“No Fiancé, No Baptism”: Historicizing the Education of Girls through a 1953 Episode in the RCM Convent Girls School, Benin City, Nigeria

In 1953, officials of the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) Church in Benin City, Nigeria, requested schoolgirls Benin–Edo ethnic origin at local Convent Primary School preparing for baptism to bring their fiancés school as a condition baptism. The demand presentation fiancé was first time such given young teenage girls since establishment RCM City 1923. and affected girls’ relationship with denomination. examining historicizing this episode, paper asks answers following questions: Why did change policy origin? How affect schoolgirls, particularly relations faith, response? This uses archival documents, personal interviews some former church members, written sources find these questions reconstruct history women’s education under Parish colonial rule.