. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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MEDlrp 
 
 
 BMTIgH 
 \ EAST 
 Av AER8ICA 
 
 AFRICA HAS 
 Presbyterian missionaries 
 
 AM(SdMUA 
 
 S(0)UJTH” / 
 "WEST .* 
 ^Protectorate 
 
 OF AFRICA 
 
 ian) 
 
 Native workers. 1,193 
 
 Churches . 549 
 
 Self supporting churches. 26 
 
 Communicants. 25,883 
 
 New communicants, 1 920- 
 
 1921 . 2,683 
 
 THERE ARE 
 537 Schools 
 23,918 Pupils 
 
 1 5 Hospitals and dispensaries 
 52,674 Patients in 1920-1921. 
 
 The Woman’s Board of Foreign 
 Missions of the Presbyterian Church 
 in the U. S. A. 
 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/penpictureofwestOOunse 
 
PEN PICTURE 
 
 of the 
 
 WEST AFRICA MISSION 
 
 THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 Department for Specific Work 
 
 THE WOMAN’S BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN.THE U. S. A. 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
 

 
 
Pen Picture 
 
 of the 
 
 West Africa Mission 
 
 Afnca - \aJ 
 
 Establishment 
 
 On the Island of Corisco, 1850, first Station 
 on the mainland opened at Benito 1864. Our 
 Presbyterian Board took over from the Con- 
 gregationalists in 1871 the Baraka Station 
 (Libreville), the place where the first Protestant 
 Mission work in this region was established in 
 1842. Angom Station opened 1881. This Sta¬ 
 tion, Baraka and Corisco transferred to Paris 
 Evangelical Society in 1892. 
 
 Stations in Order of Founding 
 
 Benito. 
 
 ....1864 
 
 MacLean Memorial 
 
 Batanga.. .. 
 
 ....1885 
 
 Station, at 
 
 Lolo- 
 
 Efulen. 
 
 ....1893 
 
 dorf. 
 
 ..1897 
 
 Elat. 
 
 ....1895 
 
 Metet. 
 
 ..1909 
 
 
 
 Foulassi. 
 
 ..1916 
 
 
 
 Sakbayeme.. . 
 
 ..1920 
 
 Distinctive Features 
 
 Work among a primitive, superstitious people 
 easily susceptible to the Gospel or to Moham¬ 
 medanism. 
 
 3 
 
Tribal system of native government under 
 foreign control. 
 
 Rapid growth of the Church through the de¬ 
 velopment of a capable native ministry and tes¬ 
 timony of individual believers. 
 
 Special need of medical and child welfare 
 service. 
 
 Situation 
 
 The West Africa Mission lies in a great forest 
 belt just north of the Equator and chiefly in 
 the southern part of the region formerly known 
 as German Kamerun, but now within the limits 
 of the French Mandate. A chain of Stations has 
 been established stretching from Batanga on 
 the coast past beach and jungle and swamp, 
 eastward and north-eastward into the forests of 
 the interior. Each Station has its group of out¬ 
 lying points where Mission work is conducted 
 under the direction of the central Station. The 
 Mission has also a Station at Benito on the 
 coast of Spanish Guinea, some 125 miles south 
 of Batanga. Under French rule the province is 
 known as the Cameroun. 
 
 Climate 
 
 Damp and unhealthful. During the early 
 years of the work the fever-breeding climate 
 was a constant menace to the workers, but the 
 missionary physicians have learned how to cope 
 with the dreaded malaria, thus minimizing one 
 of the greatest hindrances to the missionary 
 enterprise. 
 
 4 
 
Products 
 
 In this region of tropical heat, frequent and 
 heavy rainfall and general fertility, the prod¬ 
 ucts of the soil are the main food dependence 
 of the people and the Mission gardens are an 
 important contribution to the resources of the 
 Stations. There is an abundant yield of sugar¬ 
 cane, bamboo, cocoa, palm oil, peanuts, corn, 
 cassava, plantains or bananas, alligator pears, 
 pineapples and other tropical fruits. From the 
 roots of the cassava the Bulu make their bread. 
 Rubber and ivory are important articles of 
 trade. The native gardens are planted and 
 cared for by the women, the men disdaining 
 such menial work; but in the Mission schools, 
 both boys and girls receive practical instruction 
 in agriculture and are being taught the dignity 
 of labor. 
 
