THE BOUNDARIES OF “NO-INTERNET-LAND” A “HOME Language” A “HOME Culture” A “HOME Belt”
WHERE ONLY ?
A r n o l d V e r h o e v e n, M H M.
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The bOuNDAries Of “NO-internet-LAND” By A.Verhoeven, MHM
A NEW LANGUaGE and a NEW CULTURE Dumb people making noisy scenes along the beach, full of excitement! European seafarers with exotic wonders to disbelieving eyes on the coast of West Africa. Mighty ships, new, intriguing faces, a display of goods which no one had ever seen, ever so fascinating. But the traders brought no language to meet the people with and to carry the excitement!! The language of the deaf and dumb animated those novel negotiations; that was the new business language to be adopted. But not for long. From the very first business deals in the 15th century on, a true business language came to birth. In the next centuries it grew into ‘West-Coast’, and travelled with the ships and found homes all along the shores of West Africa. Indigenous people in villages on the beaches began to learn it. And in the nineteenth century it traveled, along with the explorers, traders, army and administrators into the hinterland, the interior. At first: On our land: no foreigners! Only German colonization opened up the interior fully for the tradelanguage to developed fast into our homelanguage: “Pidgin”, the origin and the backbone of our intertribal home-culture.
Foreign traders in the offing. What language do we use?
use? culture In the western parts of Cameroon that language developed into the local ‘Pidgin’, which could capture hearts and business. Cameroon had no allegiance yet with any major country, no one foreign language could impose itself. People took what they met and mixed in whatever suited them most and they made a rich spoken language in which they felt completely at home and could express themselves as the Cameroonians they were. Most of it was English, but there was German, Portuguese, Douala and lots of very local, influences especially in the intonation, the interjections and exclamations. They filled the air with their laughter, their cries and their lively daily exchanges. When in 1884 the Germans contracted a Protectorate in Douala, they drew up their contract not in German nor in Douala language, but in English, apparently the most convenient for both sides. With that piece of paper in hand, the Germans simply annexed all of Cameroon as their colony without any further formalities!
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Contract between Douala Chiefs
Jos Plateau, 14th July, 1884 Gustav
and Germany, IN ENGLISH
Nachtigall hoists the German flag
By then ‘West Coast-turned-Pidgin’ had already spread and settled in its own parts of Cameroon, also because the interior put pressure on the coastal areas finding ways to deal directly with foreign traders. That language was foisted upon the German Administrators, the Imperial Army, the market and anyone who cared to mix and interact with local people. The German Administration refused to acknowledge its omnipresence and insisted that German offices and personnel as well as the schools would use German only. But individuals coming in from Germany to take on official positions soon took the more practical approach and left the official government policy to Berlin. Most learnt ‘West Coast’, which in the western belt of Cameroon had become a local language of its own: Pidgin. German army personnel produced a Pidgin (Negro-English) Handbook in 1908 meant specifically for Cameroon. Germans would quote in Pidgin and in printing these quotations they would adopt the widely used Roman lettering: in the middle of the text they changed away from the German printed Gothic script of the rest of the book or article. Willy-nilly they had to acknowledge a people with already an established and fast developing culture and language of their own. In places, clearly, they enjoyed it. The German conquest of Cameroon confronted German pride with a foreign culture, too deep-seated to uproot. The Handbook (1908) proves that Germans needed and promoted Pidgin. They must have found it truly exciting, very expressive of genuine local culture, and indeed a necessary attribute.
3 In fact with that culture and language the population in the Western parts of Cameroon had a cement that bonded them together. The rest of the country, from the Toupouris and Kirdis in the north to the Baka, Eton and Fang in the south, remained as loose-sandy as it had been since those populations had appeared on Cameroon soil. Over 200 tribal groups and mini-groups, were used to endless tribal wars and enmity and at least fierce competition. The Pidgin speakers instead could talk of a “WE” and a supra-tribal ‘home-language’ and a ‘home-belt’ in common.
