On The Content Of Krapf's Reference For Ruufoo

Rehabilitation ministry at Maienbühl

Maienbühl is a wooded piece of land on the border with Germany, just under an hour’s walk from St. Chrischona. In addition to the Bible students, St Chrischona originally also took in young men who were having a difficult time in life due to alcohol addiction etc. As the number of Bible students increased, the rehabilitation ministry was transferred to a farm called Pilgerhütte [pilgrims’ hut] in 1855, where the mostly young men were to be accustomed to regular physical labour and gain inner strength through Christianity. The budget for this ministry was low, so the accommodation was anything but comfortable.

The Christoffels at Maienbühl until early 1868

Mr and Mrs Christoffel were the house parents at Maienbühl from 1858 to 1868. Christoffel had joined the temperance movement in the US and abstained from all alcoholic beverages after his return to Switzerland. Christoffel left Maienbühl in 1868, as he (and many others) saw no good future for the heavily indebted institutions founded by Spittler after the mission patriarch had become weak and died in December 1867.

After Christoffel’s departure in 1868, the St Chrischona students Chr. Stamm and Wend. Dreher temporarily managed the house at Maienbühl. In July 1869, Wilhelm Ostertag (a former missionary in Egypt) was appointed official leader.

It appears that Ruufoo was with Christoffel in Maienbühl from March to April 1867 at most.

Physical punishment only common for children

It is uncertain whether Christoffel smacked his apprentices. However, it is likely that there were occasional physical altercations between the protégés themselves.

Aregawi mentions in his CV that “in the Pilgerhütte [perhaps there is a confusion with the Pilgerhaus in Weinheim], things didn’t go well at first”, but that after a quarter of a year he liked everyone in the house, especially the house parents.

In the 19th century, it was common for educators to physically punish children until they reached puberty. Many saw the corporal punishment of children as biblically justified (cf. Proverbs 13:24). However, when Ruufoo moved from Korntal to Switzerland, he was already about nineteen years and had outgrown childhood.

Poisonous pedagogy?

According to the Pietists, Christians are people who, through their conversion, have chosen to submit their lives to God’s rule. True believers, who are Christians in more than name, have attained an advanced level of holiness; that is, they live their lives contrary to the sinful goals and desires of the world.

These views tie in with biblical statements but lead us astray if we resort to a self-centred approach. The death of the old self and the emergence of a Christian identity occurs through baptism. While becoming holy certainly does not exclude human will, it is far more than self-optimisation, as it takes place by God’s grace and the power of His Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the second Adam and actual image of God, showed us that holiness does not equal self-centred moralism. Rather, holiness matures in following Christ together with others who expect all good from God, listen to the Holy Scriptures, desire Christ’s presence in Holy Communion, care for those in need, promote life and speak truth in love.

It makes a fundamental difference whether a person submits to God voluntarily or whether someone else wants to force them to do so:

Talking about the necessity of a broken will runs the risk of leaving vulnerable people at the mercy of abusive people. In earlier decades, ‘poisonous pedagogy’ caused terrible harm to adolescents in both state and religious institutions. Spittler was probably repelled by Krapf’s suggestion to have Ruufoo’s will broken by beating. Spittler was involved in the founding of a school for poor children and a teachers training institute near Basel that advocated treating pupils with much empathy and respect (see publications by its headmaster, Christian Heinrich Zeller).

Krapf’s irritating suggestions about how to treat Ruufoo may be autobiographically coloured. He himself was badly beaten up as a schoolboy. In retrospect, Krapf regarded his faith journey as a youth and even as a student at the Basel Mission Seminary as a time of error and confusion. For details, see Travels, Chapter 1.

Ransom paid by the Bible Society

The testimony mentions the amount of money spent on Ruufoo’s ransom and his travel to Germany. However, it fails to clarify that the expenses were finally covered by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Since Krapf talks about Ruufoo’s ungrateful behaviour in Korntal, readers are inclined to believe that Krapf paid all these expenses out of his own pocket.

The behaviour of missionary Bühler also seems odd, as he apparently did not consider it necessary to pay back the considerable amount of money he had borrowed from Ruufoo.

Unsuitable for translation work?

The reference states that Ruufoo’s translation work was rather weak.

This judgement is in tension with Krapf’s statement that Zännäb’s highly esteemed translation was very much in line with Ruufoo’s (see Krapf’s letter to BFBS, 1868.10.29). The criticism in the testimony also differs from the report in the letter to Jäger (1867.02.23) that Krapf was much more satisfied with Ruufoo’s translation performance than at the beginning.

Krapf did not give any specific examples of Ruufoo’s allegedly poor translation performance. Instead, Krapf criticises Ruufoo’s life story. As he had been taken away from his homeland as a child, it must be assumed that he had forgotten much of his native tongue.

Looking for another translator

In Krapf’s view, Eipperle’s choice of Ruufoo as an Oromo translation assistant was unsatisfactory. However, he could not blame Eipperle, who was a missionary in Arabic-speaking areas, because he understood little Amharic and no Oromo.

It appears that Krapf turned to Johannes Mayer, an experienced missionary who knew some Oromo, to find him a “more capable” assistant with whom Krapf could carry out the remaining Bible translation work. Gobaw Desta recalled that after the fall of Maqdala, he was only Mayer’s second choice to accompany him to Jerusalem in 1868:

“When Mr. Mayer and the other Europeans had to leave Abyssinia, then Mr. Mayer wanted to take with him a [Oromo] boy, but he fled, so he took me instead and brought me from Abyssinia to this place” (Gobaw Desta, Curriculum Vitae; emphasis added).

Krapf finally received the help he wanted from aläqa Zännäb. At missionary Flad’s request, he had written an Oromo translation of the four Gospels and sent it to Krapf in the summer of 1868. Zännäb sent Krapf the translations of other biblical books. However, the Old Testament in Oromo remained incomplete since Zännäb died in 1876.

Dealing with vulnerability

In December 1868, Krapf reported to Jäger in Chrischona that Ruufoo had written him and asked for forgiveness for his offence. It is not specified how Rufoo insulted Krapf.

According to Krapf’s reference, Ruufoo badmouthed other classmates from his confirmation class and considered himself indispensable for the mission among the Oromo. Krapf didn’t like this and made an effort to to put the as yet unbaptised Ruufoo in his place.

One of Krapf’s weaknesses, in Ruufoo’s eyes, was that he had to rely on the help of native Oromo speakers to translate the Bible into this language. In tense situations, Ruufoo may have addressed Krapf’s limitations regarding the translation of the Bible.

The reference for Ruufoo not only makes statements about this teenager, but also sheds some light on the almost 60 years old J. Ludwig Krapf. There were significant generational and cultural gaps between them. Krapf seems to have seen Ruufoo primarily as a worker to realise his missionary goals (especially a Bible in the Oromo).

One could add that Ruufoo’s stay in the household for about one year was sometimes stressful for Krapf, as his wife had become seriously ill and died in November 1868. The Krapfs had no son, so J. Ludwig Krapf lacked some experience to understand Ruufoo better and interact with him more fatherly.

Cross-references

» Notes on the context of Krapf’s reference for Ruufoo

On the content of Krapf’s reference for Ruufoo