It is in the spirit of the above-mentioned wisdom and conviction that this work has been accomplished. Professor Elom Dovlo, both from the University of Legon, Ghana Professor Watson Omulokoli and Dr.
Glossary of mungaka words
Abstract in Mungaka Ill
List of Illustrations IX
Chapter One
Background and Motivation for the study 1
Statement of the Problem 4
Hypothesis 5 1.4. Intellectual Framework 5
Objectives 7 1.6. Delimitation 10
- Review of Theological Literature 15 1.8. Research Design and Methodology 18
Nature of Data Collection 18 1.10 Outline of Chapters 22
Chapter Two
The Bali Nyonga People 23
2.1. Geographical Location 23
- Migratory History 23 2.3. Settlement in the Bamenda Grassfleld 26
- Community Life 28 1. Birth, Marriage and Death 28
- Traditional Political System 30
- Language 33 Conclusion 35
Chapter Three: The Religion of Bali Nyonga 36
The Pre-Missionary Period 37 a. Zintgraff s Version 37
43 3.1.2.C Bernhard Ankermann 45
- d. The Hunt Assessment Report 45
- The Supreme Being 49 a. The Attributes of Nyikob 50
- l.b. Figurative Expressions denoting Conceptions of Nyikob 53
- The Divinities and the Ancestors 57 a. Mu Nyikob [God's Child] 57
Chapter Four
Early Encounter of Mission with indigenous culture
The inter-face of two worldviews 69
4.1. Missionary beginnings and the Annexation of Cameroon 69
- The Basel Mission in Cameroon 75 4.3. Historical background to the Basel Mission 77
- The Fon of Bali request for Missionaries 78 4.5. Missionary beginnings in Bali Nyonga 81
- Evangelistic Strategies 88
- Theology of the Basel Mission in Cameroon 100 Conclusion
Chapter Five
Religious Co-existence and Adaptation 101
The persistence of Traditional Religion in Christian practice 104
112 5.3. Incorporation of Christian Concepts into Bali Traditional
Chapter Six
Conclusion: Summary and Discussion 128
Summary 127 6.2. Discussion 129
- The Way Forward 140
Bibliography 144 Interviews 155
List of Illustrations 156 I Questionnaires 160
Collection ofmungaka Christian Song 169
Chapter One: Introduction
Background and Motivation for the Research
- Background Study
5 Werner Keller, Ti Pakasaritaan ti Iglesia Presbiteriana idiay Cameroon, pp.27-29, Adolf Vielhauer, Ti Pakasaritaan ti Iglesia Presbiteriana idiay Cameroon, Basel: Basel Ebanghelikal a Mision, 1944,.fq.307-308. 6 Werner Keller, Ti Pakasaritaan ti Iglesia Presbiteriana idiay Cameroon, pp.27-28, Adolf Vielhauer, Ti Pakasaritaan ti Iglesia Presbiteriana idiay Cameroon, Basel: Basel Ebanghelikal a Mision, 1944,.fq.307-309.
Statement of the Problem
20 Allison Howell, The Religious Route of the Ghanaian People-The Kasena People and the Christian Gospel. An example is the current Catechism of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, which was prepared by Hermann Herzog in the 1950s.
Delimitations
This catechism teaches a radical discontinuity between any pre-Christian God in Cameroon and the God of the Bible. Due to time constraints, the research was limited to only four congregations in the PCC out of a total of eighteen, which may not provide a fully representative view of the entire Christian community.
Literature Review
- Literature Review on the Context of Research
- Research Design and Methodology
- Nature of Data Collection
- Outline of Chapters
42 Gabriel Setiloane, "How the Traditional Worldview Persists in Sotho-Tswana Christianity.". The chapter discusses the migration history of the Balinese people and settlement in the Grassfield region.
Chapter Two: The Bali Nyonga People
Community Life
- Birth, Marriage and Death
- Traditional Political System
- Language
They are in charge of Fon's funeral and together with Ba Sama they enthrone a new Fon. Possibly because a woman founded Bali Nyonga, there is Kahfonmungwi [lady Fon] who has her palace near Fons.
