Background
Robert Hamill Nassau was born on October 11, 1835 at Montgomery Square, near Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Charles William and Hannah McClintock (Hamill) Nassau.
https://www.amazon.com/Fetichism-Africa-Observations-Customs-Superstitions-ebook/dp/B018PLCOOU?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B018PLCOOU
( Spiritual Fetichism was originally published as Fetichi...)
Spiritual Fetichism was originally published as Fetichism in West Africa in 1904. The book was written by Robert Hamill Nassau, an American Presbyterian missionary, within a Christian scope and prejudice concerning West African culture and spirituality, which were typical for the 19th and early 20th century. However, despite a nowadays anachronist and disturbing perspective, the book has remained most valuable for students of the occult, especially those interested in demonology, voodoo, hoodoo and its roots, African magick and religion, witchcraft, the classes of African spirits, and of course the spiritual and magickal use of a fetish. Particularly those students in magick who are interested in working with thought forms or familiars should pay attention to this book, as African Fetichism resides in the borderland between animism and nature spirit worship and the magickal animation of an object as it is taught by teachers as Franz Bardon and Raven Grimassi. VAMzzz Publishing republished this book, not because we share the view of the colonist and missionary, but apart from the historical backgrounds of voodoo, for the cheer preservation of valuable magickal root information, and because Africa is too often neglected and underrated in this context by the modern practitioner of magick. Read more about Nassau in the Post Scriptum of Spiritual Fetichism. Preview on www.vamzzz.com
https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Fetichism-African-Witchcraft-Demonology/dp/9492355183?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=9492355183
(Excerpt from Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore T...)
Excerpt from Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales At a time long ago, the Animals were living in the Forest together. Most of them were at peace with each other. But Leopard was discovered to be a bad person. All the other animals refused to be friendly with him. Also, Wild Rat, a small animal, was found out to be a deceiver. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Animals-Talk-African-Classic/dp/1330146867?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1330146867
(Excerpt from In an Elephant Corral, and Other Tales of We...)
Excerpt from In an Elephant Corral, and Other Tales of West African Experiences When I removed, in 1865, from Corisco Is land to Benita, fifty miles north on the mainland, among the many night-voices (more numerous than those of the Island) was one which, by its plaintiveness, struck me as most distressing. So much so, that for some time I thought that resi dence there would be unendurable. It came early in the evening, in only certain seasons of the year, and did not continue all night. On the night air the voice arose low and sad, and, swelling in a gradual crescendo for several seconds, as gradu ally sunk in a diminuendo of several seconds, like a long drawn-out sigh, an Ah! Of grief. The cry was probably at a mating-season. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-African-Experiences-Classic-Reprint/dp/0364541105?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0364541105
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-School-Robert-Hamill-Nassau/dp/1376796570?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1376796570
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Bantu-Sociology-Robert-Hamill-Nassau/dp/1376801922?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1376801922
(Excerpt from Corisco Days: The First Thirty Years of the ...)
Excerpt from Corisco Days: The First Thirty Years of the West Africa Mission I have not tried to make this a history of the West Africa Mission down 'to present date. Purposely, I have confined these sketches to the extreme limits of the fifty years from 1842, the beginning of the old Gaboon Mission, to about 1892. I preferred to include the records of only the thirty years from 18219, the beginning of the old Corisco Mis sion, to about 1879, when Corisco ceased to be under white control, the management of its ecclesiastical and educational affairs being placed in efficient native hands. More especially, I have confined myself to the days of the ten years, 1861 to 1871, during which I was personally located at Corisco and Benita. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Corisco-Days-Mission-Classic-Reprint/dp/1330310004?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1330310004
(Excerpt from Batanga Tales The special region from which...)
Excerpt from Batanga Tales The special region from which these observations are derived is the equatorial portion of West Africa, more locally a tract three hundred miles square, the field of work on which I was engaged in the service of the Presbyterian church (north), its only mission on the entire African Continent. Beginning near the line of the equator, my travels extended a hundred miles south of it, to and below Cape Lopez. In this district were many small streams entering the South Atlantic, and two large ones, - the Gabun 2 and the Ogowe.3 The latter enters the ocean by four mouths, to the northward, the Nazareth, into Nazareth Bay; Ogowe proper, at Cape Lopez; and, south of that cape, the Mexias and the Fernan Vaz. The first two enclose a delta, whose apex is a hundred and thirty miles up the course of the river. Exactly one degree north of the equator is the island of Corisco, a microcosm of five miles in length by three miles in width, with perfect little imitations of hills, prairies, lakes, and rivers. It stands almost in the centre of Corisco Bay, from fifteen to twenty miles distant from the shoreline. Into the bay empty two rivers of good size, the Muni 4 and the Munda. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Batanga-Classic-Reprint-Robert-Hamill/dp/1333260318?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1333260318
(Excerpt from Crowned in Palm-Land: A Story of African Mis...)
