The Church at Ako’akas, Cameroon

 

This is the "Rocher d'Ako'akas" in the South Province of Cameroon. "Rocher" is a French word for a rock that makes itself conspicuous, which this one certainly does--except that it can only be seen by traveling many miles down a dirt lane that snakes through the rainforests toward the Gabonese border. "Ako'akas"? That's the name of the nearest village, and it too basically just means "rock" in Bulu (a.k.a. "Fang"), which is the local language. So in translation, this place is "Rock Rock." 

My most recent visit to Ako'akas was a little over a year ago, but I wanted to get my photos and memories of the church here all in one spot. My love of sacred architecture and my attachment to this place are such that I want to be able to pull it up from time to time and look at it, remember it, revisit it in my heart.

There is a Cameroonian Presbyterian pastor--Rev. Medjo Philippe--buried under the floor of this church, which he had constructed on his own property in his native village. Pastor Medjo welcomed me to Cameroon back in the mid-1990s, where he was briefly the principal of the private school that I ended up serving for 5 years.

The whole church is a monument to his memory, and it's a classic example of Protestant ecclesiastical architecture in that area: simple but elegant, spacious and clean but made of dirt, flooded with natural light but nowhere is the light direct.

Madame Medjo, the pastor's widow, asked me to do a brief ceremony in his memory, for which she sang those traditional old Bulu hymns, dancing all the while, and the local fieldhands came in from their labor to sing along. In this photo, you can see that construction on the church is not yet completed, though it's close. The windows on either side of the main entrance are boarded and incomplete; the walls need to be plastered and whitewashed. Many--maybe even MOST--Cameroonian churches are never completed, and they are heavily used all the same. It puts me in mind of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, which has been under construction since 1892 and is likewise incomplete, with scaffolding all over the exterior. But imagine this space with its decorative cinderblock windows and its walls all smooth and white. It would have a very uniquely sacred feel about it. I'm toying with the idea of financing its completion...

Here's a spontaneous thing that happened inside the church at the end of our ceremony of remembrance for Pastor Medjo... 

PS: The Bulu words on the chancel wall are found in most churches of the Église Presbytérienne Camerounaise. It's a quote from the minor prophet Habakkuk that says: "Holy, Holy, Holy. The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." It's nice that Habakkuk gets some airplay somewhere in this world. However, the word "etyi," in Bulu, can mean either "holy" or "off-limits." And so, many people interpret it to mean that the chancel is forbidden for anyone except pastors, elders, and deacons. It's interesting because the word "holy" actually doesn't mean "morally pure"--which is how it's usually heard in English. Instead, it means "set-apart," "consecrated," or "other than ordinary." The Bulu word actually comes closer to its real meaning.