 General Characteristics 
 
 There are few harbors along the west coast. 
 Landings are made on an open sea beach and 
 through a heavy surf. There are many rivers 
 big and little coming into the sea on the west 
 coast of Africa. Few of them are navigable 
 beyond a few miles back from the coast, where 
 they are broken into rapids among the heavily 
 wooded hills of the coast belt. Over the hills and 
 across these rivers, through forests where the 
 trees rise to a height of 200 feet the missionary 
 journeys to his work in the interior where most 
 of the Stations are located. Formerly all mis¬ 
 sionary men traveled on foot and all women 
 
 5 
 
in hammocks borne by natives, but with the 
 development of governmental roads, bicycles and 
 motorcycles are now much used by the mis¬ 
 sionaries. The women of the Stations are car¬ 
 ried in wheel chairs. Every clearing and road¬ 
 way has been wrested from the hovering forest, 
 while the few great highways lie open to the 
 sun. Many of the lesser paths lose themselves 
 in the forest, save to the knowing native. Often 
 for long distances, they follow the bed of a 
 brook where the traveler wades in water vary¬ 
 ing in depth from ankle to thigh. The forest is 
 threaded with these paths which connect native 
 villages. 
 
 The native system of currency is barter and 
 whether it were the price which the heathen 
 gave for his child bride or the grateful offering 
 of a Christian at a communion service, the pay¬ 
 ment was formerly made in yards of cloth, cut¬ 
 lasses, salt, iron pots, chickens, sheep or dogs, 
 but with the opening of the region to the 
 outside world, coin is now being increasingly 
 used, and the native Christian is supporting his 
 work and making his offering with the envelope 
 system the same as in Christian lands. 
 
 Native Character and Institutions 
 
 Polygamy with its kindred vices is predomi¬ 
 nant. Slavery still exists as a domestic institu¬ 
 tion although no slaves are now exported from 
 the West Coast. Native beer is made from over¬ 
 ripe bananas and sour wine from the sap of 
 palms; but the rum, gin and whiskey of the 
 
 6 
 
white trader have been from the beginning a 
 far more debauching influence and have greatly 
 hindered the effectiveness of missionary labor. 
 In later years, however, the liquor traffic has 
 been to some extent regulated and under 
 French rule prohibition is now general through¬ 
 out the Cameroun. 
 
 Religion 
 
 The native religion—or substitute for religion 
 —is Fetishism, a system of superstition, charms 
 —or fetishes—and magic, which is a veritable 
 bondage. This is based upon the general con¬ 
 viction of the people that they are left to the 
 power of minor and malign spirits. The people 
 suffer with many diseases, for the healing of 
 which, when their simple herb remedies avail 
 nothing, they have recourse to spells and 
 charms. These failing, the illness is attributed 
 to witchcraft. The witch doctor is called in to 
 discover the guilty party. The patient suc¬ 
 cumbs to disease or to the remedies applied and 
 he who has supposedly bewitched him falls 
 under the judgment of his townspeople and is 
 subject to trial by poison or to other forms of 
 retribution. 
 
 The Missionary Method 
 
 missionary enterprise in West Africa differs 
 V. J from that of any other field under the care of 
 the Presbyterian Board in that its concern is with 
 a primitive race untouched by civilization and for 
 the most part unacquainted with any form of gov- 
 
 7 
 
ernment, save their own crude tribal system. Here 
 the vastness of the missionary’s task in inverse ratio 
 to the supply of missionaries has developed a sys¬ 
 tem of evangelism through an educated native min¬ 
 istry aided by native workers of varying degrees of 
 Christian attainment and training, under the care¬ 
 ful supervision of the missionary. The results have 
 far surpassed all expectations in the development 
 of Christian character in the workers and in the 
 great multitudes of those who have thus been turned 
 “from the power of Satan unto God.” 
 
 Phases of Mission Effort 
 
 Mission work is conducted mainly along four 
 definite lines. 
 
