Mary Slessor 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Reports that those remote villages were unsafe were quite true. Male missionaries had been killed, but possibly a single woman would not be perceived as a threat. She learned the language and adopted many local customs and was allowed to live.

But she took a stand against other customs. Twins were considered the offspring of demons and  routinely abandoned to death. Women and slaves were killed at the death of the husband/owner so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife. 

In the spirit of imago dei, she saved hundreds of lives. Against the advice of her agency, she adopted nine of those children as her own. She grew in the community's respect even to the point of settling disputes. When the British empire wanted to set up a court system, she became the first female magistrate in the empire.

"Mary was known for her disdain towards murder, but she always transformed the village through the love of God, not through force like the British. Mary protected Nigerian tribes from the British force and imperialism, by transforming their culture rather than abolishing it."