European Journal of Social Sciences Studies
ISSN: 2501-8590
ISSN-L: 2501-8590
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/soc
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.804497
Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS,
TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM TO EUROPE:
REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE
COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Roland Ndillei
University of Buea
PO Box 63, SWR, Cameroon
Abstract:
When it comes to stories (even fabrications) that reveal Africa as a dark continent, a
continent of emptiness and of primitivism, one is likely to find milliards of documents
proliferated by Europeans to continuously justify their overrule over the continent and
its people. But when it comes to literature especially written by Europeans who have
experienced Africa objectively that confesses the potential of its people and their
knowledge base and how this knowledge base can inform European social existence,
such hardly exists. In this paper my aim is to reveal some studies carried out by
European missionaries in Cameroon which went out of the way to recommend that
amidst the social crisis that plagued Europe, and the human values of traditional
society in Africa, there was need for a paradigm shift from preaching the Christian
gospel to Africans to preaching African social wisdom to the Europeans. I content that
this position was contrary to Coloniality of power, being and knowledge which have
guided Euro-African relations from the time of their early contact. That is why it has
been consciously suppressed by the colonial archive.
Keywords: African social wisdom, Christian gospel, colonial archive, Coloniality
1. Introduction
The encounter between Africa and Europe became imperial and colonial in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Suleiman, 2012:84). This contact and the
Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.
© 2015 2017 Open Access Publishing Group
14
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
subsequent subjugation of Africa to colonial rule was fuelled by the developments in
the Age of Enlightenment; a term which captures a shift from a God-centred society to a
Man-centred society, inaugurating what became known as Euro-North Americancentric modernity (Noble, Straus et al, 1994:775). Beginning with a renewed confidence
in the human capacity to discern the intelligibility of world and natural laws, it quickly
shifted to the application of political and socio-economic thought in solving daily life
problems. It was believed to be a period of "Mankind's final coming of age
Childs,
2000:38) in which people sought to understand the world in a rational, logical and
scientific way (Kitchin and Tate, 2000:16).
If there is one way that Africa came to be entangled with these developments in
Europe, it is principally for the fact that, the 19th century which brought with it a shift
in European consciousness about the outside world signalled great currents of change
that were exported: Commerce, Christianity and Colonization. Popularly known as the
three Cs, they remained the main firestones of imperialism. ‚part from officialising
the European invasion of foreign territories, enlightenment intimated that colonialism
was not for Europe s self-aggrandizement, but a humanitarian challenge to give out a
taste of western civilization to all other people (Brockway 1979:187) who were not part
of Modern Europe and who, they believed did not possess such developmental
prowess.
Such an attitude has historically provided a strong foundation on which to
erect
both in Europe and outside
critiques of socially unjust practices. According to
Decolonial Theorists (Maldonado-Torres, 2007; Grosfoguel, 2007; Mignolo; 2011;
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013) there is need for more critical ways of understanding
colonization and decolonization other than from the face value that school books have
taught us that Europeans came to ‚frica for a humanitarian and civilizing mission
(Ndille,2016:7). This has opened the intellectual canvas towards the analysis of colonial
activities in ‚frica as crucial structuring processes that have been actively operative in the
modern world system in which Africa has been permanently entrapped (Ndlovu-Gatsheni,
2013:331-353). When this is done one would realize that the Europeans who came to
Africa as missionaries, colonial administrators, traders and explorers and the many
sedentary speculators about Africa who never left Europe but were motivated by their
own biases (racism not excluded) to write about Africa were never neutral research
workers or writers. They were representatives of a tradition: of the West.
This tradition is embedded in Eurocentrism and Coloniality which have been
defined by Samir ‚min as bundles of western prejudices about other peoples; a banal form of
ethnocentrism informed by a discursive terrain of racism, chauvinism and xenophobia (Amin
2009, 177-178). This conception was certainly not only underpinned by ignorance and a
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
15
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
mistrust of others, but was also fuelled by a desire to suppress and dominate other
people for their own sake. This desire ensured that the information circulated about the
suppressed and dominated proved that the place (Africa) and its people were of no
epistemological value to the rest of the world and that their survival depended on
imbibing the cultural heritages of the West. This ideology contributed in disseminating
knowledge which proved that Africa was a place of darkness and in concealing
indigenous knowledge which would have given Africa an alternative perception.
Enlightenment and the Emptiness of Africa: Justifying why Africa Needed Europe
It was the responsibility of enlightenment writers to demonstrate that Africa needed
European intervention. GWF Hegel for example described ‚frica as a truncated
monstrosity , a land of childhood , enveloped in the dark mantle of night because its
inhabitants, the negro exhibited the natural man in his completely wild and untamed
state (Zeleza 2006 quoted in Awasom 2009:3). To Hegel Africans had no wisdom of
their own which could contribute to the development of humanity. They had no
movement and no development to exhibit. If there was any evidence of development in
Africa, it could not have possibly been due to the efforts of Africans themselves but
from outside forces such as Hamites who were light-skinned peoples of non-negro
origin. This Hamitic theory exaggerated the role of the external forces in the history and
development of sub-Saharan Africa. The theory was to show the developmental
advances of African peoples as being dependent on external stimuli arising from
contact with one of the branches of the Caucasian race who were the fountains of
civilization ‚wasom
half child Kipling
. Rudyard Kipling on his part called ‚fricans half-devil;
.
