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 An African Net 
 
 A study of the West Africa 
 Mission of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the U. S. A., edited 
 by Helen L. Kitt redge. Based 
 on Articles in The Drum 
 Call, the Quarterly Maga2,ine 
 published by the Mission. 
 
 “Who are you that write so superbly 
 in the backwoods of the forest.” 
 
 Jean K. Mackenzie 
 in “African Clearings. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https ;//archive.org/details/africannetstudyoOOkitt 
 
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 The Story of the Mission 
 
 the forest about twenty miles northeast of Efulan, 
 V-7 m three degrees north of the equator on the West Coast of 
 Africa in the Cameroun, there is an immense bare rock, 
 and down across the face of this rock are the tracks of a huge sheep. 
 Tradition says that in past ages God, leading a mighty sheep, passed 
 that way. And we modify this ancient tradition and say that the 
 Lamb of God has surely passed this way and is still marching on 
 across this dark continent, leaving deeply imbedded upon untold 
 thousands of these child people the foot'prints of his love and 
 devotion. 
 
 And the men and women who have gone as missionaries to 
 these primitive people have heard the call of Christ, “Come ye after 
 me and I will make you fishers of men.” For truly they have 
 gathered in their net thousands of souls that shine through the gloom 
 of the forests, reflecting in their lives the love of the Great Fisher 
 of mankind. 
 
 In 1914 Miss Mackenzie in writing of the West Africa Mission 
 said: “Five decades ago the West Africa Mission was housed on 
 Corisco Island and neighbored by the American Mission at Gaboon 
 on the mainland. Not until 1871 were these two amalgamated 
 under the Presbyterian Board. At the time of which we speak, 1864, 
 four missionaries were home on furlough, the remaining five were on 
 the island. They must pass its ring of surf and sail forty miles in an 
 open boat to visit their three out'Stations on the coast of the main' 
 land. Corisco is one degree north of the equator. You must think 
 of this little island, set in its silver ring of surf, as very beautiful and 
 very lost from the world and of those five tribal brothers of yours 
 as the center of happenings very dark, very tragic. About one 
 hundred Christians there were in that early church and perhaps one 
 hundred children in the mission school. Fourteen Africans were 
 entrusted with responsibility, one of these was the wonderful Ibia, 
 so long a pastor among the Benga and whose son is now pastor over 
 his father’s church.” 
 
 Another decade and in 1874 the Mission occupies Corisco, 
 Baraka in the Gaboon and Benito on the shore of Spanish Guinea. 
 There are eleven tribal brothers of your own in the heat and burden 
 of that day. There are now one hundred and sixty'seven church 
 
 1 
 
members and nearly two hundred school children. Six missionaries 
 have died in this decade. God has given us better days but there 
 is a trace of tears upon the map. 
 
 In 1884 the Mission has sent an arm up the river from Baraka, 
 for An2;om is a station. And there are two stations up the Ogowe 
 River. These were the days of Trader Horn and his travels and his 
 tales of the little missionary. There are seven out'Stations. This 
 effort inland is a beginning of new things and there is a new wind 
 in the sail. The Mission reports to the Board of God’s servant Benga 
 Ibia in Corisco: “His plans and influence have the great merit of 
 aiming at self-support both in church and in school.” This in 1884 
 and spoken of a black man! 
 
 In 1894 the Mission with twenty-two missionaries has left 
 Corisco to the care of the native Christians, has disposed of the bulk 
 of its work in the French Congo to the French Protestant Society at 
 work in that colony, has held the work at Baraka, Anzom and Benito 
 and has opened up two stations in the Cameroun, one of these, 
 Batanga on the coast, one hundred miles north of Benito, the other 
 Efulan, inland from Batanga fifty-seven miles, among the forest 
 people. God’s child, the Bulu, begins to move across the page. There 
 are now over twelve hundred communicants in the coast churches, 
 over three hundred children in the schools, over forty native assist¬ 
 ants in school and church and that year’s report takes account of 
 over a thousand patients treated by Mission doctors. The Board has 
 granted the request that a man be sent out for industrial work and 
 he is on the field. 
 
 This brings the history of the Mission up to the latter years of 
 the last century. Writing in 1926, Dr. Melvin Fraser here takes up 
 the story: “There is a note of achievement in the pen picture of 
 contrasts between prevailing conditions in our Africa Mission field 
 thirty years ago and today, and is not only interesting as a bit of 
 modern history of something that again ‘turned the world upside 
 down,’ but as a kind of dynamic incentive to more of such turning. 
 
 “Thirty years ago Efulan station was an infant of less than three 
 years. Today, Baraka and Angom having been transferred to the 
 Paris Evangelical Society, the annual budget is made out for six 
 additional stations, the average of one new station every five years— 
 Elat, MacLean Memorial at Lolodorf, Metet, Foulassi, Sakbayeme 
 and Yaounde, with occupation of Bafia soon to ripen into the status 
 of a station. 
 
 2 
 
“Thirty years ago about a score of missionaries by dint of grit 
 and grace were on the field. Today there are more than four score. 
 But strangely enough, while the number of missionaries has increased 
 fourfold, the work has so expanded that each missionary seems to 
 have about four times as much to do. 
 
 “Thirty years ago there were some half-dozen organized churches 
 dotting the coast, only one, Angom, inland. Today there are forty- 
 four churches and nearly nine hundred groups not yet organized 
 into churches reaching more than two hundred miles into the jungle 
 interior and holding a membership of over twenty-eight thousand 
 men and women. 
 
 “A score and a half years ago, as many Bible readers as there 
 are fingers on one hand, with little or no special training and oper¬ 
 ating within the bounds of the organized churches on the coast, con¬ 
 stituted the native evangelistic force. But the Spirit of God has 
 been at work and things have been brought to pass. Now some 
 five hundred Bible readers, like the stars on a dark night, twinkling, 
 differing in magnitude and difficult to count, men who start and hold 
 preaching points are distributed far and near, groups of eighty at 
 a time taking their rotary turns at the school of systematic Bible 
 training. This host of men, mostly young, on meager though diving’ 
 wage, names unknown in the homeland, are true knights of the cross, 
 mighty and indispensable in soul-winning in our Mission. Thirty 
 years ago the Presbytery of Corisco could report only two or three 
 licentiates; now there are nine ordained men and eighty in theologi¬ 
 cal school. 
 
 “In those days, small vernacular schools were running rather 
 spasmodically at one or more stations and village schools were scarce. 
 Now there are in each station two to three hundred vernacular boys 
 and girls studying the five-year course of French, and from a score to 
 several dozen surrounding village schools reporting thousands of 
 pupils busy in their separate localities. Then the girls, as soon as 
 they could walk were given in polygamous marriage and, the notion 
 prevailed that they could know nothing but submission and servitude. 
 Now a girls’ school of one hundred at any station is a matter of 
 course and through applied Christianity girlhood is getting her Magna 
 Charta. Then boys had to be coaxed to come to school. Today 
 travel being safe and school appreciated the aspiring boys overflow 
 the dormitories and school rooms and gladly pay the nominal fee for 
 
 3 
 
the privilege. And during these years it has dawned upon thousands 
 of boys and girls that the fear of God is both the beginning and 
 continuation of welfare and wisdom. 
 
 “In those pioneer days, medical work was small and doctors 
 scarce. Now it is the policy to have a physician at each station with 
 a well-supplied dispensary and equipment to serve thousands who 
 come walking or are carried from near and far. 
 
