Mary
Slessor died 100 years ago on the 13 Jan 1915 aged 67.
She was a Scottish missionary to Nigeria.
I
checked the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers database to see if she was
mentioned and found the following information.
She
was called and examined on Friday 21st May 1909 to give evidence for the report
of the Committee of Inquiry into the Liquor Trade in Southern Nigeria (Command
4907).
There
are quite a few gruesome facts she mentions in the inquiry and one example is
about the ordeal of oil, which she could see from her window every morning.
“Perhaps
they had had a big drunk [sic.] the night before, and had all got headaches in the
morning, and were accusing their wives of all sorts of things, and they have the
ordeal to find out the guilty ones…"Then somebody takes a ladle of boiling oil
and pours it into their hands, and of course they run away screaming. .. if the
oil burnt down in this way (describing) there was no palaver, but if it did not
they were found guilty.”
If
they were found guilty “They were tied up with a stake with thorns on it, and
with the bones of a tiger, and trussed up close, and their legs tied close
together with the stick of thorns in between.” she mentioned “This was a thing
of daily occurrence, and that it was caused by drink.”
You
can read the full report in the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers database listed
under licensed
digital collections. This is freely
available to readers in Scotland with a National Library of Scotland readers
ticket. Or you can read the original
command paper which can be found at the shelfmark P.P. 1909 vol. ix Cd 4907.
