Equal Opportunity
The sin nature is definitely an equal opportunity employer. It afflicts the pastor just as much as the carpenter, the missionary just as much as the music teacher, the mentor just as much as the mentee...and the Westerner just as much as the Cameroonian, the Cameroonian just as much as the Westerner. This is a truth I have encountered over and over again in our time here.
If you were asked to identify, in a single word, the defining feature of secular American culture, what would you say? There are obviously ample wonderful and positive aspects of the culture, just as there are endless negative characteristics as well. But is there something you might say is a central, driving force behind much of the attitudes and actions of citizens? A few possibilities that come off the top of my head are “greed” or “materialism” or “self” or “pleasure.”
Someone here once suggested that an answer to that same question for Cameroonian culture would be “jealousy.” Jealousy? It was an answer that surprised me, but one that helps explain many things that have puzzled me about relationships here.
One might easily expect that jealousy could mark the attitude of a poverty stricken Cameroonian toward a wealthy Westerner. But jealousy is most prominent as a central feature of relationships between Cameroonians themselves! The source of this is hard to discern—a remnant of colonialism? a heritage of tribalism? Whatever the origin, it is epidemic.
Even within families and between otherwise solid friends, there is nonetheless a deep-seated mistrust or even ill-will regarding material prosperity of another. Yet a concurrent fact is that there is great shame in withholding help from anyone in need (e.g., medical expenses for a sick neighbor.) The solution is that any discretionary financial resources are hidden or quickly invested in house or property. For example, if a man accumulates anything beyond subsistence wages, he might immediately purchase and install the next 10 concrete blocks on his partially-constructed house. That way his wallet is empty and he is legitimately unable to offer monetary assistance to others. Of course this also means that we he himself is in need he has no capacity to pay his own acute costs—and thus he is forced to ask for his family’s or neighbor’s assistance himself.
Particularly disturbing is the suspicion this fosters between one another. The man in whose home I lead a Bible study tried hard to get his extended family to attend. He wants them to encounter the scriptures deeply; he even paid their taxi fare each week so they could attend! Even so, after a few weeks they refused to come any more, insisting (behind the scenes to him, not to me) that he was forging a relationship with a wealthy man to his own benefit and not to theirs.
Another example can be seen in RFIS’s efforts to reach out to parents of Cameroonian students. (Missionary kid parents are typically quite involved in attendance and assistance with school events, but this is often much less the case with nationals.) The school approached some of the current Cameroonian parents who are involved and discussed the possibility of parent-to-parent reaching out and encouraging participation or perhaps even a bit of recruiting. The consistent answer was that it would never work—the parents revealed that any positive word passed along about their or their children’s experience at RFIS would be taken as having ulterior motives, that the parents must be “in the pocket” of wealthy people and getting some kind of kickback that others wouldn’t receive.
Of course there a many Cameroonians—notably those deeply committed to Christ—for whom none of this applies. And of course we Westerners do well to quickly remember our own culture’s prominent failing(s) too. In the midst of all this, we are reminded of the urgency of the Gospel’s life-transforming message. It also makes us treasure as special and blessed the wonderful relationships that we have with a number Cameroonian brothers and sisters.
