Emma Bertha Delaney

Emma Beard Delaney (January 18, 1871 – October 7, 1922) was a Baptist missionary and teacher, one of the earliest African-American missionaries from USA who worked in Africa, specifically Liberia and the British Central Africa Protectorate (now Malawi).

Early life and education Delaney was born in 1871 in Fernandina Beach, Florida to Daniel Sharp Delany, who worked as a pilot on a revenue cutter called the George S. Boutwell, and Anna M. Delany. She was Henry Beard Delany's niece and goddaughter, and her middle name came from his. Her family name varied in spelling, versions included Delany and De Lany. Delaney joined the Baptist church at the age of thirteen. At the seminary, she graduated in 1894 and completed their missionary training course in 1896. She also underwent the nurse training course at the seminary, finishing in 1892 and was awarded a gold medal for proficiency.

African missions Spelman graduates, Nora Gordon (1889) and Clara Howard (1890), had left on missions to the Congo Free State. Delaney also had Congolese classmates at Spelman, Lena Clarke and Maggie Rattray. She had already wished to become a missionary, and her Spelman experiences contributed to making her mind up.

The Baptist State Convention of Florida met at First Baptist Church in Fernandina Beach in April 1899. One of the decisions it took was to send Delaney on a mission to Africa. She sailed to the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1902, only the second African-American (after Landon N. Cheek) and the first African-American woman to arrive as a missionary in Malawi.

Delaney traveled under appointment by the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention to join the Providence Industrial Mission founded by John Chilembwe and largely funded by the Foreign Mission Board. She had to endure disruptions during the journey, missing her steamboat connection at Cape Town, and being stranded there for nearly a month. As an African-American woman, she also had to face racism in British-controlled Africa. She and the Baptist church helped Malekebu obtain a medical degree in the USA. Malekebu returned to Chiradzulu in 1926 to head the mission there.