MISSIONARIES: MOST PROMINENT AGENTS OF THIS CULTURE Missionaries too had to follow suit and contributed mightily to that culture. After admirable efforts to make some tribal languages into lingua-franca’s, like Bali and Douala -and the Pallottines had even brought Yaounde (Ewondo) to their new parish in Victoria-,- they had to admit defeat. In the Western parts of Cameroon they were left no real choice but to make Pidgin both their social and their church language. The German Sacred Heart Fathers had less than three years in the country. Within the shortest possible time they had learnt Lamso and had already made a catechism in Lamso. When they opened their mission in Fujua they attempted the same in the Kom Language. But they did not force these languages on other populations. Faced with the realities of the overall population in their area they soon had to decide to make the widespread Pidgin there their main language. They worked over-time in their short Cameroon days to prepare both a Pidgin English Catechism and a Pidgin Prayer Book. The Sisters of the Divine Providence started in Kumbo, Cameroon, in June 1914, two months before the war broke out. They opened a Girls’ School but they also did great secretarial work with the typewriter the Birtish Army had given to Father F.X. Schuster, parish priest of Ossing. He had done medical studies before becoming a priest. He was enlisted by the Germans as medical staff in the battle of Nsanakang, September 1914. Faced with some 160, many seriously, wounded who could not be transported out of the forest after that fierce battle, the two enemy armies decided to carve out some square kilometer of forest for a field hospital and worked there like ‘doctors without borders’ with medical staff from both armies. At the end of that episode the British honoured Fr Schuster with the gift of a type-writer because ‘he had looked so well after the sons of the British Empire’. Fr Schuster sent it straight to Kumbo where the sisters worked with it till November 1915, when they were forced to leave along with all missionaries. Their two books must have been nearly ready for publication. These two treasures became part of the heritage left by the German Sacred Heart Fathers in sealed boxes preserved in Kumbo, to be opened again in January 1919 by Mgr Joseph Shanahan. 28-4-1914 Rome declared the Prefecture of Adamawa. Soon after, five Sisters of the Divine Providence were collected in Douala by the new Apostolic Prefect Mgr Lennartz, together with the third batch of Sacred Heart Fathers. They opened a Girls’ School in Kumbo and spent their time to urgently get the Pidgin Prayerbook and Catechism ready for publication.
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FERNANDO PO By that time ‘tens of thousands’ of Cameroonians had been interned on the island of Fernando Po already for four years. They lived their Cameroon life very intensely in the camps there, including their Church life.
Some 15,000 soldiers and carriers and their families crossed the river into Spanish Rio Muni, undefeated. Their very last ammunition spent, they handed over their guns to the Spanish authorities. They were interned on the island of Fernando Po and lived their Cameroon life remembering good days and planning a great future as they looked across Ambas Bay to Mount Cameroon. ‘That is where we belong, that is where we have our home. We’ll be there!’
The Spanish authorities were urged by the allies in the war to repatriate all Germans on the island, but the missionaries refused to leave their Christians. The Spanish priests on the island saw the prison camps as too much of a looming burden, and urged the authorities to make concessions. A personal plea was addressed to the Governor-General of the island, writes Fr F.X.Schuster. Four missionary priests were allowed to stay and three brothers. The Sacred Heart Fathers picked Father Francis Xavier Schuster to stay behind. Soon he would act as the Chief Medical Officer for the camps; this gave the missionaries a livelihood. Fr Baumeister, who had known his Fujua Mission for six weeks only, and was then sent to open a Catholic school in Bagam, made a good name for himself by his presence and work on the island. By allowing the two missionary congregations, the Pallottines and the Sacred Heart Fathers, the Spanish authorities drew a line across the map of Cameroon by acknowledging two separate communities, which could not be combined: the Pidgin speakers of the Western parts of Cameroon with the Sacred Heart Fathers and the loose sandy great majority of Cameroon with the Pallottines, who used Yaounde and Douala for their language exclusively. The coastal population with many Pidgin-speakers, obviously could choose either community.
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Francis Xavier Schuster, Wilhelm Bintener, Mgr Lennartz, Fr Baumeister Great missionaries, very instrumental in the development of our culture. They set priorities and practiced them in pastoral situations and in catechesis, in leadership and in the medical profession. When the missionaries in Ossing brought the children of their schools together for the Christmas celebration it was more like Pentecost before the Spirit came down: multiple languages were a dividing factor. Likely it influenced the society’s planning meeting in Fujua immediately thereafter, New Year’s week 1914, and the decision to go all out for Pidgin; work at the Pidgin translations of the Catechism and Prayer Book started that year, the obvious solution in the circumstances. Insistence on German only had not worked, and there were too many native languages. On the island Fernando Po, Pidgin was the missionaries’ main asset. Did they have sample copies of the Catechism and Prayer Book already? It endeared them to the people along with their medical work and it brought great success. Other churches and even Muslims were bitterly envious. The priests could rent housing from their Spanish counterparts in town and from there work in the camps. And they worked! The Adamawa mission was the youngest child of the Catholic Mission in Cameroon and so it is not surprising that of the total Cameroon population on the island only four baptized Catholics came from the Adamawa Prefecture, in actual practice only the present Mamfe, Bamenda and Kumbo Dioceses. There were also a few catechumens who had already been instructed at home and some of these could be baptized on 31 December 1916. New Year 1917 saw a congregation of 8 baptized, 53 male and 17 female catechumens. By June there were 17 baptized, 142 male and 33 female catechumens. In December 1918 there were 81 baptized and 786 male and 203 female catechumens. All of those were very well instructed and activist Catholics. Before July 1919 another number must have been baptized. In the prison camps Cameroon life went on as usual. A children’s music band entertains the inmates. Fr Schuster looks back on this missionary task with great satisfaction. Because of his experience here he begins to regret that the missionaries have put all their attention and energy solely into running schools. Children have no influence in the villages and tribes. Now he had done years of adult catechesis and he sees an important difference in the outcome. Now he has created an army of over a thousand very staunch Catholic leaders, well instructed and very keen on active leadership roles.
