Nigeria

The Nigeria Collection 

Nigeria was the first African country in which Holy Child Sisters lived and worked. The story of the SHCJ in Africa begins with Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, an Irish Sister of Charity who came to Calabar, Nigeria in 1923. Working without the assistance of any other European women religious, M.M. Charles had taught girls using the Montessori method and trained young women as teachers. The SHCJ’s connection to Nigeria was formed when, after visit from Bishop Hinsley to her school St Joseph’s, M.M. Charles a reached out to an old friend. This friend had spent her school days with M.M. Charles at Mayfield and was now Mother Mary Amadeus Atchison, Superior General of the SHCJ.

M.M. Amadeus came to Calabar with her first assistant sister, Mother Genevieve France, for an initial visit. In October 1930 their plans were realised when Sisters Edith Rudwick and Joachim Forster from England along with Laurentia Dalton from America arrived at St Joseph’s Convent School to work with M.M. Charles and the young women she had trained. The sisters followed M.M. Amadeus’ instruction to learn the local language, Efik. M.M. Joachim took special care with her learning: she requested prayers for the ‘gift of tongues’ and would pass her own Efik translations of fairy tales, made for the children, to the Nigerian teachers for corrections.

The beginnings of the SHCJ’s presence in Africa is closely bound with that of another order, the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, who have M.M. Charles as their foundress. Among the teachers who taught sisters Joachim, Laurentia and Edith Efik, were four young women who became the very first HHCJ sisters. In the words of Mother Teresa Xavier, the Handmaids worked ‘shoulder to shoulder ‘with the SHCJ.

This first group of professed Handmaids included Miss Kathleen Bassey, who acted as an interpreter for M.M. Charles. As a Handmaid, she took the name Mary Ignatia. M.M. Ignatia went on to establish a vocational school in Edem Ekpat and St Peter Claver’s Child Welfare, Home Economics and Adult Education Centre in Ikot Ansa. Rt Revd B.D Usanga stated that she ‘excelled as a mother to the orphans, the poor, the needy, the destitute […] she always had a mother’s smile for all’.

The SHCJ’s mission work flourished in the twentieth century, with hundreds of schools being opened across Nigeria. This growth was only to be troubled by the horrors of the 1967- 1970 Biafran War. During this time, SHCJ sisters had to leave the country and several convents and schools were closed. In some cases, they were taken over by the military.

However, on 17^th August 1970 a brighter future began for the SHCJ, as Sister Teresa Okure, an alumna of Cornelia Connelly College in Uyo, Nigeria, was professed as the first African SHCJ. While Sister Teresa spent her novitiate in Mayfield, England, as more women from both Nigeria and Ghana joined her as new members of the SHCJ, the Formation Centre in Jos, Nigeria was created. The novitiate of the African Province remains in Jos to this day.

By the end of the 20^th Century, 24 apostolates had been established in Nigeria. The SHCJ sisters based in Nigeria – the most populated country in Africa – work in a range of ministries including the provision of education, healthcare and spiritual guidance. There are currently 11 Holy Child schools in Nigeria and four Holy Child clinics.