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Retrieving Hidden Traces of the Intercultural Past: An Introduction to Archival Resources in Cameroon, with Special Reference to the Central Archives of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Guy Thomas
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Extract

Towards the end of 1886 four missionaries set foot on Cameroonian soil in the harbor of Douala. They were representatives of the Switzerland based Basel Mission (BM) who had arrived to take over from the pioneers of Christian mission work in Cameroon, the British Baptists, two years after this part of west-central Africa had been brought under German colonial rule in 1884. Their challenge was founded on the key objectives of consolidating and expanding the web of christian communities which had been established along the Atlantic coast north of the Wouri estuary.

Today, just over 110 years later, traces of the Basel Mission's enterprise are widely spread over the Anglophone South West and North West Provinces of Cameroon. These remnants of the past have been partly reshaped to suit the specific patterns of church activities and administration among their African target groups; partly they have been effaced through the erosive impact of time. But only partly, for numerous episodes and aspects of this chapter on religious and social history are well documented both in substantial collections of records and in several publications.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 25 , 1998 , pp. 427 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998

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References

1 See, e.g., Schlatter, W., Geschichte der Basler Mission (5 vols, Basel, 1919–1970)Google Scholar; Hallden, Erik, The Culture Policy of the Basel Mission in the Cameroons, 1886-1905 (Lund, 1968)Google Scholar; Keller, Werner, Zur Freiheit berufen. Die Geschichte der Presbyterianischen Kirche in Kamerun (Basel, 1981)Google Scholar; Jaap van Slaageren, Les origines de l'Eglise Evangélique du Cameroun. Missions Européennes et christianisme autochtone (Yaoundé, 1972,) 38–124Google Scholar; Nyansako-ni-Nku, , ed., Journey in Faith: The Story of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (Yaoundé, 1982)Google Scholar; Dah, Jonas, Missionary Motivations and Methods: A Critical Examination of the Basel Mission in Cameroon (Basel, 1983)Google Scholar; Balz, Heinrich, Where Faith Has to Live. Studies in Bakossi Society and Religion, Part 1: Living Together (Basel, 1984)Google Scholar; Lekunze, Edward F., “Chieftaincy and Christianity in Cameroon, 1886-1926: A Historical and Comparative Analysis of the Evangelistic Strategy of the Basel Mission” (Th.D., University of Chicago, 1987)Google Scholar; Gwanfogbe, Mathew B., “Changing Regimes and the Development of Education in Cameroon 1886-1966, with Special Reference to the Basel Mission” (PhD. diss., Universiy of London 1995).Google Scholar

2 Archives of the Basel Mission, 21 Missionsstrasse, CH-4003 Basel.

3 Jenkins, Paul and Haas, Waltraud, Guide to the Basel Mission's Cameroon Archive (Basel, 1988).Google Scholar

4 This decree was amended in the unitary constitution after the unification of Cameroon in 1972. Schaefer, Victor, Organisation des Archives nationales et d'un système de préarchivage (Paris, 1973), 4, 13–17.Google Scholar

5 Ibid.

6 Guide de recensement des archives départementale (Yaoundé, 1990).Google Scholar

7 The address is: Central Archives PCC, P. O. Box 19, Buea, South West Province, Cameroon, Fax: 00237 32 23 13/32 21 06.

8 Besides its connections in Switzerland and Germany, the Basel Mission was in close contact with the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, especially in the 1920s, and at a later stage with the Dutch Reformed Church.

9 Daily Bible Readings and Diary 1997, Presbyterian Communication Department, P. 74, and PCC church census 1996.

10 For the holdings in the Basel Mission Archives dealing with this period cf. Jenkins, /Haas, , Guide, 2–87.Google Scholar

11 Special reference must be made to the work and ongoing research of such authors noted above as Jonas Dah, Heinrich Balz and Edward Lekunze. Furthermore, Edwin Ardener, Elizabeth Chilver, Christraud Geary, Johannes Ittmann, Paul Nkwi—just to point out a few additional scholars—deserve to be mentioned for their contributions in our area of concern in Cameroon studies.

12 For further details see den Teuling, Arnold, “Environmental Conditions for the Storage of Archival Materials,” Janus (1996) 110–18.Google Scholar

13 An important source of inspiration for AFAAC's raison d'être and objectives is the “Memory of the World” program launched by Unesco in 1993; cf. van Albada, Joan, ed., “Memory of the World:” Report on Destroyed and Damaged Archives,” Archivum 42 (1996), 11–110.Google Scholar

14 Please direct all requests for any further information as well as topic-specific and material inputs to AFAAC, c/o Buea Public Archives, Buea, South West Province, Cameroon, Fax: 00237 32 23 13/32 21 06. The Executive Bureau of AFAAC is made up of Dr. V. G. Fanso (President), Guy Thomas (Vice-President), Joachim von Stieglitz (Financial Secretary), Pierre Djoumbissie (General Secretary), Wang Johnson Sone (Assistant General Secretary), Primus Forgwe and Stanley Ngum (Treasurers) and three public relations officers.

15 Letter from M. Suliman to the author, 26 May 1995.