Particularly for Cameroon and about the coastal people of Duala whom the
Portuguese met in 1471 and with whom most of the European nations established trade
contacts after that, a London Baptist Missionary to the area, Alfred Saker wrote in 1844;
close to four centuries after that;
I cannot describe the condition in which I found the whole people. A book they had not
seen; the commonest implements of husbandry and tools of all kinds were unknown to
them… I was clothed but they were not.
(Underhill, 1958:40)
Writing to sponsors, friends and families, the early missionaries to Cameroon
reported that they were alarmed by the level of primitivity of the Cameroonian
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
16
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
societies; that the people practiced a religion which varied from monotheism to
polytheism and ancestor worship; that the structure of most Cameroonian societies was
very simple; with very few undifferentiated institutions for handling social needs and
group functions; that there was generalization rather than specialization in the arts as it
is found in more advanced cultures; that there was limited social contact thus limiting
the sharing of ideas and experiences that the social organization of tribes was
characterized by the existence of traditional practices and rites which (they; the
missionaries) regarded as taboos; that there was a complete absence of science in its
modern form which therefore led people to folkways, beliefs and attitudes which
though useful to the needs of the traditional Cameroonian society at that time could not
survive in a larger environment with conflicting experiences; that the traditional
Cameroonian found by Europeans had no writing and consequently had not learnt to
read; and that conservatism was a general characteristic of the Cameroonian. This made
them resist change (in Mac Ojong, 2008).
While Alfred Saker and his missionary colleagues were speaking subjectively of
people they had encountered, the writings of Hegel and many of the other modernist
writers about Africa were in the majority based on guesswork and hearsay. Such works
unfortunately remained quite influential and informed European perception of Africans
south of the Sahara for a very long time. These writings not only guided European
politico-economic activities in Africa but most especially, occasioned a pseudo sociohumanitarian policy of civilization, modernization and development on the continent.
For all the colonial administrations and missionary bodies, the fact remained that
European cultures reflected the unique and progressive manifestation of the
metaphysical order of history (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013:10). It was strongly upheld in
Europe that non-western societies were static and traditional, and for them to be able to
move towards modernity development , their traditional primitive values had to be
displaced by modern (Western) ones such as Western Education and Christianity.
In the words of Thomas Macaulay, Christianity and Western Education were
intended to set out a new career of improvement ensuring that, a new character is
imprinted on the colonized Hall
785). As a colonial administrator, Macaulay is said
to have been shocked by his encounter of what he termed the extremes of India and
quickly concluded that it was the duty of ‛ritain to offer their intellectual cultivation to
benighted others ibid . This perspective is perfectly captured in the poem, The White
Man's Burden which tells Europeans that it is their responsibility to seek another s profit
and work another s gain.
Kipling
. In Cameroon, after over three centuries of
pillage occasioned by the Trans-‚tlantic Slave Trade, the selflessness of enlightenment
Europe led to the determination that;
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
17
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Following what we apprehend to be the clear indications of providence and in compliance
with the representations of our brethren in Jamaica, we (The London Baptist Mission)
determine, in reliance on the divine helping, to commence a Mission to Western Africa.
(Quoted in Ngwei, 1975:27)
To ensure the success of the mission, the Missionaries who were to engage in this
arduous task were instructed that;
In your field of labour, you will be probably called to engage in the establishment of
schools and churches. This work is highly important… but while general knowledge is
beneficial and much of it exceedingly valuable, you will remember that it is the diffusion
of knowledge, as direct means of advancing western civilization, which is your proper
subject. Let your plans therefore; provide the communication of the spiritual wisdom,
with western secular instruction.
(Quoted in Venon-Jackson 1967:18)
The unquestioning believe in the positional superiority of Western Civilization backed
by the pseudo-humanitarianism of the time is said to have informed the understanding
that the men who were engaged in the building of European colonial empires were
doing so with the conviction that they were doing those they conquered a favour; of
ultimately leading them to a higher standard of living and quality of government than
that provided by their primitive institutions. To successfully do this, significant
proportions of energy and resources were put in place to spread Christianity and
western knowledge and to conceal the rich knowledge heritage of the African people.
What Europeans knew but permanently concealed: The
fullness
of African
Epistemology
Some of the Europeans who initially visited Africa with a prejudicial mindset and who
actually lived within African communities became humbled by the wealth of
indigenous knowledge and wisdom which the people possessed. They marveled at the
well-established nature of traditional society. A couple of them sought to study them.
As early as the 1903, Missionaries H. Dorsch and (later) J. Ittmann (1936) became
involved in studying some traditional Cameroonian societies either because they came
to love them or because of their religious zeal. Dorsch s involvement is epitomized by
the fact that he was involved in education and even more so in the study of Akose, the
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
18
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Bakossi language. His grammar of the Bakossi language was published in 1911 after
many years of hard research. Ittman, on the other hand was interested in every aspect
of Bakossi life and his writings constitute one of the earliest and an unbeatable source of
Bakossi tradition in written form. Others like those of Rene Bureau came up later (1962).
