In 1876 an intrepid Scotswoman, Mary Slessor, volunteered for missionary work in Nigeria. Mary, or Ma, as the people soon called her, spent twelve years at a coastal mission before venturing upcountry in to Okoyong, a region of rivers, swamps, and forests, where belief in witchcraft was widespread. Enduring conditions too primitive for other Europeans, she accomplished there what it usually took a whole mission to do.

Mary once slapped a hippopotamus with a tin basin, so she found it easy to box the ears of an impudent chieftain and get away with it. While placidly knitting, she settled a bitter land dispute between rival tribes, which caused the colonial governor to make her a vice-consul. Later, after a bloody war in the interior, he withdrew his troops, leaving only Mary in charge.

No other missionary was as respected by Africans as the incredible Ma Slessor. The story of her thirty-nine years as their beloved mother is an inspiring one, and her forceful methods of getting things done spice it with Scottish humor.

From the book