 1. Evangelistic: 
 
 a. Church Work; Church centers with outlying 
 Communion points which the missionary 
 visits periodically, examining candidates 
 and Christians and administering Baptism 
 and the Lord’s Supper. 
 
 h. Village Itineration. 
 
 e. Caravan Rest House AVork. 
 
 2. Educational: 
 
 a. Day and Boarding Schools at Stations—all 
 school instruction since the War given in 
 French. 
 
 b. Village Schools. There are hundreds of 
 Bulu schools scattered throughout the vil¬ 
 lages—one of the glories of the Mission. 
 The immediate problem (1921) of the school 
 work in the Mission is the difficulty of ade- 
 
 8 
 
quately equipping the schools for the teach- 
 of French, which is the language of the 
 Protectorate and is required by the Govern¬ 
 ment. This problem must be met, as it in¬ 
 volves the future of the educational work 
 among the native Christians who are the 
 hope of Africa’s night, 
 c. Theological Seminaries. 
 
 3. Industrial: Industrial training schools-—notably 
 the Frank D. James Industrial School at Elat. 
 
 4. Medical: Small hospitals and dispensaries, al¬ 
 ways badly handicapped in the face of extreme 
 need and tremendous opportunity by scarcity 
 of physicians and of medical and surgical sup¬ 
 plies. In the year 1920, more than 51,000 treat¬ 
 ments were given to out-patients and over 
 1,600 were cared for in the seven hospitals by 
 the five physicians of the Mission. The West 
 Africa Mission offers a glorious opportunity 
 to the medical missionary. Those also who feel 
 the drawings of child welfare work find here a 
 great field. Of children born in Africa, 65% 
 die through ignorance, disease, poverty, super¬ 
 stition and lack of proper nourishment before 
 they are two years old. 
 
 History and Development of the Mission 
 
 The foundations of Protestant Mission work in 
 West Africa were laid in 1842 by three men and 
 their wives sent out by the American Board of Com¬ 
 missioners for Foreign Missions, who established the 
 Gaboon Mission at Baraka (now Libreville in the 
 
 9 
 
French Congo) on the West Coast of Africa. Here 
 schools were founded and other preparatory work 
 was done, but the unhealthfulness of the climate 
 made it hard to keep a sufficient force on the field 
 and the scarcity of reinforcements left Baraka in 
 1870 the only station in Gaboon. Meanwhile, in 
 1850, the Presbyterian Board had opened a station 
 on the beautiful island of Corisco in the hope that 
 the insular position would insure exemption from 
 fever; but the island proved as unhealthful as the 
 mainland and in 1864 a new Station was opened on 
 the coast at Benito. 
 
 These pioneer Stations of the West Africa Mission 
 were the scenes of the wonderful labors of Miss Isa¬ 
 bella A. Nassau, Robert H. Nassau, M.D., Mrs. R. H. 
 de Heer and Mrs. M. L. Reutlinger. In 1871 the 
 Presbyterian Board took over the work at Baraka 
 and ten years later opened another Station at An- 
 gom. All of these except Benito were finally trans¬ 
 ferred to the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society. 
 Shortly before, in 1889, a new missionary center had 
 been established at Batanga in German Kamerun 
 with the purpose of gaining access from there to the 
 higher and more healthful inland regions. In taking 
 this step the Mission was manifestly led of God. 
 The appeal of the Gospel has met with an undreamed 
 of response and a marvelous work has developed in 
 the interior part of the field. 
 
 From Batanga as a center, the devoted missionary, 
 Rev. Adolphus C. Good, D.D., made long and care¬ 
 ful exploration of the country to the eastward, 
 finally establishing the first inland Station at Efulen, 
 in 1893, 57 miles from Batanga. He reduced the 
 
 10 
 
Bulu language to writing and translated the Gospel. 
 In the years that have followed several self-support¬ 
 ing churches have been built and “in all that region 
 of a Sunday, the little paths of the forest are alive 
 w r ith church-goers.” The people of this region are 
 the senior Christians of the interior tribes. They 
 have accepted the responsibility for the work of the 
 south and east and a great evangelistic work has 
 resulted. 
 
 Here, too, Scliauffler Hospital ministers to the 
 needs of a multitude scattered far and near, many 
 having walked over 100 miles to reach the Hospital, 
 some carrying physical burdens. 
 