What is clear is that these sources reveal the richness of traditional African values which
to them would make Europe a better place to live in if Europeans were to borrow them.
Amongst the Bakossi of Cameroon for example, the sources (Dorch 1911; Arthur,
1931; Vaux, 1932; Ittmann, 1939 and Balz 1984) found that traditional governance and
social regulation were built on three principal societies; the Ahon, The Muankum and the
Ngwe. All these societies still exist and continue to play their roles in traditional Bakossi
society. The studies described the Ahon as an aristocratic secret society made up of
people who, in the past, had acquired wealth in cows and goats, and other economic,
political and social fame. It was therefore, a symbol of social stratification. It performed
a specific religious function at funerals. In Bakossi, death is a rite of passage to the
world beyond and the Ahon was charged with preparing and effecting this passage
especially for notables. Members of the Ahon through their initiation were seen as the
custodians of traditional authority. At individual levels, their counsel was often sought
where necessary in the village. They therefore assisted in peace building and in the
maintenance of law and order. The Ahon also served as a higher judicial council or
traditional senate where important matters regarding some senior personalities were
handled and verdicts pronounced (Vaux 1932:13).
The studies also revealed that of significance to the Ahon were the immense
spiritual powers that come with membership, the importance attached to symbolic
objects, initiation rights and the rigour and pump with which their public appearances
are associated (Arthur 1931:2; Ittman 1936:16). Each Ahon society had a reserved area in
the village called mbuog whose installation as recounted by missionary Balz (1984), went
with the sacrifice of a slave in pre-colonial times (although this view is not shared by all
informants) and whose attachment to artistic objects, absolute secrecy, and alleged use
of medicines gave them the erroneous connotation of idol/demon worshippers
hence
the Duala appellation losango and from where the desire to exterminate it emanated.
The Muankum on its part was found to be a mysterious spirit which appeared to
Ngoe the founder of Bakossi in a loud voice in the forest. The spirit instructed that
every ‛akossi born male must
see him
be initiated into Mwankum). Initiation
involved some rituals and the swearing of oaths of secrecy. It also included some
elderly counsel on manhood and courageousness, honesty and discipline (Dorsch 1911).
Mwankum had both executive and religious powers in the community. As the executive
power, it served as an instrument to discipline misbehaviour. What Mwankum spoke
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
19
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
was ultimately the law of the community. It maintained order within the family and
beyond it. It was far from what Gutekunst year considers maintaining the women in
fear and to make them submissive, as it was also very active against men s antisocial behaviour
such as theft, adultery and the practice of witchcraft” (Balz, 1984).
In less grievous crimes Mwankum extracted a fine from the defaulter condemned
as such by the community and in more serious atrocities, Mwankum had power to ban,
exile or inflict capital punishment in consonance with members of the defaulter s
family. As a religious power, it was found that all the laws and customs came from the
ancestors through Mwankum. The fear of the ancestors was sufficient to uphold the law
as they could supernaturally punish those who went against it. The loud voice of
Mwankum, served as the interpreter and amplifier of what the ancestors had to tell or
give the community. In this respect, the moral authority of Mwankum was found to be
more than human; being a messenger and intermediary between the living and the
ancestors. It was also seen to be a harbinger of blessings, bringing food, children and all
good things from the ancestors. By fulfilling these functions, Mwankum acquired holiness
(Ittman 1936).
The Ngwe was described as an arm of traditional government; a meeting of the
elderly and experienced men of the different families of the village or clan called the
Bengwe (plural). It had legislative, judicial and the administrative powers. The Bengwe
doubly served as the traditional legislative and executive councils making laws to
regulate community existence, taking decisions regarding going to war and organizing
public events such as community labour and feasts (Vaux, 1932:10-11). Vaux explained
that while the Ngwe served as the community s decision maker, the executing function
was carried out by the Mwankum. Both Ngwe and the Mwankum therefore represented
the double activity of government in Bakossiland. Membership into Ngwe was also
through an initiation process; an entire period of formal traditional education lasting for
over three weeks and ending in a graduation and an admission-into-the-society feast
for which the entire village takes part.
It was an opportunity for the Ngwe initiate to gain spiritual powers from the
ancestors and be introduced into adult life and community service (Ittman 1936). Balz,
revealed (rather derogatorily) that in the past, naked dancing was part of the initiation
process into Ngwe. This made the missionaries see them as a very obscene association of
fetish people (Balz, 1984:84). However, it is strongly held that if that was the case, naked
dancing was more an expression of humility, truthfulness, and openness
qualities
which were necessary for making peace and administering justice (Ndille and Ngome
2016:29). Other essences of Ngwe were seen in its objects: the broom, the bag, the stick,
camwood, and the Ngwe-seat called ebale. Each member was expected to possess these
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
20
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
as a mark of honour and recognition in society. Medicines usually made from leaves
were also a very original aspect of Ngwe with only a symbolic rather than magical end.
