The contribution of missionary wives in the planting of the church in Botswana in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Abstract

This article highlights the contributions to mission work by the wives of the missionaries working in Botswana in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While these women made a substantial contribution to the planting of the church among the Batswana, their role and effort has not been adequately recognised and appreciated. The observation is made, however, that, like the missionaries, they failed to contextualise Christianity, presenting it from a Western point of view and expecting the Batswana to abandon their past in order to become Christians. Nevertheless, their example inspired Tswana women to participate in the public life of their communities.