Women, religion and medicine in Johannesburg between the wars

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 19 August, 1982In explaining the growth of independent churches among the Shona since the 1930s, Daneel lays great stress on the attraction for ordinary members of the curative powers offered by the church. Many joined because they personally or close relatives were cured in faith healing sessions. Unlike churches of outside origin, the African churches took evil forces seriously and combated them in a way appealing to the patient's mind. Diagnostic sessions grappling with the spiritual causes of misfortune seemed to be the key to success. Daneel, like other modern commentators, takes a much more positive view of prophetic therapeutic treatment, seeing it as essentially Christian in character.(1

'Christian compounds for girls': church hostels for African women in Johannesburg, 1907-1970.

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August, 1977Compounds in the mining industry gave Rand and Kimberley capitalists a vital means of industrial and police control of their labour force, as well as enabling them “to provide amenities such as recreation and health supervision” (1), no less important for the smooth running of the mines. Local authorities adapted this idea, in open compounds for casual labourers and, as Davenport has noted, 'it was a short step from the municipal compound to the “native hostel”, which became a common feature of municipal locations in the larger centres under the stimulus of the Urban Areas Act of 1923.'(2) This paper examines three hostels for African women which were established in Johannesburg by missionaries of the Anglican and Methodist Churches, and the American Board Mission

Race, gender and imperialism: A century of black girls' education in South Africa

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August, 198

Home and Away:: Creating Female Religious space for 20th-Century Anglican missions in southern Africa

Daheim und auswärts. Das schaffen eines weiblichen religiösen Raumes für anglikanische missionen im südlichen Afrika im 20. Jahrhundert Missionarinnen verkörpern das Verhältnis Religion-Gender-Raum, denn sie verlassen den vertrauten Raum „zu Hause“ und bauen in der Fremde neue religiöse und kulturelle weibliche Räume auf, indem sie versuchen, ihr Glauben auf eine gender-spezifische Weise zu verbreiten. Der Aufsatz zeigt am Beispiel von fünf Anglikanerinnen aus Großbritannien, die zwischen 1907 und 1960 im Süd-Transvaal (Südafrika) bzw. in Mozambique missionarisch tätig waren, dass der sakrale Raum, der solchen Frauen zur Verfügung stand, sich in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts ausdehnte, ab Mitte des Jahrhunderts jedoch eher schrumpfte – teilweise wegen der Einführung von Apartheid, aber auch wegen des Strebens afrikanischer Frauen, sich von der Vormundschaft europäischer Missionarinnen zu befreien. Der Aufsatz zeigt eine raumbezogene Spannung zwischen einer hohen Wertschätzung der „Häuslichkeit“ und einer hohen Mobilität der Missionarinnen sowie der afrikanischen Christinnen, mit denen sie in Beziehung standen

Female Mission Initiatives: Black and White Women in Three Witwatersrand Churches, 1903-1939.

This thesis is a historical study of the religious initiatives taken by two groups of women - white missionaries and African Christians - in the Anglican, Methodist and American Board Mission Churches on the Witwatersrand, South Africa, before the Second World War. It begins by setting the women in context. The nineteenth century background of women and the church is considered first. Then the recruitment of the female missionaries who worked in Johannesburg is examined and the effects of their social origins and training are explored, In the broad characterisation of the African women of Johannesburg which follows, particular stress is laid on the three main spheres of employment open to them, namely domestic service, beer-brewing and laundry work. The second part of the thesis looks at the important prayer unions founded and run by black women, sometimes with missionary help. In all three missions, African women showed great enthusiasm for public prayer and revivalist preaching. Members were also anxious to preserve the premarital chastity of their daughters. Other common concerns were the wearing of uniforms, fund-raising and campaigning for total abstinence from liquor. The individual history of each church association is outlined first, then the emphases which united them are analysed and accounted for. The last part of the thesis concentrates on three particular areas where white female missionaries were active. They set up hostels for servants and provided housewifery training. Sunday schools and a Christian youth movement for girls were frequently under female supervision, Anglican women pioneered two 'settlement houses' in African townships. The class and racial tensions reflected in all three endeavours are highlighted. A brief epilogue sketches the fate of both types of female mission initiatives