It could be seen that a few missionary and independent research appraisals of
the Bakossi and other Cameroonian traditional societies revealed a picture contrary to
the Eurocentric accounts about African lifestyles and values. Bakossi people, to use the
above example, exhibited the dual religious and sociopolitical qualities mentioned in
any definition of spirituality. These values were unique and accounted for the stability,
harmony, peace and social cohesion which characterized pre-European Cameroonian
societies but which also still influence village life today. Few of the studies by
Europeans about traditional Cameroonian societies (Arthur 1931; Vaux, 1932; Ittmann
1936; 1943 and Bureau 1962; 1978) have revealed that contrary to the Eurocentric
interpretations, carved objects were a significant aspect of traditional spirituality and
constituted part of the religious paraphernalia but were not worshipped.
Particularly for the Bakossi, some of the European sources (Ittmann, 1943; Balz
1984) confirm that the people had no material or physical representations of God or his
intermediaries benyame and that the term idol worship or losango which was brought by
the missionaries from the coastal Duala and Bakweri people was a misrepresentation of
traditional Cameroonian spirituality. The sources also revealed that the laid down
structures of traditional Bakossi society were complemented by official prayer days
Ndie and other social regulations which went a long way to make the society an
intricately woven-together traditional African society. In times of prosperity and good
harvests, as well as in every kind of crisis such as war, epidemic, disease, poor yield etc,
they prayed and offered sacrifices. This is to say that the traditional society had
everything in place to ensure a harmonious living together. They had an understanding
of sickness and how to go about treating any- scientifically or spiritually. They had laid
down principles of going to war and making peace; and handling criminals. In this
way, the morality of traditional society was strongly upheld. Sin was seen amongst
them as a breach of, or failure to adhere to the sanctions recognized as the approved
standards of social and religious conduct on the part of the individual and of society as
a whole (Bureau,1962).
Hospitality to strangers was deeply enshrined in traditional social existence.
Doors were only shut at night but never closed. Food was often prepared keeping in
mind that one or two strangers would show up deep into the night. Hospitality was
seen as planting crops in foreign lands which the planter or his/her children would
evidently reap in this world or the one beyond (Balz, 1984). Chastity before marriage
was compulsory. It was a disgrace for parents if their daughter knew a man before
marriage. Couples were also compelled to stay faithful. Truth was a moral virtue and
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
21
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
oath taking was a matter of principle (Ittmann, 1936). Social vices like stealing,
fornication, adultery and dishonesty were seriously dealt with by traditional law and
there were laid down penalties for every atrocity. It was also possible to make a man or
his child fall ill suddenly (echog) if he was reluctant to follow or observe the laws of the
land. In this case, the man was expected to offer a sacrifice locally called nkanag of a
goat or sheep to make good the situation.
By presenting the above analysis of a traditional Cameroonian society, the point I
am making is that almost from the beginning of their work in Cameroon, some
European missionaries and administrators wrote about the institutions of traditional
society, and the longer they stayed, the more they became concerned precisely about
society, about the people s ways of living together. The reasons for this growing interest
are not only to be found in what was going on in Cameroon, but also in the historical
changes which at the same time affected missionaries own societies in Europe, and
through them, the general relationship between Africa and the West. These researchers
therefore looked at the adverse effects of social change in Europe and how such changes
were being transported to coastal Africa (what Ittmann terms; involuntary
westernization). They began to recommend that the threatened traditional social
institutions should be protected and preserved alongside the new religion of
Christianity. They had become so impressed with the human values of traditional
African societies that they gradually began moving away from the idea of Europeans
preaching the Christian gospel to the Africans, and indeed began to recommend that
Africans should rather preach African social wisdom to their countrymen at home. The
works of the German Basel Missionary Johannes Ittman, who stayed in coastal
Cameroon for many years up to 1940; and the French Catholic priest Rene Bureau, who
worked there as a missionary in the 1950s are very categorical in making such a
recommendation.
Johannes Ittman was a Basel Missionary to Cameroon who lived in Mangamba
from 1911 until 1914, in Nyasoso from 1927 until 1929 and then in Buea and Victoria for
another ten years. Confronted with the social changes then taking place in the late 1930s
due to plantation economy and modern urban life amongst the Bakweri, Duala and
other coastal towns and villages in Cameroon, he became more and more convinced
that serious missionary work in Cameroon could not continue without the study of the
Cameroonians
original ties and social orders
Ittmann,
Geistiger Volksbesitz der Kameruner im Blickfeld des Missionars
. His book entitled
Cameroonian cultural
Heritage, or living traditions, as seen by the missionary (Ittmann, 1943) was developed
out of these insights during the Second World War, when he lived for six years in an
internment camp in Jamaica. Apart from revealing the values of the traditional
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
22
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Cameroonian societies which he studied, the main stress of this book was not on the
artistic heritage but on the traditional society. That is, man s various ties with his fellow
man: social regulations, marriage and the family, the village and the ethnic group.
The new missionary view expounded by him, with influence from earlier studies
of other East African societies (Gutmann, 1925; 1928; Johanssen, 1931) was that, in the
religious life of Cameroon, the old traditional systems of worship have been both
fulfilled and replaced by the new (Christianity). However, the growing decadence of
the society (which was evident in the rise of crime, social disorder, sexual immorality
etc; which had been contained when traditional social regulations had their place) could
be strictly linked to the replacement of such traditional values by Christianity in society.
