# Hope of Sherbro's Future Greatness

The
Hope of Sherbro’s Future Greatness.
A LECTURE
DELIVERED AT SHAINGAY BY
J. A. Gole, a Native of Western Africa.
DEDICATED TO Bishop D. K. Flickinger, D. D., At the request of Chief T. N. Caulker, as a grateful acknowledgement of his great interest and anxiety for the evangelization and civilization of Sherbro Country.
Dayton, Ohio, (U. S. A.): United Brethren Publishing House. 1885.
CHAPTER I.
Mr. Chairman, Ladles, and Gentlemen:–
Though conscious of my inability to do justice to the subject now before us, as it deserves to be handled, yet I shall consider my feeble efforts as having been amply rewarded if my poor country, Africa, derives any benefit, or the cause of God be more extended, by any suggestion that I may advance.
In treating of the future hope of a country or a nation, it necessary that one should be acquainted with its past history and its present progress. The past history of the Sherbro country, as it is with the past history of the whole of Africa, is written in characters of blood.
As early as the year 1740 the whole of the Sherbro country was one extensive mart, whence Europeans exchanged beads, spirits, and tobacco for cargoes of human beings. John Newton, the cruel slave-dealer, afterward the evangelical Newton of England, had at that time his principal slave factory at the Plantation Island, where the ruins of his slave-pen can still be seen, and also a branch factory at Dublin, on the Bananas Island,–then belonging to Sherbro,–where a lime-fence, planted by him when engaged in his nefarious traffic, is still standing, as a monument of the sufferings of our fathers.
The Portuguese, the French, and the Spaniards rushed into the country, obtaining the sons and daughters of Africa for foreign goods and Spanish gold, spreading wars, rapine, and murder in all her borders.
​“Auri sacra fames! quid non morsalia pectora cogis.” “O thou execrable desire for gold, what dost thou not compel mortal souls to do!”
In his dispatches in 1825, Major-general Turner, then governor of Sierra Leone, wrote that he entered into treaties with native chiefs on the Sherbro rivers, who agreed to cease from destructive internal warfare, to give up the slave-trade, and form a friendly alliance with England, for the benefit of protection, and of trade in the productions of Africa in exchange for European commodities. He recommended strongly that the Sherbro rivers should be blockaded, and that by so doing the government would be able to prevent an annual exportation of 30,000 slaves from Sherbro alone.
It is to be regretted that the governor died of fever while writing his letter. Hence his plan was not then executed.
A few years after the return of John Newton to England a vessel came laden with goods, with Messrs. Cleveland, Tucker, and Caulker. Mr Cleveland landed at the Bananas Island, and established himself at the slave-factory of John Newton. Mr. S. Caulker came to the Plantain Island, and Tucker sailed south-east and settled in the country of the Gbas.
The locality of the Plantain Island, and the prosperity of the Caulkers, raised a spirit of jealousy in the Clevelands. A great enmity soon arose between them, which ended in war. Mr. Cleveland collected a good army and suddenly attacked Mr. Caulker in the Plantain Island, so that he had to surrender. The island was then claimed by the Clevelands, and Mr. Caulker submitted to be employed by them, and was removed to their head-quarters in the Bananas Island. Whilst in his employment at the Bananas, Mr. Caulker appropriated all his income to the preparation of ​implements of war, and in sending presents to the various chiefs in the Sherbro country, as far up as to the Boom, Kittam, and Bompeh rivers. Thus he continued for several years, until he felt himself strong enough for retaliation. Then he gave up his employment, and marched his army, consisting of men from the various tribes of the Sherbro country, into the Plantain Island, where a single day's engagement restored him to his right, and made him once more monarch of the island. Mr. Cleveland afterward died, and Caulker with his brother remained masters of the island without further opposition.
Time will fail us to dwell on the various struggles and bloodshed through which this country has passed–Canrabah Caulker’s war, and the attempt of the French to rob Bendoo from the Sherbroes, which led to the transference of that and many other parts in Sherbro to the British government. In the year 1847 disturbances arising from boundary questions and rivalries arose, which were the cause of great confusion. In 1849 the British government had to interfere.
