• Part 2—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the Earth
    Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom

    • Spiritual Light Shines in West Africa

      About seven years after a Bible Student from Barbados first went to West Africa under a work contract, he wrote to the Watch Tower Society’s office in New York to inform them that quite a few people were showing interest in the Bible. A few months later, on April 14, 1923, at Brother Rutherford’s invitation, W. R. Brown, who had been serving in Trinidad, arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with his family.

      Promptly, arrangements were made for Brother Brown to give a discourse in the Wilberforce Memorial Hall. On April 19, there was an audience of some 500 in attendance, including most of the clergy of Freetown. The following Sunday he spoke again. His subject was one that C. T. Russell had often used—“To Hell and Back. Who Are There?” Brother Brown’s discourses were regularly punctuated with Scripture quotations made visible to the audience by means of lantern slides. As he spoke, he would repeatedly say: “Not Brown says, but the Bible says.” Because of this, he came to be known as “Bible Brown.” And as a result of his logical, Scriptural presentation, some prominent church members resigned and took up Jehovah’s service.

      He traveled extensively to get the Kingdom work started in additional areas. To that end he delivered numerous Bible lectures and distributed large amounts of literature, and he encouraged others to do the same. His evangelizing took him into Gold Coast (now Ghana), Liberia, The Gambia, and Nigeria. From Nigeria others carried the Kingdom message into Benin (then known as Dahomey) and Cameroon. Brother Brown knew that the public had little regard for what they called “the white man’s religion,” so at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos, he spoke on the failure of Christendom’s religion. After the meeting the enthusiastic audience obtained 3,900 books to read and to share with others.

      When Brother Brown first went to West Africa, only a handful of persons there had heard the Kingdom message. When he left 27 years later, well over 11,000 were active Witnesses of Jehovah in that area. Religious falsehoods were being laid bare; true worship had taken root and was spreading rapidly.