and became known as the White Queen of Calabar, in the Southeast corner of Nigeria. The Slessors lived in the slums of Dundee. Mary’s father and both brothers died of pneumonia, leaving behind only Mary, her mother, and two sisters. By age fourteen, Mary had become a skilled jute worker, working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with just an hour for breakfast and lunch. She was active in a local Presbyterian church and got caught up in the missionary zeal surrounding David Livingstone’s death. In 1876 she sailed for West Africa.

Once in Nigeria, Slessor learned Efik, the local language, then began teaching. Because of her understanding of the native language and her bold personality, Slessor gained the trust and acceptance of the locals and was able to spread Christianity while promoting women’s rights and protecting native children. Slessor was first given a position in the native court in 1892, and in 1905 became vice-president of Ikot Obong native court. Described rather amusingly by D. J. Birkett as a “natural meddler with an iron will,” she found the role useful, and used it with great success to ensure that women were treated fairly. She is most famous for having stopped the common practice of infanticide of twins among the Ibibio people, an ethnic group in southeastern Nigeria.  She saved hundreds of twins out of the bush, where they had been left either to starve to death or be eaten by animals. She helped heal the sick and stopped the practice of determining guilt by making the suspects drink poison.

In 1908 she published first-hand account of God’s comforting her following the death of an African child. 

As I went from village to village the memory of this scene coloured all my outlook. It led me to take as my subject Revelation xxi, 4: no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death; God wiping the tears from all eyes. But even that great assurance could not lift the sadness, the terrible squalor, the utter hopelessness of these crowds of sister-hearts.

Then there came comfort. It was as if He said, “I do not wish you to be ignorant of what I am working out in all the mystery of sin and suffering. It is not My fault that you do not know; it is your own capacity that is wanting, but that too is coming. You do not need to wait for heaven, it is coming daily as your horizon widens, and day by day you will know better and more.”

Though stricken with fever, diarrhea, and other diseases scores of times, she toiled on in Calabar for nearly forty years.  Repeatedly she moved deeper into the interior to take redemption’s story to new tribes and new areas. “Anywhere, provided it be forward” was an oft-repeated saying of hers. Her house was filled with orphans, upon whom she lavished the love of her motherly heart.

In early January 1915, while at her remote station near Use Ikot Oku, she suffered a particularly severe fever. Slessor died on 13 January 1915.  Her body was transported down the Cross River to Duke Town for the colonial equivalent of a state funeral. A Union Jack covered her coffin. Attendees included the provincial commissioner, along with other senior British officials in full uniform. Flags at government buildings were flown at half mast.

According to Eugene Morris Harrison “She is entitled to a place in the front ranks of the heroines of history, and if goodness be counted an essential element of true greatness, if eminence be reckoned by love and self-sacrifice, by years of endurance and suffering, by a life of sustained heroism and purest devotion, it will be found difficult, if not impossible, to name her equal.”