Accordingly, on the fourth of July, a treaty was signed at Tasso between Benjamin Chilley Campbell Pine, Esq., then acting governor of Sierra Leone, and Thomas Stephen Caulker, chief of the Plantain Island, and Canrabah Caulker, chief of Bompeh, arranging the division of the territories among them to save future misunderstandings.
From the year 1849 we pass over to 1855. Early this year Revs. W. J. Shuey, D. C. Kumler, and D. K. Flickinger sailed out to this country–not with chains and shackles for orang-outangs, but with the living word. Two of this number soon returned to America, and the third one also, after being here some over a year. But the command, Go ​bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, so influenced the minds of the United Brethren Board of Missions that Revs. D. K. Flickinger, J. K. Billheimer, and Dr. Witt returned in January, 1857. At this time the United Brethren Church was established in Sherbro.
For the past twenty-eight years the history of Sherbro has been so influenced by religion that great changes have taken place. One of the greatest changes, attributed to missionary efforts, is the peace existing between the two cousins, the Caulkers of Bompeh and of the Plantain Island. The influence of religion led them to this decision of living peaceably with all men, and actuated them to sign the following agreement in the government house of Freetown, on the 11th of June, 1870:
We, the undersigned, do solemnly agree to withdraw all personal complaint laid before the governor-in-chief for hearing and arbitration and we further agree that no alleged wrongs of which either party complain prior to this date shall be brought into consideration or discussion at any future time.
                               Signed.Thomas Stephen Caulker.
                                     R. C. B. Caulker.
                                     George S. Caulker.
                                     Canrabah Caulker.
                                     Charles Canary Caulker.
If the gentlemen above named meant what they said, does it not prove that the true spirit of Christianity had entered deeply into their minds? Two years afterward the same spirit was manifested, when through the influence of Rev. J. Gomer and Mr. LeFevre, Chiefs George Caulker and Richard Caulker were reconciled with each other, in the ​presence of hundreds of people who came to witness the sight. We are thankful to God that the same spirit is still existing in our present chief, T. N. Caulker, and is manifested by the friendly conference he had with Chief Richard Caulker, but a few months ago. And his willingness to receive and protect missionaries, his abhorence of war, which led him often to give up his rights, and his discouragement of slavery, brings forcibly before our eyes the influence and power of the gospel.
Thus have we attempted to briefly sketch the past history of the Sherbro nation, from the dark days of slavery to the golden age of the Caulkers and the establishment of Christianity in this country. The civilization, customs, morals, religions, and manners of this country during those ages can not be expected to supersede those of the Germans, French, and Britons when they were first invaded by Cæsar. Of the French he says, “Natio est omnis Gallorum admodum dedita religionibus” (C. J. Cæsaris Lib. VI., Cap XV.); that is, The whole country of French, or Gaul, is greatly addicted to superstition. They offered human sacrifices, and owned the god Pluto as their great ancestor. Hence they reckoned time by nights. Of the Britons he says, “They had their wives in common, and children sometimes married their parents.” The Germans, on the other hand, neglected agriculture, lest any desire of money should arise, whence spring factions and dissensions. (Lib. VI., Cap XI.)
But in proportion as Christianity was advancing, idolatry and superstition sunk. The groves of Druid ism took their flight, the mistletoe became merely a plant, reason supplanted fear, and these once uncivilized nations are now the most civilized and the most powerful in the world, whilst Rome, once the mistress of the world, is “Rome no more.”
​Through patience and perseverence, hope has realized for them what she for nearly 2,000 years had been toiling for; namely, their future greatness. We, too, expect the day of our visitation. We hope soon to possess in full those things which belong to our peace. In climbing up the hill of fame, however high, we must move slowly, but surely, for we have no wings and can not fly.
                   The heights by great men reached and kept,
                      Were not attained by sudden flight;
                   But they, whilst their companions slept,
                      Were toiling upward in the night.
CHAPTER II.
THE PRESENT AND PAST.
In contrasting the present with the past we cherish great hope for the future of the Sherbro country. A great and fearful battle of twenty-eight years has been fought with the king of darkness by the missionaries, and Jesus is the conqueror. Purrowism, polygamy, idolatry, superstition, and Mohamedanism are now falling victims at Immanuel’s feet.