 “Then the native took his pleasure in fighting, gambling and 
 trading. But the visitor of today is ama 2 ;ed to see the hundreds of 
 apprentices at Elat and other stations being trained in many crafts 
 which teach the dignity of work with the hands and provide a means 
 of living. 
 
 “In the pioneering days, the native of the interior was amazed 
 at the idea of putting thought on paper, for this was a people with¬ 
 out written language. Now more people can read than the number 
 of stars seen on a clear night and a vernacular literature is abroad.” 
 
 These are a people who have suffered transition of government 
 and government language for the German colony of Kamerun fell 
 during the World War to the allies and in 1916 became the 
 Cameroun, the mandated territory of the French. 
 
 4 
 
That School Palaver 
 
 OBJECT, we claim, is to make Christians of those 
 # V# J who are not. This is true. And yet if that be our un- 
 qualified objective, how, where and when is that self' 
 propagating, able'to'walk'alone, native church ever to be materialized? 
 To us it appears that a great part of our work is the finding of boys 
 and girls gifted by God for the purpose, and the developing of them 
 into men and women who can and will, in the power of Christ, 
 assume that unselfish leadership which alone is able to reach their 
 people to lift them to higher and better things. 
 
 “Less than a generation ago missionaries in the West Africa 
 Mission were paying fathers to allow their boys to come to the 
 Mission to learn to read and write. Today those boys, instead of 
 being the wild, painted brass'ornamented, unlettered people their 
 fathers were, are the clean, quiet, and at least partially'educated 
 teachers in the nearly nine hundred schools of the Mission. 
 
 “It is difficult for those missionaries to visualize in these days 
 the crude wooden printing blocks cut out by one of themselves which 
 served as the first school material. Today there are printed charts 
 and books in the native language for the nearly 900 village schools in 
 most of which, along with the twelve station day and boarding schools 
 for boys and girls, there are French grammars and readers also. And 
 in these schools there are now enrolled over 32,000 pupils. Besides 
 there are a score of students in the theological school, more than one 
 hundred apprentices in the industrial and agricultural school and 
 forty teachers'tO'be in the normal school. 
 
 “All this has come about gradually. In the early days it was 
 the custom for the missionaries, during school vacations, to travel 
 from place to place endeavoring to persuade parents to allow their 
 sons to come to the station schools for at least a few months. In 
 1904 the Mission voted to demand a nominal tuition instead of pay' 
 ing parents for the privilege of teaching their children. While this 
 caused some opposition at first, the new ruling was soon accepted 
 as Teading’ was beginning to be appreciated. By 1907 there were 
 as many pupils in attendance as the schools could accommodate. 
 
 “The practice of clean Christian living was stressed equally with 
 Christian service and the home villages of the school boys became 
 
 5 
 
evangelistic centers for whole districts, with the boys telling the 
 good news they had received. Many of them went about two by 
 two during vacations to regions untouched and there, seeking out 
 those religiously inclined, started Christian work. So well did they 
 succeed that for years the missionaries were at their wits’ end to 
 supply the consequent demand for teachers in these villages. 
 
 “With the retirement of the Germans and the coming in of the 
 French in 1916, the whole school system, based upon the German 
 language, and school laws had to be discarded. The French language 
 and school regulations, foreign to practically every one in the Mission, 
 had to be introduced and white teachers found to replace the German 
 ones. Despite the fact that from that time to the present there 
 have never been more than three white French teachers on the field 
 at one time, an exceptionally high grade of work has been main- 
 tained. The Negroes of West Africa were an exceedingly primitive 
 people when the first missionaries came to them, and they need more 
 than one generation to develop into the mental and spiritual knowh 
 edge and stature of the new men in Christ Jesus which the times 
 demand. The problem of teachers has been so great that though 
 the Mission felt that more time should be given for their develop- 
 ment before attempting it too far, the necessity for French teachers 
 has driven them to establish a normal school. We hope in the course 
 of a few years, if missionary teachers may be secured for this school, 
 to have the educational standards such that the African teachers who 
 come out will be suflSciently trained and qualified to assume the 
 responsibility of supervising station schools. It will not be easy; the 
 task is a huge one before both the instructors and the pupils in the 
 normal school. But we feel sure that the black man will not fail. 
 As we reflect upon what the past thirty years have wrought in this 
 part of the world, we are confident that the next thirty years will 
 see an even greater change. The schools of our Mission must con¬ 
 tinue to guide our youth along the path shown by Christ and they 
 can only do it as they are made adequate to fulfill the ever-growing 
 need.’’ 
 
 So says George Schwab, who has spent over twenty years on 
 the field and is superintendent of the schools of the Mission. 
 
 People who are long-time lovers of the West Africa Mission 
 will remember Mrs. McCleary who went out with her husband, 
 Charles W. McCleary, in 1902, to the station of Elat, the then 
 pioneer station of the Mission. Four months after their arrival there 
 
 6 
 
Mr. McCleary died. Since that time Mrs. McCleary has hardly been 
 out of the schoolroom. Writing in 1926 of her first impression in 
 visiting the school in Elat she says: 
 
 “The school building, a shed with thatch roof and ground floor 
 and inside the split log seats did not suggest comfort or convenience 
 but the spirit of earnest effort was there as well as the spirit of fun 
 and mischief. 
 
 “One of the two little girls present was given the pointer and 
 told to teach the chart class. She called up one from the crowd of 
 men who sat there and put him through a course of letters, words 
 and sentences in a manner that would have done justice to a trained 
 teacher. I turned from her to a class in arithmetic and saw a boy 
 solve correctly a difiicult problem in long division. 
 
 “In the afternoon the boys filed past the house carrying hoes 
 and cutlasses enroute to the garden to earn their daily bread. Since 
 this is the Bulu woman’s work it meant much for these boys to sub' 
 mit to it. But their daily rations of food, about three cents worth, 
 were earned this way. I was told there were five thousand pine' 
 apples and eight thousand plantains already ripening for them. 
 
 “These little side lights were a minor part of their school life. 
 They crowded into the station twice a year, hundreds of boys, with a 
 determined spirit and they met all obstacles, hardships and defeats 
 in a cheerful spirit. 
 
 “At the call from the headman for teachers for their towns the 
 first volunteers went out in some instances taking their lives in their 
 hands. The tribal feeling was very intense and the boys faced real 
 danger. At least one of them found an early grave in his school 
 town. Later another boy went to take his place. Once a call from 
 ninety miles away seemed a Waterloo, but one of them said, T do 
 not know the way, nor the people, but it is God’s work. I will go.' 
 When he returned he was followed by ninety inquirers of the Way. 
 Later I saw him ordained an elder in the church and he has con' 
 tinned to hold that position. One I know refused his father’s offer 
 of wealth to accept the position of assistant to the Mission doctor 
 and came to save many in body as well as to show them the way of 
 life. Many are employed by the Government as teachers, clerks, 
 secretaries and medical assistants. Africa’s future is in the hands of 
 these young people of today.” 
 
 Mrs. P. H. Combs tells us of one of the girls’ schools. 
 
