NOTES ON THE KONGO by Nora A. Gordon

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 21.

NOTES ON THE KONGO.

By Nora A. Gordon

BY NORA A. GORDON.

The Kongo Independent State comprises the greater part of the immense basin of the Kongo River. This State was founded by Leopold II., king of the Belgians, and has 1,508,000 square miles of territory, and the estimated population is between forty and fifty millions.

For one hundred miles from its mouth the Kongo River is navigable, then for more than two hundred miles it rushes through tremendous mountain gorges in a series of cataracts and falls. Stanley Pool is the starting point of the upper half of the Kongo, which is navigable for more than a thousand miles.

Through the cataract region travelers are taken in hammocks, made of thick canvas cloth and suspended from a bamboo pole, with a man at each end as carrier. All goods for transportation are packed into sixty-pound loads and taken by men, as there are no beasts of burden, and only recently the new railroad, which is in process of construction, has been completed for thirty miles. The roads are narrow, zigzag footpaths, winding around great rocks, over hills and young mountains, and through the plains and valleys.

In going to and fro the traveler often sees elephants, buffaloes, deer, and monkeys, while the more dreaded leopard prowls around at night in search of sheep, goats, etc., for food. Snakes allow themselves to be seen occasionally. The great boa constrictor winds himself around his victim and crushes him, while the bite of the cobra is very poisonous.

In the line of real pests, centipedes, jiggers, white ants, and red ants, or drivers, are the most dreaded. The bite of the centipede is painful and poisonous. The jigger is a small, harmless creature, which looks like a flea. Instead of biting, he enters the flesh, especially the feet, and when completely covered by the warm skin, he begins to enlarge, until a tiny sack is formed, and, if left long enough, instead of the original jigger there come out of this sack dozens of full-grown jiggers, each one eager to increase his kind in a similar manner. All decent people keep themselves free of them, but the lazy, nude waifs found in every town and village allow their toes to be eaten off, and their feet, elbows, and fingers to remain in a chronic state of sores, caused by these creatures.

Tin trunks and tin-lined cases are used in Kongo, for white ants devour everything like wood, cloth, shoes, etc., which they can

find. Travelers have awakened in the morning and found shoes and other things left on the ground in their tents the night before totally destroyed. The ants go through houses, eating the heart out of timbers, boards, etc.

The red ants, or drivers, are somewhat different. They are often seen crossing the paths. They are large, with a pair of pincers in the head; and let these once close together, they do not let go, but have to be pulled apart by main force. All kinds of food and insects are swept away by them. In passing through a locked fowl house where the victims cannot escape, only feathers and bones are left to tell the story. Natives sometimes get rid of their prisoners by putting them in the drivers' march. The climate of the Kongo is very trying, and fevers are inevitable, but not necessarily fatal. All foreigners, and natives too, have their share of fevers.

People born in a Christian country can form no conception of the moral ruin, awful misery, and degradation of heathenism. On coming for the first time in actual contact with it one is overwhelmed by its magnitude.

There are twelve missions at work in this State, three Roman Catholic and nine Protestant. One of the most successful is that of the Baptist Missionary Union, which has already established nine mission stations, beginning at the mouth of the great river and extending many hundreds of miles into the interior. More workers and money are needed, for the great masses of heathen have not been reached. Who are willing to give themselves to this cause? Those who have nothing to do at home are not needed abroad. Special gifts, though exceedingly useful, are secondary. A missionary's life is more commonplace than is supposed. Plod rather than cleverness is often the best missionary equipment. The "special gift" is the gift of the Holy Ghost, which our Heavenly Father will give to them that ask him. Do not go without that.

The population of the Kongo State is made up of many tribes, which differ from one another in personal appearance, language, industry, tattooing, and mode of dress, or, rather, their want of dress; for some wear loin cloths; others, a few spires of grass, bracelets, beads, and anklets; while there are some who seem to vie with one another in taking around the least possible burden in the shape of clothing. Tribes are divided up into clans, or families, and these do not huddle together, as is supposed, but in building their towns each clan will select its site and settle just a short distance from another, and so on. Here and there in the valley, and on the tops and sides of the hills where the soil is fertile, are found these towns or villages. They are nothing more than clusters of grass huts surrounded by gardens, and mango, zinsafu, and palm trees.

The houses are generally nicely built, especially those belonging to the king and his wives. Each wife has her own house, and where there are eight, ten, or whatever number of wives, the same number of houses are built near the king's house, and all are surrounded by a closely built grass fence. Thus the "king's place" is separated from the other housefolk.

The average size of a Kongo house is about nine by twelve feet for the ground floor, and, in order to permit a person six feet tall to stand erect in it, there would have to be an opening made in the roof for his head to pass through. If a person should sit in the little opening called the door, it would be impossible for even a child to pass in or out. There is no window for ventilation. The furnishings of a man's house are his gun, hunting bag, a water bottle, several fetiches, and a bed made by driving some sticks into the ground, covering them over with pieces of board, and spreading a mat on top of these; and if the man of the house possesses a blanket, this is added. There is no pillow. The furnishings of a woman's house are somewhat different. She has no gun nor hunting bag, but, instead, hoes with handles two feet long, wood baskets, and cooking pots.

There are no homes; they have no word in their language for such a place, and family discipline is unknown to them. An angry child falls to the ground, yells, kicks, froths at the mouth, and, if touched by his mother, fights and bites. A father, on being asked to send his child to school, answers, "Ask the child's chief; I am only his father."

Men and boys are the lords. They trade, fish, mould in brass and iron, make cloth, and sit around and smoke, while the wives and sisters, with the babies strapped to their backs, work the farms, make the guanga (bread), make all the pots and water bottles of clay, and do the cooking. Women and children eat together, while the wives must prepare their nicest pots of food for their husbands, who are not wanting in words to express their displeasure if the food does not suit their palates.

It is believed that the heathen do love one another, but their love, mixed with a superstitious fear of some unknown dreaded calamity, makes them hunt and kill each other as witches. They believe that death is not natural, and if a person dies, some witch has "eaten his life away."

Christianity makes a wonderful change in the manners and customs of these people. Christians separate themselves, and will accept of no such compromises as church festivals, dances, theaters, etc., for the young. All are one in Christ, and if any member seeks amusement among his former companions, he is severely disciplined. A Christian man builds a taller house than a heathen, with respectable sized door and one or two windows, goes to school, buys his wife a dress, fondles his children, helps his wife on the farm, and goes to the mission and learns how to make stools, tables, and a different kind of bed. Every night he collects the people of his town together, sings, prays, and talks with them about Jesus. After he has learned to read, he carries around his little book (generally the translation of John's Gospel), and when his caravan halts for rest or to camp, he takes out his book and reads and talks to the carriers. Thus the gospel is carried to regions beyond. A Kongo Christian is fearless, and ever on the alert to do good.

One evening in a town near Lukungu the native preacher was beating the empty tin as usual to remind the people that it was time for the evening devotions, when a State official with his caravan came into the town. When the people had assembled, and the official, who was a Roman Catholic, had settled in his quarters, the preacher went out and said, "White man, come in and bring your men; this is the time for prayers."

A number of wicked chiefs with their guns waited upon a preacher in another town fifteen miles from Lukungu, and told Lutete that if he persisted in ringing the bell and preaching to the people, they would shoot him. Lutete answered, "If you wish to shoot me, that is your palaver; I must do God's work." For some unexpected reasons, the chiefs did not carry out that threat. Lutete is still in the same town, as pastor of a church with one hundred and forty members, and there are at present five village schools in the district.—Spelman Messenger.