Missionary Activity in the Gold Coast
IN OBEDIENCE to Jesus’ command Jehovah’s witnesses today are making “disciples of people of all the nations”. A letter at hand shows how this is being done in Gold Coast, Africa.
“Wednesday we walked two miles to Brauta, witnessing to the village of Amoanda on the way. To continue witnessing with us the sisters carry their babies on their backs and loads on their heads. The brothers have learned much in the past few years and now they will carry the baby and at times both the baby and the load so as to relieve the sisters; a thing most unusual among these native Africans. In the past I have been criticized for carrying my brief case while traveling through the bush; ‘that’s a woman’s job,’ they would say. Theocratic organization is making a striking difference in our brothers over here. The kindness and love they show is not generally found among the Africans in their dealings with their wives and families, and it is widely noticed. I gave a public talk at Brauta and 297 attended.
“Friday, three of us—the linguist, a young native boy of eight or nine years (they never know just how old they are) and myself—went two miles farther to Objubi. After making known our presence and the purpose of our call we were escorted to the chief’s palace to await the arrival of the elders and the chief in formal attire. There we sat in the lone palace courtyard, before a line of twelve stools, before each of which lay an animal skin, a special deerskin lying before the chief’s stool. After they entered and took their seats, I began the formal greetings by shaking hands first with the lowest in position and on up to the chief. After I had sat down, then they came and shook hands with me, beginning with the chief and on down to the lowest.
“Then the chief spoke to me through a linguist who served as a logos, tribal custom forbidding his speaking directly to a person. He related what had taken place in his village before my arrival, etc. I briefly told him the purpose of my visit and he returned the greetings of his elders and subjects. Only then was I able to proceed with the witnessing and to present my request for him to ring the gong to call the villagers to my meeting and public talk. During my witnessing all was very quiet. Then I called for the young boy with the big vernacular Bible to read Job 32:9, a favorite text of his which he could read surprisingly well. The young boy, dressed in his native cloth, walked to the center of the courtyard, opened the Bible to the place and read to the chief: ‘It is not the great that are wise, nor the aged that understand justice.’ The boy’s reading had a humbling effect on the chief.
“I proceeded with the witness and when I had concluded the chief said that my coming into the village was something never before done in the history of his people; no white man had ever entered, so humble and so friendly with the dark-skinned Africans. Forgetting about custom and tradition, the chief spoke to me in such a warm and friendly manner that it was apparent that they were happy to receive me, not as a representative of the white man but as an ambassador of Jehovah’s kingdom. Neither the chief nor any of the elders could read. However, the schoolmaster could, and so I left him some literature in Twi for him to read to the chief. Doubtless all the village came to hear the talk, as there were 475 in attendance.
“The next day we walked another two miles through the bush to Bereku. The brush was so thick that it was like walking through a tunnel; it being so dark I could not take any pictures. A native Methodist clergyman hearing one of the young witnesses read from the Bible sent for me. He asked how it was that so many of our people could read when he had been instructing boys a long time in the Methodist school and these could not read nearly as well as did our people. The young witness spoke for himself and gave a sufficient answer. There were 232 that came to hear the public talk at Bereku.
“From there I traveled to Winneba, a village near a beach and of some 15,000 population, where, on Sunday, the largest crowd ever gathered to hear the public lecture. There, a young lad, after hearing a previous lecture, told his fisherman father: ‘We made that boat with our own hands and now we are sacrificing to it. I learned today that this is wrong and I’m not going to do it again.’”
Yes, Christian disciples are being made of men of all kinds, including the African natives of the Gold Coast.