Table Of Content_ CROSS- CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN | VOL. 1
School of Theology at Claremont
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Women and Missions: Past and Present
Anthropological and Historical Perceptions
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women
General Editors: Shirley Ardener and Jackie Waldren, for The Centre
for Cross-Cultural Research on Women, University of Oxford
Vol. 1: Persons and Powers of Women in Diverse Cultures
Edited by Shirley Ardener
Vol. 2: Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning
Edited by Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher
Vol. 3: The Anthropology of Breast-Feeding: Natural Law or Social Construct
Edited by Vanessa A. Maher
Vol. 4: Defining Females
Edited by Shirley Ardener
Vol. 5: Women and Space
Edited by Shirley Ardener
Vol. 6: Servants and Gentlewomen to the Golden Land: The Emigration
of Single Women to South Africa, 1820-1939
Cecillie Swaisland
Vol. 7: Migrant Women
Edited by Gina Buijs
Vol. 8: Carved Flesh/Carst Selves: Gendered Symbols and Social Practices
Edited by Vigdis Broch-Due, Ingrid Rudie and Tone Bleie
Vol. 9: Bilingual Women: Anthropological Approaches to Second
Language Use
Edited by Pauline Burton, Ketaki Kushari Dyson and Shirley Ardener
Vol. 10: Gender, Drink and Drugs
Edited by Maryon McDonald
Vol. 11: Women and Missions, Past and Present
Edited by Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood and Shirley Ardener
Vol. 12: Muslim Women’s Choices: Religious Belief and Social Realities
Edited by Camillia Fawzi El-Solh and Judy Mabro
Vol. 13: Women and Property, Women as Property
Edited by Renée Hirschon
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V3 CROSS-CUiL TURAL PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN | VOLUME 11
Women and Missions: Past
and Present
Anthropological and Historical Perceptions
EDITEDB Y
Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood
and Shirley Ardener
BERG
Providence/Oxford
First published in 1993 by
Berg Publishers
Editorial offices:
221 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02906, USA
150 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JJ, UK
© Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood, Shirley Ardener 1993
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without the written permission of Berg Publishers Limited.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Women and missions: past and present: anthropological and historical
perceptions / edited by Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood, and Shirley Ardener.
J. ca. -- (Cross-cultural perspectives on women)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-85496-738-9 (Cloth) 0-85496-872 5 (paper)
1. Women in missionary work. 2. Missions--Africa. Sub-Saharan.
I. Bowie, Fiona. II. Kirkwood, Deborah. III. Ardener, Shirley.
IV. Series.
BV2610. W618 1993 92-15997
269’ .2’082--dce20 CIP
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
®
ISBN 0 85496 738 9 (hb)
0 85496 872 5 (pb)
Photographs by courtesy of Studio Edmark, Oxford; Professor E. Kirkwood;
Langham School, Zimbabwe; Borneo Mission Association; and the Bodleian
Library, oa eo! Og Y Lj brary
“SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
AT CLAREMONT
California
Printed in the United States by Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, MI.
Contents
Acknowledgments Xi
Abbreviations xiii
List of photographic plates XV
List of Maps XV
Preface
Deborah Kirkwood and Shirley Ardener XV1i
1. Introduction: Reclaiming Women’s Presence
Fiona Bowie
Making Women Visible
A Liberating Gospel or a Colonial Conspiracy?
Women as Missionaries
The ‘Headship of Man’: Questions of Female Authority
Mission Impact on Women: Liberating or Enslaving?
Living in Two Worlds
Bibliography
PART I: WOMEN MISSIONARIES
2. Protestant Missionary Women: Wives and Spinsters
Deborah Kirkwood 2
Introduction 23
Wives 25
Christina Coillard: Missionary Wife and Partner 29
Spinsters 31
Marriage 38
A Personal View of Missionary Life 39
Conclusion 40
Bibliography 4]
vi Contents
‘The Missing Link’: The Recruitment of Women Mission-
aries in some English Evangelical Missionary Societies in
the Nineteenth Century
Peter Williams 43
Introduction 43
Hudson Taylor, the China Inland Mission and the
Holiness Milieu 45
The Established Missionary Societies 54
Background, Training and Motivation 57
The Relationship between Women Missionaries and the
Societies 64
Bibliography 67
Wanted - Earnest, Self-Sacrificing Women for Service in
South Africa: Nineteenth-Century Recruitment of Single
Women to Protestant Missions
Cecillie Swaisland 70
Introduction 70
The Ideology of the Lady 71
The Myth of Redundancy 72
Women’s Education and Employment 73
Missions in Southern Africa 74
Single Women in the Mission Field 74
The Expansion of the Anglican Church at the Cape 76
Colenso’s Sisterhood in Natal 76
The Sisterhood of St George, Cape Town 77
Bishop Webb and the Community of St Michael and All
Angels, Bloemfontein 78
Bishop Webb on the Role of Women 78
Sister Henrietta Stockdale 79
Mother Cecilie of the Community of the Resurrection,
Grahamstown 80
The Expansion of Women’s Work 80
Conclusion — The Problem of Recruitment 82
Who Went to the Mission Field? 82
Bibliography 83
Contents | Vii
5. ‘God and Nature Intended You for a Missionary’s Wife’:
Mary Hill, Jane Eyre and Other Missionary Women in
the 1840s
Valentine Cunningham 85
Victorian India Texts 85
Medicinal Living and Soldierly Dying 88
The ‘Prom. of Fem. Educ.’ 90
Marginal People 93
Fellow-Missionary? 96
Eastern Allusions 98
In Darkest England 100
The Last Word? 102
A Stranger’s Hand 103
Bibliography 105
PART II: MISSION IMPACT ON WOMEN
6. Were Women a Special Case?
Adrian Hastings 109
Introduction 109
Women Missionaries as Role Models 110
The Rights of Women 112
Female Converts to Mission Christianity 112
African Marriage Versus Mission Morality 115
Conversion and Commitment 119
Centrality and Marginality 121
Bibliography 124
7. From Heathen Kraal to Christian Home: Anglican
Mission Education and African Christian Girls,
1850-1900
Modupe Labode 126
Introduction 126
Mission Schools and African Girls 130
Domestic Service and Domestic Education 134
Dissent and Rebellion 136
Bibliography 142
vill Contents
The Elusive Christian Family: Missionary Attempts to
Define Women’s Roles. Case Studies from Cameroon
Fiona Bowie 145
Introduction 145
The Mill Hill Missionaries and the Christian family 147
‘Sister Mammy’ Settlements 148
The Authority of the Chief versus Mission Authority 151
Chief Fonwen and his Wives 152
Buma and his Wives 153
Traditional Custom and Church Teaching 154
Impotence and the Annulment of Christian Marriages 157
Disappointment or Indigenisation? isg
Conclusion 162
Bibliography 163
Mission Impact on Women in Colonial Kenya
Tabitha Kanogo 165
Introduction 165
Early Mission Encounters 167
Genesis of Mission Girls 168
A Look Through the Window 169
The Female Circumcision Controversy 170
Marriage 174
Self-reliance 178
Early Mission Training 180
Conclusion 184
Bibliography 185
10. Mary Ann Cooke to Mother Teresa: Christian Missionary
Women and the Indian Response
Aparna Basu 187
Introduction 187
Social Reformers and Missionaries 187
Missionaries’ Views on Indian Women 189
The State of Women’s Education in the Early Nineteenth
Century 189
The Coming of Christian Missionaries 191
Day Primary Schools 192
College Education 195
Orphanages and Boarding Schools 197
The Zenana System 199
