Cameroon
The Land and the
People
Cameroon’s oil resources and agricultural potential give it one of the best commodity economies in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it still contends with many of the typical problems of underdeveloped nations.
The earliest known inhabitants of Cameroon were the Pygmies, who still live in the south and east. Bantu speakers from central Africa came later, and in the 1700s, an Islamic people called the Fulani conquered most of northern Cameroon.
Religion
Forty percent of Cameroonians practice traditional African religions, and another forty percent claim adherence to Christianity. Most of the latter live in the southern part of the country, while Islam dominates the northern section and poses stiff resistance to the spread of Christianity.
Past and Current
Work
Two BMM missionaries who were displaced from the Ivory Coast by the country’s civil war surveyed Cameroon in 2004. They found no other fundamental Baptist churches in Yaounde, the country’s capital, and determined there were virtually unlimited church-planting opportunities there. One of the missionaries, Steve Gault, plans to return with his wife Beth and their family to pioneer a work in Yaounde. In 2005, Dan and Karis Seely joined Baptist Mid-Missions. The Seelys had served short-term in Cameroon during college and plan to join the Gaults as the nucleus of our church-planting team.
Goals
Our missionary team will initially target urban areas for church planting. They hope to complement church planting with a university ministry and eventually radio ministry, camping ministry, and theological education.
Workers will need to know both French and English.