 During his last journey in 1895, Dr. Good selected 
 a site at Elat, 75 miles east of Efulen for the second 
 interior station. Here a promising Boys’ School 
 and a church were organized and later on, the Frank 
 D. James Industrial School was established. Here 
 saw-mill, printing press and blacksmith and machine 
 shops are in active operation and the boys become 
 proficient in the making of bush rope, teak wood and 
 mahogany furniture, implements, shoes, straw hats, 
 tropical helmets and men’s clothing. The press is 
 a great factor in the evangelistic work of the Mission 
 and many of the apprentices have refused more lu¬ 
 crative work that they may help to bring the Gospel 
 to their fellow-men. The work at the school has 
 greatly impressed the new Governor of South Cam- 
 eroun, who has expressed himself as desirous of aid¬ 
 ing the missionaries in every possible way. 
 
 It is impossible to mention Elat without comment¬ 
 ing on the great response of this region to the Gos¬ 
 pel, and while statistics must alter from year to 
 
 11 
 
year, those of Elat have always been matters of 
 marvel. In 1920 the average attendance at the eight 
 churches under supervision of Elat Station was 20,- 
 000 souls. 
 
 On one of Dr. Good’s exploring trips he came 
 upon a village of dwarfs. In response to his pub¬ 
 lished appeal, Miss Margaret McLean of Scotland 
 offered to support a mission work among the dwarfs 
 if the Presbyterian Board would undertake it. A 
 Station was accordingly opened at Lolodorf in 1897 
 which as the McLean Memorial bears the name of 
 its founder. Three churches and a Theological 
 Seminary have been built and from these centers 
 Christian workers and students go forth to win souls. 
 The work among the dwarfs is very largely carried 
 on by the Christians of the superior tribes of this 
 region, who sacrifice themselves to wander in the 
 forest and lead these little people to Christ. 
 
 Additional Stations were opened in 1908 at Metet 
 and in 1916 at Poulassi, two points respectively 
 northeast and east of Elat. At both places the same 
 eager hunger for the Gospel is manifested in large 
 congregations of hundreds and sometimes of several 
 thousands at the churches of the Stations and out¬ 
 posts while the changed lives and evangelistic zeal 
 of multitudes give evidence of the purpose to be 
 “doers of the Word and not hearers only.” 
 
 By the terms of the Treaty at Versailles nine- 
 tenths of the Kamerun was given to the French and 
 one-tenth to the British. The capital of the French 
 Colonies on the coast has been moved from Libre¬ 
 ville to Yaounde, which will be connected by rail 
 with Doula, the seaport. This will bring Metet and 
 
 12 
 
Eoulassi within 100 miles of the capital—or two days’ 
 journey by bicycle or motorcycle. The Mission is 
 planning to open a Station at Yaounde in the near 
 future. 
 
 The Call of the Regions Beyond 
 
 The withdrawal of the Germans from the Kamerun 
 left unshepherded the well-established work of the 
 Swiss and German missionaries in that region, em¬ 
 bracing an area of two hundred and ninety thousand 
 square miles and an estimated population of over 
 three and one-half millions. Our Presbyterian Board 
 has, therefore, assumed the responsibility for the 
 four Stations in Edea District, known as Edea, Sak- 
 bayeme, SoDibanga and Mengale, but at present 
 (1921) because of lack of missionaries has occupied 
 only one Station, Sakbayeme. There are now in this 
 new territory over four thousand baptized Chris¬ 
 tians and nearly an equal number of catechumens, 
 besides more than six thousand pupils in schools. 
 “A great burden,” wrote the late Dr. Halsey, “to 
 place on the overworked missionaries of the West 
 Africa Mission.” But the field is ready for the har¬ 
 vesting and already Mohammedanism has taken ad¬ 
 vantage of the opportunity. At one point there is 
 a large hut, from the roof of which the faithful are 
 called twice daily to prayer. 
 
 “It is immeasurably harder,” writes a mission¬ 
 ary, “to win to Christ the Moslem African than the 
 pagan African. But in the hearts where Christianity 
 has first had a hearing, Islam finds little response.” 
 “Have we not,” pleads another, “a responsibility 
 here that cannot be overlooked to push forward and 
 
 13 
 
claim the land for Christ before Mohammedanism 
 winds its tentacles about these simple folks?” 
 
