Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Social Sciences and Missions Sciences sociales et missions brill.com/ssm

Mission and Cosmopolitan Mothering Saving Armenian Mothers and Orphans, 1902–1947

Maria Småberg* Department of History, Lund University, Sweden [email protected]

Abstract

This article discusses and analyzes mothering that crosses boundaries of care in spite of differences of nationality, culture and religion. Swedish missionary Alma Johansson was one of a remarkable number of women missionaries who volunteered as relief workers during the Armenian refugee crisis. These women missionaries were often seen as mothers who were ‘saving a whole generation’.The article shows how Johansson acted as an external mother and created transnational bonds of solidarity between Swedish and Armenian mothers. The close relationships became a foundation for Armenian children and women to help themselves. However, in this mothering were also ambivalences.

Résumé

Cet article présente et analyse les figures maternelles communes à plusieurs domaines de l’aide, au-delà des différences nationales, culturelles et religieuses. La missionnaire suédoise Alma Johansson a été l’une des nombreuses femmes missionnaires qui se sont portées volontaires pour l’aide humanitaire durant la crise des refugiés arméniens. Ces femmes missionnaires étaient souvent vues comme des mères qui ‘sauvaient toute une génération’. Cet article montre comment Johansson a agi comme une mère externe et a créé des liens transnationaux de solidarité entre mères suédoises et arméniennes. Ces relations étroites ont donné naissance à une fondation visant à aider les enfants et les

* I would like to thank Dan-Erik Andersson, Lena Halldenius, Karin Hongsaton Zackari, Thomas Småberg, Lina Sturfelt and Andreas Tullberg for useful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also want to thank the Social Sciences and Missions’ anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments and suggestions and Margo Gewurtz and Seija Jalagin for editorial support.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/18748945-03001007 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 45 femmes arméniennes à se prendre en charge par eux-mêmes. Ce rôle de mère n’est toutefois pas dépourvu d’ambivalences.

Keywords mothering – humanitarianism – transnationalism – cosmopolitanism – gender – Armenian Genocide

Mots-clés maternage – humanitarisme – transnationalisme – cosmopolitisme – genre – génocide arménien

Swedish missionary Alma Johansson (1881–1974) was one of a remarkable num- ber of Scandinavian single women missionaries, educated as nurses or teach- ers, who volunteered as relief workers during the Armenian refugee crisis. These women missionaries were often seen as mothers, “mayriks” in Arme- nian, who were “saving a whole generation”.1 Alma Johansson was sent out in 1902 by the organization Kvinnliga Missionsarbetare (Women MissionaryWork- ers), k.m.a., to work among Armenian women and orphans in the aftermath of the massacres in the Ottoman Empire in the 1890’s.2 She then cared for mothers and children in various ways. She worked in different orphanages in Mezreh and Mush in Ottoman Turkey until 1915. As a nurse she also saw the special needs of women and therefore decided to become a midwife. After the war she worked with Armenian refugees in Constantinople and Thessaloniki where she started up schools for children. In her work in the refugee camps she also focused on self-help projects for Armenian women, so that they could

1 Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Scandinavian Missionaries, Gender and Armenian refugees during World War i: Crisis and Reshaping of Vocation”, Social Sciences and Missions, Vol. 23(1), 2010, pp. 88–91. 2 During the rule of Sultan Ambdulhamid ii, massacres on the Christian minorities took place in Ottoman Turkey in 1894–1896. American and German Protestant missionaries from e.g. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (abcfm), Deutscher Hülfsbund für Christliches Liebeswerk im Orient and Deutsche Orient Mission, started to combine missionary and development work. Secular organizations such as the Red Cross also sent out relief workers to the area at the end of the 19th century.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 46 småberg become bread-winners and take care of their children themselves. Thus, Alma Johansson became an external mother for many of the Armenian orphans and a support to Armenian mothers. In humanitarian settings mothers are exposed to specific challenges as mothers. Child birth, breast feeding, diseases and the risk of rape and other violation when leaving home in order to maintain their families make them especially vulnerable in violent conflicts. Since the mothers sustain whole com- munities, it is also an efficient way to destroy a local society when targeting civilian women. Saving mothers and children in humanitarian crises is there- fore in the spotlight as never before.3 These maternal aspects are however under-studied in the research on the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath, although the majority of the survivors were women and children.4 Hence it is important to highlight mothers and mothering within humanitarian work from this specific historical context. My material allows me to shed light on moth-

3 State of the World’s Mothers report 2014. 4 Some research has highlighted maternal aspects. See e.g. Sanasarian, Eliz, “Gender Distinc- tion in the Genocidal Process: A Preliminary Study of the Armenian Case”, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 4, 1989, pp. 449–461; Sarafian, Ara, “The Absorption of Armenian Women and Children in Muslim Households as a Structural Component of the Armenian Genocide”, in O. Bartov, P. Mack (eds.), In God’s Name: Genocide and religion in the 20th Cen- tury, New York: Berghahn Books, 1991, pp. 209–221; Derderian, Katharine, “Common Fate, Different Experience: Gender-Specific Aspects of the Armenian Genocide, 1915–1917”, Holo- caust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 19 (1), Spring, 2005, pp. 1–25; Peroomian, Rubina I., “Women and the Armenian Genocide: the Victim, the Living Martyr”, in S. Totten (ed.), Genocide: A critical bibliography review, vol. 7, Plight and fate of the women during and following genocide, New Brunswick, nj: Transaction, 2009: pp. 7–24; Tachjian, Vahé, “Gender, nationalism, exclu- sion: The reintegration process of female survivors of the Armenian Genocide”, Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 15 (1), 2009, pp. 60–80; Bjørnlund, Matthias. “‘A Fate Worse Than Dying’: Sexual Violence during the Armenian Genocide”, in D. Herzog (ed.), Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Pal- grave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 16–58; Watenpaugh, Keith David, “The League of Nations’ Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, 1920–1927”, American Historical Review, Vol. 115 (5), December 2010, pp. 1315–1339; Rowe, Victoria, “Arme- nian Women Refugees at the End of Empire: Strategies of Survival”, in P. Panayi, P. Virdee (eds.), Refugees and the End of Empire. Imperial Collapse and Forced Migration in theTwentieth Century, London: Palgrave, 2011, pp. 152–174;Edgren, Monika, “Sexuellt våld i vittnesberättelser om massakern på armenier 1915–1916”, Scandia, Vol. 78 (2), 2012: pp. 87–117; Ekmekcioglu, Lerna, “A climate for abduction, a climate for redemption: the politics of inclusion during and after the Armenian Genocide”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 55, 2013, pp. 522–553; Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Religion, relief and humanitarian work among Arme- nian women refugees in Mandatory Syria, 1927–1934”, Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 40 (3), 2015, pp. 432–454.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 47 ering aspects of not only the victims of a humanitarian crisis, but also of the humanitarian workers and the humanitarian community. Mothers are often connected to biology, family and nation.5 However, in this article I want to broaden these connotations and explore how mothering is also a social practice performed in both the private and public realms as well as in a global context.6 I am in particular interested in such mothering that crosses boundaries of care in spite of differences of nationality, culture and religion – the entangled histories of mothering. Sara Ruddick’s study Maternal Thinking (1989) will serve as a heuristic tool for my analysis. As will be discussed, Rud- dick’s work focuses on how practices of mothering may give rise to a certain kind of moral thinking. She also shows how mothering can be central to inclu- sive and empowering relationships.7 The witness narratives of Alma Johansson shed light on the values and prac- tices of mothering within humanitarian work. She was perceived as a “mayrik”, but I am also interested in her concern for Armenian mothers in the field and how she created transnational bonds of solidarity between Swedish and Arme- nian mothers.Thus, from the case of Alma Johansson, I will discuss and analyze transnational missionary mothering in a humanitarian crisis and connect it with moral cosmopolitanism – the awareness that all humans belong to a sin- gle community based on relationships of mutual respect and responsibility.8 My aim is to add to the refinement and adaptation of the current theoreti- cal interpretations of the Armenian genocide as well as the involvement of missionaries as humanitarian actors. In what ways did Johansson’s transna-

