COMMENTARY: Why are Baptist leaders in Cameroon nothing like their American counterparts?

By Hans Ngala

As the Anglophone Conflict (not Crisis, since it long passed that stage), drags on, one group that is alarmingly silent on the Conflict is Baptist leaders. The Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) which is Cameroon’s largest Baptist denomination and a member church of the umbrella body, the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) headquartered in the United States – has preferred not to take a vocal stance on the conflict.
This is in stark contrast to Baptists in the US who are known for being vocal on matters of public interest be it civil rights, politics or just other basic rights. The most notable Baptist leader who is perhaps famous even to non-Christians, is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. King is famous for using his Christian faith to influence the demand for civil rights for African-Americans.
Dr. King’s daughter, also an ordained minister, has also since taken after her father, being a vocal critic of contemporary injustices still facing African-Americans and has also been quite critical of some of Donald Trump’s policies towards African-Americans and immigrants.
Other Baptist leaders in the US who are vocal on issues outside of the church are the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson was a firm supporter of the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa at a time when successive US governments at the time, were overtly supporting the racist policies in South Africa. Reverend Jackson, an ordained Baptist minister also later ran for president in the 1988 elections but lost. His decision to run for office would have raised eyebrows among Baptists in Cameroon if he’d done that in Cameroon.
Finally, a more active Baptist leader who is involved in social and racial justice and other non-religious issues, is the Reverend Al Sharpton. Reverend Sharpton has been quite critical of Donald Trump as well as police brutality towards African-Americans. He famously delivered the sermon at George Floyd’s funeral after a police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck and killed him. Sharpton has led protests against police brutality in many other police-related killings.

So Why are Baptist Leaders in Cameroon Silent on Issues of National Interest?

A number of factors could account for this, with the first one being President Paul Biya’s almost complete and authoritarian grip on power. In contrast with the US where freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution and people can criticize their leaders, criticism towards Paul Biya is treated almost as a treasonous act. Given that Biya has used every trick in the book to cling to power, his name is almost synonymous with Cameroon to the point where he is in charge of pretty much everything, a stark contrast with the US where there are checks and balances to ensure that the president does not have absolute power over government as is the case with Cameroon.
Given the absolute power that Biya wields over every sphere of Cameroonian life (including churches), it makes it hard for Baptist leaders to openly condemn some of his excesses or failures, without risking jail time.
Also, Baptists in Cameroon tend to prefer focusing on evangelism and other endeavours such as education and health, rather than commenting on political and social issues. However, given that the church is supposed to be the moral conscience of society, this silence is not helpful given the difficult times that Cameroon is going through.
Even in 2018 when a partner missionary of the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) was killed in Bamenda, Baptist leaders towed a tepid line, avoiding any commentary on the issue altogether.
While Baptists were the first Christians to set foot in Cameroon, Germany’s defeat in the First World War meant that they handed most of the work they had started, to the Presbyterian-led Basel Mission and that made Baptist numbers to dwindle significantly. As a result, Baptists today do not have the numeric strength of (for example) the Catholics and so any overt condemnation or criticism of the Biya regime which is known for its repression of critics, would be met with swift brutality. With this understanding, Baptist leaders prefer to steer clear of political commentary that may jeopardize their safety.