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Margaret Bessie Smith Strives to "Help
the Women"
 Under the direction of Solveig Swendseid, a
series of 63 oral history interviews were conducted under a special
project of The American Lutheran Church and then the ELCA Division for
Global Mission.
Provided here is a sample of an interview
with Margaret Bessie (Wagnild) Smith, who served with her husband as a
missionary from 1953-1983 in the Central African Republic.
Mrs. Smith: We intended to spend our
lifetime there and the one thing I really wanted to do was help the
women. They were so down, they were so inferior. Women were so
inferior to men.
Mr. Swendseid: In the society?
Mrs. Smith: Yes. The women, when we
went there, there were maybe one or two in Abba who could read.
Everything was for the men…On the day we started our classes, we had
40 men but no women. I asked one of the men, “Why didn’t you bring
your wife with you?” He answered, “Our wives are just cattle. You
can’t teach them anything.” I just thought, boy I’m going to help
these women.
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