Chapter Three: The Religion of Bali Nyonga
Bali Nyonga: A Religious Tabula-Rasa?
- The Pre-Missionary Period
- a. Zintgraff's Version
- The Missionary Period
- C. Bernhard Ankermann
- d. The Hunt Assessment Report
Their opinions were eventually dismissed in favor of the majority of the missionaries in the Grassfields. Chilver, an ethnographer with a passion for Bali, conducted extensive research on the people of Grassfield.
Concepts of God in Bali Nyonga Past and Present
- The Supreme Being
- f. Other Divinities
66 Ba Tita Nyagang, the highest traditional priest of the country, says that he pours out libations in the name of Nyikob who is in heaven. The centrality of the ndzui ndab lies in the 'family cup', which is the cup of the first ancestor. The heart of the rooster symbolizes that the ndzui ndab now has two hearts, indicating.
As Tita Nyagang pours the drink [which he does three times], he prays that the women of the land may be blessed and made fertile.
Chapter Four: Early Encounter of Mission with indigenous culture: The Inter-Face of two Worldviews
Introduction
Early Missionary engagement and the annexation of Cameroon
They also visited the mainland and made contacts with the traditional Douala rulers of the Cameroon River and King William of Bimbia.7. Other European countries challenged British dominance in trade throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. The Douala traditional rulers later told the British that they were not given a copy of the treaty.
In the course of the discussion it was agreed that the Basel Mission, because of her experience in the Gold Coast, should undertake the work of the Baptist Mission in Cameroon.
The Basel Mission in Cameroon
The ministers had the freedom to baptize their children whenever they saw fit, while the congregations had to follow the order and discipline of the Basel Mission.23. In 1889, the congregation of Victoria also seceded from the Basel mission due to a language problem.26 The Baptist Mission of Berlin came to the aid of the Baptist congregations. The Douala language is also not our mother tongue.." in Werner Keller, The History of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, p.
These first missionaries devoted most of their time to the spiritual care and strengthening of already existing congregations.
Historical Background of the Basel Mission
During the First World War, the Germans were interned and the Paris mission took over the Baptist congregations in French Cameroon27. The Basel mission, for its part, continued to work in the coastal area while it also penetrated into the interior. They used the Douala language as a medium of instruction in the schools and in the parishes.
This is the question we will try to answer in the next section, but before that it is necessary to know something about Basel's mission.
The Fon of Bali Nyonga Request for Missionaries
He hoped to establish a commissionership in Bali whose main concern was "..regulating Galega's leadership and establishing a general administration for the Grass fie Id."34 Typical of the European popular assessment of other people during this period, Zintgraff saw Galega as. In return, Galega was to be recognized and protected as the supreme ruler of the surroundings/ondoms of the northern Cameroon hinterland36. This exacerbated the hostilities of the other funds of the area against Bali, affecting missionary enterprises in the area.
Zintgraff's plan was a futile venture because the German governor was indifferent because he thought that Zintgraff's action was independent of the Cameroon Colonial Administration.
Missionary beginning in Bali Nyonga
He always came to him with his head bowed, because the Fon sat close to the preacher. The missionary/preacher was exalted and honored by speaking to the people through the mouthpiece of the Fon. Schuler also believed that it would be easy to build temporary houses with mud walls and thatched roofs, something the Fon was willing to organize.4 The missionaries made several subsequent visits to Bali.
It took them a long time to convince the Fon before he allowed them to return to the coast.
Arrival of the first Resident Missionaries
Fonyonga's interest in the mission must have been twofold; the need to educate his people and the pursuit of power. As a sign of his interest in the education of his subjects, Fonyonga gave 200 marks to the missionaries to buy slates for the children. In March 1907, all the Fonyonga sub-chapters gathered the children of their areas in a market in Bali.
On November 20, 1908, thirty of us were solemnly baptized and formed the nucleus of the Christian Church in the Grassfields.
Evangelistic Strategies
According to Oehler, preaching, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and the apostles, is a main task of the missionary. In school, students were already taught, albeit implicitly, to become representatives of the gospel. The missionaries considered it a prerequisite to establish friendly relations with the various foundations and villages in Grassfield.
