By Billy Hall, Contributor
Fuller
(Today Mind & Spirit continues the series on the life of Jamaican missionary to the Cameroons, Joseph Fuller. The first instalment was published on April 29.)
JOSEPH FULLER, at age 18, moved from Jamaica to Africa in 1845, to begin his missionary labours. He was to give long and distinguished service, until 1888, when he retired and lived his remaining years in England, where he died in 1908.
While in Africa, from his first day he experienced 'culture shock'. The Jamaica he knew, through Baptist eyes, was much advanced in absorbing social perspectives based on Christian teachings. The Africa he encountered embraced standards shockingly different.
ALL NAKED
In his memories, he tells how on the first day his eyes beheld the shores of Africa, as the ship docked, several native fishermen in canoes, pulled up alongside all naked. He said, "seeing them quite naked I ran off to tell the ladies that the men were not dressed and that they should remain in their cabin."
But he would soon discover as noted in his memories "that was the only condition in which we would meet them when we got into their country". But that initial experience was mild, compared with what was to follow, in regard to realities of health, violence and witchcraft.
Tropical Africa was like an environmental death trap for missionaries. Noted Church Historian Las Newman of Jamaica says "The extraordinary climatic conditions, the torrid humidity, tropical infestation caused by perennial equatorial rainfall, inadequate systems of drainage, water security and hygiene rendered West Africa populations constantly at risk". (Transformation: An International Dialogue on Mission and Ethics, vol. 18 no. 4, 18/4 October 01 p. 226).
Fuller did well to survive that hostile physical environment, which has been described aptly for foreigners as "the white man's grave". The numerous tombstones that virtually cobble the West African coast is eloquent testimony to the terror of the dangerous and hazardous tropical Africa Fuller encountered.
The health culture was primitive and bad but even more deadly was a social culture of commonplace violence. Newman tells us that Fuller, like the white missionaries, had to be on constant alert against violence in several different forms. Newman says: "Whether from incessant praedial larceny and burglary inside the mission compound, or from personal abuse, harassment, and threats from persons opposed and resistant to foreign intrusion or indeed from inter-tribunal communal warfare, the missionaries had to develop strategies to combat threats to their security and well-being ." (Newman, p. 224)
MASTERFUL STRATEGIST
Fuller was a masterful strategist for the defence of the missionaries, black and white and as well became recognised among African chiefs as a skilled negotiator of peace. Newman says Fuller became acknowledged as a neutral arbitrator within tribal communities and his services sought and wisdom consulted and respected.
But his limit of tolerance broke when it came to the tradition known as "killing for the dead". Newman says this custom related to the killing of one or two others when an important person died. Newman tells us that "Immediately following the death of that person a raid would be made upon the nearest village and one or two persons may be captured and taken to the burial ceremony of the deceased. That person would be killed or buried alive with the deceased in order to accompany the deceased to the other world."
Fuller, a Christian, knew that his religion must confront and change such cultural practices. Unlike the descriptive and "leave alone" perspectives of anthropologists, the Christian religionist is committed to a higher morality and so feels mandated to achieve cultural change, to the glory of God.
The records will show, says Newman, a diligent persistence by Fuller to tackle this problem, in the process or risking his own life to free captured victims who were about to be sacrificed. Newman tells of a particular case that greatly impacted one tribe directly, and, indirectly, several others.
Newman, in his excellent article of research on Fuller, examining primary documents in English libraries, gives this account.
SPIRIT OF GOD
On one such occasion one of the young chiefs acquired such a victim that he intended to kill for his recently deceased father... Fuller obtained the release of the victim by persuasion and entreaty to the surprise of the village because usually such reprieve would have been rare, if done at all. Fuller interpreted that success to the spirit of God among 'so degraded a people'. (Newman, p. 225).
Yet, despite the challenges he faced in regard to the environment or murderous traditions, even more difficult was his encounter with demonism in the form of witchcraft. Newman says of Fuller:
"He was constantly surrounded by practices of witchcraft, either in the form of evidences of strong belief in the defensive or curative powers of witches or the circumstances of murdered victims of accusation of using witchcraft (Newman, p. 255).
Interestingly, Fuller befuddled many of the superstitious Africans, so much so, that some came to regard him as possessed of supernatural power, and feared him. For example, when he was digging an artesian well on the mission compound, the natives, after a time, saw the effort as an attempt in futility.
But Fuller persisted and to their astonishment eventually found water, against their strong criticisms and open ridicule. They were dumbfounded. They said: "How could he have known that there was water there?" He must have supernatural powers. Consequently, Newman says:
A PROBLEM
This posed a problem for Fuller... people began to stay away from his mission church because he seemed to them to possess extraordinary powers. There were attempts at times to poison him or put charms under the stool they offered him to sit on in the local township square in the hope that it might produce some sickness and end in his death.
Of course, Fuller was disdainful of such superstition for as a true Christian, his faith was in the power God gives through his word, which assures against all evil. He took comfort in the assurance he could draw from the word that God will not allow even a hair of your head to fall without his knowledge and permission.
Joseph Fuller's long service in the field, and survival against the odds physically and otherwise, is a success story of epic proportions. However, that significance needs to be told as a story by itself, for there were calculated efforts by some to bury his accomplishments.
To be continued:
