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Out in Africa

Mack McCarter ’67 (MDiv ’71) and three others spent a week in Cameroon establishing Africa Community Renewal.

Out in Africa

Mack McCarter ’67 (MDiv ’71) and three others spent a week in Cameroon establishing Africa Community Renewal.

chief MackLast spring, Mack McCarter ’67 (MDiv ’71) and three others spent a week in Cameroon sharing their vision and establishing Africa Community Renewal. One village member, Valentin Miafo-Donfack, who interned with SBCR while working on a master’s degree in non-profit administration at Centenary College in Shreveport, had excitedly talked to his chief about this American program that could help his people too. An invitation was issued.

During the trip to Africa, McCarter was designated by five chiefs, leaders of smaller tribes within the Bamileke Tribe as an official African American and honorary chief; a brother. More important, while there, the groundwork for Africa Community Renewal was laid.

Last August, the first We Care pins were awarded personally by the chiefs. But not to just anyone. Potential Renewal Team members need to find two others who will vouch for them as caring individuals. It’s an adaptation of the program Chief Fossokeng Solefack II Simon, of the Batseng’la tribe, said suits their particular needs.

“It is important that you be very conscious of what you are doing,” he said. “Just giving you a button won’t make a difference if you don’t understand the significance.”

Valentin Miafo-Donfack, the U.S. director of Africa Community Renewal, said that his people are now focused on what is good for the community, not what divides them. As they sign up the Renewal Team and begin to train Haven House leaders, they have a common goal in sight: A friendship house in their midst. “That way if someone wants to come to Africa to help, there is a place to come,” he said.

Isolated in a remote corner of the country, most in this community of subsistence farmers live in mud brick homes. Water comes from creeks. What electricity they get is sporadic. The young have to leave the womb of the village to find education and jobs. They see community renewal as the foundation to solving all these problems, Miafo-Donfack said.

“The important thing is the idea of community mobilization,” Miafo-Donfack said. “Bringing everyone together around a project is more powerful than just one group or one person doing something in one area. The community coming together as one person is a more powerful way of doing things.”

For information on the Bamileke: www.lafaba-dfw.org.

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