The quarter compound heads took the matter to the Fon because they feared being punished for allowing a 'child' to have a double door [for them there was no distinction between a door and a window] in his house.
Response of the first Converts
Being a specialist in divination, he used the pictorial Bible story he was given and abandoned his traditional form of divination. If a Christian continued in "Satan's way", he was subject to severe church discipline. We know that as soon as he was faced with a problem, the traditional category of problem solving was the first thing that came to his mind.
Yet he was quite godly, and it was painful to him that he had to be excluded from the Christian family because he was a polygamist.
Mission and Indigenous culture: Shifting Perceptions
He died and was buried in the grave; he descended to the land of the dead. When the dead are buried in the grave, ihefufob remains there, but the dze'ni continues to the land of the dead. When people read these phrases, it sparked an interest in the Christian faith because most of what they read from the Bible matched what they already knew.
They read in the Bible how Isaac and Jacob called Nyikob 'Nyikob ba me' [God of my Fathers] who was no different from their Nyikobba me.
The Theology of the Basel Mission in Cameroon
The answer is that what Nyikob means by this commandment is that we should reject all 'empty' gods, divination, bad medicine, communal meals between the dead and the living, appeasement of dead relatives, traditional dances, death celebrations and swearing. in the name of the Fon.
Conclusion
Chapter Five: Religious Co-existence and Adaptation
A Historical Interlude
According to him, it was imperative that the burial be carried out in accordance with the traditions of the land. Then the priest smeared all the doorposts in the property with lamb droppings. They always begin with meditation and a homily outdoors in the house of the deceased.
2' A week after the funeral, the family members leave very early and go to the deceased's farm.
Continuity of Pre-Christian Conceptions of God in Christian Hymns and Prayers
- The Analysis of Hymns
- The Analysis of Prayers
The PCC Synod decided that the hymns in the appendix should be transferred to the main text. Nyikob is also Ntsa wv/-transcendant of the world, which means he is timeless. As a husband to widows and a father to orphans, Nyikob proves himself to be a compassionate, loving advocate for the helpless.
We have discovered that the pre-Christian concepts of Nyikoba provide knowledge of the Christian understanding of the Trinity.
Chapter Six: Summary and discussion
Discussion
- Interpretive Key
- The Legacy of the Basel Mission
This is very useful for us because it is an indication that the old plays an important role in understanding the new. We have also seen where the majority of people go in times of crisis. Our research revealed that the majority of people consider Jesus Christ superior to what they do.
4 Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, / I am the Lord your God – Catechism of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, 1965, p.5.
Bibliography
Fochang, Babila George, Diploma theologie Thesis, Kolleejjii Ti'ooloojii Pirisbiteriyaan, Kumba, mei 1992. Awasom Jonathan Fru, Bamenda: Maxxansitoota Neba, 1999. Lekunze, Edward Forcha, Waldaa Pirisbiteriyaan Kameroen.
Mungong, Sandy, / Am The Lord Your God- A Catechism Manual of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, 1989.
Interviews
8S&
Student: Babila George Fochang
Questionnaire for Dissertation
You may not consult the ngambi, but what do you do when your daughter/son is acting on the instructions of the ngambi. Don't you feel guilty that practices like ngambi and ancestor sacrifice may be against your Christian faith? Also, in tradition, people expect to join their ancestors when they die, while Christians expect to be at the death of Jesus Christ.
Now that you are in both, who do you expect to be with when you die.
Questionnaire C: Designed for the clergy
This is what Christians in Bali affirmed in the month of March 1938 that they would practice as individuals with a willing heart so that they would not be led to commit the same sins as 'pagans'. I will not accept that they sprinkle it on my body, I will not accept that I take off my shoes, or take off my cap or my waist knife to pay homage to such a medicine. Regarding the placing of a cross on a grave, I confirm that I will go to the cemetery where the cross is to be planted and that I will not go to the home of the relatives to eat or drink after the cemetery service.
You died on the cross for me, that I may not lack your kingdom.