‘Christian Africa—Pagan America’

● There used to be a time when Americans viewed virtually all the Africans as pagans. Apparently the time has come for the Africans to view the Americans as pagans. According to preacher Roger Coon, a “Christian Africa” may be sending missionaries soon to convert a “pagan America.” Said preacher Coon as he boarded a steamer in Portland, Maine, to return to Nigeria: “Much of the grotesquely huge jewelry hanging from the ears, necks and wrists of so many sophisticated American women surpasses the adornment of African pagans.” Some of the rhythms blared out of jukeboxes, he added, seem adaptations of the nervous beat of jungle drums. “I believe,” declared cleric Coon, “the average West Africa schoolboy knows more about the Bible than does his counterpart in America.”—Aberdeen, Scotland, Evening Express, October 13, 1955.