Hedvig Posse (8 August 1861 – 22 December 1927) was a Swedish

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

in South Africa, linguist and hymn writer. She was one of the “most prominent translators and recorders of

Zulu music The Zulu people are a South African ethnic group. Many Zulu musicians have become a major part of South African music, creating a huge influence in the music industry. A number of Zulu-folk derived styles have become well known across South Africa ...

and

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

”, who translated number of stories, fairy tales and poetries from Zulu to

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. She also translated Swedish hymns into Zulu, with the "aim of replacing traditional songs with Christian texts".

Biography

Born on 8 August 1861 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden, Hedvig Posse was the daughter of the Swedish author Betty Ehrenborg-Posse and her husband Baron Johan August Posse, who was a lawyer and parliamentarian. She did not receive any formal education, but was taught privately by a tutor at her home. In 1887, she applied to Svenska Kyrkans Missions (SKM), expressing her interest to be a missionary in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Between 1887 and 1897, she worked at

Oscarberg The Oscarberg, called by the Zulus ''Shiyane'' ("The Eyebrow"), is the name given by the Reverend Otto Witt to a large hill 350 yards to the southeast (and rear) of the two buildings which formed the trading post at the Battle of Rorke's Drift (187 ...

's mission station, located at

Rorke's Drift The Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879), also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the ...

, in the northern part of

Natal province The Province of Natal (), commonly called Natal, was a province of South Africa from May 1910 until May 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. During this period rural areas inhabited by the black African population of Natal were organized into ...

(now called

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

). Her assignments included teaching Zulus in schools. Her good economic standing helped her to take independent decisions in terms of initiating different activities including the building of a health centre, called the ''Bethany Mission Hospital'', at Dundee Coalfields, a coal-mining town in Natal. Her involvement in healthcare was considered a pioneering work of missionaries at that time, and later became part of SKM. She was trained at the Huguenot Seminarium in

Wellington, South Africa Wellington is a town in the Western Cape Winelands, a 45-minute drive from Cape Town, in South Africa with a population of approximately 62,000. Wellington's economy is centered on agriculture such as wine, table grapes, deciduous fruit, and a bra ...

(now part of Huguenot College), a specialized training institute for female missionaries. She briefly served at the North American mission station of Inanda. During her service as a missionary, she documented and translated Zulu songs, and engaged in watercolour painting,

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

and building houses for the locals. She was 66 years old when she died in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

on 22 December 1927.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Posse, Hedvig 1861 births 1927 deaths Female Christian missionaries Swedish Christian missionaries Swedish women writers