 7 
 
“The white teacher stands at her door and watches with loving 
 eyes the little girls who come in answer to the drum summons on 
 the opening day of school. Each girl has her basket supported on 
 her back by a head strap and the basket is full, some choice bits of 
 food her mother cooked for her, perha{)s a Bulu gospel, a cloth or 
 two, some trinkets, a stick of sugar cane and her toothbrush. Each 
 girl swings the basket from her back and with downcast eyes, man- 
 nerly after the old fashion, comes up to greet the teacher. Then 
 the matron, a motherly soul, conducts each of her charges to the 
 dormitory comforting those who are lonesome and befriending those 
 who are new. When all are gathered into the school-house and have 
 sung, ‘Good morning to you,’ in their native language, and have 
 repeated a thanksgiving psalm, school is in full swing without further 
 ceremony. 
 
 “Let me take you to the beginners’ department where twenty 
 little tots sit at a long table, little feet a-dangling, little black bodies 
 a-wiggling, little tongues a-going and little bright eyes alert. It’s a 
 long road to knowledge when one is at the far end, but it is lots of 
 fun to start with pegs, cards, blocks and sand. 
 
 “Will you step into the manual training room? Such an air 
 of busyness prevails. There is the Matthew class making general 
 utility baskets of reeds. Here is the John class weaving mats for 
 beds. This is the Luke class fashioning hats with pith and raffia. 
 And this interesting group is the graduation class making patch- 
 work head cloths for commencement. 
 
 “Now let’s go down to the kitchen. If there’s a place that 
 reminds one of a sewing-bee in America, it is the place where food 
 is being cooked in Africa. There is a girl sitting on the ground floor 
 with a large, smooth stone between her knees grinding peanuts. 
 Another girl has a lot of seeds that look like pumpkin seeds and a 
 board and stick. She gives the seeds a crack with the stick and 
 removes the kernel in a twinkling. Here is another girl with a long, 
 knife-shaped stick peeling plantains as easily as you at home pare 
 apples. Watch her line the pot with a leaf, stand the peeled plan¬ 
 tains on end filling the pot, pour in a little water, cover the pot 
 with a wilted leaf and tie it down with a string from the main vein 
 of the leaf. She shoves the logs together, coaxes and blows the fire, 
 and in a moment the pot is boiling merrily. All the time we stand 
 to watch their tongues are going with remarks about the visitors’ 
 hair, dress, shoes, eyes and hands. The menu is varied; today they 
 
 8 
 
are preparing peanut soap, boiled plantains and boiled greens. When 
 the meal is ready each girl has a place at the table, is served her share 
 on a white plate and eats with a wooden spoon. 
 
 “School studies make up the morning hours and the afternoons 
 are spent by some in garden work, others have dormitory work, 
 while others prepare the evening meal for the whole group. Those 
 going to the garden are armed with a short'handled, narrow^bladed 
 hoe. Each girl has a chum and they like to work in pairs. They are 
 happy as they work and often burst forth in song, mostly native 
 tunes, in time to their hoeing. 
 
 “When it is evening and the tropical moon is in full glory then 
 the school girls find rest in dancing in their school yard. They stand 
 in opposing lines and one is ‘it.’ All keep time by clapping hands 
 in a swinging motion and one foot tapping on the ground. The 
 center one bows to each and gives a peculiar call which is to be 
 answered by an opposite motion of hands and feet. If she passes 
 the whole line without mistake she has won; but if a mistake is made 
 she returns to her place in disgrace and another ‘it’ is chosen from the 
 other side. This is but one of the games, many of them nature 
 games, in which African childhood is rich. At last the curfew rings 
 and they gather in the dormitory for prayers. Night closes down, 
 wrapping all in quiet and rest, the girls lie down to sleep, happy in 
 the freedom of school routine. 
 
 “Thus pass the days and the last day of school arrives with its 
 scurry and bustle of packing baskets. Goodbyes are said and loving 
 embraces exchanged. Far down the road comes back the wish ‘dwell 
 in peace’ and we lift our voices to say ‘go well.’ ” 
 
 Mrs. Schwab adds: “Before the advent of the Christian mis' 
 sionary the boys only had the privilege of home training. Girls were 
 sent to their marriage often while still mere babies. Fortunate today 
 is the girl who has Christian parents. They send her to school where 
 she is taught hygiene, the care of children, and best of all of that 
 great love that surpasses all. In the sunshine of that wondrous love 
 a few of the countless African children are growing up into manhood 
 and womanhood, bringing joy and more abundant life into their 
 communities.’’ 
 
 From the boys and girls who come out of these schools we are 
 to draw not only church leaders and teachers but doctors’ helpers, 
 nurses, agriculturists and those who will go back to their own villages 
 teaching hygiene, sanitation and proper living. 
 
 9 
 
What kind of men and women are our schools making? If 
 there were a rolhcall of them, how would they answer from the many 
 villages of the Forest? They would be telling you of their many 
 works and many kinds of work. If you want to hear the story of a 
 far'famed teacher and organi 2 ,er of schools, call on Nkulu Ndibi. 
 Stand for a minute outside of his school house in Yebekolle, and that 
 is far from his home town. Listen to the voice of young Africa from 
 within! 
 
 “Comment vous appellez'vous”—in a loud strong voice. 
 
 “Comment vous appelle2;'Vous”—repeated in many high shrill 
 voices. 
 
 “Comment vous appelle^wous”—in a loud strong voice. 
 
 “Comment vous appellezi-vous”—repeated in many high shrill 
 voices. 
 
 A French song, a prayer in French, and the sound of “Oui, 
 Monsieur” at regular intervals. 
 
 By these sounds that float across the twenty-five foot wide street 
 to our little bark hut at Ebole Bengon, we know that Nkulu Ndibi’s 
 French school is in session. 
 
 Nkulu came to the Mission as a young man. He studied at 
 Efulan in the German schools and became so proficient that he was 
 sent out as a German teacher. Then when Germany started out to 
 change the world map, Cameroon changed the spelling of her name, 
 and her people must needs learn French and become Frenchmen. 
 Nkulu was one of the first to do the chameleon’s stunt, and he soon 
 became as proficient in French as he had been in German. 
 
 Today he holds a monitor’s certificate, the highest honor given 
 to the native educators in the colony and not only is he one of our 
 strongest teachers, but he holds a position as Inspector and Supervisor 
 of the Yebekolle work—a position which might be as ably filled by 
 few white men. 
 
 Nkulu and his family, and Nleme Nyem and four children are 
 practically prisoners in this part of the country which they have 
 adopted and which they call home, for they all, with the exception 
 of the oldest daughter, are infected with the trypanazome of sleeping 
 sickness, and must go every week to the Sleeping Sickness Hospital 
 for treatments. 
 
 10 
 
Facing this future and knowing full well the outcome, Nkulu 
 has never lost his interest in the work of education and the advance^ 
 ment of his own race. And today he has a school of which we may 
 be proud, and a dormitory filled with boys from all parts of that 
 section of the field. 
 
 He holds the regard and esteem of the Government oflScials in 
 the subdivision in which he has work, and his native brothers and 
 fellow workers look to him for counsel and advice. 
 
 Would that the Mission could boast of one hundred men like 
 Nkulu Ndibi! 
 
 Listen to the Rev. C. E. Whittier tell us of his friend Esam: 
 “Kiki, where Esam lives, is about seven miles from Dang in Bafia 
 and has the largest school outside of Dang, about 176 pupils. Esam 
 is the kind of teacher we should like in every school. He first teaches 
 the school. Then he and his wife are father and mother to all the 
 pupils, for about half of them are orphans. He feeds them all, too, 
 in that he superintends their work in the school gardens. Then he 
 has some boys making rafiia mats, pillows and covers. These he sells 
 and buys school supplies for the boys. On Sunday and for the morn- 
 ing prayers and midweek service he is a most effectual preacher, and 
 a pastor all of the time.” 
 