5 N. Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation, London: Sage, 1998. 6 Mothering is here understood as a socially-constructed relationship. See S. Ruddick, Mater- nal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace, London: Women’s Press, 1990; V. Held, Virginia, The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, Global. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; E.F. Kittay, Loves’s Labor: Essays on Women, Equality and Dependency, New York: Routledge, 1999; J. Hill Fletscher, Motherhood as Metaphor. Engendering Interreligious Dialogue, New York: Fordham University Press, 2013; U. Holm, Modrande & praxis. En feministfilosofisk undersökning, Udde- valla: Daidalos, 1993. 7 S. Ruddick, Maternal Thinking … 8 A cosmopolitan community might be based on an inclusive morality (for example by pro- moting the realization of justice and the guarantee of human rights), a shared economic relationship, or a political structure that encompass different nations. For example, Kwame Anthony Appiah suggests the possibility of a cosmopolitan community in which individu- als from varying locations enter relationships of mutual respect despite their differing beliefs (religious, political, etc.). See K.A. Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. In this article, I address in particular the moral dimensions of cosmopolitanism.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 48 småberg tional experiences – the maintenance of long-distance attachments and inter- connectedness with different people and societies, have implications for her humanitarian aid work? How can we from this case understand missionary work in terms of ‘cosmopolitan mothering’? Previous research has stressed the colonial hierarchies when missionaries acted as ‘mothers’.9 This also applies to philanthropic ‘social mothers’ in the home countries.10 Research on the Armenian genocide also points at the diffi- culties of Armenian women as mothers in a nationalist context.11 Here, I will connect the different spheres and search for transnational entanglements that also move beyond the colonial and nationalist discourses and where mothering also means empowerment and agency for indigenous women. The empirical parts draw on extracts from Alma Johansson’s letters, books, and articles published in Swedish missionary publications.When Alma Johans- son wrote about her field work, she had mainly a Swedish readership of k.m.a. donors in view, as her articles were published in the k.m.a. chronicle När & Fjärran (Close & Far). Doing research on refugees has certain limits. The sources on the refugee life are scarce, especially concerning the refugee camp in Thessaloniki, and there was no one left to interview. Most of the refugees left in the 1940’s. The testimonies of Alma Johansson and other eyewitnesses therefore constitute unique documents from the genocide and its aftermath. They give voice to untold stories, to victims who are not able to speak. At the same time we need to take into account that her writings follow a humanitarian genre that includes aims of fundraising.12

9 C. Hall, White, Male and Middle Class. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992; Grimshaw, Patricia, “Faith, Missionary Life, and the Family”, in P. Levine (ed.), Gender and Empire, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 260–280; Thorne, Susan, “Missionary-Imperial Femi- nism”, in M. Taylor Huber & N.C. Lutkehaus (eds.), Gendered Mission. Women and Men in Missionary Discourse and Practice, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999, pp. 39– 65. 10 For example American settlement reformer and women’s activist Jane Addams addressed issues that were of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, local public health, and world peace. See Toft, Jessica and Abrams, Laura S., “Progressive Maternalists and the Citizenship Status of Low-Income Single Mothers”, Social Service Review, Vol. 78 (3), 2004, pp. 447–465. 11 Derderian, Katharine, “Common Fate …”; Tachjian, Vahé, “Gender, nationalism, exclusion …”. 12 I develop the source-critical discussion in Småberg, Maria, “Witness Narratives as Resis- tance and Recovery. Alma Johansson and the 1915 Armenian Genocide”, in A. Ahlbäck, F. Sundevall (eds.), Gender, War and Peace. Breaking up the Borderlines, Joensuu: Univer- sity Press of Easter Finland, 2014, pp. 139–141.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 49

I will begin with a historical background and describe the situation for Arme- nian women and children during and after the genocide and the humanitarian intervention to help them. In a theoretical discussion of mothering and mission I take my departure in Sara Ruddick’s work on maternal thinking. I then discuss mothering on three levels: the field-work of nurturing and caring for orphans, the transnational relations between donor and recipient communities, and the support of mothers in the field to take care of their families themselves. Finally, I reflect on the cosmopolitan aspects of mothering.

Alma Johansson – A Transnational Missionary Life

When Alma Johansson left home to become a missionary, she did so with a Christian universal ideal of helping a people in need regardless of their nation- ality. We can also see how she cooperated with various missionary and also secular humanitarian organizations from different countries.13 She learned to speak German, English, French, and Armenian in addition to the Scandinavian languages. She also took lessons in Turkish. In many senses she became a cos- mopolitan.14 Johansson grew up under poor conditions in a farm family.15 At the age of 19 she received her missionary calling when she heard the news about the sufferings of the Armenians. Johansson enlisted for k.m.a., a Protestant orga- nization formed in 1894 by Swedish women for work among women in foreign countries.16 She then started out with one year of training at a German Mis-

13 See Småberg, Maria, “On mission in the cosmopolitan world: ethics of care in the Arme- nian refugee crisis, 1920–1947”, Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 40 (3), 2015, pp. 405– 431. 14 Christine Sypnowich points to the tendencies in history to regard cosmopolitans as per- sons marked by diverse cultural influence. This could either be a privilege connoted to the well-travelled and culturally sophisticated or, on the other hand, a target of xenophobia, suspicion, and mistrust. C. Sypnowich, “Cosmopolitans, cosmopolitanism, and human flourishing”, in G. Brock, H. Brighouse (eds.), The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 56. 15 Alma Johansson was born outside marriage and at first she was raised by her grandparents and then she stayed with her mother and her new family. See J. Carlsson, Tiga kan jag inte. Alma och Armenierna, 2014, p. 82. 16 k.m.a. was the first independent women’s mission organization in Scandinavia. It was established in Sweden in 1894, in Denmark and Finland in 1900, and in Norway in 1902. The aim was to improve the lives of women in ‘heathen countries’.The founders of k.m.a. were inspired by American, British and German women mission organizations, which

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 50 småberg sionary school, Malche. In Ottoman Turkey, she first worked in Mezreh 1902– 1907 at a Danish orphanage and later at a German orphanage. The orphanages were related to the German organization Deutscher Hülfsbund für Christliches Liebeswerk im Orient. After her training in Stockholm and Geneva to become a midwife, she went out again to work in Mush together with the Norwegian missionary and nurse Bodil Biørn in 1910–1915. They became heads of another orphanage established by Deutscher Hülfsbund. Like many foreign missionaries and diplomats, Johansson was caught in the middle of the violence and was then forced to take on wider tasks and develop other skills than what she had primarily been sent out for. At the time of the genocide the children of the orphanage were trapped and locked into a house, which was set on fire. Devastated at not having been able to protect “her” children, Johansson set out on a dangerous trip through a war-torn Turkey in order to reach Constantinople and make her report. Her testimony to Western diplomats was soon published, together with other reports. She also published her story as a book and wrote many articles.17 After some years in Sweden, recovering from her traumatic experiences during the genocide, Johansson returned to Turkey in 1920 together with the Danish missionary Wilhelmine Grünhagen. They hoped to reach Cilicia, but the missionaries were forbidden to go there. She then remained in Constantinople, working with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (abcfm) among Armenian refugees on the outskirts of the city.

had developed in the late nineteenth century. The k.m.a. workers were single, educated women who were inspired by a religious calling and used their professions within the framework of the Protestant mission. The organization was ecumenical, and women from different Protestant denominations came together with the focus on prayer and social work. Only women could become active members, but there were men as supporting members. Most of the active women had a middle- or upper-class background. See Okken- haug, Inger Marie, “Refugees, Relief and the Restoration of a Nation: Norwegian Missions in the Armenian Republic, 1922– 1925”, in H. Nielssen, I.M. Okkenhaug, K. Hestad Skeie (eds.), Protestant Mission and Local Encounters in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 211–218; C. Lundström, Den goda viljan. Kvinnliga missionärer och koloniala möten iTunisien och västra Jämtland, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2015, pp. 65– 83; andTrons framsynthet: Kvinnliga Missions Arbetare 100 år 1894–1994. Stockholm: k.m.a., 1994. 17 Johansson’s reports to diplomats were published internationally in the collection of the German theologian Johannes Lepsius and in the 1916 British report The Treatments of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915–1916, also known as the Blue Book, by the British historian Arnold Toynbee and the politician Lord James Bryce. Her books Ett folk i lands- flykt (1931) and Armeniskt flyktingliv (1932) were published by k.m.a. in Stockholm.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 51

After coming into contact with the secular American organization Near East Relief, ner, Alma Johansson got the opportunity to begin relief and mission- ary work in Thessaloniki, Greece, where the Americans had a station.18 ner withdrew from there in 1924 and k.m.a. then continued the work indepen- dently. Johansson worked in company with her Armenian assistants Sefora19 and Asnif,20 the Jewish missionary doctor John Goldstein and for shorter peri- ods with the Swedish k.m.a. missionaries Mathilda Andersson and Beatrice Jönsson.21 She was also in close contact with the Danish industrial mission in Thessaloniki, with German missionaries, whom she for example visited and travelled with on vacations, the Red Cross as well as local Armenian aid orga- nizations.22 After her retirement she kept in contact with Armenian colleagues and friends through letters. It is also told that she spoke Armenian on her deathbed.23 Christian missions provide a rich and diverse source material which opens up the complexity of transnational relations and social practices. I will here make a close study of an individual woman missionary and a close read- ing of her articles, books and letters. Some scholars discuss how biographical approaches and sources reveal the hidden contributions of women and enables analyses of flesh-and blood-people rather than of abstract transnational pro-

