The story of the Congo Free State : $b Social, political, and economic aspects of the Belgian system of government in Central AfricaWack, Henry Wellington
History
The story of the Congo Free State : $b Social, political, and economic aspects of the Belgian system of government in Central Africa
Wack, Henry Wellington
Belgium -- Colonies -- Africa -- Administration; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- To 1908
Each mission owns lands, either absolutely or in tenancy, the Baptist
Missionary Society Corporation heading the list with no fewer than
fifteen, being followed by the American Baptist Missionary Union with
fourteen, and the International Missionary Alliance with thirteen.
The other missions have between one and eight locations each, their
field of action being throughout the Upper, Middle, and Lower Congo.
All these missions are Protestant. Their work is done by between
two and three hundred white missionaries, to say nothing of native
evangelists, and they dispose of a considerable revenue, subscribed,
for the most part, by the Protestants of Great Britain and the United
States.
[Sidenote: Mission Steamers.]
Of the five large missionary steamers in the Congo State, four are
owned by Protestants. The _Peace_ and the _Goodwill_ belong to the
English Baptist Mission, the _Henri Reed_ to the American Baptist
Mission, and the _Pioneer_ to the English Balololand Mission. Roman
Catholics own only one mission steamer, _Our Lady of Perpetual
Help_.[35]
[Sidenote: Roman Catholic Missions.]
As might be expected from its history, the prevailing faith in
Congoland is the Roman Catholic. The Congo Free State tolerates all
religions, no one of them enjoying a privilege denied to the others.
Unfortunately the Protestants are split up into several sects; but
there is no division among the Roman Catholics, and this fact has
resulted largely in favour of the growth of the latter.
The White Fathers began their mission in Congoland in 1878, a year
later than the first Protestant mission. They were followed by the
Scheut Fathers in 1888; the Trappists, 1892; the Jesuits, 1893; the
Priests of the Sacred Heart, 1897; the Prémontré Fathers, 1898;
and the Redemptionists, 1899. There are also the missionaries
of the Ghent Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Notre Dame, the
Trappistines, the Franciscans, and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of
Mary.
The wide-reaching results of the earnest labours of these
self-denying evangelists is apparent in the existence to-day of 59
permanent and 29 temporary posts; 384 missionaries and sisters; 528
farm chapels; 113 churches and chapels; 523 oratories; 3 schools of
the second degree; 75 primary schools; 440 elementary schools (in
which native teachers instruct in the elements of reading, writing,
and arithmetic); 7 hospitals, 71 Christian villages, and 72,383
Christians and catechumens.
From statistics such as these, pregnant as they are with proof of
the onward march of civilisation, it is a relief to turn to records
in words. Here are two extracts from a diary kept by the Rev. Father
Grison, missionary in charge of St. Gabriel’s, Stanley Falls. The
diary from which they are taken was written in odd moments snatched
from an exceptionally busy life in a far-off land, with no idea that
any line of it would ever be given to the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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