The Abandoned Mother’

Ageing, Old Age and Missionaries in Early and Mid Nineteenth-Century South-East Africa

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8979460
AutoresAndreas Sagner (0000-0001-5698-8191, Institut für Urheber- und Medienrecht, autor de correspondencia)
Año2001
Volumen42
Número2
Páginas173-198
Fecha de publicación2001-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of African History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021853701007848
PMID18634189
OpenAlexW2162501475
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3

This essay examines issues of ageing and old age in Xhosa-speaking communities to c . 1860. Drawing primarily on records of the Wesleyan Methodist and London Missionary societies, the article examines the construction of Xhosa ageing, old age and death in missionary writings. The primary medium of missionary reflection was the figure of the ‘Abandoned Mother’, modelled on contemporary British metaphors, that represented yet another atrocity story for legitimating the mission enterprise and the emerging colonial regime. It also argues that there were fundamental contrasts in the images of ageing and dying between those of the Xhosa and those of the missionaries. Though older persons found certain themes in the Christian message attractive, they preferred the local cultural model of ageing, old age and death

Ageing · Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Linguistics · Sociology · Xhosa · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · History · Medicine · Philosophy · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · South African History and Culture