18 At first Johansson was offered the prestigious appointment as head of the large orphanage in Corfu for 1000 Turkish, Greek and Armenian boys. However, she turned this offer down since it was a home where only the Turkish language was allowed and “Swedish k.m.a. did not have Turkey as its field”, she claimed. It is obvious that she was dedicated to work with Armenians. See Kurck, Sigrid, “Martyrfolket och dess svenska “Majrik””, in “Tidevarv komma, tidevarv försvinna”. k.m.a. Minnesskrift 1894–1934, Stockholm: k.m.a. 1934, p. 47. 19 Sefora at first took care of Johansson’s household and later became a so-called Bible woman, making visits to Armenian homes in the barracks. 20 Asnif was head of the industrial mission. 21 Mathilda Andersson worked with Johansson for three months in 1926 and Beatrice Jöns- son between 1930 and 1932. Both had real problems adjusting to the harsh conditions in the refugee camps and became ill and depressed. Andersson and Jönsson also left for family obligations at home. See När & Fjärran, 1926, pp. 103–104, and k.m.a. collection, National Archives, c0443, f3a:1, Letters from Mathilda Andersson 1926 and Beatrice Jönsson 1930– 1932. 22 See Bjørnlund, Matthias & Hendel Philipsen, Iben, “Sorrow is Turned to Joy: A Play about the 1909 Adana Massacres, Staged by Armenian Genocide Survivors in Greece”, International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies, Vol. 1 (1), 2014, pp. 71–87, on the work of the Danish industrial mission, Industrimissionen i Armenien (im). 23 När & Fjärran, 1975, p. 29.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 52 småberg cesses.24 Julia Hauser stresses the importance of writing entangled history from a micro-historical perspective. According to Hauser, actor-centred analyses apt to challenge master narratives of cultural encounters in terms of ‘clash of civ- ilizations’ or Western dominance. Through micro-history we rather disguise complex processes of mutual entanglement and the role of human agency in affecting change.25 From my case-study, I will thus take into account the agency of actors in different but inter-connected spheres – a single missionary as well as women and children on the ground and in the home-country. I am in partic- ular interested in the connection between transnational life experiences and cosmopolitanism.26 Working practically with mothering and care in a local context did not mean that Alma Johansson was not able to also put her work within a wider cosmopolitan setting.27 A combination of micro-history and global history reveals both European and non-European women as significant actors in history without denying the ambiguities of their roles.28 Missionary women studies show how religious women, legitimized by religion, transgressed the domestic and national bor- ders in order to intervene for women’s rights in other parts of the world.29 Barbara Reeves Ellington, Kathryn Kish Sklar and Connie A. Shemo stress for example that Evangelical Protestantism in the United States promoted entrepreneurial business, individual self-determination and female empower- ment. At the same time the belief system considered other religions as inferior and perceived non-Protestant women as degraded others who needed rescu- ing. There was also a belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and Anti- Catholic and Anti-Orthodox sentiments. However, local actors also put

24 C. Midgley, A. Twells, J. Carlier, (eds.), Women in Transnational History: Connecting the Local and the Global. London/New York: Routledge, 2016, pp. 1–8. 25 J. Hauser, German Religious Women in Late Ottoman Beirut. Competing Missions, Lei- den/Boston: Brill, 2015, pp. 10–20. Hauser uses James Scott’s theory of “hidden transcripts” when discussing the agency of the supposedly subordinate. 26 It is argued that transnational experiences in everyday life are likely to foster an under- standing, respect and responsibility for people of different nations. Victor Roudometof holds that the transnational experiences should be conceived as involving several lay- ers and that the relationship between transnationalism and cosmopolitanism is more complex than what it might seem at first glance. Roudometof, Victor, “Transnational- ism, Cosmopolitanism and Glocalization”, Current Sociology, Vol. 5 (1), 2005, pp. 113– 135. 27 I develop this theme in Småberg, Maria, “On mission …”. 28 J. Hauser, German Religious Women …, pp. 18–20. 29 See e.g. I.M. Okkenhaug & I. Flaskerud (eds.), Gender, religion and change in the Middle East. Two hundred years of history. Oxford: Berg/New York, 2005.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 53 missionary ideas to new uses, a process by which Americans joined in social transformation. The missionaries also struggled to find the best way of meeting the demands of their host cultures.30 In this article I will discuss how mothering became a way for women to transgress spheres of domesticity and nationality, while at the same time remaining within its boundaries. I will also show the significance of the concept when interpreting women’s active involvement on the global stage. Most scholarship in women’s mission history has focused on American and British Protestant missionaries. I will here discuss a Swedish Lutheran mission- ary from a neutral small state, then give an example from another national and denominational context. Although Sweden was not a colonial power, Swedish missionaries worked within the colonial framework. However, as neutrals the Swedish missionaries could also choose to be independent from colonial and great-power politics.31 The Swedish Lutheran state church of this time with its Archbishop Nathan Söderblom was also highly influenced by and a promoter of ecumenical ideas.32 Alma Johansson did not see her task as converting Arme- nian Orthodox Christians to Protestantism, but rather to support them spiri- tually to keep their faith and help them physically to survive during times of crisis.33 Through her work, Johansson was thus part of a transnational human- itarian network that worked among Armenian refugees in the Middle East and Europe. The relief work has been called the first humanitarian intervention in modern times. What then was the background of this grand endeavour and how has previous research interpreted the role of missionary work and moth- ering in these events?

30 B. Reeves-Ellington, K. Kish Sklar & C.A. Shemo (eds.), Competing Kingdoms, Women, Mission, Nation, and the American Protestant Empire, 1812–1960, Durham & London, Duke University Press, 2010, pp. 1–16. 31 Jalagin, Seija, Okkenhaug, Inger Marie & Småberg, Maria, “Introduction. Nordic missions, gender and humanitarian practices: from evangelizing to development”, Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 40 (3), 2015, pp. 286–288. 32 Fahlbusch, Erwin et al, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Vol. 5, Si-Z, Grand Rapids, Michi- gan, Cambridge, u.k., Leiden, Boston: Brill, p. 247. 33 Inger Marie Okkenhaug elaborates on the recognition of the Armenian Orthodox Church among Scandinavian missionaries a long with a longing for a spiritual reformation within it. See Okkenhaug, Inger Marie “Women on a mission! Scandinavian Welfare and the Armenian refugees in the Ottoman Empire, 1905–1917”, in N. Naguib & I.M. Okkenhaug (eds.), Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East, Leiden: Brill, 2008, pp. 68–79.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 54 småberg

The Humanitarian Protection of Armenian Mothers and Children

Between one and two million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire in 1915–1917. Stereotyping and prejudice against the Christian communities developed and formed fierce identity politics characterised by ‘in- and out- group’-thinking.34 Katharine Derderian argues that not only nationalist iden- tity politics, but also gender was central in the Armenian genocide. We find a very early differentiation between men and women in Ottoman policy. Most of the men were arrested and executed at an early stage as a systematic elimina- tion of the Armenian military-aged male population, while women were forced out on death marches in the deserts. Many women, children and elderly died in the deserts from starvation, disease or suicide. Women and girls were also raped, kidnapped, and forced into marriage and sex slavery. When there were no men to protect them or no organized female resistance, women and chil- dren became defenseless targets of the persecutions.35 From witness reports we know of the brutality that both women and children faced during the death marches. For example, soldiers cut up the stomach of many pregnant women in order to stop new Armenian babies from being born. Many Armenian women gave birth during the marches, but were forced to continue the walk soon after the delivery. Several mothers were also forced to see their children die or to give them away or sell them in order to survive.36 A transnational humanitarian network, including international as well as local aid organizations, missionaries and individuals, established relief work and rescue homes for displaced women and children in for example Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Greece.37 Keith David Watenpaugh argues that in fact this international intervention laid the foundation for modern human- itarianism. He also recognizes Protestant missionaries as significant actors in

