Mary Slessor

(Missionary, 1848-1915)

As Scottish missionaries go, David Livingstone had nothing on this babe.

Sure, she was no explorer and never even attempted to waste her time with such macho trivialities as mapping the upper Zambezi river, but when it came to bringing practical benefits to humanity and easing the suffering of the primitive tribespeople of West Africa, Mary Slessor far outstripped the achievements of her famous predecessor.

Born in Aberdeen, the daughter of a shoemaker, at the age of 10 her family moved to Dundee where she was eventually employed in the jute mills. She became a member of the United Presbyterian Church and in the early 1870's, inspired by Livingstone's adventures and no doubt bored out of her skull with her less than thrilling job, Mary applied to the Foreign Mission Board for work as a teacher in Calabar, West Africa.

She set out in 1876 and made an immediate impact. Her behaviour on arrival utterly scandalised the genteel missionary society she had entered and led to frequent conflict with the authorities. So shocking was her conduct, those of a nervous disposition should look away now.

Mary's catalogue of outrageousness included such madness as; mixing and socialising with the natives; walking inland to meet them in their own villages; cutting her hair short and, quite unforgivably, wearing light clothing, leaving off the usual corsets, shoes, hats and veils expected of a Christian woman in her position. For this flagrant display of wilfulness and disobedience she was posted far into the interior to the back of beyond where, with luck, the crazy woman would probably end up succumbing to malaria or being eaten by cannibals for her sins.

Not our Mary. She was made of sterner stuff. So much so, the cannibals never knew what hit them. Literally. Her strength of will and fearless nature were useful assets in such an alien and hostile environment, and never better demonstrated than the occasion on which she walked into a village just in time to witness a brutal ritualistic "gang" rape in progress. Infuriated, Mary launched wildly into the assailants with her umbrella, breaking heads and stabbing their bare flesh with its metal point. The gobsmacked "warriors" ran for their lives.

Mary saw the defence of women's and children's rights as one of her primary causes and she went on to save many thousands from enslavement or death. She persuaded the local people that the birth of twins was not, as they believed, a sign of coupling with devils but rather of male virility and a cause for celebration, not infanticide. (It took her a while to convince them of this, in which time she acquired a large adopted family of rescued twins.)

She ended the barbaric practices of slaughtering the wives and slaves of rich men who died and of throwing orphans into the graves of their parents. She also fought to end the "witch doctoring" practice of proprietary human sacrifice in times of sickness, and famously once ridiculed a powerful tribal elder in front of his entire village for locking up his young wives to prevent them running away. Nobody, but nobody, messed with Mary.

In later years, she was appointed vice-consul in Okoyong and presided over the native court where it was said that no woman ever lost a case under her.

She left a legacy of schools, hospitals and churches all over West Africa and died in 1915 having devoted her life to alleviating suffering and raising the local people from the mire of savagery.

Livingstone? He stumbled across some waterfalls and a lake.

No contest.