![]() ![]() Two days later, I received through the mail my first copy of The Watchtower in French. I prayed to Jehovah that he help me to serve him. I made a pile out of them and doused them with plenty of paraffin and burned them. So I collected together all my Catholic books, booklets, magazines and even some Gramophone records of hymn-singing. “After the expulsion of the brothers,” Emmanuel wrote, “I came to realize the role that the Catholic Church had played in the matter. Brother Dinga corrected it and sent more questions. So as soon as Brother Dinga arrived in Abidjan, he sent the first list of questions, which Emmanuel answered and returned. It was arranged to continue their study by correspondence. Under the influence of the clergy, the officials expelled them from the country because, as they said, “the government does not like Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religion in Upper Volta.”īefore Brother Dinga left by train, Emmanuel was able to contact him. Thus, in February 1964, all the publishers were arrested and detained for 13 days without food. The Roman Catholic clergy misrepresented the Witnesses before the authorities and published papers against the Christian work they were doing. They came to see me many times, apart from the regular Bible study we had.” But then the brothers were arrested. Why, they even said that they had never studied with anyone who showed such interest. “I tried always to be ready for the study,” explains Emmanuel. Then one day they were visiting his house! Brother and Sister Dinga showed him how to study the book, and started a regular Bible study. The more he read, the more he wanted to meet the people who were distributing these books. One of the books was From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained. “They have other nice ones too,” he added. They’re not expensive.” He went on to explain that he had bought them from some people who had recently come to town. One day in 1963 a friend visited him, throwing down two books and saying, “They’re yours, you book-worshiper. Some of it was like seed sown on fertile ground.Įmmanuel Johnson, a Togolese resident of Upper Volta, was working as a medical assistant for a large company in Ouagadougou. ![]() They took a small supply of literature with them and soon distributed it among the people. They sought employment here so that they could serve where the need is indeed great. The preaching work was opened up when seven brothers, originally from Togo, Benin and Congo-Brazzaville, moved to Ouagadougou. Only recently, in June 1963, did Jehovah’s Witnesses first become active in the country of Upper Volta. Most of the population is animist in religion, attaching great importance to ancestor worship. About 5 percent of the people are nominal Catholics, while only a few are Protestants. French, however, is the official language, although Dyula is the language of commerce.Ĭhristendom’s religions have not been as active in this more remote area as they have in the Ivory Coast. Now about half Upper Volta’s population are Mossi, and they speak the Moré language. From the 12th century onward they developed a powerful organization and supplanted the earlier inhabitants, the Nyonyose and the Gurunsi. Other principal towns are Bobo-Dioulasso, Koudougou and Ouahigouya.įor centuries the Mossi people dominated the area. The capital, Ouagadougou, is the largest city, with a population of over 100,000. Most of them make their living by farming and raising cattle. ![]() It is estimated that over 10 percent of the Voltaic people work in neighboring Ivory Coast.Ībout 95 percent of the people in Upper Volta live in some 7,000 villages. The population is proportionately less, there being some 6,000,000 inhabitants. Upper Volta is somewhat smaller than the Ivory Coast, having about 106,000 square miles (274,000 km 2). Upper Volta is landlocked, being bordered to the south by Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin, and to the west, north and east by Mali and Niger. The country is a vast inland plateau-from about 650 feet (200 m) to more than 2,300 feet (700 m) above sea level-and is covered for the most part by wooded grassland. Most of the country is watered by the upper tributaries of the Volta River, hence the name Upper Volta. ![]() In 1960 the country gained its independence after being governed by France for over 60 years. Upper Volta was also one of the eight territories in West Africa that formed the federation called French West Africa. ![]()
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