34 The international research on the Armenian genocide is extensive, see e.g. T. Akçam, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, London: Constable, 2007; D. Bloxham, The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenian. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; R. Hov- annisian (ed.), The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics, Houndmills: Palgrave, 1992; R. Hovannisian, (ed.), The Armenian Genocide in Perspective, New Brunswick, nj: Transac- tion Books, 1986. 35 Derderian, Katharine, “Common Fate …”, pp. 2–6. 36 K.-G. Karlsson, De som är oskyldiga idag kan bli skyldiga imorgon: Det armeniska folk- mordet och dess efterbörd. Stockholm: Atlantis, 2012, pp. 125–130 and Peroomian, Rubina I., “Women and the Armenian Genocide …”. 37 Watenpaugh, Keith David, “Between Communal Survival and National Aspiration: Arme- nian Genocide Refugees, The League of Nations, and the Practice of Interwar Humanitar- ianism”, Humanity, Vol. 5 (2), Summer 2014, pp. 159–181.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 55 the aid work.38 Inger Marie Okkenhaug has particularly studied the role of the Scandinavian women missionaries. She writes that the Armenian genocide led to a “tremendous need for external ‘mothers’ – to feed, shelter and bring up the many young children without guardians.” She mentions that the women missionaries are often portrayed as “mothers of a nation” when “saving the remnants of the Armenian nation”.39 Many of the missionaries also adopted Armenian children as their own.40 However, Okkenhaug also finds contradic- tions in the images of the mothers. Being in charge of large orphanages did not always give them the time to build closer relationships with the children.41 The focus of Okkenhaug’s studies is not on the mothering aspects specifically but rather on the aid work more generally. I will here draw on these findings and develop the discussion on mothering and the meaning of it from my case- study. I will also be attentive to the question of ambivalent relationships within mothering. Eleonor Tejirian discusses how American Near East Relief (ner), one of the main actors, was formed in 1915 to act for the Armenians and was the first broad national appeal to solicit funds from the American public for a suffering peo- ple.42 The campaign was unique in its use of media outlets and support from celebrity spokespeople and citizen volunteers alike. This effort grew and gave birth to what is now known as “citizen philanthropy” – appealing directly to the public to support humanitarian work overseas.43 Armenian mothers and children were at the focus in the outlets. Michelle Tusan shows that British women activists who urged other women to participate in helping their per-

38 Watenpaugh, Keith David, Bread from stones. The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, Oakland: University of California Press, pp. 1–29. 39 Danish Maria Jacobsen is called “the Mother of thousands of orphans” and “Mama Jacob- sen”. Similarly, Danish Karen Jeppe was after her death described as mother in obituaries by Armenians. See Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Scandinavian Missionaries …”, pp. 88–91. 40 So did Maria Jacobsen, Bodil Biørn and Karen Jeppe. See Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Scan- dinavian Missionaries …”, pp. 88–91. 41 Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Scandinavian Missionaries …”, pp. 90–91; Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Religion, relief and humanitarian work …” and Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Refugees, Relief and the Restoration …”, p. 225. 42 NearEastRelief was promoted by PresidentWoodrowWilson and funded by the American state, turning former missionary work into secular ngos. See Tejirian, Eleanor H. “Faith of Our Fathers: Near East Relief and the Near East Foundation – From Missions to ngo”, in E.H. Tejirian, R. Spector Simon (eds.), Altruism and Imperialism:Western Cultural and Reli- gious Missions in the Middle East, New York: Middle East Institute, Columbia University, 2002, pp. 295–316. 43 The model is used today by a majority of non-profit organizations around the world.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 56 småberg secuted Armenian sisters, shaped British humanitarianism.44 Feminist organi- zations, including the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (wilpf), were also engaged in the humanitarian campaigns. Mothering func- tioned as glue for an international identity which, among others, the interna- tional women’s peace movements tried to create.45 Mothering in a public sense was also at the center for philanthropists who tried to promote morality and create progressive reforms within the nation- states in the late 19th Century. In Sweden at this time there was a strong mater- nal discourse on ‘social mothering’. Philanthropic organizations educated poor mothers, but also offered concrete help in nurseries and with breast-feeding. Unmarried women could practice mothering as ‘social mothers’ in schools, hospitals and prisons. Social mothers should also promote peace and take global responsibility. For these reasons, the society needed ‘good mothering’.46 This discourse also drew international attention, especially through the writ- ings of Ellen Key.47 However, maternalism has been criticized for keeping women out of male dominated professions. It can also reinforce essentialist or conservative assumptions about mothering as well as Western superiority.48 These aspects of maternalism in the home countries are however important for understanding the feminist engagement in the mothers’ situation and some- thing that I will bring with me when discussing the transnational relations between Swedish and Armenian mothers. My example also brings in perspec- tives on women’s transnational actions other than the Anglo-Saxon research. In the various missions there was a great emphasis on the religious iden- tity of the refugees and the imperative of rescuing fellow Christians. There was also a tendency to describe a battle field between Muslim and Christian

44 M. Tusan, Smyrna’s Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the Middle East, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012, pp. 35–39. 45 Rupp, Leila J., “Constructing Internationalism. The case of transnational women’s organi- zations, 1880–1945”, American Historical Review, Vol. 5, 1994, pp. 1582–1586. 46 See e.g. C. Tornbjer, Den nationella modern. Moderskap i konstruktioner av svensk natio- nell gemenskap under 1900-talets första hälft, Lund: Studia Historica Lundensia, 2002; U.Wikander, (ed.), Det evigt kvinnliga. En historia om förändring, Stockholm:Tidens förlag, 1994; R. Ambjörnsson, Ellen Key. En europeisk intellektuell, Stockholm: Bonniers förlag, 2012. 47 Swedish author Ellen Key promoted social mothering in Barnets århundrande (1900) which was translated into English in 1909 as The Century of the Child. 48 M. Taussi Sjöberg, T. Vammen (eds.), På tröskeln till välfärden. Välgörenhetsformer och arenor i Norden 1800–1930, Stockholm: Carlsson, 1995; E. Larsen, Gender and the welfare state: Maternalism – a new historical concept?, Bergen: University of Bergen, 1996.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 57 civilizations.49 Matthias Bjørnlund and Inger-Marie Okkenhaug have written extensively on the Scandinavian response to the Armenian Genocide from the missionary perspective.50 Women in Scandinavia were also moved by the fate of their Armenian Christian ‘sisters’. Apart from Alma Johansson, for example Maria Jacobsen, Amalia Lange, Karen Marie Petersen, Jenny Jensen and Han- sine Marcher from Denmark, and Bodil Biørn and Thora von Wedel-Jarlsberg from Norway also participated in the k.m.a. work among the Armenians. Narratives of raped Armenian women were common within the humanitar- ian campaigns in America and Europe. There was then a discursive framing and governing of women’s bodies and sexuality.51 We also find these aspects in the local Armenian aid work. Vahé Tachjian discusses the ambivalence of the rehabilitation attempts for Armenian women. They were conceived both as national mothers in national rhetoric and at the same time stigmatized because they had been raped or forced to prostitute themselves.52 However, Victoria Rowe, who has written about Armenian women refugees’ strategies of survival, shows that these women were also welcomed back to the Armenian society in various ways.53 In my article I will give examples of how this reintegration was performed within the Swedish aid work, but also discuss its limits.

49 See e.g. Watenpaugh, Keith David, “The League of Nations’ Rescue …”; M. Tusan, Smyrna’s Ashes …, pp. 35–39. 50 See e.g. Bjørnlund, Matthias, “Before the Armenian Genocide: Danish Missionary and Rescue Operations in the Ottoman Empire, 1900–1914”, Haigazian Armenological Review, Vol. 26, 2006, pp. 141–164; “‘Ett Folk Myrdes’: Det Armenske Folkmord i Danske Kilder”, Master’s thesis. Copenhagen: Copenhagen University, 2005; Det armenske folkedrab: Fra begyndelsentilenden, Copenhagen: Kristeligt Dagblads Forlag, 2013; PåHerrensMark.Nød- hjælp, mission og kvindekamp under det armeniske folkedrab, Viborg: Kristeligt Dagblads Forlag, 2015; and Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Women on a mission …”; “Scandinavian Mis- sionaries …”,“Refugees, Relief and Restoration …”; “Religion, relief and humanitarian work …”, En norsk filantrop. Bodil Biørn og armenierna 1905–1934. Kristiansand: Portal forlag, 2016. See also G. Gunner, Folkmordet på armenierna – sett med svenska ögon, Skellefteå: Artos och Norma förlag, 2012; S. Lundgren, I svärdets tid: Det osmanska folkmordet på kristna minoriteter. Otalampi: Sahlgrens, 2010. 51 Edgren, Monika, “Sexuellt våld …”. 52 Tachjian, Vahé, “Gender, nationalism, exclusion …”, pp. 67–75. See also Derderian, Katha- rine, “Common fate …”. 53 Rowe, Victoria, “Armenian Women Refugees …”.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 58 småberg

