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Richard C. and Anna Mae Rowe report from Cameroon, 1960, side 1.
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- speakerThis is Dick and Anna Mae Rowe reporting to you from Elat and
- speakerWallowa in Cameroon West Africa.
- speakerWe've been looking for different ways to communicate with you folks at home
- speakerto tell you a little bit about our experiences and share some of them with you.
- speakerAnd we thought that perhaps this tape would be a good way to accomplish it. We're going to be talking to
- speakersome of our friends here in Africa, giving little interviews perhaps. The
- speakerfirst thing that we have on our tape is a greeting that Anne, Anna Mae received
- speakerfrom the women of the press. I work here at the press and the women
- speakerall came over en masse the other day, singing to her. The Bulu greeting
- speakeris Bula Nee. Hello. This is the song that they're singing to her.
- speaker"Hello. We have come to greet you."
- speaker[Singing in Bulu]
- speaker[singing in Bulu ends]
- speakerYes, it was four o'clock on Monday afternoon. And suddenly up the lane
- speakercame all the women in a half march, half
- speakerdance step that they often use here. They use it quite often as a processional in
- speakerchurch too. And on their heads were huge trays of fruit and
- speakervegetables. And they were carrying eggs and all kinds of
- speakervery special gifts. There was no special
- speakerreason for their gifts, for their visit as I understand except that they said they had
- speakernever been to officially greet me. But for me it did seem very appropriate
- speakerbecause it seemed to mark what has been my change since I stopped
- speakerbeing a Hope school teacher and suddenly have started to become a real
- speakerwife and homemaker. One of the first things I did when I stopped teaching at
- speakerschool was to begin to learn the language. And, of course, I'd just been studying I guess
- speakerfor about two weeks when they came. Knew very few words, but I did know enough
- speakerto tell them that I was glad they came. And, now that I was
- speakerno longer teaching at Hope School, I hoped that we would get acquainted.
- speakerOne of the things about Bulu School that is very interesting. It's not just learning the language, but learning
- speakerfrom the customs. Pastor Viso came one morning and talked to us about the way you greet
- speakerpeople. He said, "When you greet a person, a Bulu person, you take both of their
- speakerarms and shake both hands and keep your hands in there
- speakera while. Don't take them away real quickly."
- speakerAnd so, when they came, I greeted them that way. And, they all sat down and I was able to ask them their
- speakernames. And, speaking of names, it's a good custom among
- speakerthe Bulu people here to give missionaries BUlu names. For instance
- speakerAboneesep. "A beautiful springtime" or "lemonyem" "soft
- speakerhearted" are Bulu school teachers. Balunga is one who often gives missionaries
- speakernames because he knows them. And, you can't just give someone a name
- speakerarbitrarily but you have to know them, observe them and then decide what the name must be.
- speakerSo Balunga finally came around and said one day that he knew
- speakerAnna Mae's name. Here is a conversation that we had with Balunga.
- speakerAnd then to translate a little bit to you. First of all I'm going to ask him
- speakerhow long he's been Bulu school teacher. [Richard asks Balunga in Bulu]
- speaker"Nee samma."
- speakerSix years, he's been Bulu School teacher. Before that what was he doing?
- speaker[Question and response in Bulu.]
- speakerBefore that he was a teacher in the vernacular schools where the
- speakerchildren go to school in the Bulu language. Of course, we
- speakerhave two kinds of schools here. The vernacular schools, which are Bulu language schools and the
- speakerFrench language schools which are the government-supported and operated schools.
- speakerThe vernacular schools are just for the
- speakerfirst two years or the first, very first year. Now, after that they have all
- speakertheir lessons in French.
- speakerYes that's right. [Question asked and answered in Bulu.]
- speakerAnd now he's no longer a teacher in the vernacular schools, but is the
- speakeradjutant director of thedr vernacular schools.
- speaker[Question asked and answered in Bulu.]
- speakerI asked him, I knew that he has given
- speakerAnne a particular name, a Bulu name, which is a custom they often give particularly women.
- speakerThey often give them Bulu names and start asking what it is. And the name that he has given
- speakerher is B'Ataan.
- speaker[Balunga explains in Bulu, Anne's Bulu name]
- speakerHe explains to me what this meaning, what this word means. "B'] means a
- speakerwoman and that a man especially likes. In the old
- speakerdays, when polygamy was very common, a man would have
- speakermany wives. And. Balunga's own wife's own father, he says, had thirty wives, but that the
- speakerwoman that he like most what's called his "b'ok." But
- speakernow I only have one wife and so my wife Anne is "B'Ataan."
- speakerWife I like very much but she is alone, "ataan" means
- speakeralone. So, this is the Name that he'd given her.
- speaker"Did he say anything else about the words?"
- speakerNo. That is what he said.
- speaker[Question asked and answered in Bulu.]
- speakerI asked him to tell us about his father's family in which
- speakerhe had thirty wives. And if any of them were Christians, and how he himself became a Christian.]
- speaker[Response in Bulu.]
- speakerThe story of the house islike this.
- speakerHis father was a very rich man. [Response in Bulu] He had
- speakerthirty wives. That is what made him rich.
- speaker[Response in Bulu]
- speakerAnd he also was a boy. [Response in Bulu.]
- speakerHe was a very fierce sort of an individual.
