Deborah Retief (1853–1931), known as Borrie Retief, was an Afrikaner missionary in Bechuanaland (currently Botswana).[1] She was the longest-serving member of the Dutch Reformed Church mission station at Mochudi,[2] where she was based from 1887 to 1930.[1]
Life
editDeborah Retief was born on 10 July 1853 in Paarl, one of twelve children. Educated at the Huguenot Seminary in Wellington, she worked for a while as matron in a girls' boarding school before being appointed as a missionary in Mochudi in 1887.[1] There she worked alongside a German clergyman, the Rev. Emil Bernhard Beyer, his wife Anna, and another missionary worker Mary Murray.[3]
In 1892 Chief Lentswe of the Bakgatla people converted to Christianity.[3] In the following year a smallpox epidemic broke out, through which Retief stayed with the Bakgatla. With the assistance of the chief's brother she bought a house from a local shopkeeper, and over the next few decades outlived several missionary clergy at the station. She left Mochudi only in 1930, and died in April 1931 after a few months at a Cape Town nursing home.[1]
The district hospital in Mochudi, the Deborah Retief Memorial Hospital, is named in her honour.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Maree, W. L. "Deborah Retief – Heldin van die Sandvlaktes". Gemeentegeskiedenisargief (in Afrikans).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ a b Morton, Fred; Ramsay, Jeff; Mgadla, Part Themba (2008). Historical Dictionary of Botswana. African Historical Dictionaries. Vol. 108 (4th ed.). Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. pp. 289–90. ISBN 978-0-8108-5467-3.
- ^ a b "The Dutch Reformed Church in Botswana (DRCB)". Reformed Family Forum.