Two Women: Anyentyuwe and Ekâkise

TWO WOMEN:

Anyentyuwe

and Ekâkise

by Robert Nassau with Isabella Nasaau, 1911

With commentary and expansive footnotes by

HENRY BUCHER

Copyright © 2014 Henry Hale Bucher, Jr. and Cat Garlit.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-0926-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-0925-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903954

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction and Commentary

Notes on Lexicography and Phonetics

Photographs

-Anyentyuwe

- Anyentyuwe with daughter together with R. H. Nassau with his daughter.

-Tomb of Anyentyuwe, Baraka Cemetery, Libreville, Gabon

-Isabella Ann Nassau

Maps

—Sections of the Coast from Gaboon to Batanga

-The West African Coast after the Berlin Conference (1884-1885)

-Baraka Mission in the Glass Quarter of Libreville

- Outline Map: West Equatorial African Coast, from Batanga to Cape Lopez

- Outline Map of the Ogowe River, from Cape Lopez, 130 miles to Lambarene

- Outline Map of the Ogowe River from Lambarene, 70 miles to Asange Post

Genealogy of Anyentyuwe

The Story of Anyentyuwe

The Story of Ekâkise

Afterword

Indices for Anyentyuwe and Ekâkise

Works Cited

Endnotes

To Louise Catron Scott Bucher;

Priscilla Jo Bucher; and Alice Osuka

Preface

The Mpongwe people of the Gabon estuary have been living at this outlet of the Remboue/Como River for centuries. Cartographers and historians of western equatorial Africa have been aware of their interactions with other regional African groups since the voyages of the Portuguese. The recording of oral tradition has preserved history well before the fifteenth century.

While ex-patriot traders had posts along the western coast for decades, the first to actually settle and build institutions in the estuary were from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). They had begun their work in Liberia, but came to the estuary in June, 1842, after the chief of the village of Glass sent a request, carried by a US ship captain. The ABCFM missionaries were mostly Congregationalists and Presbyterians, appropriately headquartered in Boston.

In the mid-1850s, Presbyterian missionaries began a complementary work on nearby Corisco Island. Reverend Doctor (MD) Robert Hamill Nassau arrived in 1861, and the ABCFM missionaries on the mainland continued to coordinate their work inter-denominationally. His sister, Isabella Ann Nassau, arrived in 1868. The missions associated with the ABCFM’s work extended from what is now southern Cameroun to the Ogowe River in what is now Gabon.

As denominationalism supplanted the interdenominational work of the ABCFM, Presbyterian structures prevailed as evidenced by renaming the West Africa Mission The Presbytery of Gaboon and Corisco. Thus, many of the session minutes of the church, and other rich archives, are held at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

As the French colonial presence became more powerful, the Berlin Conference in 1884/1885 partitioned what is now Gabon to France; what is now Equatorial Guinea to Spain and what is now Cameroun to Germany. After World War One, the German Kamerun was divided between France and Britain as a mandate under the League of Nations. All three countries became independent in the 1960s. Anyentyuwe’s life was mostly in the Gabon estuary, once dominated by the Mpongwe. As a governess for the newly born Mary Nassau, she traveled to the Ogowe River near present day Lambarene.

The story of Ekakise took place in today’s southwestern coastal Cameroun. The Benga people extended southward through coastal Equatorial Guinea into the Gabon estuary. The Benga and Mpongwe have been coastal neighbors for centuries.

R. H. Nassau’s depiction of French colonization of the Mpongwe, and of German rule among the Benga, has parallels with Chinua Achebe’s fictional account of the British arrival in Nigeria. In his Things Fall Apart, the timing is contemporary, and Achebe’s contrasting of the fictional Anglican missionaries, Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown mirrors the very real life situation among the Mpongwe and Benga where Robert and Isabella Nassau are the progressives (for their time) in theology and practice. Those who want to keep the negroes down are the conservatives, from the Nassaus’ viewpoint. As would be expected for that era, Achebe makes no mention of a Mrs. Smith nor of a Mrs. Brown.