 11 
 
That Doctor Palaver 
 
 ^^EDICAL work in our West Africa Mission though 
 y smaller than in the more populous regions is not less 
 
 V ^ important. It makes the missionary’s message tangi' 
 
 hie and intelligent to his hearers. It helps also to destroy their faith 
 in their old superstitions when they see the white doctor, without any 
 pretense of mystery, accomplish more than their own medicine men 
 with all their secrecy and mystical rites. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph McNeill has written recently: “Things which 
 the missionaries are doing are things which cause backward bush 
 dwellers not only to cup their hands over their fallen jaws and 
 ejaculate ‘Eke,’ but also to question at last the doings of their good 
 old days and the potency of fetish. Think what it means for a 
 bushman having directed his steps toward Elat to see in the concrete 
 the new Central Hospital. Here the old African stands in deepest 
 awe.’’ 
 
 The hospital consists of several units of buildings—the Adminis' 
 tration building, the native wards, the ward for white patients, on a 
 hillside somewhat away from the confusion and bustle of the main 
 section of the hospital, and the doctor’s residence. The white ward 
 is equipped with all the modern appliances which can be put to 
 practical use in Africa. The native wards are supplied with beds of 
 board and grass mats, with pillows of wood. This may not sound 
 comfortable to us, but it is the equipment which the African uses 
 at home and which he much prefers to such hot affairs as mattresses 
 and feather pillows. Long experience with village patients has shown 
 the mission doctors that it is much better to provide them with the 
 type of surroundings to which they are accustomed than to offer 
 them, when they are frightened and perhaps homesick, accommoda' 
 tions which will only make them feel more strange and uncom' 
 fortable. Besides this, the patient usually brings along with him 
 anywhere from one to a dozen members of his family, so that it is 
 absolutely necessary for the wards to be equipped with furnishings 
 which require the least possible amount of cleaning. 
 
 Here there are sterilizers, hot and cold water tanks, an ice 
 machine, and the surgical and dental operating rooms with their 
 equipment are not to be surpassed on the whole West Coast. The 
 
 12 
 
X'ray machine is the only one in this colony. From the stock of 
 medicine stored upon the shelves are supplied the sick folk of Bafia, 
 250 miles away by motor road; of Yaounde, 150 miles away; and 
 Olama, 100 miles away; of Njazenz away down in Ntum field, out' 
 post medical stations to which people in distress come miles. Two 
 doctors have been in charge, visiting Efulan, Batanga, McLean and 
 Foulassi, performing operations at three of these stations and carrying 
 on the work of the Central Hospital itself. More than 260,000 
 treatments have been given at the dispensary alone, more than 22,000 
 on itinerating trips, over 1,000 operations have been performed at 
 the Central Hospital, and here 611 patients have been brought to 
 Christ in the last year. At the two Leper Colonies nearby there 
 are 444 lepers under treatment. 
 
 Let us now hear from Mrs. P. J. May, who, as a nurse, sees 
 the great good that medical work can do. 
 
 “The African is sick, physically sick. His body is the center 
 around which the most loathsome diseases rage, leprosy, sleeping 
 sickness and a host of others. Our medical personnel is dealing in a 
 very effective way with these scourges of the body, and is teaching 
 the native to care for himself in many ways. Medicine is always 
 on hand. Assistants are being trained in our hospitals and dispen- 
 saries and some of them show great promise. The black man has the 
 unfortunate inclination to allow disease to reach hopeless proportions 
 before consulting us. Some who have not been Christianized or 
 adequately so, fall back on heathen practices in times of sickness and 
 make use of their native medicines. The heathen attitude toward 
 disease is that an evil spirit or demon possesses one, resulting in pain 
 where this spirit locates himself. 
 
 “Child mortality is great. My abiding joy is found in doing 
 what I can to aid mothers in saving their babies and those of 
 others (for orphans are numerous) from their enemy, malnutrition. 
 It seems that most of these people are suffering from this malady, 
 for their diet is peanuts and a small, tasteless millet seed which they 
 grow in their gardens and dry, crush in a mortar of stone and stir 
 with a little water; and the cooked green plantain. 
 
 “These people are docile, teachable, receptive. They want 
 Christianity, they want our medicine and surgery and food. We 
 have a tremendous responsibility in this ever'changing Africa, and 
 the churches at home must be our source of supply.” 
 
 13 
 
Dr. Wilmer S. Lehman, for thirty years physician to the tribes 
 of southern Cameroon and more than any man of our Mission, per' 
 haps, friend and physician to the pygmy tribes of these forests, has 
 his word to say about his day’s work; 
 
 “The days in the dispensary and hospitals may seem much alike 
 to outsiders, but to the doctor they are all very different. Always 
 some new faces, some new development, some new problem to be 
 met, all fraught with opportunities if we are on the alert to improve 
 them. 
 
 “The day begins with morning prayers at about 5:40 a. m. in 
 the little chapel. The patients and their friends come. We always 
 have several tribes represented and there are some of these who 
 cannot understand the Bulu in which the service is conducted. The 
 songs, prayer, the Bible portion, an explanation and a memory verse 
 are included in the fifteen or twenty minutes. The medical assist' 
 ants lead these morning devotions, taking a week each in turn. It is 
 a good way to start the day. The verses of Scripture are repeated— 
 who can tell the good they may do when used by the Holy Spirit! 
 Our desire is that all shall attend these services, and after the bell 
 rings one of the men goes to the different wards calling the people 
 to get up. 
 
 “There are always patients to be seen right after breakfast, 
 before we begin the operations. Africa seems to be full of sickness. 
 Some come on very suddenly and are very serious, but for the most 
 part we have to do with the old chronic diseases that make life 
 miserable. Usually the patients have tried many native doctors 
 before we see them. They themselves also usually know the name 
 of their illness and then a few questions from the doctor will help 
 him decide whether there is another disease to be considered. As 
 one looks over the patients in the waiting room one is always sure to 
 see little children. Some are very much frightened at the doctor, as 
 many parents make the white man the terror of their little ones. At 
 times we have difiiculty in winning their confidence. Mothers who 
 are sick bring their children, especially if they come from a distance, 
 so there are always many children in the hospital street. The very 
 little ones are carried on their mother’s hip, for there are no baby 
 carriages; but who has ever heard a mother complain of carrying 
 her child? Certainly no one here in Africa. 
 
 “Then there are men and women from various tribes, among 
 them one will occasionally find a man with the flowing garments of 
 
 14 
 
the Mohammedans. There are traders who have come down from 
 the north, who live in colonies throughout the country. One sees 
 also the welhdressed trader from up the coast, Lagos, Togo and the 
 Gold Coast. But most of those who come to us are people who are 
 poor, with very little clothing and who are much in need of our 
 assistance. 
 
 “Most of the patients have come for some definite thing. Many 
 come for the ‘needle,’ as they call the injection of neosalvarsan. 
 The fame of this treatment has gone far and wide and many come 
 or are carried to have this ‘needle’ treatment. Neosalvarsan has 
 been a great blessing in this land of dreadful ulcers and unsightly 
 skin lesions. And the way it so quickly heals not only ulcers but 
 long continued headaches, aching joints and bones, and many other 
 disorders, is wonderful indeed. 
 
