THE LETTERS OF EMMA SARAH HAHN: PIONEER MISSIONARY AMONG THE HERERO BY DOROTHY GUEDES

THE LETTERS OF EMMA SARAH HAHN: PIONEER MISSIONARY AMONG THE HERERO BY DOROTHY GUEDES. HARDCOVER, 489 PAGES, FULLY INTACT FOLD-OUT MAPS, NO INSCRIPTIONS OR NAMES, IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.

In 1843, Emma Hone, a young English governess, was swept by evangelical enthusiasm into the African mission field. Waiting in Cape Town for a suitable posting, she met the charismatic Carl Hugo Hahn, a missionary of the Rhenish Mission Society, who was on the point of leaving for the interior of what is today Namibia to establish a station in that remote and inhospitable land. Devoted to one another and to their task, they lived there for thirty years facing isolation, danger and deprivation. With great fortitude, perseverance and hard labour both physical and spiritual, they achieved a significant missionary presence in the country, and sufficient recognition in Europe to merit the interest of a German Prince and a Russian Archduchess. This collection of letters to and by her loved ones has been edited by her great-granddaughter from family papers preserved almost miraculously over two continents and four generations. Emma's female relations were interested not only in the missionary work and exciting events of pioneer life, but also in the details of her day-to-day activities, her domestice chores, the upbringing of her children and her feelings towards the people around her. All these are described in a graphic and elegant account which makes the collection a valuable and fascinating document of woman's history. This record of the pioneer times of the Rhenish Mission Society's activities in Namibia is supplemented by numerous footnotes and contemporary photographs and prints, and biographical details are provided on every traceable person mentioned in the letters - Blurb.