Miss Annie Allen

Annie Allen was a Christian medical missionary from England. She worked in Zanzibar in the 1870s and 1880s.

Overview Allen was the daughter and granddaughter of missionaries. She worked primarily with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (which later became the United Mission to Central Africa) in their hospitals at Mkunazini in Zanzibar.

The UMCA was an Anglo-Catholic organization. and their main goal was evangelism.

Allen was the director of the hospital in Mkunazini. Though she was mainly concerned with the health of the people she served, she also pushed for the education of the women and children of the areas where she worked. She founded the Zenana Mission in Zanzibar through the UMCA.

Hospital Work

The UMCA was founded in 1860 at the request of David Livingston." It was originally a mission for the people around Lake Nyassa, but it quickly grew. The main goal of the mission was always evangelistic, but they also spent a lot of time bringing education and health care to the people of the region. She recruited Miss Hinton, and the two women used the mission to spread Christianity. Hinton helped run the Mission's nursery, believing that, "the nation comes from the nursery" where there can be "a firm foothold for Christianity." The two women spent a lot of time with the children of Zanzibar to ensure they had a proper Christian education.

Allen also visited the mothers to read Bible stories to them. She was especially successful in converting these Muslim women by pointing out the many similarities between their religion and the Genesis stories in the Christian Bible.

Like many Zenana Missions, Allen's missions later became less evangelistic and more focused on educating women and young girls. She taught sewing and gave them the skills and materials necessary to mend their own clothes, thereby making them more self-sufficient.

In a letter detailing her 1906 trip to Yinege, Allen detailed some of the other skills and values they taught women. She remarked that she was impressed by their "lady like manner and neat dress." She also was very happy to report that the women seemed receptive toward Christianity. In all of her years as a Zenanan missionary, these were the characteristics she expected to see in women who were served by similar establishments.