 To the north and east also there is a well nigh 
 unlimited field, where the tribes in their cry for 
 the Gospel “are as thirsty men fighting for water.” 
 
 “The major hardship of the modern missionary is 
 the intolerable weight of the things undone in this 
 day of unlimited opportunity. The region beyond 
 haunts him by night, as the clamor of the neighbor¬ 
 hood beats about, him by day. This need is a contin¬ 
 ued crying at the door of the missionary’s bark 
 house.” 
 
 Mustard-Seed Growth 
 
 An illustration of the growth of the Gospel seed, 
 typical of the progress at all of the interior stations, 
 was recently (1921) cited by the late Rev. A. W. 
 Halsey, D.D. Dr. Halsey’s visit to the West Africa 
 Mission in 1904 was a major factor in its develop¬ 
 ment. Regarding a conference of Christians, meet¬ 
 ing in 1920 for several days at Efulan, he wrote: 
 
 “At the Sunday service 7,000 persons 
 gathered in and around the Efulen Church. 
 Many of these were Ntum Christians who 
 came from the district south of Efulan. Fif¬ 
 teen years ago there were only three Ntum 
 Christians in all the Mission. Now thousands 
 of these people are attending the Church 
 services and trying to ‘get right with God.’ 
 
 It was a great act of racial sacrifice on the 
 part of the Bulu Christians of Efulen to 
 give up their homes for a week and furnish 
 food and lodging to their fellow Christians, 
 for until very recently, as of old, the Bulu 
 had no dealings with the Ntum. The Gospel 
 breaks down racial prejudices.” 
 
 14 
 
Any sketch of the West Africa Mission would be 
 incomplete without a statement regarding the re¬ 
 markable enthusiasm and devotion of the native 
 Church in the matter of giving. Self-help has been 
 a conspicuous fruit of this great modern missionary 
 effort in Africa. Back in the early 80’s, the wonder¬ 
 ful native pastor, Ibia of Corisco, the first convert of 
 the Mission, raised for his people the standard of self- 
 support in church and school and throughout the 
 entire Mission area those whose lives have been re¬ 
 deemed from destruction have responded to the mis¬ 
 sionaries’ appeal with a glad dedication of self and 
 time and money “unto the furtherance of the Gospel.” 
 In 1914, the Mission reported seven principal Sta¬ 
 tions—each manned by a white missionary or a mis¬ 
 sionary and his wife—and 73 Outstations. Six years 
 later, in 1920, but one more Station is reported, but 
 the 73 Outstations have become 683! These Outsta¬ 
 tions are manned by native Christians and supported 
 by the native Church. The gifts of these Christians 
 in the year cited amounted to $15,049 and the average 
 church attendance throughout the Mission on a Sun¬ 
 day was 68,241. With an adequate missionary equip¬ 
 ment what might not be wrought among these re¬ 
 sponsive people! 
 
 In the words of a gifted missionary writer: 
 
 “Surely the volume of these statistics has 
 meaning to you. Those drums that clamor in 
 the dawn of a Sunday morning, calling the 
 Christians of unnumbered villages to keep 
 Holy Day; these files of men and women who 
 go to God’s house by the dim ways of the 
 forest or the sun-smitten ways of the beach; 
 these heavy loads of copper moneys that 
 
 15 
 
come in from the many Christian communi¬ 
 ties; these witnesses to our Lord Jesus who 
 speak morning and evening in the palaver 
 houses of obscure villages; these mothers who 
 teach their little black children to pray; these 
 young wives who follow their evangelist hus¬ 
 bands on long missionary journeys—-this 
 mustering of Ethiopia—surely this must 
 mean much to you ? ’ ’ 
 
 Ethiopia is indeed stretching out her hands unto 
 God. Her utter need, her eager longing, her menac¬ 
 ing ignorance, and her overwhelming response to the 
 Message are a challenge to the Church at home. 
 
 Note: For most recent statistics of the West Africa 
 Mission consult the current Annual Report of The 
 Foreign Board. 
 
 October, 1921. 
 
 16