Mothers, Mothering and Mission

Alma Johansson mothered Armenian children, empowered Armenian moth- ers, and turned Swedish women into globally aware foster mothers. Mother- hood was a central and debated issue inWestern feminism during the 20th Cen- tury. In this article I make a distinction between motherhood and mothering as discussed by Sara Ruddick. Biological motherhood concerns a child’s survival through nursing and caring. However, other women and also men can practice the activity of mothering. Mothering as a social practice is then distinguished from various forms of biological motherhood (as well as from fathering, i.e. from the practice with children that men are traditionally connected with).54 At the center of mothering is the ethics of care which is usually performed in close relationships in the private sphere, the family. Society often trivializes maternal practice. Sara Ruddick, on the other side, shows the richness, worth and dignity of mothering as a typical human practice in many spheres of the society. Maternal practice should not only be performed in the private realm but in the public as well, for example in institutions of education and social care.55 Along with Fiona Robinson and others, I argue that Ruddick’s mater- nal thinking is not about idealizing, essentializing and depoliticizing women.56 However, at the period of my case it was common for women to make essen- tialist interpretations of the role of women. Motherhood then became a way to legitimize their transgression of boundaries within the society. I therefore find the focus on mothering as a social practice a suitable heuristic tool for this analysis. There are also global links.57 This is of particular interest here since moth- erhood is often connected to the nation, both biologically and culturally/sym- bolically.58 Jeannine Hill Fletcher holds that in a tribalistic mode it is moth- ering that is closed within one’s own private sphere, culture and religion and against the ‘other’. However, Hill Fletcher also argues for a mother-love that binds people together in a cosmopolitan sense. From a cosmopolitan view- point, people are part of a local and narrow community, but simultaneously woven into a wider global world of solidarity with those who are different.59

54 S. Ruddick, Maternal thinking … 55 S. Ruddick, Maternal thinking …; V. Held, The Ethics of Care …; E.F. Kittay, Love’s Labor … 56 Robinson, Fiona, “Discourses of motherhood and women’s health: Maternal Thinking as feminist politics”, Journal of International Political Theory, Vol. 10 (1), 2013, pp. 99–102. 57 Robinson, Fiona, “Discourses of motherhood …”, pp. 94–108. 58 N. Yuval-Davis, Gender & Nation … 59 J. Hill Fletcher, Motherhood as Metaphor …

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 59

How such cosmopolitan mothering was expressed within the entangled rela- tionships between Swedish and Armenian mothers and how Alma Johansson acted as an intermediary between the two spheres and enabled the transna- tional exchanges is an important aspect of my analysis. In missionary history many scholars have shown that white western mis- sionary women felt a responsibility to uplift ‘other’ women in foreign countries. Scholars such as Catherine Hall and Patricia Grimshaw point at tendencies of a colonial feminism where women missionaries looked upon themselves as adult ‘mothers’ in relation to indigenous ‘children’ or ‘daughters’ who needed education, cultivation and guidance.60 Susan Thorne also argues that British women missionaries acted as promoters of colonial feminism. When British women missionaries got the opportunity to leave the domestic sphere for a professional career abroad with more freedom to act they did so at the expense of indigenous women. According to Thorne, a strong “hierarchical sisterhood” was created through the women missionaries who took care of children and educated the other women to become good mothers. “Caring and control went hand in hand”, she writes.61 Grimshaw also shows how western missionaries pressed their values and traditions on the local population that included prac- tices of marriage, family planning and education. The western superiority was taken for granted.62 Kumari Jayawardena has studied European women missionaries in Southern Asia and their work to improve women’s health and possibilities of education. She, on the other hand, interprets this work in positive terms and understands it as a feminization of Christianity and a counterpoint towards male hierar- chies. Women missionaries became role-models for indigenous women who did not only become good Christian mothers and wives. The missionary work also embarked on a professional career and political activism among local women.63 Nancy C. Lutkehaus coined the term “Missionary Maternalism” when studying the empowerment of women and children in New Guinea by Catholic missionaries.64 Jane Haggis also discusses the way in which the concept of “native agency” mediates the intersection of gender, class and racial presump-

60 C. Hall, White, Male and Middle Class; Grimshaw, Patricia, “Faith, Missionary Life …”. 61 Thorne, Susan, “Missionary-Imperial Feminism …”, p. 52. 62 Grimshaw, “Faith, Missionary Life …”. 63 K. Jayawardena, The White Woman’s Other Burden, New York: Routledge, 1995. 64 Lutkehaus, Nancy C., “Missionary Maternalism: Gendered Images of the Holy Spirit Sisters in Colonial New Guinea”, in M. Taylor Huber, N.C. Lutkehaus (eds.), Gendered Mission. Women and Men in Missionary Discourse and Practice, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999, pp. 207–235.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 60 småberg tions.65 Thus, we can see ambivalences in the work of western women mission- aries with tendencies of both colonial control and empowerment. However, it is important to view each case in its context; in this instance how mothering is performed in a humanitarian crisis. In my interpretation cosmopolitan moth- ering deals with a combination of concrete work and attentiveness when taking care of children, the creation of global awareness and engagement for distant others as well as the openness and responsiveness for the complexity of situ- ated and diverse maternal experiences in various contexts. We will now look closer into the narratives of Alma Johansson and in what ways her work can be perceived with a cosmopolitan mothering lens.

Mothering Armenian Orphans

As we have seen, women missionaries were often portrayed as mothers when taking care of Armenian orphans. However, scholars find contradictions in the images of the external Scandinavian mothers. In interviews with Armenian children brought up in Maria Jacobsen’s orphanage The Bird’s Nest in Beirut, it is obvious that although she was called “Mama”, she did not give priority to mothering. According to Nafissa Naguib’s interviews: “Maria Jacobsen was busy administrating and could not be a ‘mayrik’. She was the captain.”66 In fact Jacobsen was head of the largest orphanage in the Middle East, which was a very demanding job. Bodil Biørn, on the other hand, was more of a mother, according to Inger Marie Okkenhaug. Biørn was in charge of a smaller operation and she therefore had more time to build personal relationships with the children. At the same time, a small boy in the orphanage saw Biørn as something different from a regular mother when calling her “baron mayrig” (Mr. mother).Thus, Okkenhaug concludes thatWestern women being in charge were not only seen as mothers, but also as having male roles.67

65 Haggis, Jane, “‘Good wives and mothers or dedicated workers’? Contradictions of domes- ticity in the ‘mission of sisterhood’, Travancore, south India”, in K. Ram, M. Jolly (eds.), Maternities and modernities. Colonial and postcolonial experiences in Asia and the Pacific, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 81– 113. 66 Naguib, Nafissa, “A nation of widows and orphans. Armenian memories of relief in Jerusa- lem”, in N. Naguib and I.M. Okkenhaug (eds.), Interpreting welfare and relief in the Middle East, Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008, p. 49. See also Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Scandinavian Missionaries …”, pp. 90–91. 67 Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Religion, relief and humanitarian work …”. Okkenhaug also compares Biørn’s work to ner and shows that she wanted to establish “a small, per-

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 61

In order to understand the mothering of Alma Johansson, I will rely on the thinking of Sara Ruddick who discusses three basic activities of mothering which are necessary for a child to survive and develop: preservativelove (looking after basic needs), fostering growth (developing and educating) and social acceptability (responding to a child in his/her terms and instilling processes that allow a child to become acceptable within a community). What Ruddick calls ‘maternal thinking’ is the unity of reflection, judgment and emotion that arises in relation to these demands. Above all, mothering is about building the relationship with the child on attentive love and trust.68 In this part I will pay extra attention to maternity as a social practice that can be performed with ‘others’ that are not our biological children.

Preservative Love Within k.m.a. it was important to describe Alma Johansson in maternal terms. k.m.a. co-worker Sigrid Kurck writes that Johansson “after a while became “mayrik” for a crowd of seventy boys aged 1.5–8 years old.” Alma Johansson herself notes: “It was a happy time. It was certainly tense, both day and night, and I often made the night become day, but I never found the work difficult.”69 Johansson often expressed her love for children when describing them as “sweet” and “precious”.70 Writing about her first arrival in the orphanage, she noted how her soul was struck by seeing all the children:

How I longed to, as much as God gave me the opportunity, to replace somewhat of the parent love that they had lost. And when I then became responsible for 80 of the youngest in the boys’ home and become a mummy for them, yes, how can I describe these years! I think God gave me as a gift and a response to the prayers to feel as a mother for them. (…) Looking back at these years, I feel as if I was carried in a wonderful way, also through the hard times. What I experienced with my little ones, both in times of health and illnesses, what I experienced of the Lord’s work in the child hearts, yes, my heart is burning by the thought of it.71

sonal and unhurried recovery for the weakest children”, in contrast to ner’s “extremely large, highly efficient and groundbreaking refugee work”. See Okkenhaug, Inger Marie, “Refugees, Relief and Restoration …”, p. 225. 68 S. Ruddick, Maternal thinking …, pp. 61–123. 69 Kurck, Sigrid, “Martyrfolket …”, pp. 40–41. 70 När & Fjärran, 1907, p. 11. 71 Johansson, Alma, “I tjänst bland de förtryckta” in Budkavle kommer, budkavle går: Jubile- umsskrift, 1894–1944, Stockholm: kma, 1944, p. 64.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 62 småberg

