Mary Slessor and Janie Annan Slessor appear together in one of the most recognisable photographs associated with the Scottish missionary’s life in West Africa. Mary sits beside a young African girl dressed in white, a child who is often identified simply as her adopted daughter. Yet Janie was not merely a child preserved in a Victorian photograph.

Born as Atim Eso in the region of Old Calabar, Janie travelled repeatedly between West Africa and Britain, lived for periods in Dundee and Topsham, appeared in the 1891 British census, married Akibo Eyo in 1899, worked as a teacher and evangelist, helped care for children in Slessor’s household and nursed the woman who had raised her.

Mary and Janie lived in Topsham during part of 1891, although the well-known portrait of the pair is associated with Dundee and is generally dated to that year.

Janie’s story provides a revealing window into missionary history, Victorian Britain, family life across continents and the changing society of nineteenth-century Calabar.

Mary Slessor Arrives in Old Calabar

Mary Mitchell Slessor was born at Gilcomston, Aberdeen, on 2 December 1848. Her family moved to Dundee in 1859, where she entered industrial employment while becoming increasingly involved in the religious life of the United Presbyterian Church.

In 1876, after missionary training, she was accepted for service in the Calabar Mission. She sailed from Liverpool aboard the Ethiopia on 5 August 1876 and reached the estuary of the Cross and Calabar rivers in September.

The United Presbyterian Mission had begun work in Old Calabar in 1846, about thirty years before Slessor arrived.

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A unified political entity called Nigeria did not yet exist. The territories of the region passed through different forms of British influence and colonial administration before the Northern and Southern protectorates were amalgamated in 1914.

Janie was therefore born decades before Nigeria assumed its 1914 colonial form, although her birthplace lies within modern Nigeria.

From Atim Eso to Janie Annan Slessor

Among the children who entered Slessor’s household was an infant known as Atim Eso.

Atim was a twin, and accounts of her early life state that her twin brother was killed during infancy amid beliefs surrounding twin births that existed within some communities of the wider Calabar region.

When Slessor returned to Britain because of poor health in April 1883, she brought the approximately six-month-old Atim with her.

The child was renamed Janie, after Slessor’s younger sister, and was baptised Janie Annan Slessor at Wishart Church in Dundee. She accompanied Slessor during some of her visits to churches and became known among congregations supporting the Calabar Mission.

Her childhood would consequently be divided between two very different worlds.

Mary Slessor and Janie Annan Slessor in Topsham

In February 1885, Mary Slessor, her younger sister Jane and the young Janie moved south from Scotland to Topsham in Devon. They rented a Georgian house at 48 The Strand, overlooking the River Exe. Slessor’s mother subsequently joined them.

The move was closely connected with the declining health of Slessor’s sister Jane, who was suffering from tuberculosis.

During her stay, Mary became involved with the Congregational Church in Topsham. By November, however, she was ready to return to West Africa.

Mary and the three-year-old Janie sailed from Liverpool on 11 November 1885 and arrived in Calabar on 5 December.

Mary’s mother died shortly afterwards in Topsham, and her sister Jane died a few months later.

Five years passed before Mary returned to Britain.

When she landed at Plymouth in January 1891, Janie was again travelling with her. Mary went to Topsham, where she visited the graves of her mother and sister and rented another house.

The 1891 census recorded Mary Mitchell Slessor, aged 41, as head of the household in Majorfield Lane, Topsham. Eight-year-old Janie Annan Slessor was listed as her adopted daughter.

At the time, adoption in Britain did not yet have the statutory legal framework introduced during the twentieth century. In Scotland, adoption arrangements were privately made until the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act 1930 introduced legal adoption through the courts.

Mary nevertheless regarded Janie as her daughter, and Janie remained a central member of Slessor’s household throughout her youth and adulthood.

The Famous 1891 Portrait

One of the most reproduced images connected with Mary Slessor and Janie Annan Slessor shows Mary seated while the young Janie stands beside her.

The photograph is dated to 1891 and is associated with Dundee. Mary and Janie had spent part of that year in Topsham before travelling north to Scotland, where they stayed with friends and attended church engagements.

They later returned to Devon before sailing for Calabar again in February 1892.

The portrait captures Janie at about eight years old, already several years into a childhood divided between Britain and West Africa.

Janie Returns to Britain

Janie made another journey to Britain in 1898.

By then, Slessor’s household had expanded. Mary travelled with Janie and three younger girls, Alice, Maggie and Mary. A surviving photograph from this period shows members of the household together in Scotland.

The group stayed in several places before preparing to return to West Africa.

By this stage Janie was no longer the small child who had accompanied Slessor during her earliest furloughs. She was approaching adulthood and had become an important source of assistance within the family.

The party returned to Akpap Okoyong in January 1899.

Before the year ended, Janie married.

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Janie Annan Slessor Marries Akibo Eyo

On 21 December 1899, Janie Annan married Akibo Eyo.

The marriage was entered in a small register kept by Slessor. Janie and Akibo made reciprocal commitments before witnesses.

Slessor regarded Akibo positively at the time and described him as one of her best scholars and as a companion to Janie and the other children.

