Mary Slessor – Eka kpukpru owo

“God and one are always a majority.” Mary Slessor

My idea of Heaven is that it is a place where, besides eternal fellowship with God, we will be able to talk to all of the wonderful people that we have read about.

One woman that I especially want to meet is Mary Slessor.
Mary was born near Aberdeen, Scotland on December 2, 1848 and she died on January 13, 1915 in Nigeria. Up to her last illness, she worked among her beloved people, rescuing the helpless.

Mary had that kind of courage that nothing can stop. Even as a child she faced many difficulties head on. One of the saddest of these difficulties was growing up in the home of an alcoholic father. Mary displayed the characteristic that is often associated with red hair and let her temper show. Mary stood up to her father when he would come home drunk. Her mother would send her out into the street to protect her from getting a beating. It made Mary angry that her father spent the money that should have gone to caring for his family. She would always have this righteous anger against those who would abuse or take advantage of the helpless. Her life would be spent seeking justice for the weak.

As a child, Mary had to work long, hard hours in a factory. She lived during the time when the Industrial Revolution was just getting started. Children often went to work quite young, earning only a pittance. She did not let this discourage her, and she attended school when she could, learning the three R’s as well as geography, sewing, knitting, and music. All of these skills would help her later on the mission field.

After her father died, Mary began to do mission work in her neighborhood. She led many children to Christ in the Bible studies that she set up. Because of her toughness and courage she was seen as quite a “tomboy”. This would help her when she was evangelizing among the boys in her town. One time a group of boys who were sick of listening to her surrounded her on her way to a religious meeting. They threatened to beat her with a lead weight. As they circled in closer and closer to her, she stood her ground. The leader took a swing at her and grazed her face, but she didn’t flinch. The amazed boy dropped the weight and said, “It’s OK, boys, she’s game!” The whole gang attended the meeting with her that night.

Mary would face down grown men and the mission board later in her life. Once she was sure that the Lord wanted her to protect someone, she thought nothing of putting even her own life on the line. Her faith was so strong that she believed that God would protect her as she moved ahead with the Gospel. Certainty of the Lord’s protection while she was doing His work led her to the very real belief that “God and one are always a majority.”

When she was young, she dreamed about going to Africa to spread the Gospel. She especially was attracted to a very dangerous place, Calabar, where so many missionaries died that it was known as “the white man’s grave”. Why did she want to go to such a difficult place when there was much work to be done in Scotland? There was never any doubt in her mind that she wanted to go where no one had heard the Gospel. In Scotland there were many churches. There were none in the wilds of West Africa.

In 1876, Mary finally got to sail to Nigeria. She worked among seasoned missionaries for a few years in Duke Town. While she was there she learned about the cruel practices of the Nigerian people who lived in the bush. Again and again she would risk her life to rescue, especially women, from the deadly Satanic rituals of the natives.

There were many horrors. One was the trial by ordeal that people used to determine the innocence or guilt of a person suspected of wrongdoing. This could involve drinking juice with poison, or having boiling oil poured over their body. Supposedly, if the person was innocent, he would not be harmed because their gods would protect him. Of course, pretty much everybody was guilty with this method and it angered Mary. Once she took the boiling oil and ran after the accuser to pour it on him thereby showing him his guilt. The tribal people were all impressed with Mary and her courageous ways. The wonder is that no one killed her out of jealousy or hatred. God surely protected her because He had a special purpose for her.

Another horror was the killing of twins. It was believed that if a woman had twins, one baby was the child of the father and the other was the child of the devil.  Since no one could determine which was which, both were buried alive or thrown into the woods to die. The mother was driven off into the woods to die also. Mary rescued many of these babies and their mothers. She adopted a few as her own children, and took care of many others until they could be given to someone else to be cared for. Of course, this was not foolproof. The superstitious Nigerians would later kill some of the women and children that Mary cared for.

Mary also rescued many wives from cruel deaths. There were several ways that women were killed. If their husband died, they could be suspected of witchcraft and put on trial. During this ordeal, a chicken would be killed and depending on which way the head flopped, the woman was found either innocent or guilty. If the chicken flopped the wrong way, the poor woman could be buried alive with her husband. Slaves were also often buried alive with their master’s when they died.

There were many other dangers for Mary. Drunkenness was a constant problem and she often had to fight her way out of serious situations. Time and again, her courage and resourcefulness saved her.

At this time in history, the British were moving into Africa. They brought civilized ways with them. It’s not my purpose in this essay to discuss the right or wrong of this, but certainly many thousands of lives were saved as the British soldiers and missionaries helped the Nigerians see the wrongness of their superstitious practices.

Mary herself was glad to get the help, but each time a station would be set up, she desired to move deeper into the wild areas. She considered herself to be the “feet” of the missionaries, doing all of the ground work and preparation for the church planting that would come later. When “civilization” moved in on her, she moved further away where she could work alone. There were two main reasons for this.

Mary liked to live as the natives did. She believed that trust needed to be built up before the missionaries could force their ways on the people. By living among the natives, eating, sleeping, and dressing as they did for over thirty years, she earned their trust.

Mary also had her own way of doing things. She did not like to live by a schedule. She needed to be ready to drop everything at a moment’s notice when she heard about a woman who was undergoing a trial so that she could go and rescue her. As time went on, her own adopted daughter was able to see to the many babies who were living with them that Mary rescued, so that Mary could go on foot to the village where the atrocity was taking place.

As the years went by, Mary studied medicine, including folk medicine, and was able to save the lives of important chiefs. This also added to the respect that was building up for her among the people. When the British set up some governmental structures, Mary was appointed the judge for her area. She often held court and her verdicts were not questioned. Though she developed much patience over time, she never lost her temper when someone was doing wrong. If a witness was lying, she would box his ears!

One of the wonderful things that Mary was able to accomplish in the Court was the reversal of the practice of the “twin killing”. She would tell the husbands to take back their wives and children or face trial for desertion or non-support. One British official later wrote of her, “The result is a sign of the civilizing influence worked through the Court by that admirable lady, Miss Slessor.”

Malaria and other fevers plagued her all of her life. She returned home to Scotland several times to recuperate. She was always anxious to get back to Nigeria. She suffered a lot, but did not let that keep her from her work, especially if there was a woman or a child to rescue.

Finally, in 1914, after thirty-eight years of loving and serving, totally worn out and suffering from a high fever, she was taken to a hospital that was run by the government. She allowed herself to be taken there because she was concerned about dying in the bush, since she was so highly regarded by the people. Some of the more superstitious natives might attempt to use her skull or other body parts as magic and she didn’t want that.

She struggled on with her poor health until the beginning of 1915, when she quietly died at the hospital in the early morning of January 13. She was buried in Calabar in a cemetery that overlooks the harbor.

During her funeral flags were lowered to half-mast and schools and offices were closed. The people thronged to pay their respects to Eka kpukpru owo, “Everybody’s mother.”
Thanks to her efforts, many of the evil tribal practices had been ended. Fifty years after her death, her name was still great among the people in the districts where she had labored.