Johansson also had a foster child, Dufwa, in Mezereh.72 She took care of the girl after her mother died in child birth. In a letter she writes: “My foster daughter brings me so much joy. Oh, how good the Lord is! I taught with pain, when I took her, that she might be difficult to raise. The Lord gave me her directly, and I have fully given her in His faithful care, and it is good to see how the Lord holds his hand over her. Everybody loves her for her calm and friendly presence (…).”73 However, when Johansson went back to Stockholm for studies in 1907, she left the girl behind in the orphanage.74 In 1924 she asks in a letter to k.m.a. to get the allowance to adopt another child: “It is such a bright little boy, with big, expressive eyes. Miss Kurck, here are so many children of that kind, and I wish I could take care of each of them. Is this not possible? Do not be angry with me for asking you about this! The little one only wore a rag! I can sew clothes for him and I look forward to seeing his delight.”75 However, k.m.a. turned her request down because the leaders thought she must concentrate on her work. Thus, there were certain limits to an external mother.76 Both in the orphanages in Turkey as well as in her work in the refugee camps, Johansson provided children with food, health care, clothes, and protection. For example, Alma Johansson describes how, when the violence reached Mush during the genocide, she tried to protect the orphanage as much as she could. It was a difficult task. She writes that she closed the gate together with two other women. They were then fired at and the other women were hit. One of them died immediately, the other was badly injured and died later among her friends inside the orphanage.77 She also writes about the hard conditions in

72 J. Carlsson, Tiga kan jag inte …, pp. 76–77, 82–83. 73 J. Carlsson, Tiga kan jag inte …, p. 77. 74 J. Carlsson, Tiga kan jag inte … 75 När & Fjärran, 1924, 148. 76 It appears that Alma Johansson had another foster daughter. In an article in När & Fjärran is a girl called Christa who lives in Athens described as her foster daughter. När & Fjärran, 1945, p. 164. 77 A. Johansson, Ettfolkilandsflykt, Stockholm: k.m.a., 1930, pp. 25–30. I analyze this incident more in Småberg, Maria, “Witnessing the Unbearable: Alma Johansson and the Massacres of the Armenians 1915”, in K. Aggestam, A. Björkdahl (eds.), War and Peace in Transi- tion. Changing Roles of External Actors, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2009, pp. 107–127 and develop the theme of protection in Småberg, Maria, “‘The Vulnerable Guardian’ – Images of women and security in Alma Johansson’s witness accounts of the 1915 Armenian Genocide”, online at http://globalstudies.gu.se/digitalAssets/1373/1373002_the-vulnerable -guardian.pdf. Malin Gregersen develops the theme of missionary women as protectors in “Protecting people in protected places. Gender, perceptions of protection and the Scan-

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 63 the refugee camps as the refugees lacked food and clothing. Children died of diseases such as fevers and typhus, from starvation and there was a constant need for medicines and health care.78 “Mothers have sunk under the great demands. In the brother country – Greece – one has not managed to give bread to each mother who has asked for bread for their little ones.”79 From the opening of the first k.m.a. school in Thessaloniki in 1927, Johansson decided to serve food every day and she writes how the school children then became much healthier.80 However, sometimes the children needed to take care of the household when the parents were ill or away for work and were not allowed to go to school. The 12-years-old Hropsine took care of her sick father and three smaller brothers. She also did needle-work. Alma Johansson writes: “She has a too heavy burden to carry and she does not appear as a child any more, but rather like a troubled family provider”. Asnif therefore invited the girl to stay in her home for some days “to breathe and be free from home duties”. However, the mother needed her back at home after only a few days.81 Hard realities were again a challenge.

Fostering Growth The development and education of Armenian children was a priority task for missionary work. Both in the orphanages in Turkey and in the k.m.a. schools in the refugee camps in Thessaloniki it was especially important to give the children a Christian education. In Johansson’s eyes it was a way of preventing immorality. “It is hopeless to see the children without a school. They become so wild (…) Again and again we see how important it is to take good care of the children. (…) It is all too painful to see how children of a Christian people return to a natural state.”82 For a missionary, it was not enough to provide the children with material and physical aid; they also needed moral and spiritual support. This fostering attitude based on hierarchical thinking and control was common in other missionary orphanages elsewhere in the Middle East.83 In an

dinavian women of ywca Changsha, China, 1917–1927”, Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 40 (3), 2015, pp. 382–404. 78 När & Fjärran, 1924, pp. 99–101; 1924, pp. 146–147. 79 När & Fjärran, 1924, pp. 146–147. 80 A. Johansson, Armeniskt flyktingliv, Stockholm: k.m.a., 1931, p. 12. See also När & Fjärran, 1933, pp. 89–90. 81 När & Fjärran, 1927, p. 121. 82 När & Fjärran, 1928, p. 66. 83 See e.g. J. Hauser, GermanReligiousWomen …; B. Baron,TheOrphanScandal.ChristianMis- sionaries and the Rise of Muslim Brotherhood, Stanford, ca: Stanford University Press, 2014.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 64 småberg honorary article for Alma Johansson’s 60th birthday it is however highlighted that “as a mother she has loved and suffered. She also understood when her children went astray and she wanted to love them back.”84 Johansson also greatly emphasized saving a nation and its cultural heritage through education. This becomes especially evident in her reports on the edu- cation in the k.m.a. schools after the war. Johansson writes in 1922: “It is mar- velous indeed that Armenians are so eager to learn. (…) But if the Armenians are going to take their place among the nations, they must be made capable for that.”85 In the k.m.a. schools in Thessaloniki, the children learned Greek and Armenian.86 Even if the refugees now lived in Greece, and they themselves spoke Turkish from the time when they lived in Turkey, they gave priority to an education in Armenian for their children. When Alma Johansson promoted an Armenian education, she respected in this way the right to a particular cultural attachment.87 She was not there to give them education on Swedish standards. She wanted them to keep their Armenian identity and at the same time be able to get along in a new home country. Johansson’s work was thus in line with Armenian community activists in several countries as well as the League of Nations and ner that set up orphanages in various cities of the Mid- dle East in order to preserve the Armenian national identity.88 This actually rejects assumptions about a one-way transfer of one culture to another and rather points at a cultural responsiveness and entanglements.89

Social Acceptability For Johansson, it was also important to respond to the children in their terms. Attentiveness and trust was a basic element for this. When working at the orphanage in Mush, she writes: “I do love them, I feel. They come to me in the evenings to say good night and then they expect Mayrik to have some spare time for them. We then have both funny and serious conversations. Yes,

84 När & Fjärran, 1941, p. 143. 85 När & Fjärran, 1922, pp. 61–62. 86 När & Fjärran, 1933, pp. 73–74. 87 See e.g. Roudometof, Victor, “Transnationalism …”, pp. 113–135 for a discussion on particu- lar cultural attachments within the cosmopolitan thinking. 88 Ünggör, Ugur Ümit, “Orphans, Converts and Prostitutes: Social Consequences of War and persecution in the Ottoman Empire, 1914–1923”, War in History, Vol. 19 (2), 2012, pp. 175– 181. See also Watenpaugh, Keith David, “Are there Any Children for Sale?: Genocide and the Transfer of Armenian Children (1915–1922)”, Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 12, 2013, pp. 283–295. 89 See J. Hauser, German Religious Women …, pp. 10–20.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 65 there are many happy moments in work!”90 Johansson often comes back in her writings to the many traumas of the youth from the days of the genocide.91 She also writes about their hopeless situation and how hard it is to find a job. “No wonder that they become lazy? These young men and young women’s best time is wasted, and there is a real risk that they enter into bad paths in life. (…) The Armenians are no saints, although they have suffered a lot for their faith – they have many shortcomings, but they are a hard-tested people, worth our compassion and our help as they are sharing the same precious faith.”92 The moral and respectable life is put at danger among the youth, but they should be met with sympathy and mercy, not moralizing. After all they were fellow Christians. At the same time, the help was conditional. Johansson also helped the children to become independent and to take care of themselves. During the German occupation of Greece during the war, Armenians were sent to work in German factories. Alma reported from her letters to the Swedish readers that the Armenians were doing well there, that they were appreciated and well regarded workers.93 Wehanusch, one of the young women, started to work in a factory in Württemberg. She wrote to Johansson in 1943 and described their difficulties in life, but also how most of them have found a way to make a living and how they are capable of helping each other. She also remembers the time with Alma Johansson in Thessaloniki:

Soon it is Christmas again. “Wondering what I get for Christmas by Majrig this year”, we used to say at this time of the year. Yes, it was a happy time we had together. Now I am a stranger again. I often sing “I am a pilgrim”. Yes, Majrig, I still love to sing “Jerusalem”, but always with tears, because the memories overwhelm me. How we sang that song at your place.94

Here, Wehanusch expresses gratitude to Johansson for providing her and her friends with a kind of shelter or haven during the hard conditions in the refugee camps inThessaloniki. She also calls Johansson “Majrig”.This care work performed in close relations seemed to have helped them to stand on their own feet.