Excerpt from Crowned in Palm-Land: A Story of African Mission Life Though they smile in vain for what once was ours, They are love's last gift, - bring ye flowers, pale flowers! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Crowned-Palm-Land-African-Mission-Classic/dp/1330780175?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1330780175
(Excerpt from Africa: An Essay Great Rivers pour the migh...)
Excerpt from Africa: An Essay Great Rivers pour the mighty flood They drain from mountain, lake, and wood, Coming from springs unseen, afar, Of unexplored Interior. The Nile, a solemn mystery, As in the ages gone, Flows in majestic loneliness From Source as yet unknown. That Source kings sought, past Egypt's soil, Past Nubia, past Sennar. And volumes writ, with various toil, Of rumor near and far. But, ever, like the pursuit vain, A rainbow's promised gold to gain, Whene'er they thought the end they'd won, The endless river still flowed on. But, now, perhaps, we dimly learn Where lies the N ile's great fountain-urn, Snow mountain streams that flow to make The queenly *nyanza's sea-like Lake. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Classic-Robert-Hamill-Nassau/dp/1330138325?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1330138325
Robert Hamill Nassau was born on October 11, 1835 at Montgomery Square, near Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Charles William and Hannah McClintock (Hamill) Nassau.
He pursued the studies of the freshman year at Lafayette College, where his father was for some time a professor. The next year he spent in the high school at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, conducted by his mother's brothers. He then entered the College of New Jersey, from which he graduated in 1854. He studied three years in Princeton Theological Seminary (1856 - 59). He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his degree in 1861.
In 1859 he asked the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions to send him to its most difficult and dangerous post. He was appointed to the Corisco or West Africa mission, on the west coast, a degree north of the equator.
On July 2, 1861 he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry; September saw him at Corisco. In this region, a French protectorate inhabited by Bantu tribes, there had been American missionaries since 1842. On Corisco Island, the headquarters of the Presbyterian mission, Nassau taught and preached for four years, working also over a wide stretch of mainland coast.
His pioneering instinct moved him to take charge of the mission's first station on the mainland, at Benito, fifty miles north of Corisco. Here he worked for six years, going out to preach along a hundred miles of coast, and penetrating as far up the Benito River. During a furlough in the United States in 1872-73, he was instructed to found a missionary station in the interior, a project which native opposition had thus far prevented. In 1874 he ascended the Ogowai (Ogowe) River, which enters the Atlantic seventy miles south of the equator, and there served for seventeen years. He learned well the Mpongwe and Fang dialects and the characters of the peoples.
In 1891, he spent two years in the United States, and then had three more terms in Africa, in 1893-98, 1900-03, and 1904-06. In these years he worked at Libreville and at Batanga, on the coast a hundred and twenty-five miles north of Corisco. There his duties were so arranged as to allow him to write his Fetichism in West Africa (1904). In 1906 he retired, after forty-five years of service.
During 1907-08 he had charge of churches in Florida.
His last eleven years, in which he wrote several books, were passed in Ambler, Pennsylvania.
He did valuable work in recording African folkstories, published in Where Animals Talk (1912), In an Elephant Corral (1912), and Batanga Tales (1915). His Fetichism in West Africa is a treasury of knowledge of African religion, and contains also a sketch of Bantu sociology. He sent home zoological and entomological specimens. With associates he translated the Old Testament and part of the New into Benga. These versions were published in original and revised forms between 1863 and 1881. His missionary activity was described, often minutely and vividly, in books of which the most important are Tales Out of School (1911), Corisco Days: the First Thirty Years of the West African Mission (1910), and My Ogowe (1914). During his furloughs he made many missionary speeches and became a well-known and striking figure in ecclesiastical meetings.
(Excerpt from Batanga Tales The special region from which...)
(Excerpt from In an Elephant Corral, and Other Tales of We...)
(Excerpt from Crowned in Palm-Land: A Story of African Mis...)
(Excerpt from Corisco Days: The First Thirty Years of the ...)
(Excerpt from Africa: An Essay Great Rivers pour the migh...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(Excerpt from Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore T...)
( Spiritual Fetichism was originally published as Fetichi...)
To make Nassau an effective missionary he combined rare linguistic ability, intimate knowledge of African thought and customs, shrewd judgment of the character of the natives and skill in managing them, a resourceful, original mind, and never-flagging zeal. Somewhat conventional in his piety, he was anything but this in his methods. He was ahead of his time in using industrial training for missionary purposes. He was selfless in surrender to his task, yet amusingly egotistical.
He was married on September 17, 1862, to Mary Cloyd Latta, a missionary in his station, who died in 1870. On October 10, 1881 he married Mary Brunette Foster at Lakewood, New Jersey. By his first wife he had three sons, and by his second, a daughter.
