Our History

The vision to found CABTAL was born in 1979. Cameroonian Emmanuel Njock was attending a celebration of the Lord's Supper at a church in a village in Northern Cameroon. A young man approached him and asked for help in translating the Bible into his own language. This cry for help moved Emmanuel to begin the formation of CABTAL. On October 20, 1987, the Government of Cameroon officially recognized CABTAL as a non-profit association (recognized by MINAT NO 0207 of 28/10/1987 -SCIFE 5546901-). In September 1989, Emmanuel Njock became the first full time Director of CABTAL. Jean Charcot Manfo served as Director from 1994-1998. Daniel Martin Ngwanou has served from 1998 to 2002 as General Director.

Mr. Eugene Tawe took over him on September 2002 as interim General Director. During the third General Assembly held on January 2004, Dr Kenmogne Michel was installed as General Director for CABTAL. He has led CABTAL to become a Wyciffe Affiliate Organization, then a Wycliffe Member Organization with Language Programs, a Member Organization of the Wycliffe Bible Translators International (WBTI).

Dr. Kenmogne joined CABTAL in October 1996. In 1997, he was sent to the University of Buea where he graduated in 2001 with a Ph.D in Linguistics. Since then, he first served as Director of Language Services and became General Director of CABTAL on January 31, 2004.