A Tale of Martyrdom and Redemption in Amazonian Ecuador
October 22, 2018
Long (The Revival of 1857–58) examines the 1956 killings of five missionaries in Ecuador in this intense, demanding book. The missionaries, all young men from Protestant evangelical denominations, were killed by local Waorani, a small, reclusive tribe known for their violence whom the missionaries were trying to reach. The story of continuing attempts to reach the Waorani as well as accounts of the deaths of the five young men became, Long argues, of vital importance for American Protestant evangelicals, key to fund-raising efforts as well as to the design of other missions. This is a complex, nuanced story with multiple, competing narrators from the missionary, Ecuadorian, international, and Waorani communities. Long is careful to give as much attention as possible to Waorani voices, which is particularly difficult given that the tribe had no consistent written language before the intervention of the missionaries. Long makes good use of oral histories and interviews as well as the more complex life of Dayomae, a long-time Christian convert who worked closely for many years with Protestant missionaries. This is a diligent, open-ended exploration of a little-known international incident.
Starred review from November 15, 2018
Long's book starts not at a beginning but at an ending, with the deaths of five young missionaries who come to Ecuador's Amazon rainforest to make contact with a village of Waorani people, who quickly attack and kill them. The incident attracted international attention that continued when, two years later, in 1958, Elizabeth Elliot, the wife of one of the missionaries, and Rachel Saint, the sister of another, came to the village and, with the assistance of a Wao woman, Dayomae, established peaceful relations with the Waorani. The women's mission was twofold: to encourage the villagers to convert to Christianity and to produce the biblical book of Mark in their language. Elliot lived with the Waorani for three years, but the strong-willed Saint stayed for nearly 25, becoming more and more proprietary as her missionary efforts became internationally celebrated. The author does an extraordinary job of recreating the experience, focusing her attention on both Saint and the Waorani. In a tour de force of research, Long demonstrates scrupulous attention to detail that enriches her exceedingly well-written narrative. The result is a paradigmatic work of religious literature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)