Mazhar Makatemele was born in 1846 in Natal, South Africa. It was a turbulent time in her home country. When she was eleven years old, her village was raided. Mazhar was captured, enslaved, and sold to the Boers.
Then, in 1858 or 1859, she was either purchased by or 'gifted' to a Swedish businessman called Alarik Forsman. Forsman had founded a Swedish agricultural colony in South Africa with some other families. They named the settlement 'Scandinavia,' and it was here that Mazahr worked as a nursemaid.
In 1862, the Forsman family journeyed back home to Kalmar for a visit. Accompanying them were Mazahr and Dina Maria, another South African enslaved girl. When the Forsman family returned to South Africa, Dina Maria went with them, but Mazahr stayed in Sweden. She was already pregnant when debarking the ship in Sweden. Her daughter Emelia was born in Kalmar in the new year of 1863. The child's father is said to have been a man from the Transvaal province whose name is unknown, who had married Mazhar according to 'African customs.' A few years later, in 1864, Mazhar was baptized and given the Christian name Sara Magdalena. She initially worked for Carl Johan Borell, a merchant and active member of the Swedish Missionary Society. After that, she worked for his good friend Cecilia Fryxell. Fryxell was both profoundly religious and pedagogically farsighted. She ran a girl's boarding school at Rostad Farm, near Kalmar. Mazhar, a.k.a. Sara, lived there most of her life, working as a housekeeper.
Mazhar/Sara lived to 57 years old. She died in 1903 and was laid to rest in the South Cemetery in Kalmar.
Her daughter Emelia Cecilia Maria Boy was born at Rostad Farm in January 1863. As Mazhar/Sara worked for Cecilia Fryxell at the school, she could have her daughter with her throughout her childhood. It was otherwise commonplace for single mothers to give up their young children to be able to support themselves. Growing up in Rostad was very good for Millan. She was given a free place at the school and probably a good education. As an adult, Millan worked as a piano teacher and seamstress. She lived all her life in Kalmar but would sometimes travel further afield, at least as far as Blekinge. In the summer of 1883, Wernamo Newspaper reported on the sighting of a black woman among the guests at Ronneby spa: She accompanies a family from Småland; speaks Swedish and is said to be a teacher.
Millan never married and had no children. Then, in midsummer 1900, she contracted kidney inflammation and died very quickly, aged just 37.
Information about Mazahr/Sara Makatemele was sourced from the Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women, see skbl.se - Mazahr Makatemele
More information about her fate can be found in "Sara – Mazahr Makatemeles liv i 1800-talets Sydafrika och Kalmar" (2017) (Sara – Mazahr Makatemele’s life in 19th Century South Africa and Kalmar) by Per Anderö; and in Rafaela Stålbalk Klose's radio documentary "En värdig grav åt Svarta Sara" (2018)(A worthy Grave for Black Sara). Listen here: https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1160874