The white man of god.

"The white man of god" ist eine der bekantesten Erzählungen aus dem Kameruner Graßland. Der folgende Auszug wurde von Friedemann Editiert.

 

Sunday afternoon, the afternoon beginning the celebration of the death of Fai Mission, Christians and pagans filled the palace and sat in groups dinking palm wine and firing guns. Children were given food to eat and they ran about shouting and making noise. When places became cooler, jujus of the palace thundered drum music from their respective compounds and the men moved away from the display arena. Children stopped playing and clustered together near houses because some of
 the jujus are not only frightful looking
 but also dangerous.  Then news went
 round that the jujus would dance up to
 the mission and back to their compound
 in the palace. Because the palace courtyard
was too full, the boys and girls and indeed
several other people decided to go and watch
 them when they came up to the Mission.
The Shigwalah, the feathered juju, came first.
 It is always the first juju to begin the mourning
ceremony. It danced here and there in Mission
 field and danced to the Fathers´ house.
 Big Father sat on his veranda and watched it. Then it danced back. Big Father forbade spectators to stoop or squat when the juju came near them but nobody listened to him. Several other jujus followed the Shigwalah and people enjoyed themselves watching them.
At about five o’clock the bell rang for rosary and Benediction but nobody budged from his place to go to church. Big Father put on his cassock and moved towards the church but it was the assistant catechist who had rung the bell not Pa Matiu. People would have gone to church but the fact that the bell rang just when one of the jujus, in fact the most dreaded juju of the land, was coming. It is also the juju that closes up mourning ceremonies. People wanted to see it before going for evening prayers, but Big Father said that it was time for evening prayers and everybody had to go into church. But it was not easy to get people to go into church before the juju had come and danced and gone, and so in his fury Big Father decided to stop the juju from coming into the Mission premises. However, it was too late for him to stop it and he met it dancing in the field and moving towards the Fathers´ house. The Kibarankoh is the blackest of all the jujus anti it has a very big head. It has only a big open mouth in the head, which serves as eyes for the man who is in it. As such it cannot see anything coming by its side.
Reputed to be the most dangerous juju of the land it is always restrained from rampaging by two strong ropes tied to its waist and held at the back by two other jujus. It carries two short clubs in its hands and no man goes near it. Whenever it is going to an place boys, and then men, run far ahead warning everybody of the approaching danger and so everybody runs away and hides himself. Big Father approached it from the side so that it did not see him everybody shouted as the juju danced from side to side towards the Fathers´ house and Big Father advanced towards it. The juju would have known that danger was approaching from the shouts of the people but people are always shouting when it is dancing. The closest people to it who could have given the warning were the two jujus who hold it in restraint but they were jujus and jujus do not talk. Everybody held his breath as Big Father got closer to it and it had still not seen him. He gave it a kick an the bottom and everybody, especially the women, escaped into the bush and screamed.
Did any of them see Big Father kick the biggest juju of the land?
No, nobody could see a thing like that because seeing it could mean a curse on him that saw it. One of the men in the juju group that warns the public of approaching danger raised and alarm that darkness had fallen upon the tribe at midday and everybody should mind himself, for it was man that ran away from danger never danger from man.

The alarm had the desired effect and everybody disappeared from sight in a moment. Even those who were in the open field ran into the bush and fell down and closed their eyes. Big Father kicked and kicked the Kibarnakoh and when it turned round to him he pushed off its big mask and the got the shock of his life. Face to face with the juju he could not believe his eyes.

“Mathew!”
“Father”
“Mathew!”
“Father”
Then he collapsed on the spot. The juju put on his mask and ran back to the palace wilder than ever. Did People witness this event? No, nobody did. Nobody witnesses such an abomination. The juju is the land and nothing other than that. Not even the Fon that is the ruler of the land can joke with it or touch it. It is not a human being. It is a juju, a dreadful one for that matter.