 “The doctor does not have time to see all his patients before 
 operating, but the assistant in the drug room will give them record 
 cards, and supply many with the needed medicine during the morn- 
 ing. The doctor does see, however, the more urgent cases, and in 
 the meantime the patients to be operated upon are being prepared. 
 The writer well remembers one of the first operations, some years ago, 
 when everything had to be done by the doctor, dressings, instruments 
 and patient made in readiness, and when the time came to operate, 
 he was tired out. What a relief it is now to have willing, capable 
 assistants who can attend to all these preliminaries! 
 
 “There are some who give the anesthetic very carefully. Dress¬ 
 ings are prepared and sterili 2 ,ed beforehand by black women who 
 assist in the dispensary. Instruments are selected, sterilized and laid 
 out in the proper way by one assistant, while another prepares the 
 patient. These helpers have the aseptic or antiseptic sense, and the 
 results show it. What a saving of time and strength to have so 
 many earnest and efiicient hands to help! The assistants seem to 
 enjoy operations and all would come to see them if it were possible 
 to spare them from their other work. The operating is done in the. 
 morning when it is cooler, and we are usually through at noon. 
 Patients often have to wait their turn for operations so they are 
 always glad when their turn comes. Usually they show no fright 
 or but little anxiety. One little woman told us the day after she 
 was operated that she had spent the night before the operation in 
 prayer. Most of them bear the operations well and suffer little shock. 
 
 “At two o’clock the afternoon work begins. There are more 
 patients at the dispensary window where an assistant holds forth. 
 
 15 
 
He is a man of even temper, and is, oh, so patient! Questions have 
 to be asked of the patients over and over, and instructions 'about 
 taking medicine must be repeated carefully. He has a knowledge of 
 several languages, a keen knowledge of human nature, a kind heart 
 and pleasant words. He stands at the window dispensing medicine, 
 and keeping a record of the patients. 
 
 “The treatment of ulcers is done in the afternoon also. There 
 is a perennial supply of these, some of which heal easily, but others 
 are slow and difficult to cure. 
 
 “This may be one of the days for the ‘needle.’ Sometimes there 
 are over 300 injections given in a month. Some days it is not possible 
 to give to all who come, and there is some hard feeling, so keen are 
 they for this treatment. It takes a steady hand to give these injec' 
 tions, especially up to thirty and forty in a day, yet we have an assist' 
 ant who does this well and has given as many as ninety'one in a 
 single day. 
 
 “There are little children and adults, too, with the dreadful 
 disease of yaws, which often, if let alone, takes a year to pass. If 
 left to itself in its second stage, it will most certainly be followed 
 in later years by one of a large variety of disorders which may 
 cripple, disfigure or deform, and cause untold suffering. How satis' 
 fying it is to be able to check this dreadful disease early. It is easy 
 to understand why the people are so eager to receive the injections. 
 Medicines are dispensed at or under cost. It is the policy of the 
 Mission to have all who are able, pay for medicine and treatment. 
 The medical and surgical work has been self-supporting for the most 
 part, without counting the doctor’s salary. 
 
 “At the close of the day it is the custom to inspect the wards 
 and see that all is well for the night. The people respond very 
 quickly to a word or joke, and this often helps the weary doctor 
 as much as the patient. It is too bad we do not have time to enter 
 more fully into the lives of our patients and know them better. But 
 this seems quite impossible, as every doctor has other duties about the 
 station which draw heavily upon his time and strength. There are 
 all kinds of people under our care, those who pester the life out of 
 us, and those we are always glad to meet; the real heathen and the 
 fine, earnest Christian. It is our duty and privilege to minister to 
 them all. The Lord grant grace to do it cheerfully, tactfully, and 
 lovingly.’’ 
 
 16 
 
That Work Palaver 
 
 ORE SWIFTLY than may be conveyed in this brief 
 study, times change in primitive Africa. The 
 African faces a new economic situation at his door 
 which has not been created by the coming of the missionary. How' 
 ever, the missionary as his friend is bound to equip him to meet these 
 new conditions in which he finds himself today. Our Mission early 
 realised the necessity of this practical service and we have today one 
 of the best industrial schools maintained by a mission in Africa. 
 
 From its inception Mr. Fred Hope has been the one to guide in 
 the administration of this splendid work called the Frank James 
 Industrial School. Speaking of its growth, he says: 
 
 “In 1907 the school was scarcely more than a name. In 1908 
 the carpenter class consisted of two Bulu boys who were employed 
 in doing the repair work of the station. Their equipment was a 
 palm leaf shed and twenty'five or thirty dollars worth of tools. The 
 tailor class had a few yards of cheap cloth and a second-hand sewing 
 machine whose imperfections in work were even more than the 
 Africans. 
 
 “But soon a graduate tailor was brought from the Hope Waddel 
 Institute at Old Calabar, and church women from home sent us a 
 new sewing machine and a supply of cloth. Before we were really 
 ready for business two carriers arrived who, having earned a dollar 
 and a half for transporting loads from the beach, and having seen the 
 sophisticated black man on the coast, were fired with the familiar 
 and inevitable ambition to resemble him. When they found that 
 they could buy a khaki coat for the money they had just received, 
 each of them was measured by the tailor—a new experience. Before 
 those two coats were finished other orders came pouring in, and the 
 class has been these fifteen years trying to catch up with a tribe that 
 has set its heart on a modern aspect. So the tailor class has grown 
 until its gross receipts have been as high as $9,000 in a single year. 
 
 “The growth of the carpenter class was even more rapid than 
 that of the tailor class. The big profits that could be made on 
 rubber and in trade brought many Europeans into the jungle. They 
 came into the ‘bush’ with nothing in the way of houses and furni¬ 
 ture, and their need was our opportunity. They ordered furniture 
 of all kinds, doors, windows and even houses. 
 
 17 
 
“With every order filled many more were received. Men were 
 trained and more trained men were found from the older Missions 
 up the coast, and more Bulu boys were taken in as apprentices under 
 a three^year contract. 
 
 “In the beginning of the second year a fire wiped out everything, 
 except a few tools. In spite of these losses we closed the year in 
 good shape financially. As there was no appropriation for the school 
 from the Board, we had to run a store and sell goods to secure 
 money to buy tools and build new shops. 
 
 “One of the products that has done a great deal to spread the 
 reputation of the Frank James Industrial School in the Cameroon and 
 neighboring colonies is the rattan furniture. Home^going govern' 
 ment ofiicials and business men have carried this rattan furniture into 
 all the colonies up coast and into many European countries. 
 
 “Another industry that has attracted wide attention is the ivory 
 department. This class has converted thousands of pounds of 
 elephant tusks into many articles, ivory beads proving the most 
 popular; their sale amounted to about $6,000 in three years. 
 
 “In 1910 a saw mill outfit was purchased. To establish it with 
 all the machinery connected with it has been a tremendous job, done 
 by laymen. Teaching the natives to cut trees, bring in logs, saw 
 them up, plane them and construct houses and all the furniture that 
 goes into them has been a large undertaking. These processes were 
 highly educative to the native, who, in his primitive state, lives in 
 this great forest with all its mahogany and, wonderful and beautiful 
 many'colored woods, yet has utilised only a few trees from which he 
 could take the bark. With this bark and a few sticks for posts, he 
 made the walls of his home. With the stalks of the giant palm he 
 fastened on the bark and made the rafters, using the leaves of the 
 same palm for a roof. A few pieces of the bamboo made his bed 
 and no other furniture graced his hut. 
 