In his book, (Itmann,1943) he recommended that such religious change (from traditional
to Christianity) should be prevented as much as possible; that whatever was good in
traditional society should be actively protected by the missionaries, rather than being
left to the destructive economic and social influences of westernization. He recognized
the fact that secret societies; a topic on which he wrote many articles, (with the last one
written in
were forerunners of the state and in most respects, valuable
instruments of peace making and that membership into such societies should be
encouraged and their role in social regulation and traditional administration should
instead be re-enforced (Itmann, 1957: 48-49).
Since in Ittman s days his fellow missionaries were far from accepting that so
much thought and time should be spent on Cameroonian society- apart from learning
the Duala and Mungaka languages, which they did- he was obliged also to formulate
his theological stand in straight forward terms. The unpublished book written during
the Second World War contains the brilliant and enigmatic remark that missionary
work should have as it objective Christian ‚fricans rather than ‚frican Christians
(Ittmann, 1943:iv). From his understanding of the Cameroonian society, he had argued
in his
article that, in Cameroon the church has to grow out of the soil of the
people, germinating from the seed of the divine word
to be abolished but to be fulfilled
Ittmann,
the renewed old orders were not
. True missionary work has two bases
of equal importance: the gospel of Christ and the peoples living traditions Ibid .
It is not surprising that, on seeing how the peoples tradition was not only taken
seriously by Ittmann, but actually given an importance equal to that of the gospel, the
Basel mission became more and more reserved about Ittmann s views ‛alz, 1976) and
his writings hardly reached those for whom they were primarily intended; the next
generation of Basel missionaries in Cameroon after him (why) probably because his
contemporaries did everything to make his thoughts unpopular. In the 1950s, however,
Ittman found some attentive readers amongst the French catholic priests in the college
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
23
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Libermann in Douala-Cameroon. One of them, Rene Bureau, with a wide background
in the social sciences, devoted his first book in 1962 titled the Ethno-Sociology of Duala
and related Coastal Tribes, dealing with all the main aspects of their traditional setup:
family, economy, social organization and religion (Bureau, 1962).
‛ureau, in his work shows, in particular, the vacuums which exist in ‚frican
society and the unconscious transfers of European social decadence which have taken
place both as a result of the colonial missionary destruction of such institutions as
dowry, anti-witchcraft rituals and secret societies such as Djengu. His functional
description of these institutions largely followed Ittman s research Ittmann,
-
138). He further analyses, according to the strict sociological method of the French
School, the conversion of the Duala to Christianity and to Catholicism in particular. He
evaluates to what extent this conversion was only superficial since the cultural
substratum on the whole remained unconverted and traditional.
‛ureau s main intention in his book was to lay open the weaknesses of the
catholic approach to Duala society and to overcome them by deeper sociological
insights. This is where he began his study of African society; but not where he ended.
Sixteen years later, he had become a professor of Anthropology in Paris, and he
published a largely autobiographical book Peril Blanc: Propos d un Ethnologue sur
l Occident in which he gave an account of how, already during his years in Duala,
things had begun to take a different turn (Bureau, 1978). The inconsiderate destruction
of Djengu (a traditional system of worship of the Duala people) by joint colonial and
missionary power gradually became a symbol to him, not of the side effect of errors, but
of the very essence of what the west has done and continues to do in Africa (Bureau,
1978:18-37). In Peril Blanc, Bureau explained that whatever promoted social integration,
harmony and discipline in traditional society was destroyed without any valid
substitute by the radical conversion of the people to Catholicism and that even the
Christian churches provide no valid substitute for traditional norms of regulating social
existence (1978:23). To him, social disorder, resignation, and the demographic decrease
of coastal tribes most directly affected, through disruption of families, alcoholism,
prostitution and venereal diseases, were the direct consequences of European
missionary attempts to implant Christianity over traditional systems of worship, going
together with colonial economic exploitation and cultural alienation (Ibid).
Other studies made on independent religious movements in the Ivory Coast and
Gabon further convinced Bureau that the whole sum of western influence on African
societies was only destructive and in no way beneficial. Instead of bringing anything
better, the Europeans only exported their own internal crisis and unsolved conflicts in
economics as well as in religion to Africa. Bureau described European missionaries and
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
24
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
colonialists as dangerous, deplorable and egoistic wizards, which Africa by mobilizing
its archaic traditions of human solidarity and equality must exorcise and prevent from
going on with their destruction. He also believed that to a great extent the postcolonial
‚frican elite itself is already infected by the same white danger and therefore ,unfit for
either political or social leadership out of the new social and cultural crisis (Bureau,
1978: 182-3).