Chandra Talpade Mohanty notes that Male violence (if that is indeed the appropriate label) must be theorized and interpreted within (emphasis hers) specific societies, both in order to understand it better, as well as in order to effectively organize and change it. Things Fall Apart provides a fictional paradigm incarnated in these very real Two Women. Osire Glacier questions the common belief that feminism is linked with western modernity noting that universal feminism is part of a lived experiences and perspectives in many places and times….formed around common issues and interests.¹

While Achebe’s Igbo{Ibo} of Nigeria are not a coastal people and the Mpongwe and Benga are; all three are known for their entrepreneurial expertise and their desire for education. The Igbo offer the missionaries their Evil Forest for their station while the Mpongwe offer their haunted and unwanted Baraka (from the Portuguese word for slave barracks) to the first missionaries from Boston (via Liberia) in 1842. This meant that the missionaries’ first task was the removal of the bones of slaves who had been waiting for ships for the horrific Atlantic passage.

Had Anyentyuwe not died of leprosy, she could have written a personal story similar to Achebe’s fiction without the assistance of the Nassaus. Moreover, both Two Women and Things Fall Apart raise the thorny issues of what should be kept and what should be discarded from traditional African practices; and who should make that decision? One hundred years later, we should also reflect on what happens after the missionaries and colonial servants leave.

As France became more dominant in Gabon, and required that all work be done in French, the number of missionaries from the USA decreased and were gradually replaced by those of the Paris Evangelical (Protestant) Mission Society (SMEP), whose headquarters remain at 102 Boulevard Arago in Paris. In this gradual transfer, some of the US missionaries moved northward to the then Spanish Guinea and the German Kameroun. In 2013, The Reformed Church of France and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France became the United Protestant Church of France. For a Euro-centric and Protestant medical mission account of Gabon before 1913, see Orthon Printz’s work, Avant Schweitzer. More recently, Caroline Fetscher’s article on Albert Schweitzer gives much credit to his predecessor, Dr. Nassau, but does not mention Isabella Nassau. She does note that Dr. Schweitzer seldom mentions, but sometimes footnotes, the important contributions of his wife, Helene Bresslau. ²

After the Civil War in the USA, the northern branch of the Presbyterians headquartered in New York City; the southern Presbyterians set up their offices in Nashville; but most archives are now at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia.

Very little has been written about Isabella Ann Nassau, though she plays a major role in the stories of Anyentyuwe and more so in the case of Ekakise. An extensive correspondence between her and her brother is archived at Colombia University’s Burke Library, New York City. Much has been written about the history of mission and about Robert Hamill Nassau; but this work relates primarily to Anyentyuwe and Ekakise. For a summary of R. H. Nassau’s life, philosophy of mission and his writings, see David Mandeng, Raymond Teeuwissen, Jon Cinnamon, Jeremy Rich and Henry H. Bucher, Jr. ³

This rendering of Two Women, follows R. H. Nassau’s own wording and spellings as closely as possible, even keeping his term polygamy when he is referring in all cases to polygyny. His manner of writing and his orthography and attitudes are key to understanding these two stories in the context of the late 1800s. The few editorial changes are in brackets. The plural of Mpongwe is Simpongwe, and the language is Evongwani but Mpongwe today is often used to mean either the language or the people in singular or plural.

Rather than marking Mpongwe and Benga names, places, and terms with the proper phonetic designations and accents, I have included an index for each story with the proper phonetic markings. The text, at present does not include accents in French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Acknowledgments

Three academic institutions are most responsible for this edition of Two Women: Lincoln University in Lincoln University, Pennsylvania; the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

While working on my thesis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the history of the Mpongwe of Gabon to 1860, I found many references to the estuary’s history after 1860, and several of them noted that R.H. Nassau’s typescript of Two Women was housed at Lincoln University. My first reading was thanks to a microfilm from the Presbyterian Historical Society in the 1970s that held many documents about, and by, Robert Hamill Nassau, including this work he did with his sister, Isabella Ann Nassau: Two Women.