Purrowism, which is a secret society, is losing its power and influence over the minds of the people. Some societies of this kind are to be found among almost all African nations. The Magi (confounded with the Magicians) of Egypt is a class of, or the origin, of these secret societies. They do nothing openly. Neither could one fully understand them without being a member. They conceal crime and protect a guilty member from punishment, however heinous the offense may have been. This society was founded by Zoroaster, a Persian. From the Arabs it spread through India and Egypt, whence it traveled in various corrupt forms to Soudan and western Africa. Herodotus says that this society had great influence in the political as well as religious affairs of the state, and that a monarch seldom ascends the throne without their previous approbation. He says they also pay particular homage to fire. A careful comparison of the different African private society will prove what we have affirmed of their derivation from the Magi of Egypt, as it is the same in law and many other respects. The Avudu relative to the Shagoes are lightning worshipers. They have great delight for fire. I have witnessed an Avudu ​worshiper, when excited by his charms, devour a good quantity of live coals from a fireside with the same pleasure, seemingly, with which one would enjoy cakes. This may have been done by some enchantment, or may not have been a reality, but it so seemed. I have heard the Kofong and magician Sama, of this place, boasting of his capability of dancing in two different places at the same moment. This comes very closely to what is said of Pythagoras, the philosopher, magician, and fire-worshiper,–that he appeared on the same day and at the same instant in the cities of Crotona and Metapontum. But the whole, I believe, is based on deceitfulness and falsehood.
The secret society of the Sherbro country was once her governor and legislature. The king was not exempt from fines or capital punishment should he violate its laws or reveal its secret. But its power has greatly diminished, and its influence is dying out. In conversation a few weeks ago with Chief T. N. Caulker on the subject, he said, “I believe the society will, in God’s time, die out of our midst. It will not be by violence, but by the power of the gospel.”
The great contest with ignorance and sin was begun by Rev. D. K. Flickinger, twenty-eight years ago, and continued by these self-sacrificing and self-denying men. Revs. J. K. Billheimer, J. A. Williams, the sainted O. Hadley, and others whose names shall forever be engraved in the memory of Africans as Christian philanthropists and fathers of Sherbro’s civilization. They did what they could, and all they could.
In the year 1870, the United Brethren Church adopted the policy of an English philanthropist who once claimed, “The evils of slavery and the superstition of the dark continent must be rooted out! It is by African exertions can be destroyed.” Accordingly a negro. Rev. J. Gomer, was sent out, to whom the present stage of Sherbro’s civilization is largely attributed. The work of ​evangelization was carried on with Herculean might on gigantic shoulder of this the man of God, insomuch that the United Brethren Church in Africa is known among us as Gomer’s mission. The radical change and the improvements during the thirteen years of his labors and ministration reminds one very vividly of Oberlin, the pastor of Ban de la Roche, his untiring effort, his humble and unassuming character, his anxiety to see every one around him engaged, his own example, like St. Paul, of working with his own hands. This man’s great exertions, with those of the missionaries now in the field, and Mrs. M. Mair, late of Rotufunk Station, lifted Sherbro to a new and higher scale of progression. The success of these missionaries induced the American Missionary Society two years ago to transfer to them their stations for a term of years, and the Freedmen Missions Aid Society in England is now, through the United Brethren Church, stretching out its hand to the rescue of the perishing sons and daughters of Africa.
Decency is also one of the characteristic changes which have taken place. Years ago the Sherbroes wore nothing on their persons but a totranger, and many were to be found in a state of entire nudity. But to-day, instead of the totranger, we find among the male a desire for the white man’s trousers and baltic shirts pervading the whole country, whilst the females would pay anything for fine wrappers, and English shawls to cover their shoulders. I do not mean to advance this as the case in every town, but at Shaingay there could not be found at present as much as four young females with totrangers fastened to a girdle of beads (or Mayemgba), which, as hitherto, make up the principal dressing of a maiden.
Another improvement is the steamer John Brown. It affords an extensive view of European civilization. On the day of her arrival, a young man from Manoh coming from the mission was asked whether the mail-boat arrived ​said, “No, but a large canoe with smoke just bring Ba Gomer. He big you can see bottom far away.” We hope the steamer will remain long, so as to facilitate communication between this and civilized countries, and relieve some of the fears of missionaries in their frequent travels by water, thereby encouraging and introducing Christianity, commerce, and civilization into this land.
