Domesticity: The Basis for Missionary Education of Batswana Women to the End of the 19th Century

Mafela, Lily

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Title:	Domesticity: The Basis for Missionary Education of Batswana Women to the End of the 19th Century
Author:	Mafela, Lily
Year:	1994
Periodical:	Botswana Notes and Records (ISSN 0525-5090)
Volume:	26
Pages:	87-93
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Botswana Southern Africa
Subjects:	Tswana adult education Christian education women women's education Education and Oral Traditions Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues History and Exploration Cultural Roles Education and Training Historical/Biographical Sex Roles education history Education of women Domestic education Missionaries
External links:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/40959184 http://search.proquest.com/pao/docview/1291905911
Abstract:	This paper examines missionary education of Tswana women in Botswana during the 19th century. The informal training of Tswana women in housework came to constitute a crucial part of the role of both missionaries' wives and female missionaries' in the main mission stations and their outstations. It aimed at moulding Tswana women into home-makers in general, and 'good Christian wives and mothers' in particular. In its practical application, this aim entailed equipping Tswana women with the skills needed for running and maintaining moral Christian households. The women were particularly taught the proper use of European housewares, the preparation of European-style foods, the sewing of European clothing, and general European housekeeping procedures. Sewing, knitting and cookery were generally propounded as the main components of women's education, in both formal and informal settings. In this way, formal and informal forms of education worked in a complementary manner to institutionalize the notion of 'Western' domesticity amongst the Tswana. Ironically, although missionary views were otherwise firmly set against the 'oppression' of Tswana women, the missionary notion of women's work tended to be even more domesticating than that of the Tswana in precolonial times. Ref., sum.

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