A Richardson Grant from Austin College in 2003 allowed me to visit Lincoln University. The director of Langston Hughes Memorial Library, Emery Wimbish and librarian Sophy Cornwell graciously welcomed my wife and me as I perused the original typescript in their rare book room, along with some other originals left by R.H. Nassau. An independent archivist in the Philadelphia area, Susan Pevar, has also been very helpful in keeping me in touch with Lincoln University.

John West, Director of the George T. and Gladys H. Abell Library, Austin College, and his staff have been involved in giving advice as well as scanning the original Two Women from the microfilm noted above. My copy herein follows R. H. Nassau’s spelling and syntax as closely as possible since this provides insight into the thinking and style of the late nineteenth century. Austin College Institutional Technology’s Frank Williams and Carylos Anderson have diligently assisted in the audio and digital contributions to this project.

Austin College Humanities Division has been assisting me since I arrived in 1985, and my courses in African history have alluded to these and many other materials accumulated over the years. Most recently, former Dean of Humanities Dr. Bernice Melvin, followed by the present Dean, Dr. Patrick Duffey, have been very helpful and encouraging. The themes of this work are inter-related to not only many aspects of the humanities; but also to other disciplines. Divisional administrative assistants have contributed to this work; especially Gayle Bowers, and Lisa Foster.

I shall be referring to several scholars by citing their works; but special recognition goes to my major advisor for my thesis, Professor Jan Vansina, whose style I have followed in my works cited. In past meetings of the African Studies Association, I met with our self-styled Gabonologists: John Cinnamon, Jeremy Rich, Michael Reed, Penelope Campbell, Christopher Chamberlain, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, and David Gardinier. More recently several others, in Gabon and in France, have published on nineteenth century Gabon. Christopher Gray’s 1994 History in Africa article discusses who does research in Gabon, including significant research by Gabonese scholars.

At least two theses have utilized this unpublished Two Women in recent years. David Jon Mandeng’s doctoral thesis at Temple University in 1970 was The Philosophy of Mission of Robert Hamill Nassau in the Contemporary World. Raymond Woodrow Teeuwissen’s masters in theology at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary in 1973, Robert Hamill Nassau 1835-1921: Presbyterian Pioneer Missionary to Equatorial Africa was very helpful. Many thanks go to R. W. Teeuwissen’s wife, Claire, and their daughters, Suzanne Teeuwissen-Beha, and Anne-Marie Teeuwissen, who have provided some of the historic photographs for this project.

Some personal remarks are in order. I briefly met David Jon Mandeng in the 1950s, and later visited him in Rio Muni in the early 1960s. The late Gustavo B. Envela-Makongo at that time accompanied me by boat to Corisco Island. In the summer of 1962, I called on Mary Nassau, who was retired in Bay Head, New Jersey. She gave me some letters from her father, and some books and photos. Her mother, Mary Brunette Foster Nassau, died near Lambarene giving birth to Mary in 1884, which precipitated Nassau’s request for Anyentyuwe’s assistance.

In the 1960s, I called on Mrs. A. I. (Mary R.) Good, daughter-in-law of Rev. A. C. Good, a colleague of the Nassaus. Mrs. Good gave me the family copy of W. Reginald Wheeler’s book on West African mission which is my source for missionary names and dates of service. I have kept some correspondence with the Goods.

I had often met Ray W. Teeuwissen, and his wife, Claire, who were in service with the Presbyterian Church in the Cameroun. We discussed his work as it related to my interest in Mpongwe history. I have saved significant correspondence with him, and continue to stay in touch with his daughters as above noted.

Special recognition goes to Martha Smalley, Special Collections Librarian and Curator of the Day Missions Library at Yale Divinity School, and to Jacqueline Klassen for her suggestions, corrections of my work, and her organizing this work into a