The White Queen of Okoyong: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and FaithLivingstone, W. P. (William Pringle)
Religion
The White Queen of Okoyong: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Faith
Livingstone, W. P. (William Pringle)
Missionaries -- Nigeria -- Biography; Slessor, Mary Mitchell, 1848-1915; Women missionaries -- Biography
Even she, however, gave in at last. She became so ill that she was taken
to Duke Town a wreck and carried on board the steamer and sent home.
Janie again went with her, a woolly-headed lassie with velvet skin, and
eyes that were always ready to laugh. She was beginning now to think
that it would be a fine thing to be a white girl. One night, in a house
in Glasgow when she was being bathed, she took the sponge and began to
scrub the soles of her feet, which were whiter than the rest of her
body. "Why are you doing that, Janie?" she was asked. "Oh, because the
white place is getting bigger, and if I scrub perhaps I'll be all white
some day!"
At this time Ma was dreaming another of her dreams. She wanted to see a
place in Calabar where black boys could learn to use their hands as
well as their heads, and so be able to become good workmen and teachers,
and help to build up their country and make it rich and prosperous. She
wrote a long letter to the Church magazine telling about her idea, and
it was thought to be so good that the Church did what she asked it to
do, and started a school which has grown into the great Hope-Waddell
Training Institution, where boys are being taught all sorts of things.
Made strong by the home air and the love of new and kind friends, Ma
fared forth again to her lonely outpost in the African backwoods.
The people of Ekenge were glad to see their white mother back, and
confessed that they did not seem able to do without her. They came to
her like children with all their troubles and sorrows, and she listened
to their stories and advised and comforted them. When they quarrelled
they said, "Let us go to Ma," and she heard both sides and told them who
was wrong and who was right, and they always went away content.
She needed no longer to go to any of the villages round about when a
chief died. She just sent a message that there must be no killing. There
was a great uproar, but back always came the reply, "We have heard. Our
mother has made up her mind. We will obey." They did not know that Ma
all the time was in her room kneeling and praying to God.
Some mourned over the old ways. "Ah, Ma," they sighed, "you have spoilt
all our good fashions. We used to take our people with us when we went
to the spirit land; now we must go alone."
But she had still to be on the alert, for many of the tribes at a
distance from Ekenge had not yet given up their dark practices, and
whenever they were bent on anything wicked they plunged deep into the
heart of the forest to escape her eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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