• Is Unity Possible Among All Ethnic Groups?
    The Watchtower—1971 | February 15

    • DAKAR, SENEGAL

      In order to cover the ten assemblies to be visited the travelers took different itineraries, some visiting one assembly and some another. Dakar, Senegal, situated on the westernmost point of Africa’s great bulge into the Atlantic Ocean, was first.

      Arriving in Dakar, the tourists were warmly greeted at the early hour of 7:30 in the morning by a large delegation of local Witnesses, assisting them through customs and whisking their luggage onto waiting buses. Some were accommodated near the main hotel in quaint conical-shaped huts after the Senegalese fashion, to get the real feeling of a visit to Africa.

      The four-day assembly, opening on December 1, was held at La Maison des Jeunes, or Youth Building. Though the exterior of the building was very attractive, the interior had fallen into a state of disrepair. But the Senegalese Witnesses got to work ahead of time with buckets of water and soap. At no cost to the hall owners they used nearly one hundred gallons of paint, replaced light bulbs, repaired and replaced doors, unblocked sewers and provided water facilities. After 1,200 man-hours of hard work everything was ready, including a fine platform with scenic backdrop. Surely the visitors from Western shores never had anything cleaner or more comfortable for a meeting place.

      In this country of about four million people, 80 percent of whom are Moslem, 178 of Jehovah’s witnesses carry on their preaching activity. The assembly was not advertised, but was in the nature of a private gathering. The peak attendance was 325. Both the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, N. H. Knorr, and the vice-president, F. W. Franz, appeared several times on the program, speaking through interpreters.

      AUDITORIUM DIRECTOR COMMENTS

      What did the delegates from the American continent observe here as to the question of unity among people of various races and languages? Perhaps it is reflected in the remarks made by the director of La Maison des Jeunes. Commenting on the cooperation and discipline displayed, he asked: “Please, tell me how you do it?” When it was explained that it is not achieved by making an announcement over the public-address system but is a way of life learned through a study of the Bible and practiced in everyday life, he asked to receive subscriptions for the Watchtower and Awake! magazines and wanted a copy of all the Watch Tower publications placed in the Youth Building’s library. In parting he concluded: “I never realized that you have such a serious organization with such high standards of cleanliness and orderliness. And you are always in such a happy frame of mind; it is obvious you have a very noble purpose.”

      One of the Senegalese convention delegates exclaimed, as the visitors’ plane took off for the next assembly point: “I did not speak English, so I hesitated to go and talk with them, but how surprised and happy I was when they came to me and greeted me warmly when they first arrived and then said good-bye before they left. I felt loved so much. Jehovah’s people in other parts of the world are truly my brothers and sisters.”