A VERY REMARKABLE WOMAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3183, 17 March 1915, Page 71

A VERY REMARKABLE WOMAN.

HOW SHE WON EXTRAORDINARY INFLUENCE OVER THE CHIEFS IN CALABAR. Far away in Nigeria there has just ended (on January 13) one of those heroic lives which shew the high possibilities of human life. Its bravery and heroism equalled anything on the battlefield, and excelled it in its patience and long-sus-tained self-sacrifice. “Miss Marv M. Slessor, news of whose death at Use, Nigeria, has just reached this country, went to West Africa in 1876 as a missionary of the United Presbyterian Church,” says the Scotsman. “After years of faithful service at the base stations in Calibar, she began the heroic pioneer work with which her name is associated by opening in 1888 a station at Okoyon, up the Calabar River. With dauntless courage, she set herself single-handed to the hard task of putting down the cruel and barbarous superstitions and customs that were everywhere rampant, acquiring by her wise administration and. intrepid spirit an extraordinary influence over even the most bloodthirsty of the natives. As the chiefs got to know her goodness and helpfulness, they began to look to her as an authority, and gradually the condition of things improved. —“lf Our Mother Will Stay.”— “This is shown by an incident which took place after one of the tribal wars. A palaver was being held by the District Commissioner, at which Miss Slessor was acting as interpreter. The conditions sought to be enforced did not please the chiefs, and they retired to confer as to their action. On their return they addressed Miss Slessor thus : “If our mother will stay with her children till they can stand alone, they will try to do what the white man wants.’ “This Miss Slessor did, but her desire ever was to press further and further into the darkness, and as the years went on she was able to continue her beneficent work far up the Enyon Creek by opening stations at Ikotobon, Use, Ikpe, and Odoro. With her intimate knowledge of the Calabar language and dialects, and by her shrewdness and adaptability in understanding the native character, she virtually became the dispenser of justice over a wide area, being recognised as the president of the native court by the British authorities.” —“She’s Game, Boys.”— “Miss Mary Mitchell Slessor hails from the East Country,” says the Record; of the United Free Church. “Her years, till she went to Calabar, were spent north of the Tay, mostly in Dundee and its neighbourhood. Even then she showed qualities which, developed under the stress of circumstances in Calabar, have made her such a force for righteousness. Who that has heard her tell how she tackled the gang of roughs that had determined to spoil the services in the Mission Hall in Dundee has not been thrilled? There she stood in the wynd, encircled by the gang, undergoing the ordeal of a leaden weightswung nearer and nearer her head. She never winced, never faltered. At last the leader was satisfied. ‘She’s game, boys,’ he cried, and they, who had resolved to scoff, kept to the bargain they had made with her, and went to the service. ' —A Great Tree-climber!— “In 1876 she was appointed to Calabar, and was at first stationed in Duke Town. She was full of life and fun, and ‘Daddy’ Anderson, as the late Rev. William Anderson was called by everyone, must often have shaken his head over the mission agent, w'ho boasted afterwards that she had climbed every tree between the Mission Hill and Old Town, where she taught school. “Meanwhile she was laying the foundations of that mastery of the Efik language and of native law and custom which I have heard competent judges declare to be unequalled by that possessed by any other European. After she went to live at Old Town she lived very close to the natives. She entered into their thought, learned their family relationships (which in a polygamous country, where ties are loosely held to, are exceedingly intricate), became acquainted with the cross currents of native opinion, and acquired that patience and decision which are essential to anyone who would influence them. Under trying circumstances she displayed that determination, courage, and tact which have made her such a power for good amongst the people. —Where Life Was Cheap.— “These were the old fighting days, when every village had a feud with its neighbours, and life was cheap. A man did not dare to go alone along,the paths through the bush. Even wdien going for water to the springs the women took their lives in their hands. Besides the spirits that were supposed to dwell in the bush and molest people, any tree might have behind it a foe of flesh and blood. Sometimes this intermittent murder was fanned into a Avar, and village went out to attack village. At these times Miss Slessor knew not danger. On more than one occasion she has heroically gone into the zone of fire, and stayed there till the combatants went home, for they would not fire lest she whom they respected so much should be hurt. Then when they had separated, she negotiated terms of peace. By her tact and persuasiveness, by her unfailing sympathy and insight and good humour, she has frequentlv been a successful mediator, and for her sake towns that hated each other havsunk their differences. “With that fearless unselfishness which has characterised all her life, she went in 1887 up to Ekenga amongst the wild, and, at that time, cannibal tribe of the Okoyong, ft sept of the Ododop people that had migrated from the north-east to the country between the Calabar and the Cross Rivers. . . . On the river, when a

hippopotamus attacked the canoe in which

she was travelling, she covered the children’s heads with her dress that they might not see the danger, and spurred the men on to paddle harder, knowing that their courage depended o" them seeing her calm. One can easily believe her when she says she was afraid that time; but what is courage but faith conquering fear ? “When the Okoyongs continued their wanderings to Akpap, Miss Slessor went with them. She was the first, and for many years the sole, European who resided amongst them, and her influence over 1 them was extraordinary. She found all the horrors of witchcraft, the poison bean ordeal, and twin murder rife amongst them. Shortly after her arrival, the chief’s son was killed h} -1 the fall of a tree, and his father inquired of the witch-doctor who had been the came of his son’s death. Twelve persons were accused of it, and thev were put in chains that they might undergo the poison bean ordeal. Miss Slessor never rested till they -were all released, and through her exertions the chief’s son was buried without the sacrifice of a'single human life. —ln Charge of a Native Court.— “Brawls were of frequent occurrence, and in them Miss Slessor by her courage saved many a life. On one occasion when a man had run amok with a drawn sword, she tripped him from behind and’ got the sword from his grasp. When Native Courts were started in Southern Nigeria, she. was asked by Sir Ralph Moor, the High Commissioner, to take charge of the one in her district. Later, and till recently, she held a similar nosition in connection with the Native Court at Ikotobong, in the Ikotekpene district. In this way her work as a missionary was linked up with the systematic pacification of the country which the Government had entered after she began her labours. It is noteworthy that no punitive expeditions have been required in the country over which she ruled as uncrowned queen. —An Uncrowned Queen.— “Her self-forgetful labours have won for Miss Slessor a great influence over the people—an" influence which extends over an area of more than 2000 square miles. So great is her personality that to her house at Okoyong there resort natives from Ugep and even from the country north of the Cross River, from the north-west from Arochuke, west from Uyo, east from Oban, seeking her help and advice. Her fame has reached even to Northern Nigeria, where the natives know of the ‘good white Ma who lives alone.’ ”