The building of a pier-head and a substantial mission-wharf, with the extension of the mission-business in a new and larger store, is also a great advancement toward the civilization of Sherbro. Many may differ from me on this point, or may see differently than I do, therefore I shall enlarge a little here. I have often heard talented and civilized men, both here and in Sierra Leone, crying down the Shaingay misssonaries as traders, or, using their term, “Merchant missionaries;” and it seems to me that this is the opinion of the highest authorities by their recently subjecting to license duties on their boats as those of ordinary traders, whereas the custom regulations exempt missionary boats from paying license. Though my opinion may be feeble on this point, yet it demands your reasonable attention. It is not my intention to proselyte you to my faith in the suitability of combining ministerial work with trade. I do not argue that because Peter was a fisherman and St. Paul a tent-maker, therefore missionaries are to combine evangelistic works with commerce. Missionary labors in enlightened and Christian countries differ. Extensive commerce in connection with missionary operations in civilized countries where the wants of pastors are adequately met either by subscription or donation, is unnecessary. But in a heathen country like Africa,–a country degraded and corrupted by the slave-trade,–the introduction of innocent commerce, together with Christianity, even where the needs of missionaries are adequately supplied, is a necessity and a part of Christian duty. Gomzalez, the first European slave-dealer, who came to Africa ​in the year 1434, would have been very unsuccessful in his wicked designs had it not been for the anxiety of our fathers to procure European commodities. They wanted the white man’s goods, and he in turn their children; and, worst of all, the chief articles exchanged for human beings were spirits, tobacco, swords, gun-powder, and guns. Innocent and well-conducted commerce in cotton goods and tools for the improvement of agriculture were kept away from them. They must be supplied with the white man’s rum to render them more stupid, that they might be kidnapped and stolen away with greater facility. They must have gun-powder and swords enough to make war on their brethren and get plenty captives to give the white man’s vessel a good cargo of souls. In 1771, one hundred and ninety-eight slave-ships left England for Africa, fitted for 50,000 slaves. Our friend William Wilberforce, in one of his statements, said “that the value of British manufactures exported to Africa was only £500,000, and that England exported during that year as much gun-powder to Africa as to all the world put together. In 1835, twenty-eight years after the abolition of slavery in England and her colonies, the value of gun-powder exported to Africa for that year alone was £150,000. Its degrading influence spread all over the continent, scattering the seeds of demoralization and barbarism everywhere to such extent that, as the great traveler Lander informed us, the Bouchees sold their own children for beads, and that the effect of the slave-trade introduced petty wars into the country as a profession. Agriculture was neglected, and cannibalism took its place on account of famine. We are not astonished at this when we remember that an Israelite woman prepared her own son for breakfast from the same cause. The Mendis, who are supplied with spirits and implements of war by European merchants along the Sherbro country, for which both they and the Sierra Leone government are now suffering from dullness of trade and decrease of ​revenue, will soon find that through the introduction of a mild, innocent, and Christian commerce, it will be more profitable and advantageous to employ a servant in cutting five bushels of palm-kernels to pay for eight pieces of cloth (or one head money) than to exchange him for it.
Is it not then an indisputable fact that if Africa becomes evangelized and civilized it must be through the power of the gospel combined with innocent commerce? We read of the cruel king of Dahomey refusing to accept missionaries because they were no traders.
In one of his discourses at Flickinger Chapel I once heard Rev. J. Gomer remark that “certain men offered to attend divine service for biscuits. While it is true that some may have come for biscuits, it is also true that God sent them away with the bread of life.” It is said that the chief of Casegut, one of the Bissago islands, built a chapel with a bell to induce Europeans to come and trade in his country. Governor Randall, late of Gambia, in one of his letters to the duke of Wellington, said, “Of all the measures calculated to insure the prosperity of Africa, none promises so well as the encouragement of its legitimate commerce and agriculture. * * * * Give an impulse to industry by establishing model plantations; let moral and religious education go hand in hand.” Mr. McQueen says, “The future prosperity of Africa will be attained only by teaching the negroes useful knowledge and the arts of civilized life, and when by the influence of innocent commerce the native chiefs are taught that they may be rich without selling men, and to depend upon the cultivation of the soil.” “Example is better than precept,” and “men live more by example than reason.” Is it not then absolutely necessary that Christianity should be combined with industry, and a model farming, with an example of innocent commerce, be established in heathen countries in order to civilize the inhabitants?