- speaker[Response in Bulu.]
- speakerIt used to be that he would kill people. [Bulu response.]
- speakerOne day he killed one of his wives.
- speaker[Bulu statement]
- speakerHe wasn't a Christian because in those days, the Word of God haven't ever arrived in the
- speakercountry.
- speaker[Balunga continues with his father in law's story in Bulu]
- speakerWhen the Germans came
- speakerto this country, he was a chief of town, chief of the town at that time.
- speaker[Balunga continues in Bulu]
- speakerAnd he became the chief chief. The head chief in that whole region.
- speaker[Balunga continues in Bulu]
- speakerBecause he was a man who really worked very hard.
- speakerAnd, the Germans saw that.
- speaker[Balunga continues in Bulu]
- speakerAnd then there was a
- speakerGerman trader who came into the area. And, people were very, they didn't
- speakerlike him and they wanted to kill him. Because in those days, the Bulu people were very fierce and
- speakerunbound tribe. So they wanted to
- speakerkill a young German who came, but his father didn't allow that.
- speaker[Balunga comments on the German]
- speakerBecause of that the Germans liked him very much and gave
- speakerhim honors [Balunga continues] because he had taken care of their
- speakerman.
- speaker[Balunga continues in Bulu]
- speakerAnd when there were the great Bulu Wars between the Bulu and the Germans in
- speakerthe early part of the century, they gave him a flag to hang in front of his house
- speakerso that raiding German soldiers would know that they were not to raid his house. That he was a friend.
- speaker[Balunga concludes about his father]
- speakerWhen he died he
- speakerwas not yet a Christian.
- speakerHe died an unChristian.
- speaker[Balunga continues] Because the words of God were not yet
- speakerstrong in that part of the country then.
- speaker[Balunga on his mother's conversion]
- speakerBut his mother had already become a Christian when his father died.
- speaker[Balunga continues in Bulu.]
- speakerThen he began in the Bulu schools, which were much stronger and wider
- speakerspread in those days. And, when he began in the Bulu schools, he
- speakerhimself became a Christian.
- speaker[Balunga description of his becoming a Christian]
- speakerBecause the teacher, who was a teacher in the Bulu school
- speakertaught them about things of the Christ and told them that they should be
- speakerChristians. [Balunga continues]
- speakerSo in the year nine hundred fourteen he entered the church.
- speakerThat was when Mr Dager [Dager, William M.]
- speakerfor whom our Dager Biblical Seminary [Dager Higher Institute of Theology] is named, was pastor here at Elat.
- speaker[Balunga continues]
- speakerHe says that he enjoys the work that he has now in teaching the missionaries
- speakerbecause he sees that that helps the whole work in this country very much/
- speaker[Balunga on teaching missionaries]
- speakerBecause when the missionary really learns the Bulu language, then he can go ahead and
- speakerspeak the words of God in Bulu language.
- speaker[Balunga]
- speakerand so he sees his job to really teach the people
- speakervery well so that they'll really be able to do their own work very well while they're here.
- speakerYeah. [Richard thanks Balunga in Bulu]
- speakerand has spoken to us so that the people in America can hear his voice. Balunga, do you have
- speakerany one thing that you would like to say to our people in America?
- speaker[Richard translates into Bulu]
- speakerYes I have a one
- speakerbig thing I want to say to the people in America. [Balunga in Bulu]
- speakerI want to congratulate the people of America.
- speaker[Balunga in Bulu]
- speakerbecause he feels that you have the kind of heart and spirit that is
- speakerthat are willing to give.
- speaker[Bulu]
- speakerEven though we now have an independent church here in Cameroon, you haven't
- speakerforgotten. Still you send us
- speakerhelp [Bulu] and also
- speakerare continuing to send people to teach us.
- speaker[Bulu]
- speakerSo he wants really
- speakerto tell you that this is not a work that should stop but should go on even more,
- speakerthe work of sending people in the help of the work of the Gospel here in Cameroon.
- speakerThank you very much, Balunga.
- speakerYou've just heard from Balunga, who is one of and the head of our one of our
- speakerBulu teachers and the head of our Bulu school. One of the interesting thing about learning the
- speakerlanguage is learning also the customs of the people and
- speakernot just the direct translation but the way they say things. I was interested
- speakerin learning that to worry about someone is to say that you're hanging your heart up
- speakerfor them. And, when you are no longer worried, you take your heart down.
- speakerIt would also mean interesting to meet various
- speakerAfricans who come with words of greeting or words of advice.
- speakerI am in the school with four other new missionaries. And so, the
- speakerAfricans, are coming to welcome us. One pastor who had been in the States
- speakercame with a very humble message and
- speakerunlike Africans to be sensitive to this kind of thing, said it's
- speakervery good of you to come here to our country leaving your clean country
- speakerand your very clean houses to live with us in our dirty country.
- speakerPastor Biso also came. You remember that Pastor Biso is
- speakerthe pastor of Elat Church, which is the largest church in the Cameroon and with whom
- speakerDick is associate pastor. He was the one that, as I told you earlier, gave us
- speakerthe word on how to greet Africans and several other things. He also said you
- speakermust learn to know our people and to love them.
- speakerYou must learn to eat from one avocado and Mr. Rowe and I do.
