Hedvig Posse

Swedish missionary (1861–1927)

Hedvig Posse

Hedvig Posse (8 August 1861 – 22 December 1927) was a Swedish missionary in South Africa, linguist and hymn writer.[1] She was one of the "most prominent translators and recorders of Zulu music and oral history", who translated a number of stories, fairy tales and poetry from Zulu to Swedish.[2] She also translated Swedish hymns into Zulu, with the "aim of replacing traditional songs with Christian texts".[3]

## Biography

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Born on 8 August 1861 in Stockholm, 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.[3] 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. Between 1887 and 1897, she worked at Oscarberg's mission station, located at Rorke's Drift, in the northern part of Natal province (now called KwaZulu-Natal). Her assignments included teaching Zulus in schools.[1]

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.[4] Her involvement in healthcare was considered a pioneering work of missionaries at that time, and later became part of SKM.[1] She was trained at the Huguenot Seminarium in Wellington, South Africa (now part of Huguenot College), a specialized training institute for female missionaries. She briefly served at the North American mission station of Inanda.[3]

During her service as a missionary, she documented and translated Zulu songs, and engaged in watercolour painting, photography and building houses for the locals.[1][5]

She was 66 years old when she died in Uppsala on 22 December 1927.[3]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d Holtrop, P. N. (13 January 2011). Mission Revisited: Between Mission History and Intercultural Theology In Honer of Pieter N. Holtrop. Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster. p. 121\. ISBN 978-3-643-90038-8. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
2. ^ Záhořík, Jan (8 July 2022). Histories of Nationalism beyond Europe: Myths, Elitism and Transnational Connections. London: Springer Nature. p. 21\. ISBN 978-3-030-92676-2. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
3. ^ a b c d "Hedvig Amalia Posse". skbl.se. Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
4. ^ Holtrop 2011, p. 122.
5. ^ Swantz, Marja-Liisa (2002). Beyond the Forestline: The Life and Letters of Bengt Sundkler. Leominster, UK: Gracewing Publishing. p. 98\. ISBN 978-0-852-44560-0. Retrieved 25 October 2022.

Authority control databases

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* Finland

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