Missionary journey

by Michael Shackleton · October 19, 2008

EMPANDENI INTERLUDE 1899-1903, Journal of a Woman Missionary. Transcribed and edited by Sr Brigid Rose Tiernan. Cluster Publications, Pietermaritzburg. 2008. 178pp.

Reviewed by Michael Shackleton

The Sisters of Notre Dame traditionally kept a diary of daily events. This record, written by Sr Josephine Bullen over a period of four years, was not intended for public reading. Yet she wrote so well, profusely and descriptively, that she has given us a rare appreciation of the difficulties, the work and the spiritual joy of these brave women missionaries in a rather barren territory that was alien and even hostile to them.
Through�her narrative and many masterly illustrations, this�Liverpool-born young nun of 33 years takes us back in time to the busy life of a teaching missionary during the cross-over years from the 19th into the 20th century, revealing the successful pedagogics used and the�hardships and setbacks encountered.
The Notre Dame Sisters and the Jesuits in this area appear to have been good at making the Ndebele children literate, but struggled to hand on Christian beliefs in a way that non-Western minds could comprehend. They also had scant appreciation of the importance of ancestral land among the people, and, as the editor of the journal notes, the entire diary can provide a basis for a deeper understanding of Zimbabwe�s recent history.
It is an eye-witness account of a courageous woman’s experiences during four years that were influenced by rising anxieties about the Anglo-Boer war.�The simple yet firm faith she shared with her community is detectable in her notes, some of which are in pleasing detail while others are maddeningly skimpy.
Sr Brigid Rose Tiernan�s astute editorship�has enhanced this journal with some slight updating and lots of helpful footnotes. The result is an all-round enchanting and enriching read.