 “It has been our work to teach these native boys who knew 
 nothing of real work to run and operate this machinery. Missionary 
 teachers with these same natives of the industrial school as helpers, 
 planned and constructed the Central Hospital with all its dwellings, 
 native and European wards, installed pumps, built reservoirs, in' 
 stalled plumbing for hot and cold water, set up the ice machine, the 
 electric light plant and the X'ray. All this has impressed the native 
 with respect, almost awe, for these same missionaries who were able 
 to do such wonderful, such unheard of things. 
 
 18 
 
“In comparing 1908 with the present we realizie the growth of 
 this institution. That year the gross output of the school was about 
 $300, while now it is more than $35,000. Then less than forty 
 men were in the employ of the school, counting apprentices, teachers 
 and workmen. Now the pay'roll aggregates over 1,000 men. To 
 the tailor and carpenter classes of 1908 have been added shoe'making, 
 tanning, general machine, garage and blacksmithing shop; manufac¬ 
 ture of rattan furniture, ivory novelties, pith helmets, hats and caps; 
 when time permits, instruction in mechanical drawing; and the men 
 have also been trained in the making and laying of bricks. 
 
 “Our equipment too has grown, and we have the machinery 
 needed in the above-named classes, also two hydraulic oil presses for 
 the manufacture of peanut and palm oils. 
 
 “The school has been commended by both the German and 
 French governments. Ex-Governor Garde, governor of the Cameroun 
 until 1923, said in an official letter, ‘I cannot pass over in silence 
 the brilliant results of the Industrial School at Elat. It is a model 
 of its kind which our official schools may try to equal, but will 
 surely not surpass.’ ’’ 
 
 Yet the school is not primarily an employer or even an instructor 
 of labor. It exists to build men. Thorough, self-respecting labor, 
 duly paid for at proper wages, is a long step forward in the African’s 
 social progress, and the increasing numbers in the school show that he 
 appreciates this fact. But the deeper importance of the school makes 
 its appeal as well, and both apprentices and workmen are willing, 
 even eager, to give toward the support of the evangelists who go 
 back to their villages and tell “the things of God” which they have 
 learned at Elat, or in their own vacations to go and tell these things 
 to the neighbors at home. While the men are at work in the shop, 
 their wives and families are taught simple hygiene, care of children, 
 and have Bible lessons as well, so that they are not left behind as 
 their husbands progress. The younger Christian women are willing 
 to learn child-care from the missionaries; but almost always there is 
 the old grandmother who insists upon the ancient customs and often 
 has her way in spite of more modern theories. Sometimes the 
 younger generation wins out. 
 
 The tribes of the Cameroun are agricultural people; along with 
 other primitive Africans they begin to extend their agricultural am¬ 
 bitions and to produce crops for export. Cocoa has built many a 
 
 19 
 
fine house for energetic farmers and bought many a motor truck to 
 be driven by prosperous chiefs upon the highways that now penetrate 
 the Cameroun. 
 
 Fred Hope again says, “The agriculturist has a wonderful oppor^ 
 tunity. The native in general is most primitive in his ideas of agri' 
 culture. A club with a small iron wedge driven into it is his 
 implement for felling the forest. With this he fells the trees every 
 which way and later this tangle is burned over, leaving all the trees 
 and most of the brush. Here, without stirring or breaking up the soil, 
 the seeds are planted by the women, who are the farmers. The men 
 do not do such lowly work. Farming is the work of slaves and 
 women. The only farming implement is a short, forked stick with 
 one prong, pointed with a piece of iron. Yet the crops this great, 
 fertile, tropical country will produce are almost unlimited. The oil 
 palms can be made a wonderfully paying crop. This country will 
 produce unlimited varieties of fruits, vegetables and other foods. 
 I have just made a list of different articles of food that have come 
 to our table from our own garden and the list numbers sixty. Be' 
 sides these from our own garden we get others from natives. That 
 is enough to show the great variety of foods this country can produce. 
 
 “There is no limit and yet the native knows so little. The 
 opportunity of the agriculturist is almost beyond the power of the 
 imagination. 
 
 “Then, too, the native knows so little about preparing the foods 
 he does have. Poorly prepared and half'cooked foods and unsanitary 
 methods of preparation are accountable for many of the complaints 
 and diseases peculiar to these people. It is pitiable to see the meager 
 allowance of illy prepared foods that is the lot of the natives, when 
 there is such an opportunity for good foods. Just as the native lives 
 in his little smoked, dirty, ilhkept hut of bark and leaves and sticks 
 amid the great mahogany forests and unlimited supply of granite, 
 iron and other building material, even so he eats his meager, poorly 
 prepared foods in this fertile, tropical country where the greatest 
 variety of the most wholesome food in all the earth could be had. 
 The Bulu’s garden is his granary. He does not have to store food 
 at all. With two rainy seasons a year, a garden is a perpetual thing. 
 His needs are always supplied, after a fashion, from that garden, 
 yet how pitiably small that is compared with what could be produced. 
 And here lies one of the greatest opportunities for a layman. 
 
 “There is no station school of our Mission but is dependent on its 
 agricultural department; the boys and girls work in the field and are 
 
 20 
 
fed by the field. There is in all these local efforts the dual effort to 
 maintain old tribal standards and to face modern methods and oppor' 
 tunities; but it is at Elat Station that the major agricultural work of 
 the Mission is conducted. Here it began under the direction of Mr. 
 Victor M. Buck in 1907. 
 
 “The first work has been principally experimental to ascertain 
 the best producers from among the great variety of native foods. 
 The outstanding result of these experiments and study is a hardy 
 diseasc'resisting cassava plant. Within the past fifteen years a 
 peculiar disease has attacked the cassava which lessened its produc' 
 tion 80 per cent. Since it is the staple food of these people it meant 
 increased labor and larger gardens to produce what was needed. 
 Acres of this disease^resisting cassava have been planted on mission 
 grounds and cuttings have been sent to other stations and the result 
 is a remarkable success. Soon it will be in the hands of the native 
 generally. Five hundred acres of the seven hundred and fifty be- 
 longing to the Central Hospital plant have been turned over for this 
 work.” 
 
 There are seven young men under instruction in this depart' 
 ment and we look forward to a large future. 
 
 No one thing has been of greater benefit to the Mission than 
 the Halsey Memorial Press, for the most part the work of the 
 late John H. Bradford. In speaking of this part of the work at Elat 
 in 1923 Mr. Bradford said: “From an industrial viewpoint, the 
 Halsey Memorial Press employs a negligible number, but from an 
 efficient viewpoint, considering heredity, environment, and adaptabib 
 ity, the African leads his American brother artist by a wide margin. 
 The fathers of these typographers were savages without a written 
 language. But these workmen, the first of a new generation, learned 
 their letters in the Mission Schools, learned obedience from school 
 discipline and morals from the teachings of Jesus Christ as interpreted 
 to them by their friends, the missionaries. 
 
 “The printing office is continually visited by curious natives to 
 see the marvels of this strange workshop. The pressTeeder is an 
 amazement, but the monotype is a still greater wonder. The conver- 
 sation of a group which one day stood gazing at type-setting was 
 overheard by a missionary. One of them remarked he would like to 
 see the inside of the head of a man that invented such a thing. His 
 neighbor maintained that it could not have been a man but a spirit 
 which could do such wonders. But a third said, 'When people know 
 God for years He gives them wisdom passing understanding.’ 
 
