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Gospel. They felt a filial responsibility for <strong>the</strong> salvation of<strong>the</strong>ir ancestral l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

race. This laudable desire rooted in <strong>the</strong>ir belief in ancestors within <strong>the</strong> African-<br />

American <strong>Christian</strong>s found support with <strong>the</strong> British Baptist ministers of <strong>the</strong> Jamaican<br />

<strong>Church</strong>. Black <strong>Christian</strong>s, like Thomas Keith <strong>and</strong> James Keats, showed individual<br />

courage <strong>and</strong> determination as <strong>the</strong> London committee took time to respond to <strong>the</strong><br />

African-American zeal to carry <strong>the</strong> Good News of Jesus Christ to Africa. 422 Thomas<br />

Burchell, James Phillippo, <strong>and</strong> especially William Knibb channelled <strong>the</strong> popular will<br />

into an organised movement, <strong>and</strong> succeeded in collecting 1,000 (one thous<strong>and</strong> Pounds)<br />

pounds for <strong>the</strong> mission in Africa. 423 A hundred poor labourers offered enthusiastically a<br />

week's wages for missionary work in Africa <strong>and</strong> toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> English Baptist<br />

Missionary Society, set up a training college for <strong>the</strong> African mission in Jamaica-<br />

424 42-<br />

Calabar near Rio de Bueno. :><br />

Toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> London committee, John Clarke, an English missionary in<br />

Jamaica since 1828, <strong>and</strong> G.K Prince, a medical doctor who had married a mulatto<br />

Jamaican <strong>and</strong> was a former slave owner, were both appointed to explore <strong>the</strong> possibility<br />

of a mission in <strong>the</strong> Niger Delta. With Jamaican finances <strong>the</strong>y reached Fem<strong>and</strong> Do Po<br />

on <strong>the</strong> January 1, 1841, some 25 miles off <strong>the</strong> Cameroon coast. They proposed to <strong>the</strong><br />

mission committee to establish <strong>the</strong> first mission station at Fem<strong>and</strong> Do Po. They also<br />

investigated <strong>the</strong> mainl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> contacted Cameroonian <strong>rule</strong>rs. February 4, 1841, <strong>the</strong>y<br />

reached Douala. Clarke <strong>and</strong> Prince were received by <strong>the</strong> local <strong>rule</strong>r, Douala Manga<br />

422 Sanneh, Lamine, West African <strong>Christian</strong>ity, pp. 107-8.<br />

423 Sanneh, Lamine, West African <strong>Christian</strong>ity, p. 108.<br />

424 Calabar though a famous town in eastern Nigeria is also found in Jamaica where its reputation<br />

originated from a <strong>the</strong>ological seminary set up for African-Americans who ambitioned a missionary work<br />

in Africa.<br />

425 Slageren, Van Jaap, "Jamaican Missionaries in Cameroon", pp. 146-7.<br />

275

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