Ittman in his time (1930s and 40s) had still felt that Christian Mission and
colonial rule in Cameroon must go together, and that, in spite of their shortcomings,
they were beneficial to the Africans. Bureau, forty years after, felt that whether they
want it or not, the two actually worked together and worked for one and the same
purpose of alienation of the Africans from what they were before. To him no
improvement in missionary methods could ever remedy this evil. Although Bureau was
not really turning himself against the gospel of Christ- he still believed in Jesus promise
to the poor but saw no use in exporting Western Christianity to Africa. He became very
bitter with Catholicism, got married and holds celibacy and monasticism in very low
esteem (Bureau, 1978:183). This is because, the acute and modern world-wide problems
of destroyed human solidarity, the failure of harmonious living together, had over the
years gained the upper hand over the need for religious change.
With Ittman, the ‚frican ways of living together in society had become of equal
importance with the gospel of Christ. With ‛ureau the ‚frican wisdom had, as of that
time, acquired greater importance for the needs of today s world. He strongly believed
that in the face of fallen social/human values occasioned by modernity, only the archaic
agricultural societies can show a way out of the hopeless crisis of western urban,
military and industrial societies. Consequently, instead of the west teaching Africa
religion, Africa should now teach the west about a humane society, and better living
together (Bureau, 1978:19). Bureau teaches a lesson of sympathy and admiration for
African wisdom in keeping the community in peace. He even initiated himself into the
Bwiti religion in Gabon (Ibid: 161). He follows up the lines previously indicated by
Ittmann, and he finds some deeper meaning even in what ‚fricans call witchcraft not
just a pre-scientific superstition, but all that is antisocial in man s heart, envy and the
will of power over others against which Western society has yet found no general and
effective remedy. Commenting on Ittmann and Bureau another missionary observed
that we too agree that something can be learnt from it (African spirituality) for a better
self-understanding of the West (Balz 1984:13).
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
25
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Why Europe concealed the truth: Coloniality of power, knowledge and being
The above selfless studies carried out by European Missionaries, (to make a difference
with those often tagged Eurocentric) corroborate very well with the indigenous
researches of Ejedepang-Koge (1970, 1976), Atabe, (1979) Ndille and Ngome (2016) etc.
However, the question which many have posed and found their own answer has been
that, why did these studies receive little interest and publicity despite the fact that they
had so much to teach the world about the African societies. An easy guess is that they
were destroyed/concealed by colonial administrations And European Missionaries
radical approach to evangelization. That is why although Ittmann and Bureau had
dwelled on such a thesis which ordinarily would have attracted a lot of attention in the
west, the writings were hardly even heard of. They remained at best archival
manuscripts. That is why the works and probably their authors have hardly featured in
the historiography of African religion.
Generally, writings of such a calibre which kind of watered-down European
efforts in the periphery or which never represented the popular trend of Euro-North
American-centric literature of downplaying African epistemology hardly had a
headway to fame. It is indeed an uncomfortable subject to Europeans to talk about
Africa teaching Europe. Europe is only interested in the exploitation of Africa. To do
this they would encourage the dissemination of knowledge which tells that Africa is
helpless and like a lamp under a table avoid any situation where African values are
showcased. ‚ccording to Koutonin
,
Europe prefers Africa laying down
permanently. It s easier for them to suck it. The implication of such an analogy is that
knowledge about ‚frica which kind of puffs up the ‚frican shoulder in the presence of
Europe has always been concealed in a bid to continuously keep the power of agency.
That is why in the colonial archive, one would hardly find colonial or European
research data carried out before 1960 and even beyond that promotes the positive
values of African societies such as those of Ittmann and Bureau.
Because of this trend, literature about Africa in the colonial archive has hardly
evolved from that of an uncivilized barbaric society to something better. As
Chakrabarty has explained, the European colonizer of the nineteenth century both preached
Enlightenment humanism at the colonized and at the same time denied it in practice when it
emanated from the colonized” (Chakrabarty, 2008:4). This is what Lezra has termed the
Colonial Art of Demonizing Others. According to Lezra, the Europe imagined and
documented in the archives of colonial powers and in the expressive cultures created in
its metropolitan centres, contains a repository of subdued stories or silenced narratives
about the influence and the embedded presence of black people inside what we might
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
26
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
call the European imagination. Where they are not subdued or silenced, they become
misrepresentations and mistranslations of black freedom, dreams and self-activity as
monstrous especially in the period of imperial consolidation (Lezra, 2014:7).
By presenting the examples of Ittmann and Bureau who have contributed
enormously in the Historiography and Sociology of Cameroon, but who are almost
unknown authors my aim is to add to the available pieces of erstwhile silenced
narratives and in this effort, advance a larger understanding of the traces of silencing,
and obfuscation in the dominant archive; traces that make it possible to read the
colonial archive as a constitutive part of colonial domination. It is also part of the
reconstructive work of the method of reading developed in Decolonial studies which
upholds a refusal to be bound by the disciplinary conventions that generally dictate
how we must read Euro-‚frican relations to upholding what has been termed reading
for what is not available in the archive. This is with the understanding that the colonial
archive (in the guise of enlightenment humanism) has generally occluded the central
and violent role played by colonial administrations and their accolades in the creation
of a mindset of supreme European culture in the Africans and a state of self-denial and
worthlessness in African values. That is why evangelization in Africa was carried out
without any consideration of the intrinsic traditional nature of the people and their
land, their points of power as well as those of weakness (Ejepang-Koge, 1976:15).
