Afrikaner grandmother's Huguenot heritage

Abstract

Anna Susanna le Roux was born in Worcester, Cape Province in 1879, the descendant of Huguenot forbears, and died in Cape Town in 1963. As an Afrikaner woman, she cherished her Reformed roots and education at the Huguenot Seminary for Girls established by the Murrays in 1874. Her story exemplifies the more typical features of piety in Afrikaner women, but transcends these in her legacy unburdened by bitterness after the murder of her husband in 1922, and her quiet creation of free and fearless space for the celebration of her faith centred in Christ. She dignified menial tasks and opened the door for her children (all women) to embrace lives of wholeness and public service. The story is told by one of her grandchildren in conversation with other descendants and critiqued for its church historical significance. She was a marginal Afrikaner woman who did not let life marginalise her.