By Billy Hall, Contributor
The Constitution Square during the days of slavery
HOW CHRISTIANITY was established in Africa, south of the Sahara, in the 19th century, is a story of white heroes taking the gospel to benighted blacks. Most of the best of white missions historians perpetuate the myth against the fact of black missionary heroes, particularly those of Caribbean origin, with Jamaican examples outstanding.
West Indian black missionaries to Africa in the 19th century represented the only non-white missionary influence. The arising of such a movement was in itself revolutionary, for some were even former slaves or merely one generation removed.
Joseph Jackson Fuller (1825-1908) was born in slavery in Spanish Town (St. Jago de la Vega), the old capital, before the British came in 1655 to wrest the island from the Spaniards. He was a house slave, who had distinct advantage over a field slave, who was treated by small degree above a "beast of burden".
His father, Alexander Fuller, was a skilled worker; a craftsman in the service of an English family. His father's value as a carpenter and cabinet-maker no doubt helped to secure for his son household status and privileges.
THE SLAYING OF SLAVERY
But in 1838, when Joseph was 13 years old, the monster of slavery was slain and he witnessed the ceremonial funeral on August 1, that year. Four years earlier, in 1834, freedom had been proclaimed, but a period of transition was allowed to bring "full freedom" in 1838.
Young Joseph was one of the thousands, dressed immaculately, who filled the church in Spanish Town and spilled over into the square from the night before, singing, praying and waiting for the dawning of the day of "full
freedom".
He witnessed, too, the dramatic act during the celebrations, when a coffin bearing the whips and chains of the dread, inhumane system was proclaimed "dead", carried through the streets, and finally interred amid shouts of freedom and tears of joy.
The newly-freed, however, had taken but the first step on a road that had "a mighty long way to go". Education was a major challenge. Britain in 1833 had just passed the Great Education Act to deal with widespread illiteracy in that country. Much could hardly be expected to improve the education needs of the newly-freed blacks in the colonies, 5,000 miles away.
CHURCHES FILLING THE GAP
Into this "gap" in the West Indies stepped the churches, notably the Baptists. Thus, it was in Sabbath School that the young teenager Fuller learned the basics of literacy and of the Bible. Missionaries of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in London had been coming since 1916, when they responded to a call for help by American black Baptist missionaries, freed after the revolutionary war who had preceded them and laid a solid foundation of Christian witness in Jamaica.
Young Fuller learned as well, the basics of masonry and bricklaying. His father had hoped the young man would have followed his steps and become a carpenter. But as Joseph observed bricklayers constructing his schoolhouse, his fascination for this skill took over and he quickly developed the competence that would serve him well in Africa.
In 1843, when 18 years old, he heard of a visit by a white missionary, John Clarke, who was recruiting volunteers from among blacks in Jamaica to serve in Africa. Joseph's father had gone to Africa a few years earlier, in 1839, as a member of a team specially selected by the English Baptist Missionary Society to establish a mission in the Cameroons.
His father's presence already, in Africa, and the hope of joining him there, was a motivating consideration, so he went for the recruiting interview. But he thought he had failed the test for he could report no dramatic conversion experience and he could not identify any particular way in which he would be useful in Africa.
However, according to Las Newman, one of the Caribbean finest church history researchers, the English recruiters were impressed with Joseph's quiet and serious demeanour, his youthfulness, and, above all, the fact that his father had been in the reconnaissance team which went from Jamaica in 1839 to explore and locate a site for the Baptist mission from Jamaica" (Newman, Las, A West Indian Contribution to Christian Mission in Africa, Transformation, Vol 28 No. 4, October 2001, p. 222)
So, on November 30, 1843, young Fuller was one of the 36 West Indians who were on board the Chilmark, chartered by the British Baptist Missionary Society for the purpose. Included were a medical doctor, pharmacist, teachers, several skilled craftsmen and farmers.
WHITE PREJUDICE
The perilous journey from the Falmouth took approximately three months (November 30, 1843 to February 16, 1844), to reach the little island of Fernando Po, off the coast of Africa. Four such expeditions were to take place between 1841 and 1897, transporting more than 100 West Indians from the diaspora back to Africa, as missionaries, explains Newman.
Newman notes that young Fuller, while on board, got a good dose of the white prejudice he would encounter on the field in Africa. Primary documents reveal the bad attitude of the white ship crew, including the captain, mate and cook. "We had a wicked trip", said Fuller, "we had to drink stinking water... and they swore at us on every side". Clarke himself says, "The brown biscuits given to the people are such that the hogs will scarcely eat them. The water is sometimes red with rust from the tanks", (CLARKE, John Private Journal, BMS Archives).
However, God must have meant all those trials for good because it was during a storm that threatened to sink the ship that Joseph Fuller was converted. As the waves threatened to engulf the vessel, he said they realised that he was about to "enter into the presence of God", a thought that "filled me with horror" and so, he said, "I prayed then and made a full surrender of myself".
In particular, as he recalled his thoughts then, he said, "I was going to a country where the work would be to point the heathen to Christ, when I myself could not wholly lay claim to salvation". That logic was flawless and forceful and led to the decisive surrender of his life to Christ.
In his memoirs, says Newman, the young Fuller wrote of that decisive moment in his life saying, "I believe my prayers were heard for with this surrender I felt an assured peace, and I was then willing to go and tell others of my new-found peace".
There can be no doubt that his decision to surrender was, as Newman says, "catalytic in overcoming his earlier reluctance to join the mission", but suggests perceptively, that inclusive of, and beyond that decisive experience were other factors that contributed significantly to Fuller's long and successful missionary career.
According to Newman, the other factors are the influence of his father's involvement in the Baptist Church in Jamaica and on the field in Africa, particularly his death which Joseph witnessed. Also, the influence of his Jamaican church English pastor, the dynamic James M. Phillippo; and the challenges Joseph encountered on the field, for which his Jamaican cultural orientation so well prepared him, to be creative and indomitable.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK
