• Ivory Coast
    1981 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Interestingly, one of them, Samuel Denoo, was the friend in whose office Robert Markin had seen a copy of “Let God Be True.” And it was Samuel that directed Robert to Brother Paterson, resulting in Robert becoming the first disciple in the Ivory Coast.

      Well, Samuel Denoo was one of the executive members of the local Methodist Church. He and the president of the Bible class group, Emmanuel Kwaku Glago, invited Brother Paterson to speak to the church group. His talk was well received and Bible studies were started with many of the group, including Mr. Denoo and Mr. Glago.

      These two local pillars of the church soon came along in the truth, but not without opposition. They were summoned by the Methodist Church pastors to explain why they had abandoned their former church and joined Jehovah’s Witnesses. Samuel Denoo explained:

      “You know very well that I had more than one wife. Yet you appointed me one of the advisers of the church and a member of the executive committee. Jehovah’s Witnesses would not baptize me until I had brought my life into harmony with the Scriptures. By the help of Jehovah’s Witnesses I have come to know who Jehovah is and how to worship him.”

      Emmanuel Glago emphasized basic differences between the Methodist Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses. “In your church the layman worships and obeys the clergy rather than God,” he said. “Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have no clergy-laity distinctions, worship and obey Jehovah God by preaching and teaching the good news of the Kingdom as His servants.”

      One of the clergy responded that the two of them could come back and they would be allowed to preach in church. But Emmanuel answered: “What am I going to preach? Is it not the same old stuff​—immortality of the human soul, a fiery hell after death, the ‘mysterious’ Trinity, and so forth? No, I do not want it. I have come to the conclusion from the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses that these doctrines of the Church are false and drawn from paganism.”

      The discussion continued for more than two hours, but the pastors left without having regained their members. Samuel Denoo soon thereafter volunteered his home as a Kingdom Hall. In time it became the home for most of the missionaries who were assigned to Ivory Coast.