Joseph Merrick (missionary)
Encyclopedia
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
who, assisted by Joseph Jackson Fuller
Joseph Jackson Fuller
The Rev. Joseph Jackson Fuller , Baptist missionary to the pre-colonial African Chiefdoms of the Cameroons was one of the earliest slaves to be freed in Jamaica who went on to become well-educated and travel internationally...
, established the first successful mission
Mission (station)
A religious mission or mission station is a location for missionary work.While primarily a Christian term, the concept of the religious "mission" is also used prominently by the Church of Scientology and their Scientology Missions International....
on the Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
coast of Africa. Merrick began preaching in 1837 in Jamaica and was ordained a full missionary in 1838. In 1842, Reverend John Clarke and Dr. G. K. Prince, members of the Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist Missionary Society
rightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, were seeking Jamaican lay missionaries to join them on an expedition to the Cameroon coast. Merrick signed on. The party reached England on 8 September 1842, and arrived at Spanish-controlled Santa Isabel
Malabo
Malabo is the capital of Equatorial Guinea, located on the northern coast of Bioko Island on the rim of a sunken volcano....
on the island of Fernando Po
Bioko
Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...
in 1843.
The following year, 1844, Merrick visited Bimbia
Bimbia
Bimbia was an independent state of Isubu people of Cameroon, in 1884 annexed by the Germans and incorporated in the colony of Kamerun.It lies in Southwest Region, to the south of Mount Cameroon and to the west of the Wouri estuary.-Origins:...
and spoke to King William
William I of Bimbia
William I of Bimbia, born Bile, was the chief and king of the Isubu ethnic group, who lived in Bimbia on the coast of Cameroon in the mid-to-late 19th century. British traders recognised the sovereignty of William's Bimbia and titled him "king". William sold land to the British missionary Alfred...
of the Isubu
Isubu
The Isubu are an ethnic group who inhabit part of the coast of Cameroon. Along with other coastal peoples, they belong to Cameroon's Sawa ethnic groups. They were one of the earliest Cameroonian peoples to make contact with Europeans, and over two centuries, they became influential traders and...
people to request permission to establish a church on the mainland. Despite some initial resistance, the king acquiesced. Merrick founded the Jubilee Mission in 1844/5, and over the next four to five years, translated parts of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
into the Isubu language, set up a brick-making machine and a printing press, and used the latter to publish his Bible translation and a textbook for teaching in Isubu. Merrick made excursions into the interior, as when he climbed Mount Cameroon
Mount Cameroon
Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ....
and when he became the first non-African to visit the Bakoko people.
In 1849, Merrick was in ill health. He set off for England on furlough, and on 22 October, he died at sea. On Merrick's death, Joseph Jackson Fuller
Joseph Jackson Fuller
The Rev. Joseph Jackson Fuller , Baptist missionary to the pre-colonial African Chiefdoms of the Cameroons was one of the earliest slaves to be freed in Jamaica who went on to become well-educated and travel internationally...
took charge of the mission station and congregation at Bimbia. Merrick's efforts also paved the way for Alfred Saker
Alfred Saker
Alfred Saker was a British missionary who founded the Cameroon city of Victoria, now Limbé , in 1858.He translated the Bible into Duala between 1862 and 1872....
to make further progress - he made use of Merrick's printing press to translate and print the Bible in Duala
Duala language
Duala is the language spoken by the Duala people of Cameroon. The language belonges to the Bantu language family, and a subgroup of it called the Duala languages...
. Joseph Merrick Baptist College in Ndu
Ndu
-References:* * - Thèse de Donation Avele, Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV * Charles Nanga, , Mémoire ENA....
, Northwest Province, Cameroon, is named for him.