90 När & Fjärran, 1913, pp. 6–7. 91 När & Fjärran, 1922, pp. 26–28, 47–49, 61–62, 136–137, 1924, pp. 111–114; 1926, pp. 114–117; 1927, pp. 103, 1938, p. 29; 1945, p. 133. 92 När & Fjärran, 1922, pp. 103–104. 93 När & Fjärran, 1942, p. 136. 94 När & Fjärran, 1943, pp. 5–6.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 66 småberg

Long-Distance Mothering

Within k.m.a. we can find a transnational link between Swedish and Armenian mothers and children through material and emotional support and exchanges. Christian mission movements involved not only activities on the field, but also at home.95 Alma Johansson’s books and many articles to the k.m.a. magazine När & Fjärran are examples of such contributions. So are all the lecture tours she made while on vacation at home. When Swedish women read about her work and the many Armenian life-stories, they themselves took action. The Swedish k.m.a. sent clothes, food and money to Johansson in the field, who, together with her local assistants, distributed the material support among Armenians in need.96 They organized a system where they gave tickets to the people in need, so that the distribution in this way could be as fair and reach as many as possible. Johansson writes how she could “feel the love” within each package sent from Sweden and how the Swedish goods were well received and appreciated.97 The aid had personal touches. It was also directed to children. Swedish k.m.a. sent baby clothes to Thessaloniki. But Johansson also mentions how she sent Armenian needle work to be sold in Sweden, among other things blankets for baby strollers. There was in this sense an exchange of baby items.98 In order to reach out to the Swedish women, k.m.a. had its own publishing company and chronicle.99Through so-called book stations in over 100 places all over the country, they spread literature and booklets. They also arranged meet- ings for women, youth and children. For example they gave lantern lectures and organized sewing circles and other events. There were also activities for chil- dren. Daggryningen was a sewing circle and mission club for youth, and Våra

95 For a further discussion on transnationalism, ‘world culture’ and Christian missions, see H. Nielssen, I.M. Okkenhaug & K. Hestad Skeie (eds.), Protestant Mission and Local Encounters in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 2–4. 96 In När & Fjärran were detailed reports published on how the clothes were collected and packed in Stockholm and then sent to Thessaloniki on Swedish boats. In its enterprise, k.m.a. received help and sponsoring from various Swedish companies. See När & Fjärran, 1925, pp. 130–131. 97 När & Fjärran, 1925, pp. 39–40; 1930, pp. 27–28. 98 I develop the material cultural aspects of this exchange of textiles in Småberg, Maria, “‘Kärlek mötte mig i varje stycke’. Mission och materialitet i det humanitära arbetet bland armeniska flyktingar i Thessaloniki, 1923–1947”, din, Vol. 2, 2015, pp. 87–116. 99 k.m.a. had a mission column in Swedish ywca’s chronicle Hemåt before it started its own chronicle När & Fjärran in 1904.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 67 minsta carried out philanthropic work for children. Swedish children learned in this way about the mission and collected money for children in foreign coun- tries and these meetings became very popular. Every year k.m.a. arranged a so called ‘Day of privation’ (Försakelsedagen), usually on All Saints’ Day, for the Armenian cause. It was a day of information, fundraising and prayer. So called Golden Rule dinners with just a simple dish were served as a concrete way to show solidarity. Many Swedish families also had Armenian “foster chil- dren” whom they supported economically. The exchange of letters was com- mon.100 When k.m.a. engendered “The Golden Rule Day” and “The Day of the Armenian children”,they followed international campaigns that focused on the “international babies”.101 In some articles Swedish mothers were asked as mothers to engage for a child or to support an Armenian mother financially. Armenian orphans are then described as sad and with tears in their dark eyes, longing for a mother, and in this way calling to a mother’s heart.102 Johansson also writes: “All happy mothers, think of the many mothers here who almost succumb, but all the same are driven by the wish to foster their children to Christian and capable people.”103 Swedish mothers had a responsibility to act for the less fortunate. The Swedish mother was also asked to foster her own children to engage for others.104 One example is a letter published in 1921 from six Swedish poor children. They write how they had received 10 sek from their unemployed father to buy Christmas gifts, but how they instead decided to give the money to the Armenian children. “God wants us to give the money to them. We think we will get a nice Christmas all the same, because daddy has said that we will get a Christmas tree”. They also ask the magazine to publish their letter, not because they wanted credit for it, but as an example for others to act in the same way. “Then a lot of money can be gathered”.105 Accordingly, there are also many letters from Armenian children giving thanks for the long-term Swedish support.106 The voices of the children were thus important for the humanitarian narrative. The transmission of moral and material support over national and cultural borders between k.m.a. in Sweden and its local branch inThessaloniki was also

100 See Trons framsynthet …, pp. 14–15. Children’s books were also spread. 101 När & Fjärran, pp. 111–114. 102 När & Fjärran, 1926, p. 57. 103 När & Fjärran, 1935, pp. 146–147. 104 När & Fjärran, 1921, pp. 5–6. 105 När & Fjärran, 1921, 5–6. 106 See e.g. När & Fjärran, 1913, 84; 1925, 40; 1928, 119; 1930, 150–151; 1938, 100; 1943, 93; 1947, 7.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 68 småberg complemented with actions taken on an international level. k.m.a. sent a joint petition from all the Scandinavian branches to the League of Nations in 1921 “on help and protection to the unhappy people of Armenia”.107 Alma Johansson was in close contact with Sigrid Kurck, the k.m.a. co-worker, who campaigned for the Armenians in missionary circles in both Sweden and Denmark.108 Kurck was the head of the Swedish Armenian Committee and a delegate of the International Near East Association (i.n.e.a.) in Geneva, which was founded in 1922 for among other things lobbying in the League of Nations.109 Thus, we can see a link to the international arena here.

Empowering Armenian Mothers

The ideology of “national reconstruction” was strong within the Armenian communities in the Middle East as a response to the genocide. The efforts were focused on orphans and women without a family. There was a strong inclination both in speeches by the responsible leaders of the time and in the Armenian press to rebuild the Armenian national identity. During this national regeneration, defending, caring for and educating the orphans and women in an Armenian environment became an act of “cleansing” from the “turkification” that they had been subjected to.110 The rehabilitation attempts of Armenian women were however beset with contradictions. The Armenian women were in one way conceived as national mothers in national rhetoric.111 As mothers and wives they were expected to preserve and restore the national existence through their purity – clinging to religion, language, family and morals – and fertility – giving birth to more children. At the same time the Armenian society was uncertain about the possibility to “cleanse” the women raped and abducted for prostitution. The community also ignored the socio- psychological aspects which led many Armenian girls and women to isolate themselves from or abandon their national community for fear of stigmati-

107 När & Fjärran, 1921, pp. 89–90. 108 Baroness Sigrid Kurck wrote the prefaces in Johansson’s books and Johansson wrote the obituary in När & Fjärran after the death of Kurck. Johansson then mentioned how she often passed by Kurck’s estate in southen Sweden, on her way to Turkey or Greece. 109 När & Fjärran, 1923, pp. 120–121. I develop the topic of discursive spaces in Småberg, Maria, “Witness Narratives as Resistance and Recovery …”. 110 Tachjian, “Gender, nationalism, exclusion …”. 111 In many countries national motherhood was a strong theme of this time, also in Sweden. See C. Tornbjer, Den nationella modern …

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 69 zation. There was a severe and intolerant attitude towards a mother with a child born from a Muslim father. Even if the child was born out of a forced marriage or rape, it was often rejected by the mother’s family and even in orphanages and rescue homes.112 Many Armenian women therefore stayed in their new Muslim families which means that many Turks today actually have Armenian grandmothers.113 However, some scholars argue that women who had been raped and forced to work as prostitutes also were welcomed back to the Armenian society in various ways.114 The example of Bodil Biørn’s work among Armenian refugee women in Aleppo shows that was also the case there.115 Thus, the door was not entirely closed for the Armenian moth- ers. Alma Johansson described how the violence during the genocide was directed against women and how they were victims of rape, prostitution and forced marriages.116 In one article she writes about four generations of women whom she had met in the refugee camps of Thessaloniki. One old woman, digin Atenig, and her daughter Satenig became widows early. When the war broke out they were deported with the 13-years-old granddaughter Bajdsar. When a Turkish official wanted to marry Bajdsar and also give place for the mother and grandmother in his home, they thought this was a better oppor- tunity than continuing the death march, which they thought was in front of them. The Turkish man, who also had other wives, treated them well. How- ever, the women wanted to remain Armenian. When Bajdsar had a daughter she took her to a priest in secret to baptize her baby. After the peace treaty, the women escaped from the harem life and on different ways they came as refugees to Thessaloniki.117 In this story we find a traditional theme of forced marriage and escape, but also counter themes of a Turkish man treating the Armenian women well and reflections of the women’s destiny ending up in a difficult situation in a refuge camp. Johansson stressed how their faith in God sustained them.