Decolonial theorists believe that the tactful suppression of pro-african literature
has since been part of Coloniality of power, knowledge and being; an interpretive
ideological valorisation of Euro-American society as superior, progressive and
universal which originates from the Cartesian cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)
which stood as the foundation of modern Western sciences and which allowed
philosophers like Rene Descartes to claim a
knowledge
for Europe
Escobar,
non-situated universal view of
. This view is what the Colombian
philosopher Santiago Castro-Gomez has called
an epistemology of Punto Cero the
point zero which is the point of view that assumes no point of view Castro-Gomez,
2007:427); or that hides and conceals itself as being beyond a particular point of view;
hiding its local and particular perspective under an abstract Euro/Western-centric
universalism (Grosfoguel, 2007:5).
In fact since the time of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment,
Westerners have worked tirelessly to make their knowledge become the only truthful
and universal knowledge and have ceaselessly spread it through Christianity, Western
education and other means across the world. By assuming that the West is all and
represents us all (universalism), Coloniality of knowledge not only denied any
possibility of coevalness and engendered the impossibility of a simultaneous African
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
27
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
epistemology but completely dismissed non-Western knowledge as the unrewarding
gyration of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe
‚wasom,
2009:6). The colonized world was only made visible to the reality of metropolitan
societies (not as objectively as they experienced it, but as they wanted the world to see
it) as terra nullius and the people, anima nullius (Santos, 2006:4); as the space of misery,
savagery, ignorance, disease where help was needed; and where everything was subject
to experiment (Grosfoguel, 2011:6).This positioning by coloniality of knowledge,
justified the civilizing mission and was thus of extreme importance for the
consolidation and survival of colonialism. Studies such as those of Ittman and Bureau
were betraying the European mission to Africa and so had to be kept away from public
view.
Conclusion
The paper contends that European research about Africa is two sided. On the one hand
are studies (sometimes imaginative writings) about African societies which give no
credit to African ingenuity and creativity. This school is propagated by Coloniality of
power, Eurocentrism and the Hamitic theory and justifies the helplessness of Africa and
the need for European activity in Africa. This strand of literature has been widely
popularised in the world. However, there is yet another set of European writers who
took time to study particular African societies and cultures and have come out with
evidence which shows that there was much more than Coloniality of power and other
associate ideologies posited about. Such studies have received little attention. If a
majority of these writings remain buried in colonial archives, the well-researched
authentic knowledge about ‚frican traditional societies which were carried out in the
colonial period would remain unknown and the Eurocentric ideologies and Hamitic
hypothesis would continue to prevail over the truth about Africa. There is therefore a
need for African scholars working within these fields of research to engage with the
colonial archive and intensify the dissemination of this rich knowledge about Africa.
This need is indeed urgent in the current global dispensation. In Cameroon, a majority
of these manuscripts are in German, as most of the studies were undertaken by the
Swiss-German Basel missionaries who were the most popular in the present English
Speaking portion of Cameroon. There is therefore an urgent need for them to be
translated into English. Then and only then can they be useful to the average
Cameroonian academia.
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
28
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
References
1. Amin, S., (2009) Eurocentrism Modernity, Religion, and Democracy A Critique of
Eurocentrism and Culturalism, New York: Monthly Review Press
2. Arthur, O.R., (1931) Assessment Report on the Bakossi, Elong and Ninong Clans
of Kumba Division,NAB
3. ‚tabe, T.S.,
Religion in ‛akossi traditional society ‚ literary Enquiry
Postgraduate Diploma in African Literature
4. ‚wasom, N.F., and ‛ojang, O.M.,
‛ifurcated World of ‚frican Nationalist
Historiography, Lagos Historical Review,9: 2-9.
5. ‛alz, H.,
, J. Ittmann s manuscripts on Cameroonian Religion: Raw material
for a Cameroonian Theology? Lecture in the theological college 3/6/1976,
cyclostyled (available at PCCACL,Buea, Cameroon)
6. Balz, H., (1984) Where the Faith Has to Live: Studies in Bakossi Society and Religion
Part I; Living Together. Basel: Basel
7. Brockway, L.H., (1979) Science and colonial expansion: The role of the British royal
botanic gardens. London: Academic Press
8. Bureau, R. (1978), Peril Blanc. Propos d un thnologie sur l Occident, Paris,
9. ‛ureau, R.,
Ehno-sociologie religieuse des Duala et apparentes
Reserches et Etudes Camerounaise No. 7-8, Yaounde, 1962
10. Castro-Gómez, S.,
,
The Missing Chapter of Empire
Postmodern
Reorganization of Coloniality and a Post-FordistCapitalism ,Cultural Studies
21:2 3,
11. Chakrabarty, D., (2008), Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial theorists and Historical
Difference. Princeston: Princeton University Press
12. Childs, P. (2000), Modernism, London: Routledge
13. Dorsch, H.,
, Grammatik der Nkosi-Sprache
Nkosi-German) Zeitschrift
fur Kolonialsprachen, Beheift
14. Ejedepang-Koge, S.N,
Tradition and Social Change in ‛akossi ‚ Lecture
Delivered in the Presbyterian Theological College Nyasoso-Cameroon.
