African Mission Assistant at the Cape and in Namaland Written by Ursula TrÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼per Translated by Loretta Carter and Bettina Duwe Reviewed by Peter Mietzner When I first laid hands on the book I was very excited for the following reasons: until now this information had mainly been accessible to readers of the German language , and I thought it time for an “invisible woman” to become visible and take her rightful place in Namibian history. Point No.1 still stands. Even I, who am German-speaking and read a reasonable amount on Namibia in the original language, find it difficult to decipher the scribbles of the missionaries or discoverers or adventurers or plain traders and hunters. Once they start writing in the old German writing (SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼tterlin), they have lost me completely and another chapter of Namibian history remains closed. One must, therefore, congratulate both author and translators on making the material available to a much broader audience for research and other purposes. It is another valuable piece in the puzzle that is Namibia and its early history. The daily tribulations of the missionaries and the way the London Missionary Society (the body that dispatched a large number of them to South Africa and Namibia) worked, is well depicted. What is also depicted are the nearly insurmountable difficulties facing those early missionaries, like Johann Hinrich Schmelen. Once they arrived in the country and faced people they could neither understand nor comprehend – a culture as foreign as could be to their order, German precision and discipline. The fact that they did so much good in the long run shows the reader the sheer determination of the missionaries and their helpers. If the reader thought the book would give a word sketch of the person Zarah, her abilities and all her work, you are going to be sadly mistaken. Zarah does not come through as a clarion-clear heroine; she is still the quiet little mouse, unassuming and remaining in the background. No raving feminist here. Neither an Oprah Winfrey (perhaps the power behind the throne or a grey eminence). She never comes to the fore, and the book never makes very clear that she was the one who initiated, supported and dragged Schmelen to his desk to start translating the New Testament into the Nama language. While Schmelen translates, Zarah acts as his editor; she, after all, was a Nama! The clearest indication that Schmelen could not have done it on his own is contained in this one sentence: “After his wife’s death, Schmelen did not publish any more translations of the Nama language”. This is a very clear hint as to how much he depended on Zara’s collaboration with his (questionable) linguistics. Here is to another unsung heroine of Namibia: Zara Schmelen – perhaps one of the greatest pioneers of her time. If you are looking for easy reading, look elsewhere. This book is not for you then. But if you want to know more about the early 1800s and you are interested in history, get it. It deserves to be read by all who are looking for some kinds of roots or trying to find a connection between modern-day Namibia and those early days of the beginning of the so-called “civilization” of the indigenous people. It is a fascinating look into a period we still know very little about. By the way, Apartheid was alive and living with the London Missionary Society. Schmelen was suspended for having married an indigenous woman. In fact, quite a number of the missionaries who did so were heavily frowned upon and they faced considerable pressure from their authorities. The book is available at bookshops that carry this type of material.