112 Tachjian, “Gender, nationalism, exclusion …”,pp. 67–75. See also Derderian, “Common fate …”. 113 Alyse Gül Altinay writes about the “discovery” of Armenian grandmothers in today’s Turkey in Altinay, Ayse Gül, “Gendered silences, gendered memories”, L’homme: European Journal of Feminist History, Vol. 24, (2), 2013. 114 Rowe, Victoria, “Armenian Women Refugees …” 115 Okkenhaug, “Religion, relief and humanitarian work …”, pp. 442–444. 116 I develop this theme in Småberg, “Witnessing the Unbearable …”. 117 När & Fjärran, 1927, p. 101.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 70 småberg

After the war Alma Johansson also writes how surviving Armenian women continued their lives and made a living for themselves and their families. Their situation was not easy at all since most of them came to live under extremely difficult and poor conditions in refugee camps far away. As refugees they were uprooted from their homes and livelihoods, often separated from their families. Johansson writes: “Many mothers are real heroines. What do we know of their tears, prayers and anguish! (…) They have been living in an abnormal situation for 18 years now. If you and I were one of them, how would we be?”118 In another article she describes how a mother who is ill with tuberculosis in desperation tries to strangle her two little boys.119 Moreover, Johansson writes about a woman who breast-feeds a two-year-old child. The mother explains: “When we have nothing to eat, it calms the little one somehow”.120 As a nurse and midwife, she also describes special sanitary needs of women and risks of maternal deaths.121 Alma Johansson was marked by the encounters with the refugees and tried to meet them with compassion: “Sometimes we must wipe away our tears for the suffering, joy and gratitude. Oh, I feel so small and unworthy in front of all this. (…) It is so much more important for me to bring in as much sun as possible in the children’s world, God’s sunshine, so that they may become sun beams in their homes.”122 When describing the surviving Armenian women refugees, Johansson con- tinues to represent them as pitiful victims who lacked hope. However, empathic listening, education and needlework enterprise could bring hope and empow- erment to them – they were in fact not helpless in the eyes of Johansson. Thus, after the genocide we find a shift in the images of the Armenian women where their agency is also emphasized. For example, after an encounter with women who had been through the desert marches, Johansson nevertheless sees signs of hope: “I think it is God’s great mercy that they do not become dull and emotionless. When they hear that I also had to share a little of their suffering, and feel that I have deep compassion for them, then we are not strangers to each other.”123 Empathic listening could help these women to find new courage in life, in Johansson’s view. When listening to another life-story of suffering, she writes that she “feels like standing on a tear stained hallowed ground.”124

118 När & Fjärran, 1934, p. 9. 119 När & Fjärran, 1924, pp. 26–27. 120 När & Fjärran, 1925, p. 56. 121 När & Fjärran, 1910, pp. 88–90; 1911, pp. 7–8. 122 När & Fjärran, 1934, pp. 47–48. 123 När & Fjärran, 1921, pp. 19–21. 124 När & Fjärran, 1932, p. 120.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 71

She also describes significant emotional attachments between herself as care giver and the Armenian care receivers. They are no distant strangers to each other. Education and help to self-help in order to stand on one’s own were impor- tant aims within the relief work among Armenian refugees.125 Johansson writes for example about a young and ill widow with her little 7-year-old son who sews handkerchiefs:

It is a pleasure to receive her work, because it is so clean and well made. Sometimes she does not have strength to do more than two handkerchiefs a week and they cannot live on that. So I give them a bit extra. She is such a sweet and fine woman and she raises her son so well, it is a delight to see him.126

Alma Johansson started meetings for mothers each Monday where they were taught to read and founded an industry mission for women. In these projects she collaborated with local people and organizations. For example, a mother- ing attitude among the Armenian teachers in the schools was stressed. In 1927 Johansson writes about the teacher Mary Mordjickian and how the children liked her “maternal character”.127 In fact, Armenian women could also become social mothers. Johansson stressed the point that the industry mission made women bread- winners.128 Johansson finds it difficult to understand the Greek restrictions that prevented Armenians from finding work.129 The Armenian women had a great potential in the eyes of Johansson, but were restricted by their status as state- less.130 In the end, migration turned out to be the solution for them. At first, members of families sent money home from their work in for example Ger-

125 Tusan, Smyrna’s Ashes …; Miglio, Sarah, “America’s Sacred Duty: Near East Relief and the Armenian Crisis, 1915– 1930”, online at http://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/ miglio.pdf (cited with the permission of the author); Okkenhaug, “Women on a mission …”; Tejirian, “Faith of Our Fathers …”. 126 När & Fjärran, 1927, pp. 56–58. 127 När & Fjärran, 1927, p. 141. See also Johansson, Alma, “I tjänst bland de förtryckta …”, p. 68 where she writes about the fortune to have “kind teachers who took care of the children as mothers”. 128 A. Johansson, Armeniskt flyktingliv …, p. 13. 129 A. Johansson, Armeniskt flyktingliv …, p. 8. 130 For more information on the situation in Thessaloniki, see M. Mazower, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430–1950. London: HarperCollins, 2004.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access 72 småberg many and France. After the war, though, there was no other way then to leave Thessaloniki for good. Johansson’s assistant Sefora and her family were among the last to leave in 1947 for Soviet Armenia. Almost no Armenians were left behind them.131 Medina Haeri and Nadine Puechguirbal hold that the images used by many humanitarian actors to describe women’s wartime experiences are constituted by a homogenous group, who along with children and the elderly, are the most vulnerable and helpless victims of armed conflicts. In reality, it is important to remember how women show remarkable courage and resilience in coping with their serious challenges of trauma and survival. They take care of their children and serve as anchors for their families. They also find ways to help each other and find strength together.132 Both the specific challenges and vulnerabilities of women, but also their agency and capacity to confront and surmount the hardships of war and genocide must be acknowledged. In our case-study we find a belief in this strength of the mothers and various strategies for reintegration in a context that both honored and despised mothers.

From National to Cosmopolitan Mothers

Humanitarian interventions are ambivalent. Foreign missionaries and aid workers helped hundreds of thousands of Armenians to survive and make a living, “saving an entire generation”. At the same time we see how paternalism, turning the Armenians into objects of rescue and help from experts from out- side, was part of the humanitarian work. Humanitarianism also involves mater- nal aspects which are important to recognize. In this article I have emphasized mothering as a social practice in a global setting. When discussing mother- ing, I have made a distinction between biological motherhood and mothering as a social practice which gave rise to a more relational, contextual approach to humanitarianism. My aim was to discuss how mothering played out in the case of Johansson and how her transnational life also was reflected in maternal practice based on cosmopolitan values. For Alma Johansson it was important to appear as an external mother, but also to appeal to both Armenian and Swedish mothers alike. In her mothering we can find ambivalence, though, of

131 När & Fjärran, 1947, pp. 7; 158. 132 Haeri, Medina & Puechguirbal, Nadine, “From helplessness to agency: examining the plurality of women’s experiences in armed conflict”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 92 (877), March 2010, pp. 104–106.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access mission and cosmopolitan mothering 73 closeness and distance. She emphasized the importance of context, interde- pendence, relationships and responsibilities to concrete others. At the same time she describes the Armenian mothers and children as deserving poor wor- thy of help since they are Christians. The example of Alma Johansson shows that it is possible to perceive care- givers, external mothers, as cosmopolitan actors. Johansson did not stay within the private sphere of personal relationships in a local context. She crossed national, cultural and religious boundaries of care and searched for these close relations with concrete others in a global context. She also wanted to make the sufferings of the Armenians known to the public, to create compassion and make people take responsibility and act. The close relationships became a foundation for Armenians to help themselves, which made for sustainability. At the same time Alma Johansson has been perceived as a national mother by many Armenians. In some cases it has been difficult for certain groups to view their own Armenian women as national mothers because they had been raped and abducted. Maybe it is easier to describe an external mother such as Alma Johansson as a national mother. However, it is also a sign of cosmopolitanism within Armenian circles that they would embrace a Swedish missionary as their national mother.

Social Sciences and Missions 30 (2017) 44–73 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:38:28AM via free access