Towards a History of the First Catholic Religious Women Born in Africa or of African Descent (1703–1939).

Religious women born in Africa or of African descent have for a long time played a significant role in the parishes, schools, clinics and orphanages run by the Catholic Church. Their history has rarely been told and they tend to be invisible both in church and society. This paper presents a survey, based on already published studies and easily available primary sources, of the early history of these black women and of the indigenous women's religious congregations established, formally or not, since the nineteenth century. With one exception — in Senegal — all date from the twentieth century. A few were founded just before the First World War. More appeared in the interwar period. The paper argues that even though most of the credit is given to the missionaries, the black candidates often initiated the process leading to their admission into religious life. The most common scenario was an indigenous diocesan congregation led and mentored by white sisters for a few years. Some men's congregations, the Spiritans, the Missionaries of Africa, their women's counterparts, the Missionary Sisters of our Lady of Africa, and the Missionaries of Mariannhill showed a particular zeal in promoting the cause of black sisters in the period under review which ends in 1939. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]