6 When in July 1919 the detainees were returned from Fernando Po to Cameroon, they made the church of their ‘Pidgin belt’ swell with well over a thousand zealous activists. Asked by Rome, Mgr Joseph Shanahan had just visited virtually every station in Adamawa Prefecture and had counted exactly 80 Catholics! This sudden increase of 1000 was a great stimulus. By now there was a French and an English territory on account of war. But for language and culture there was already a home language, home belt and home community before ever the first Anglophone or Francophone existed in Cameroon.
French Missionaries continue our mission When the German missionaries were not allowed by the British to return from Fernando Po with their Christians, Mgr Lennartz resigned as Prefect Apostolic. Rome then appointed Mgr Joseph Plissonneau as the new Prefect Apostolic for Adamawa, now with the seat of the Prefecture in French territory, in Foumban. The German Sacred Heart Fathers were replaced with members of the French Province of their congregation in 1920 and these reclaimed the former German missions. Mgr Joseph Plisonneau, second generation pioneer and a great champion of our ancient culture. He, Frenchman, gave the Pidgin Catechism and Pidgin Prayer Book for public use for many generations after him. He fully recognized the separate culture of the Western parts of Cameroon. But the missionaries noticed fast enough that their real base was in Kumbo. They were invited there as soon as their presence in Foumban was learnt of. Fr W.Bintener must have known of the boxes being kept there and as a German speaker could help translating any of the German material therein. Among the heritage there was the Pidgin Catechism and a Pidgin Prayer Book. Both must have been virtually ready for publication judging by the speed in which they were made ready for public use. Mgr J.Plissonneau wasted no time. Fortunately he got them finalized for use even before the French nationals were forced out of the British Territory in Cameroon. Mill Hill Missionaries came as a result of the anti-French atmosphere and consequent policies of the Foreign Office to ensure a fully AngloSaxon take off.
Mill Hill: a new era. At first the Mill Hill leadership in Cameroon joined the British chorus against the French and the ‘illintentioned’ Sacred Heart Fathers trying to usurp ‘their’ territory. That finished only once the missionaries began to meet face to face. Then they recognized that these were a congregation of very genuine missionaries, who had suffered enormous health problems and losses, and yet did overly strenuous work. The mutual attachment of the Sacred Heart Fathers and the local Catholics was well expressed by the emotional send-off and the accompaniment of 350 Christians as carriers from Kumbo all the way to Dschang, 140 kilometers away.
7 The Sacred Heart Fathers had met and appreciated the separate culture within Cameroon. When Msgr J.Plissonneau himself applied to Rome for a new Prefecture to be created for the British territory, he naturally indicated his reasons, amongst which, very explicitly: ‘deux styles de vie également different’. Likely he had already taken his negative experiences with the British Administration as part of that assessment. But his application was no longer necessary. The Prefecture of Buea had been created in Rome, to be manned by Mill Hill Missionaries. The new-comers pay a visit to the Fon of Nso. Sitting: 2nd from left, Mgr W.Campling, the new Apostolic Prefect. 3rd from left, the Fon. Far right: Fr Michael Moran, first Mill Hill parish priest in Kumbo; far left: Fr William Scully. The Pidgin Catechism and Prayer Book set off the Mill Hill Missionaries on the right footing. Neither French, nor English, but Pidgin was the social and church language. It had struck roots and was now inside the blood, already deeply engrained and the true cement of the culture. Mill Hill soon followed up with a Book with Biblical Stories which lasted into the fifties and a Sunday Lectionary in Pidgin which served well, until the Vatican Council brought out a new universal lectionary which was introduced in Cameroon in the seventies. It is at that point that Bishop Pius S. Awa took over as the flagbearer with his Pidgin Lectionaries and rituals we use today. Every liturgy, prepared with that ancestral “home-recipe”, benefits from a ‘home-advantage’. And so a people has grown together benefitting from this Catechism till well into the 1970s and from Plissonneau’s Pidgin Prayer Book right till this present day! With the Pidgin Stations of the Cross as well as the Prayers before Communion in our blood and soul we touch the ancient beginnings of our culture and our Church, a culture which precedes anything Anglophone or Francophone in our land. That culture had helped the “Church of Cameroon” on Spanish soil, Fernando Po, to draw the division line on the map of Cameroon which demarcates the boundaries between what has become ‘No-internet Land’, and the rest of Cameroon. Good to see that congregations resist a process of ‘graduation’ away from Pidgin. As soon as anyone begins to lead the Rosary, but not in Pidgin, the congregation will take it back Mgr Pius Suh Awa: ‘home’ and return to ‘home-Pidgin’ as soon as possible, simply because in church, in our Father’s House and Family, we want to the new Flag-bearer feel at home and we have a full right to do so. The same holds good for the Stations of the Cross which are not appreciated equally well in any language but Pidgin. Hopefully the land will never graduate away from the roots of its ‘home-language’, ‘home culture’ and ‘home-belt’, inside Church and outside.