Margaret Christian Wrong (1887–1948) was a Canadian educator, missionary administrator and Africanist.H. D. Hooper
Obituary: Margaret Wrong'
''African Affairs'', Vol. 47, Issue 188 (July 1948), p.184 She encouraged the development of

African literature African literature is literature from Africa, either Oral literature, oral ("orature") or written in African languages, African and Afro-Asiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of Precolonialism, pre-colonial African literature can be ...

. The

Margaret Wrong Prize for African Literature The Margaret Wrong Prize for African Literature was an annual literary prize, prize for African literature which existed from 1950 until the early 1960s. Established in memory of the missionary and educational administrator Margaret Wrong, the prize ...

was established in her memory after her death.

Life

Margaret Wrong was the oldest child of historian

George MacKinnon Wrong George MacKinnon Wrong (June 25, 1860 – June 29, 1948) was a Canadian clergyman and historian. Life and career Born at Grovesend in Elgin County, Canada West (now Ontario), he was ordained in the Anglican priesthood in 1883 after attendin ...

and Sophia Hume Blake, the daughter of

Edward Blake Dominick Edward Blake (13 October 1833 – 1 March 1912) was a Canadian politician and lawyer who was the second premier of Ontario from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887. He is one of three federal perm ...

, Premier of Ontario. The historians

Edward Murray Wrong Edward Murray Wrong (14 April 1889 – 15 February 1928) was a Canadian-born historian, vice-president of Magdalen College, Oxford (1924–25). Biography Known as Murray, he was the son of Canadian historian George MacKinnon Wrong, and of Sop ...

and Humphrey Hume Wrong were younger brothers. In 1911 Wrong and her brother Murray travelled to England to attend

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. After three years studying at

Somerville College Somerville College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The college's liberal tone derives from its f ...

she returned to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, where she was a

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

secretary and then a MA history studenty and part-time instructor at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. From 1921 to 1925 she was a

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

-based travelling secretary of the

World Student Christian Federation The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) is a federation of autonomous national Student Christian Movements (SCM) forming the youth and student arm of the global ecumenical movement. The Federation includes Orthodox, Protestant and Cathol ...

. From 1926 to 1929 she was based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, setting up home in

Golders Green Golders Green is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet in north London, northwest of Charing Cross. It began as a medieval small suburban linear settlement near a farm and public grazing area green, and dates to the early 19th century. It ...

with the anthropologist Margaret Read, and working as a missions secretary for the British Student Christian Movement. A seven-month 1926 tour of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

, together with Mabel Carney of

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) is the graduate school of education affiliated with Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, Teachers College has been a part of Columbia University since ...

, led to a longlasting interest in Africa. In 1929 Wrong became head of the new International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa (ICCLA), encouraging the development of African education and written literature. She travelled extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, and was on her fifth tour when she died suddenly in

Gulu Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District. The coordinates of the city of Gulu are 2°46'54.0"N 32°17'57.0"E. The city's distance from Kampala, Uganda's capital and large ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

in 1948. A year after Wrong's death, the

was established in her memory. Those involved in establishing the prize included

Seth Irunsewe Kale Seth Irunsewe Kale , OON, CFR (June 6, 1904 – November 19, 1994) was a Nigerian Anglican bishop who served as Principal of CMS Grammar School, Lagos from 1944 to 1950 and as Bishop of Lagos from 1963 to 1974. He was consecrated a bisho ...

Rita Hinden Rita Hinden (16 January 1909 – 18 November 1971) was a South African people, South African social democratic activist. Born near Cape Town as Rebecca Gesundheit, she was always known as "Rita". When she was three years old, her family's os ...

, Lord Hailey, Ida Ward and Margaret Read.

Works

* (with Jackson Davis and Thomas M. Campbell) ''Africa Advancing. A Study of Rural Education and Agriculture in West Africa and the Belgian Congo''. New York: Friendship Press, 1945.

References

External links

Wrong, Margaret Christian
1887 births 1948 deaths Canadian Christian missionaries Canadian Africanists Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Christian missionaries in Africa Female Christian missionaries {{Canada-reli-bio-stub