15. Ejedepang-Koge, S.N, (1970), The tradition of a people: Bakossi. Yaoundé:
SOPECAM.
16. Escobar, A., (2007), 'Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise', Cultural Studies, 21: 2,
179
210
17. Escobar, A., (2007), 'Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise', Cultural Studies, 21: 2,
179
210,
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
29
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
18. Grosfoguel, R.,
, Decolonizing Post-Colonial Studies an Paradigms of
Political-Economy:
Transmodernity,
Decolonial
Thinking,
and
Global
Coloniality , Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the LusoHispanic World 1:1, 1-19
19. Gutmann, B., (1925) Gemeideaufbau aus dem Evangelium, Leipzig, 1925
20. Gutmann, B., Freies Menschenum aus ewigen Bindungen, Kessel, 1928
21. Gwei, S.N., (1975), Education in Cameroon: Western Pre-colonial and Colonial
Antecedents and the Development of Higher Education Unpublished PhD
dissertation, University of Michigan, 1975.
22. Hall, C.,
Making Colonial Subjects Education in the ‚ge of Empire ,
History of Education: Journal of the History of Education Society, 37:6, 773-787.
23. Ittman, J., (1936), Urtumliche Bindengen und Volsordnungen in vorderen Kamerun in
Evangelisches Missions-Magazine, Basel, pp.16-30, 37-52)
24. Ittman,
J.,
,
Von
den
Lebensanschauung in ‚nthopos
Grundlagen
,
der
Kameruner
Welt-
und
-76
25. Ittmann, J. (1943) Geistiger Volksbesitz der Kameruner im Blickfeld des Missioner
IV,162 pages; no date; approximately 1943.Basel Mission (Mission 21 Archives,)
26. Ittmann, J.
, Der kultische Geheimbund djengu an der Kamerunner Kuste in
Anthropos 52, pp.135-176
27. Johansenn, E., (1931) Geistesleben afrikanischer Volker im Lichte des
Evangeliums
28. Kipling, R.
The White man s burden in Eliot T.S. ed.
, A choice of
Kipling verse, New York: Anchor
29. Kitchin, R., Tate, N.J. (2000), Conducting research in human geography: theory,
methodology and practice, Harlow, UK: Pearson
30. Koutonin,M.W.,
, ‚fricans Live on a Continent owned by Europeans in
Silicon Africa; Accessed www.siliconafrica.net on 30/03/2016 9am
31. Lezra, S., (2014), The Colonial Art of Demonizing Others, A Global Perspective.
London: Routledge
32. Mac Ojong, T. T., (2008), Philosophical and Historical foundations of Education in
Cameroon 1884-1960, Limbe: Design House
33. N., Maldonado-Torres,
On Coloniality of ‛eing Contributions to the
development of a concept. Cultural Studies, 21:2-3
34. Ndille, R.N., (2016) A flip through my school history books: why I must unlearn
what I learnt to relearn: Draft Book Chapter with Teaching History International
Working Group (upcoming)
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
30
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
35. Ndille, R.N., Ngome, E.N.,
Killing our Spirituality The ‛asel Mission and
the Bakossi of Muetug-Cameroon in International Journal of Religion and
Spirituality 6:1, 26-40
The entrapment of ‚frica within the Global Colonial
36. Ndlovu-Gatsheni,
Matrices of Power: Eurocentrism, Coloniality, and the Deimperialization in the
Twenty-first Century Journal of Developing Societies, 29:4, .331-353
37. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.J., (2013) Coloniality of power in postcolonial Africa: the myth of
decolonization. Dakar, CODESRIA,
38. Noble, F.X Straus, B.S., Osheim, D.J., Neuschel, K.B., Cohen, W.B., & Roberts,
D.D., (1994), Western Civilization: The Continuing Experience. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co. 1994
39. Sulaiman, F.R
, Internationalization in Education: The British Colonial
Policies on Education in Nigeria 1882-
, Journal of Sociological Research, 3:2,
pp.84-101 thesis University of Yaoundé.
40. Underhill, E.B., (1958), Saker, Missionary to Africa: A Biography. London: The
Carey Kingsgate Press,
41. Vaux, H., Intelligence report on the ‛akossi clan October
N‚‛
42. Vernon-Jackson, H.O.H. (1967) Language, Schools and Government in Cameroon,
New York: Teachers College Press
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
31
Roland Ndille
FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM
TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON
Creative Commons licensing terms
Author(s) will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms
will be applied to their work. Under the terms of this license, no permission is required from the author(s) or publisher for members of the community
to copy, distribute, transmit or adapt the article content, providing a proper, prominent and unambiguous attribution to the authors in a manner that
makes clear that the materials are being reused under permission of a Creative Commons License. Views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this
research article are views, opinions and conclusions of the author(s). Open Access Publishing Group and European Journal of Social Sciences Studies
shall not be responsible or answerable for any loss, damage or liability caused in relation to/arising out of conflicts of interest, copyright violations and
inappropriate or inaccurate use of any kind content related or integrated into the research work. All the published works are meeting the Open Access
Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 5 │ 2017
32
Open Access Publishing Group