 21 
 
“From an evangelistic viewpoint the Press looms large. Without 
 the publication produced by it, the native would be dependent for all 
 his literature upon lands across the sea, the evangelistic message 
 would be limited by the range of the human voice, and the education 
 of these people would be as narrow as the confines of the school 
 room. Instead there have been published here several million pages 
 in the native languages of the African and that with the sole purpose 
 of evangelizing the race. Thus this Press is the one evangelist that 
 knows no bounds, is limited by no physical weakness or tropical 
 climate in carrying the Gospel message far and near.” 
 
 22 
 
That Church Palaver 
 
 y HAVE tried in the foregoing to show what the West 
 f /§ / Africa Mission has in the way of equipment to bring 
 ^ to these people that very abundant life which is found 
 
 only in Christ. That life is manifested in the growth of the church 
 which the Rev. Joseph McNeill tells us has never grown more geo' 
 graphically than in the last fifteen years. He continues: 
 
 “In 1920 we took over the work which the German missionaries 
 were compelled to drop at Sakbayeme. In 1922 Yaounde, the 
 colonial capital in the heart of the Cameroon, was occupied. In 1924 
 a minister and his wife were assigned to direct the work in Bafia 
 along the Mohammedan frontier line of advance. In 1925 it was 
 decided to man Djaposten that the Mekae and Lomie fields might 
 be adequately cared for. The diflficulty of superintending the widely 
 scattered evangelistic centers from that point, and the need in the 
 field beyond at Molondo presented an immediate and imperative need 
 for a second outpost at Abong Mbang. From all our new frontiers 
 we look out to distant horizons where the smoke of a thousand vib 
 lages lie, where the call-drums keep sounding, calling us to come. 
 From Efulan comes the word of a mighty work down on the 
 southern border where there are at present several young men acting 
 as evangelists among their own people without any monetary sup¬ 
 port from the church whatsoever. But not in the south only; in 
 the north, northeast and east as well are the opening doors of oppor¬ 
 tunity. It can be seen then, that everywhere pastors, more than 
 busy with the established work of their own fields, find their eyes 
 lifted to the forest and grass hills immediately beyond and their 
 hearts filled with a desire to respond to the multitude calling for 
 light.” 
 
 When Mr. McNeill, writing in 1927, thus speaks he feels behind 
 him the pressure of the church membership of 27,085, a gain of 
 
 I, 234 over the preceding year. The catechumen classes of over 
 44,000 show therefore on the rolls of the West Africa Mission as 
 born again almost 72,000 souls, the Sunday school enrollment being 
 about 92,000. 
 
 Let us take a look into one of the churches with the Rev. Philip 
 
 J. May as he first enters upon his work. 
 
 23 
 
“We enter the church and scan the great auditorium. Huge 
 poles support the massive slant roof made of palm branch mats laid 
 over a frame work of bamboo poles. The floor of the church is the 
 bare ground which is covered with crude pews. This building seats 
 about two thousand. Our church buildings are spacious; our largest 
 edifice, the one at Elat, will seat some four thousand people. 
 
 “As one enters the church a single black mass greets the eye. 
 Such an audience! I am attracted to several women with huge brass 
 collars about their necks, and a variety of bands on their legs and 
 ankles. Most of the women carry infants in their arms or in the 
 goat strap carriers which are slung over the shoulder. Little boys are 
 seated at the sides of the church where they regard the rest of us 
 with their wondering black eyes. Here and there are women, some 
 of them only girls, with shaven heads which is the Bulu mark of 
 widowhood. Here little girls sit together. There seems a tendency 
 for the people to group together according to age and sex. The men 
 are here in goodly numbers and there is a group of them at the side 
 of the pulpit, the elders of the church, who are as a rule the out' 
 standing men of the community. One of these, the headman of his 
 town, came to visit me today and told me that he thanked God for 
 sending them another white man who will tell them the words of 
 God. Some of the good old hymns were sung. How at home I feel! 
 These Buluized hymns thrill me! And how those boys do sing! 
 The missionary reads the Scripture and tells them the Words of God. 
 ‘And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy 
 of me.’ The rapt attention of the audience is disturbed only by the 
 occasional cry of one of the many babies. The boys look up at the 
 missionary with intense interest. Like all boys, they are the men of 
 tomorrow and I have great hope for the Bulu as I watch them. 
 Prayer is offered amid a sea of bowed heads. The meeting is over 
 and the people stream forward to grasp us by the hand. They are 
 reluctant to leave and stand around for an hour chatting, which 
 brings to my mind those periods of fellowship after the services in 
 the old church back home. 
 
 “Another Sunday is the Communion Sunday. Sabbath school 
 and the morning service were most inspiring. The huge auditorium 
 was crowded to capacity. The observance of the Lord’s Supper is 
 always reserved for the afternoon because the reception of new 
 members and baptisms take the major portion of the time of the 
 morning service. At one o’clock in the afternoon the people gather 
 for ‘the great honoring,’ as it is called in Bulu. The table is a very 
 
 24 
 
plain one and has that worn appearance of African things. The 
 missionary is seated behind the table while on either side are the 
 elders who will aid in this sacrament. A verse of ‘Break Thou the 
 Bread of Life’ is sung very softly, then prayer and Scripture reading 
 follow. The sermon is a picture of Jesus taking leave of his disciples 
 at the Farewell Supper. The faithful are here. In their hands one 
 may notice the crude ebony or shell spoon with which they will 
 receive the wine, which is the juice of a native fruit. The linen cloth 
 is lifted revealing two bowls and two glasses; the former containing 
 the bread and the latter the wine. At the side of the glasses there lie 
 two spoons with which the elders will serve the wine into those held 
 out by the communicants. All is clothed in silence, with the ex' 
 ception of a noise here and there made by some of the multitude of 
 babies present. The atmosphere is gripping! The elements are 
 served amid the mass of bowed heads while more verses of ‘Break 
 Thou the Bread of Life’ are sung. Prayer follows, the Apostles 
 Creed is recited, another hymn is sung, the benediction is pronounced 
 and all file silently out. 
 
 “Evangelists, elders and people will take to the road on the 
 morrow back to their native villages where they will endeavor to 
 live the Christ-like life in the midst of an environment which is nega¬ 
 tive, an environment whose pull is ever downward. The tremendous 
 need of Africa is impressed with great force upon my mind. There 
 is a continuous Macedonian call, ‘Come over and help us.’ ’’ 
 
 THE MAN AND WOMAN OF GOD 
 
 Yes, it is a Macedonian cry and it is specific. It is for a teacher 
 and a doctor and a preacher. A white man and a white woman 
 to come over and help. But it is more than this; it is a cry to the 
 leadership that is latent in the African people. The most vital in¬ 
 terest to the Mission is the degree and the quality of the African 
 response to that cry. To what degree have the tribes of the Came¬ 
 roon responded to the call to Christian leadership? 
 
 Surely it is something to be able to answer that our mission in 
 the Cameroon is served by 743 African school teachers and 612 or¬ 
 dained African evangelists, and there are 49 native assistants in our 
 hospitals and dispensaries. These are all supported by the field, and 
 in speaking of them we are taking no account of the thousands of 
 people who serve without remuneration. And what has been the 
 quality of the response? The teacher has already been spoken of 
 
 25 
 
and we have thrilled to the work that Nkulu Ndibi and Esam are 
 doing and the lives that are being changed under their influence. 
 
