In The Discipling of West Cameroon, Lloyd E. Kwast tells the exciting story of Christian advance during more than a century and a quarter in a small but significant corner of tropical West Africa. Beginning with the remarkable events surrounding the inception of the Christian church in Cameroon, thanks to the work of such intrepid missionaries as Merrick, Shaker and Grenfell, the author goes on to trace its development in the face of opposition, indifference, disease, misunderstanding, and religious persecution. "It is a story of God's grace," Kwast tells us, "that from a mere handful of oppressed converts under the protective care of missionaries, Christians have multiplied to comprise more than one-third of the population of West Cameroon today." --

This study presents a history, based on original archival and primary source material, of the Baptist mission educational situation of Cameroon province from 1922 to 1945. The provisions of the League of Nations' mandate, under which Great Britain administered the province in this period, included 'complete freedom of conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship', yet from the beginning of the Mandate clear tensions existed. The missions desired education to serve evangelical purposes, while the colonial government strove for a uniform adaptionist program, suited to European perceptions of the abilities, traditions and local conditions of the African peoples. The work relates thus to a number of themes: European colonialism; the Mandate system; international theories of education; a comparison of British, American and German influences; cross-cultural mission work; and the personal contributions of three particular missionaries: Bender, Gebauer and Dunger.

This book argues that Southern Cameroons up to the late 1960s had extensively developed an evolved mature, political culture. It was amazingly led by a range of: simple, visionary, austere, honest, peace-loving and realistic leaders, almost without exception; vintage products of their epoch. Distinguished by good governance; throughout it organized frequent free, fair and transparent elections, peaceful handover of power and enjoyed free primary and adult education. It was further crowned with an ideal, efficient civil service, literally, corruption free. In fact, the period, 1955-1968 in the history of Southern Cameroons qualifies as a "Golden Age" for that nostalgic state, whose citizens were repeatedly referred to as "nice, peace loving, loyal, good and hospitable people" by administrators, missionaries, visitors and those who got to know them closely. The most remarkable observation however, was that finally made by Malcolm Milne, the greatest critic, who noted that during his last couple of years in the Southern Cameroons administration, he dealt with: "People of high intelligence who knew exactly what they wanted." Of the civil servants, he maintains that they had greatly enriched his time in the colonial service; "There was something very special about that corps; their service was their watch word." This superlative description by Malcolm Milne was being made of a combination of the people of the present North and South West Regions, whom he saw as a socio-cultural, economic and political unit. It is therefore obvious that from 1955 - 1968, Southern West Cameroon came close towards becoming an ideal state.

What significance can one man - only five feet five inches tall and weighing 110 pounds, and given almost as much to poetry and art as to theology - possibly have had for a time of tumult much like ours? Why would a lad virtually a teenager leave Germany for life and citizenship in American and then close his eyes to the fabulous "American dream" and reverse his life course to cast his fortunes instead among native Africans in Cameroon?Carl Jacob Bender knew that missionary success does not depend on size and stature; his own was diminutive. But he trusted God's providence, which he well knew called at times for one's supreme sacrifice. He was large in the love of God and man, and this love carried him to the so-called 'dark continent' where the Gospel shed light on the human predicament and offered hope unparalleled.

This book migrates through continents, regions, nations, and villages, in order to tell the stories of diverse kinds of nomadic dwellers. It departs from Africa, en routes itself toward Asia, Oceania, Europe, and culminates in the Americas, with the territories of Latin America, Canada, and the United States. The volume travels through worn out pathways of migration that continue to be threaded upon today, and theologically reflects on a wide range of migratory aims that result also in diverse forms of indigenization of Christianity. Among the main issues being considered are: How have globalization and migration affected the theological self-understanding of Christianity? In light of globalization and migration, how is the evangelizing mission of Christianity to be understood and carried out? What ecclesiastical reforms if any are required to enable the church to meet present-day challenges?