The Mary Slessor Heritage Project is a legacy preserving tourism, social, and hospitality initiative. It leverages on the life and legacies of 19th century Scottish Missionary, Mary Mitchel Slessor of the Church of Scotland, now Presbyterian Church, who served in Nigeria. She first set her foot in Calabar, Nigeria in September 1876 and devoted her life to missions, self-sacrificing service and social work in communities that make up present day Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi and Abia States.

Mary Slessor was an evangelist, a teacher, an arbitrator, medical aid worker and relentless crusader for the preservation of human life and dignity. She famously stopped the killing of Twins and babies of multiple birth and the banishment of their mothers, the application of poisonous “Esere beans” on people accused of witchcraft, human sacrifice and other obnoxious customs among the Efiks, Ibibios, Igbos and other tribes. For the success of her works, she earned the title “The White Queen of Okoyong”, as she came to be known in Great Britain.

This project is both a heritage mission and a tourism undertaking. We aim to recreate the essence of the life of Mary Slessor and to help Akwa Ibom people, Nigerians and visitors from foreign nations alike to relive her experience in the sense of natural, native, and humanitarian life.