TRANSCRIPTION MACHINES AND SPEAKING TRUMPETS

Before Brother Brown was put out of the country at the time of his brief visit in 1938, he was able to leave three transcription machines and sets of phonograph sermons with Brothers A. W. Osei and J. B. Commey. With this new equipment the brothers could reach many towns and talk to great multitudes at a time.

At the close of the 1930’s there were only three transcription machines in the country. So the brothers devised something for themselves. They cut and soldered sheets of tin or any metal of that sort into large funnels, which served them as speaking trumpets. These the brothers called “horns” or megaphones and used them in addressing large crowds in the villages and towns. About the device, Brother K. Gyasi, who had a lot of experience in its use, says: “It was very effective in reaching for distance and happened to be the most powerful loudspeaker for us in those days.”

Wherever the speaking trumpets went, people rushed out of their homes, even leaving their meals half eaten, to hear the Word of God from the “curious horn.” With it the brothers were able to open up the work and start congregations and groups in much of the then unassigned territory. It helped the brothers, too, in that the many interesting and sometimes violent experiences strengthened their zeal and faith. Brother Anaman remembers the following:

Sometime in 1943, when his father had retired from the service of the Presbyterian Church and was at Kwanyaku, his hometown, he decided to pay him a visit. He sent messages to J. O. Blankson and E. K. Paning to join him there to work that territory.

One morning at about 5 a.m. these three brothers took the megaphone and went to the border dividing the so-called Christian quarters or “Salem” from the rest of the town and started shooting a lecture into the air. “Salem” became agitated. Opanin Birikuran, presbyter of the Presbyterian Church, and the Presbyterian schoolmaster came out of their homes. The presbyter pounced on Brother Anaman and seized the megaphone.

“You are not allowed to preach here,” he said.

“Why?” Anaman demanded.

“This territory belongs to me. You go to the heathens.”

Anaman turned to the schoolmaster and asked, in English: “What was wrong with what I was saying?”

“It was indeed an intelligent exposition of the Bible,” the man replied.

“Why, then, should you prevent us from preaching?”

The presbyter, who did not know any English, cut in and said: “I say you get out of here! You have no right to speak here. This territory is mine!”

“Do you own the people in it as well?”

“Yes, they are my sheep. You move away!”

Brother Blankson came in and explained that in such circumstances Jesus’ instruction to “shake off the dust” of their feet was appropriate. “Here we are, then, shaking off the dust of our feet. We go to the heathens. But, know you today that on the judgment day it will be worse for you than for Sodom and Gomorrah!” With that they went to the heathen side of town.

The experience left the presbyter in the grip of a morbid sort of fear. At sunrise he went to Brother Anaman’s father and protested to him, saying that Anaman’s son and his companions had cursed him and that they ought to be made to remove the curse. The retired clergyman rebuked the presbyter for hindering the preaching of God’s Word. By some strange coincidence, the presbyter died, suddenly, the next morning. Brother Anaman reports that “great fear fell on the people and doors began to be freely open to us.”