 Now hear the story of John Bulla Mfum, a Christian work' 
 man, ambitious, persistent, efficient and earnest. He ever holds aloft 
 the torch of his Master. He mounts all obstacles and through his 
 medical work is constantly helping his brother in distress. 
 
 While quite a small school lad he began his career by catching 
 beetles and butterflies for the white man during his spare time. His 
 efficiency as such a collector gained for him a position in the medical 
 work where he found an outlet for his splendid ambition to learn 
 and his desire to serve. 
 
 It matters little what the object or subject may be, or 'how 
 repulsive externally it may appear, his interest and thought penetrate 
 beyond the outer layer and go after the heart, and he is not satisfied 
 until that heart is put back into the hands of its rightful Owner for 
 service. Thus scores have found life and peace with their Lord 
 through the ministry of this man of God and have become pioneer 
 soldiers of the Cross in far distant villages where the name of Christ 
 had never before been heard. 
 
 Patients press constantly their troubles and wants upon him 
 and all'receive the same courteous and kindly treatment; always he 
 has a definite purpose in view, that they may better know their 
 Maker. No one goes away from him empty. 
 
 He constantly spends and is spent in helping the white doctors 
 that they may be relieved from taxing night calls and that their 
 rest may be undisturbed. He knows in part at least some of the 
 deep meaning of the Cross, for he lives in its shadow constantly and 
 wins through its power. 
 
 There are many women too who have responded to this call and 
 are giving their lives in service for others. Among them is Mejo 
 me Kome. When but a little girl she was married to a man with 
 two other wives. Later she was married to a man who had many, 
 many wives. One day some people passing from the next village 
 told a wonderful 'tale. “The strangest thing is in our town,” they 
 said, “it eats, it speaks, it covers its body with cloth, it is a person, 
 but white.” Mejo with others hurried to see the strange person. 
 They found Dr. A. C. Good, who told them in a very simple way 
 about God. They went home afterward saying, “Zambe a jo na” 
 (God says thus), as they had heard him say it, but that phrase was 
 all they had been able to grasp. 
 
 26 
 
Months later Mejo was sent to a village near Elat, and while 
 there heard Bekale Mendom,* that wonderful winner of souls, tell the 
 Gospel story. The desire came to her to walk in the new way, and 
 after she was redeemed and sent back to her husband, she and an' 
 other wife stole away and went back to Elat. They sought Mr. 
 Dager, to whom they made known their desire, and he advised and 
 helped them through many perplexities and trials, for their husband 
 was indeed angry when he learned that two of his women dared to 
 bring to his town another 'God than himself. His death finally re- 
 leased them. Mejo then went to school at Elat. Although a grown 
 woman she learned to read the Gospels. Eighteen years ago she 
 married Meva’a, an evangelist, with whom she has lived and worked 
 happily ever since. 
 
 Recently when Mejo returned from the hospital where she had 
 gone to have an operation, she said, “As I lay on 'my bed the day 
 before the operation, reading, I was frightened to think of having a 
 knife put into me, but I came to the verse, T am the resurrection 
 and the life,’ and it gave me a new heart. Jesus said it to me over 
 and over again and I had no more fear.” 
 
 Pleasant'and helpful is Mejo always; willing to do anything for 
 any one of any tribe. Her faith is a constant inspiration to all who 
 know her. 
 
 When it comes to giving, the African Christian puts the Amer' 
 ican Christian to shame. When the price of cloth with which to 
 make their clothes went up to five times what it was before the war, 
 and when money became scarcer and scarcer, did the African reduce 
 his gifts to the church so as to pay the increased price for the cloth' 
 ing? 7\[o, he went back to his loin cloth, and the women went back 
 to their grass skirts and they attended service as before, although 
 before these hard days came no Christian would be seen in the house 
 of God in such attire, or lack of attire. 
 
 And when the offering at one of the stations went down to 700 
 marks, and the missionary preached a missionary sermon, out of 
 their poverty they managed to give 1,500 marks, over one hundred 
 per cent increase. 
 
 • Note—It is suggested to readers that they learn more of Bekale 
 Mendom in the “Black Pioneer,” an appreciation of this man, published by 
 the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 Price, ten cents. 
 
 27 
 
The African Christian also gives of his time for the Lord. The 
 Christians of Efulan and Alum gave in one year 9,460 days of ser¬ 
 vice—nearly twenty-six years of effort to evangelize their fellow 
 countrymen. 
 
 He also gives for those who have gone on before. A Christian 
 man and wife give regularly in the church envelopes, they give for 
 each of their living children, and then in addition, in a separate 
 envelope, give for the children who have passed on. 
 
 When the new church at Elat was organized in 1903, and six 
 persons were received into membership, the offering of the day con¬ 
 sisted of 6 bunches of beads, one tennis belt, 43 agate buttons, one 
 ebony hairpin, 2 felt hats, one small tin basin, one package of native 
 food, 40 chickens, 4 eggs and many other things, in money value 
 about $35, but in purchasing power $350. 
 
 Mrs. Cozzens tells us of the splendid effort of Mvondo, a native 
 minister, who was greatly distressed because of the failure of his 
 church to meet its obligations, for the report of Presbytery had re¬ 
 vealed that his church had the poorest,financial record of all. 
 
 After giving the matter a great deal of prayerful thought 
 Mvondo came to the white minister and asked if they might not have 
 an all-afternoon meeting to consider the money question. His plan 
 was to have several of the missionaries give twenty minute talks on 
 the subject of giving, after which he would make an appeal for 
 marked increases in the gifts of the people. 
 
 The plan carried and the meeting was well attended. The white 
 people spoke well, but Mvondo’s address was powerful and effective. 
 This was his closing illustration. “We Bulu, when we cook a 
 chicken, how do we divide it? The'father, what part is he given?” 
 
 “The big piece of breast, of course.” 
 
 “And the oldest son, what part is he given?” 
 
 “The leg and thigh.” 
 
 “And the younger sons?” 
 
 “The wings and back.” 
 
 “And the ‘moneka’ (sister’s son), what piece is he given?” A 
 titter of amusement ran through the audience as they giggled the 
 answer, “O, he gets the neck.” 
 
 28 
 
“O, my friends,” said Mvondo, “I say to you that most of you 
 are giving to your Heavenly Father and his 'work only the little 
 piece you would throw to the ‘moneka’!” 
 
 The pledges were increased that day beyond what any except 
 Mvondo had had the faith even to ask. 
 
 With such a splendid field and with so responsive a people to 
 touch with the love of Christ it is no wonder that Mrs. Philip J. 
 May sees in fancy the Africa of the future. Let us go with her 
 in spirit to this land as she describes it to us. 
 
 “And now as I sit in my rooms in Africa the real, and look out 
 upon banana and palm trees and the white man’s roses and the 
 forests on the horizon, and I hear the singing of tropical birds, and 
 see a passing woman carrying on her back the burden of food, and 
 hear the lusty voices of boys singing in yonder schoohhouse, I picture 
 in my mind’s eye another Africa, an Africa redeemed by Christ, 
 an Africa of healthy women and free, an Africa of girls and boys 
 equipped to take their places in the world beside the youth of other 
 nations, an Africa of stalwart Christian men, an 'Africa that knows 
 not the darkness of sin, superstition and ignorance, but one that is 
 delivered from these yokes of bondage and whose lives are cast in the 
 pleasant lighted places of this God'created world.” 
 
 29 
 
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