News

The written history of European missionaries in Africa, their lives and work has been silent on the women who were teachers, doctors, nurses, administrators and ‘just’ missionary wives. This cloak of invisibility is being lifted by this new book.  Written by Isobel Reid and published by Mzuni Press, this book builds on Margaret Sinclair’s ‘Salt and Light‘ which was the story of Margaret’s parents, Mamie and Jack Martin, as they travelled from Loch Lomond to Malawi in 1921. They worked there as missionaries and Mamie Martin made a huge contribution to the cause of the education of girls to be equal to that of boys. Mamie’s grandson offers a family perspective on the book:

“When Isobel was writing her dissertation some years ago Margaret had aided and abetted her so the publication of Myth and Reality of the Missionary Family would have pleased Mum greatly. I think she would be delighted that what Isabel has done with Jack and Mamie Martin’s letters is to pass the massive amount of information in the letters through an objective academically rigorous filter and then follow where the evidence led, as Hercule Poirot would say. As a result we get to read a fascinating account of a sparsely documented part of the recent history of Malawi, Scotland and, dare I say it, the British Empire.

The First World War, ‘The Kaiser’s War’ as my Grandpa Jack called it, was a massive part of the lives of Jack and Mamie and everyone else of course, but the time line of this book starts long before 1914 and I found that just as interesting as reading about members of my family. Margaret’s deep interest in all things historical would have been piqued.

This is the first published use of the letters that isn’t driven by the family. At least as far as we know! And that was one of the things that motivated my mother: there’s information in there that would be useful, in the broadest sense, to someone, sometime, outwith the family. So, partly for posterity, she laboriously transcribed all the letters onto her Amstrad Word Processor. Margaret Sinclair, my mother, would be hugely relieved to know that the family wasn’t going to have to be responsible for shedding light on those letters.

Thank you very, very much, Isobel, for getting that ball rolling and setting the letters off on their own journey. We Sinclair siblings, my sisters Mariot and Janet and I, wish you all the best for the future.”

Willie Sinclair

Note: all proceeds from the sale of this book in Scotland go to the Mamie Martin Fund to carry on the work of Mamie Martin. It can be purchased through our website.