​It is unfortunate for the Sherbro country that all along her rivers there is no factory engaging in what might be strictly styled innocent commerce. The natives are supplied too early with guns, gun-powder, swords, and other dangerous articles which are often inducements and encouragement to the many factions and petty wars.
It is from the American mission's commerce, now in its infant but progressive state, that we hope to have a model of innocent and mild commerce combined with prosperous agriculture. The combination of trade with religious objects in Sherbro is indeed a necessity; and I am of the opinion that if properly directed, as it is at present, there will be grand results.
The experiment of Professor Francke, at Halle, and his great success proved this. The past history of the successes attending the efforts of the United Brethren Church by this method attest to the same. Rev. Thomas Sims of Winchester (forty-four years ago), though he himself was a clergyman of the Church of England, strongly commended and recommended this system. He pointed out Antigua as a result of their successful missionary enterprise, where the gospel, though combined with trade, had been so generally received by the negroes, and the slaves had become so improved in habit and conduct that only one negro was condemned to death during a period of eight years. Martial law was found also to be no longer necessary on Christmas-day, and the militia was dissolved.
We are thankful for the improvements of this country through the influence of Christianity, commerce, and agriculture introduced by the United Brethren Church.
CHAPTER III.
THE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.
Having contrasted the present with the past, let us see what hopes can be cherished for the future. Our detractors have often affirmed that the hope of Africa is buried in oblivion but to their great disappointment, “The morning light is breaking, the darkness disappears.” This is becoming a reality in British Sherbro, as is evinced by the religious lives of many. The introduction of the temperance society and other social meetings, the desire for higher education, the liberality and enthusiasm with which the cause of missions is supported by native converts, prove to the world that “we have yet a soul and dare be free.”
The hope of the future greatness of the Sherbro country must be the result of its religion, commerce, agriculture, and education. The religion we have embraced is a religion of humility and unanimity. It is simply the religion of Jesus, “believe and live.”
The true spirit of Christianity and love which impelled the founder of the United Brethren Church, Otterbein, to embrace Boehm in the presence of a large congregation and exclaim, “We are brethren,” has its echo still reverberating. This sound from Dayton, Ohio, is heard upon our shores, “We are all one in Christ.”
Above all, it is from the educated youths of this country that we expect to realize our hope of Sherbro’s future greatness. It is from them that the United Brethren Church or its missionary society, and the Freedmen’s Aid Society, will reap the rewards of their labors. The mind of an ignorant man is chained down to the bondage of superstition, and ​he continues wallowing in the mire and clay of stupidity. He sees differently from an educated man. He sees men like trees, walking, and sometimes takes trees for men.
The Sherbro language can be improved, but it needs education to shape it; and from what we have stated it may be clearly seen that an establishment of a good school in Sherbro, where science would be taught, and where amongst other languages the Arabic might be introduced, will do much for Africa. And we hail the day when through the miraculous influence of a proper education, a full, regenerated purified written language of this vast country shall spring from the ashes of the old, stepping forward to take its place in African nomenclature, when the cocoa-nut, now called “bell-poto,” or “white man’s palm-kernel,” shall be substituted by another word, denoting its property or quality.
The fact at present that the language, though defective, is composite, is a great encouragement for the future. There was no written Anglo-Saxon literature until after their education and the conversion of the people to Christianity by the Romans. How harsh and ridiculous would the Anglo-Saxon expressions, “Free-necked man” and “blood-weight” now appear to an Englishman. And one would be at a loss in retracing the word good-by to “Good be wud ye,” or God be with you, and the title, “beef-eater,” from buffet, a small side-board, and that from the 15,000 different words composing the works of Shakespeare, the champion of English literature, 1,154 are from other languages, which makes the English language, as Grimm says, “possesses a veritable power of expression, such as perhaps never stood at the command of any other language of man,” after a struggle of about two thousand years, to rein its present excellency, a composite and strictly borrowed language.
