Raising Up the Degraded Daughters of Africa: The Provision of Education for Xhosa Women in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Author(s)
Erlank, Natasha
Abstract
Examines 19th-century South African mission education for women and the reasons behind its checkered application. In contrast to the active promotion of higher education for women by Scottish missionaries elsewhere in the world in the mid-1900’s, in South Africa the Scottish missionaries, under the direction of William Govan, believed only the most basic education was necessary to prepare women for the propagation of Christianity within the home. Independent-minded female teachers were prohibited from operating in the Scottish mission’s areas of influence, and the establishment of a Girls’ Department at Lovedale Institution was greatly delayed by the male missionaries’ resistance. Only with the replacement of the mission hierarchy did the necessity of training women for the proper promotion of Christianity and Western gender codes become evident.