The marriage, however, did not endure.

Janie and Akibo had a child who died, and difficulties within the marriage eventually brought Janie back into Slessor’s household.

Janie, increasingly called Jean, resumed an important role within the extended family.

The Child Who Became a Caregiver

Around 1900 or 1901, another motherless infant entered Slessor’s household.

Janie developed a particularly close relationship with the child and regarded him as her special responsibility. He became known as Dan MacArthur Slessor, or Daniel Macarthur Slessor.

The relationship marked an important change in Janie’s life. The child who had once depended on Mary Slessor was now helping to care for another generation.

Daniel survived into adulthood and remained closely associated with memories of the Slessor household. In 1958 he produced Reminiscences of Miss Mary Slessor, a typescript preserved in Dundee’s local history collections.

Janie’s contribution also extended beyond domestic caregiving.

Janie the Teacher and Evangelist

Janie later worked at Nkanga as a teacher and evangelist.

She had become an enthusiastic reader and developed into a capable Efik teacher. At Nkanga she taught and participated in Christian work among local communities.

This period of her life reveals a woman whose identity had grown far beyond the circumstances of her infancy.

She had become literate, independent in many of her responsibilities and deeply involved in the work surrounding the household and mission.

As Mary’s health weakened during her later years, Janie also assumed greater responsibility at home. She cared for children, helped manage domestic affairs and provided nursing support to the increasingly frail missionary.

The small girl who had once depended on Mary had become one of the adults upon whom Mary depended.

Mary Slessor and the Wider Campaign Against Twin-Killing

The story of Janie is inseparable from the history of attitudes towards twin births in parts of the Calabar region.

Slessor protected vulnerable infants and mothers and became particularly associated with such interventions during her work in Okoyong.

Opposition to twin-killing in Old Calabar, however, had begun before her arrival in 1876.

The United Presbyterian Mission had been active since 1846, while African rulers and local converts also participated in efforts to change existing practices.

Among the African leaders associated with reforms was King Eyo Honesty II of Creek Town, whose opposition to twin-killing preceded Slessor’s arrival.

The transformation of attitudes towards twins in the region was therefore part of a broader process involving African rulers, families, Christian converts, missionaries and changing political authority.

Slessor became one of the most famous figures associated with that change, particularly through her work in Okoyong, but she belonged to a much wider history.

The Final Years of Mary and Janie

Mary Slessor’s health deteriorated considerably during her final years.

After nearly four decades connected with the Calabar Mission, she died at Use Ikot Oku on 13 January 1915.

Born on 2 December 1848, she was 66 years old when she died.

Janie remained in the region with members of the household she had helped sustain. She survived Mary by approximately three years.

In 1918, during the worldwide influenza pandemic, Janie died at the age of about 36.

Her life had crossed extraordinary geographical and social boundaries. Born Atim Eso in Old Calabar, she had lived in Scotland and Devon, travelled repeatedly across the Atlantic, appeared in a Victorian census, married in Africa, cared for children, taught and participated in religious work.

The little girl beside Mary Slessor in the 1891 portrait had become an adult with responsibilities and achievements of her own.

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Conclusion

The photograph of Mary Slessor and Janie Annan Slessor captures only one moment in a relationship that lasted for more than three decades.

In 1891, Janie was an eight-year-old child standing beside one of the best-known missionaries associated with nineteenth-century West Africa. The years that followed transformed the meaning of that image. Janie became a wife, teacher, evangelist, caregiver and senior member of the household in which she had once been the youngest dependent.

Her story also broadens the familiar narrative surrounding Mary Slessor. The history of social change in Calabar involved missionaries, African rulers, local Christians, families and individuals whose lives intersected during a period of profound transformation.

Remembering Janie as Atim Eso, Janie Annan Slessor and later Jean allows the famous photograph to be seen differently. She was not simply the child beside Mary Slessor. She became a historical figure with a life, responsibilities and legacy of her own.

Author’s Note

Janie Annan Slessor’s life reminds us how easily a person can remain visible in a famous photograph while disappearing from the larger story attached to it. For generations, attention naturally centred on Mary Slessor, yet the child standing beside her grew into a woman who taught, cared for others and helped sustain the household that had once sustained her. Restoring Janie to the narrative also broadens our understanding of nineteenth-century Calabar by placing African individuals and communities alongside missionaries in a history shaped by movement, family, faith, cultural change and human relationships across continents.

References

W. P. Livingstone, Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916.

Sally Ayres, “The Story of Mary Slessor and Atim Eso, aka Janie Annan Slessor and Their Visits to Topsham, Devon, in 1885 and 1891”, Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots: Exeter’s Multi-Coloured History, 2013.

David Lishilinimle Imbua, “Robbing Others to Pay Mary Slessor: Unearthing the Authentic Heroes and Heroines of the Abolition of Twin-Killing in Calabar”, African Economic History, Vol. 41, 2013, pp. 139–158.

National Records of Scotland, Adoption Records, including records concerning adoption before and after the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act 1930.

Leisure and Culture Dundee, Local History Centre, Mary Slessor collections and biographical materials.