Mission and Cosmopolitan Mothering

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.