Engelbert Mveng

Engelbert Mveng (1930-1995) was a child of Presbyterian parents. He became a Jesuit priest, author, artist, theologian and prominent Cameroonian historian and was a key figure in African Christian art circles. Father Mveng studied the aesthetics of African arts and published his findings in numerous books and articles. He opened a studio where he trained artists. His teaching was based on what he called the universal rules of African art. As a historian and theologian he made a great contribution to the study of African culture and history, especially in the realms of cultural and religious anthropology and iconology. The last thirty years of his life he was professor at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, Department of History. On the night of April 22-23, 1995, an unknown assailant brutally murdered the Reverend Engelbert Mveng in his residence outside of Yaounde. The murder was only one of several unsolved murders of clergy and remains unsolved. The internationally renowned artistic work of Fr. Mveng can be found in churches, chapels and educational centers around the world, for example: Stations of the Cross and Resurrection in the Jesuit Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya; Our Lady of Africa in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel; a mural for Holy Angels Church in Chicago depicting the roles and interventions of angels throughout the history of mankind; and the decoration of the chapel of the Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaoundé, Cameroon.