If we are to be truly civilized, it must be by the improvement of our language. He who hath no language of his ​own should not exist. The English language is not ours; and he is either a madman or a fool who prefers a foreign language to his own.
True education will find appropriate words to build up the most deficient and rough language, and assist the nation to express its thoughts more fully without the splicing and patching up of words. It is for this education we are craving. Our hope depends on it and it is from the friends of Africa in England and the churches of America we expect it. The lives lost and all the money spent for this great cause of redeeming Africa will have no effect and no future success without a system of good and sound education. Rev. D. F. Wilberforce, in his “Appeal from the Dark Continent to the Church in America,” said, “If the church in Africa is to have that rapid growth which God intends, if the tribes far and near are to be brought to the saving knowledge of God, it can only be done by educating native youths for the work.” If the Sherbro country is to be great, if there is to be any prosperity in the future, it must depend on her present exertions. It is now for her to
             “Pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
             Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
             Where fathom-line could never touch the ground
             And drag up drowned honor by the lock.”
The brevity of life commands us, “What thou doest, do quickly.” Let the present be combined with the future by labor and patience, and the future hope of Sherbro's greatness will soon be a reality. Horace says,
             “Spatio brevi
Spem longam receses: dum loquim ur, furgerit invida Aestas; carpe diem, quam minimum credula posterio.”
That is, from the short space of time you should exclude distant hopes; for whilst we speak the envious hours are passing away; enjoy the present time, trusting as little as ​possible to futurity. The same spirit of the Latin poet runs through those beautiful lines of Francis:
“Thy lengthened hopes will produce bound, Proportioned to the flying hour: Whilst thus we talk in careless ease The envious moments wing their flight, Instant the pleasing pleasure sieze Nor trust to-morrow's doubtful light.”
In conclusion, I have a word for African youths. Africa ours by divine gift, and we are responsible for her prosperity according to the proportion of advantages and light given us. We have great advantages. The eye of the civilized world is upon us. This moment the Germans, English, French, and Americans are on our continent. We can say that they that are with us are greater than those that are against us. We must not be discouraged by the noise of our detractors, for they too will soon be made to pity us.
John Newton, the great African slave-dealer in the Plantain and Bananas islands, was miraculously turned by God to a preacher of the gospel, and he was both the patron and adviser of William Willberforce in his great struggles for the abolition of slavery. Charles Sumner, the Wilberforce of America, was struck down in congress whilst defending the black man; and we have on record the names of many missionaries who gave their very life for the good of Africa. The vast number of missionaries throughout our continent and the numerous expenses and exertions of American missionaries in Sherbro alone prove that God has raised up friends for us. Rev. D. K. Flickinger has manifested from his repeated visits, some of which were undertaken at his own expense, and his zeal at home in lecturing for the good of Africa, a yearning desire for the elevation and salvation of our race. May he have his reward. William Wilberforce was shot at in London, and ​was hunted like a deer in the streets of Liverpool and Bristol. Rev. John Smith, of the Independents, was condemned to be hanged at the Island of Demarara for defending the rights of negroes and from harsh treatment. He died in prison, in 1824. Rev. William J. Shrewsbury, a Wesleyan missionary, was driven from Barbadoes by an infuriated mob of European slave-dealers for communicating with Sir Fowel Buxton about the brutal treatment of Africans. And though the Wesleyan chapel was demolished, yet the society did not give up. When he was on his death-bed, Wesley’s last words to Wilberforce were, “Persevere in the glorious enterprise of effecting the abolition of the traffic in the sinews and blood of men. Go on in the name of God and the power of his might, till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it.”
It could be said of our country, since the time of the slave-trade, that the continent of Africa “suffereth violence until now, and the violent taketh it by force.” Many even in America are this day made to suffer violence for their zeal in rescuing us and embracing us as brethren. I remember reading just a few months ago an article headed, “Persecution in Virginia.” A kind-hearted and philanthropic white man was accounted unfit for the position of a public school-director for associating himself with negroes.
You will, my countrymen, be able to judge from this the condition under which we are still regarded by some Christian men in civilized countries.
Christianity, education, commerce, and agriculture shall scatter the gloom that now overhangs the Sherbro country, and make all to be free, both body and soul.