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Knowledge Brokers: Books and Publishers in Early Colonial Zaire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Barbara A. Yates
Barbara A. Yates*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Extract

This paper is concerned with the process, problems, and politics of knowledge transfer in King Leopold's Congo. Since European languages were infrequently taught in Congo schools, the availability of printed materials in local African languages served as the primary means of achieving literacy and subsequently knowledge beyond that learned through practical experience.

With the exception of Swahili, used in the Eastern Congo as a lingua franca, none of the several dozen major languages or the several hundred minor languages and dialects spoken in the Congo Basin had been reduced to written form before modern missionaries established themselves there beginning in 1879. Between 1879 and 1908, when the Congo was the personal possession of Leopold II, nineteen Congolese languages were reduced to written form and more than 400 titles in these languages were published. To the sophisticated modern reader such a narrow choice of literature may seem unworthy of study. But this printed media stock--primers, readers, textbooks, religious tracts, Gospels, and magazines--was all that was available to some tens of thousands of seekers after literacy and the major printed communications between Westerners and Africans in the Congo Basin. This fact, alone, gives such materials significance.

Most of this literature was prepared for use in elementary schools. In 1908, when King Leopold's Congo was annexed by the Belgian Parliament, some 46,000 pupils of all ages were enrolled in colonial schools. Another 50,000 had probably attended these schools between 1879 and 1908. Over ninety-nine percent of these pupils attended schools run by eighteen mission societies (nine Protestant and nine Catholic).

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 14 , 1987 , pp. 311 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1987

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References

Notes

1. The most complete bibliography of early materials in Congo languages is that of Starr, Frederick, A Bibliography of Congo Languages (Chicago; 1908).Google Scholar Starr attempted completeness only through 1906, although some titles from 1907 are also included. The main weakness, which the author frankly admits, is the inadequate coverage of materials produced by Catholic missions. For these the earliest bibliography is that of Edouard Kervyn, longtime Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Religion, Congo Independent State, “Les missions Catholiques du Congo belge, ”La Revue Congolaise (1912), 301–05.Google Scholar Kervyn's list was compiled from the publications displayed by Belgian Catholic missions at the Tervuren Exhibition of 1910. Kervyn's bibliography, however, must be used with some caution; for example, publications listed under the White Fathers include materials prepared by their colleagues in east Africa, not in the Congo and not necessarily used in the Congo.

2. Christian and Missionary Alliance, Annual Report for 1909, 170.Google Scholar

3. The Belgian Holy Ghost Fathers only came to the Congo in 1907, but the Mill Hill Fathers arrived in 1903. The Premonstratensians’ official journal, Bibliothèque Norbertine, (juillet-août 1904), 186Google Scholar, reported editorially that the Prefect Apostolic, Mgr. Derikx, had just published the second edition of a catechism in a local language, but neither Starr nor Kervyn mention it in their bibliographies nor does a copy exist in the Ministry of African Affairs or Harvard library collections, nor is there ever a direct reference to any printed materials in Premonstratensian missionary letters. The editorial reference is probably an error.

4. For more detail on the activities of the Edwin Wade Press see missionary letters and annual reports in the Missionary Herald, (August 1888), 310, (July 1890), 266, (July 1896), 326, and (May 1897), 266.Google Scholar See also Bentley, W. Holman, Pioneering on the Congo (2 vols.: New York, 1900), II, 338.Google Scholar

5. Thomas J. Comber to Baynes, 20 June 1885, and George Grenfell to Baynes, 26 July 1886, both from Leopoldville, in Missionary Herald, (July 1885), 260, (November 1886), 507.Google Scholar

6. Svenska Missionsforbundet The Congo Mission of the Swedish Mission Society (Stockholm, 1909) 4Google Scholar; Starr, , Bibliography, 60.Google Scholar In the Lower Congo it appears that all Protestant societies--the Christian and Missionary Alliance and the British and American Baptists--used the Swedish translation of the Bible. See Annual Report of the Committee of the BMS for 1904, 93; Christian and Missionary Alliance, Annual Report for 1905, 107Google Scholar; Ekvall, Robert Brainerd, After Fifty Years: A Record of God's Working Through the Christian and Missionary Alliance (Harrisburg, 1939), 109Google Scholar; and Baptist Missionary Magazine (October 1906), 398.Google Scholar

7. Baptist Missionary Magazine (November 1891), 481Google Scholar; (January 1892), 26; (July 1892), 314-15; (April 1899), 151; (July 1899), 379; (July 1903), 509; (October 1906), 401; and Annual Report of the American Baptist Missionary Union for 1907, 167.

8. Bolobo was more central, and in any case European staff were withdrawn from Lukolela when large numbers of the local African population fled from the area to the French Congo because of political difficulties with the Belgian administration. See Baptist Missionary Society Annual Reports for 1895 and 1896Google Scholar; Missionary Herald (May 1896), 271, and (May 1897), 273.Google Scholar

9. In 1898 an old press which had originally been used in the Kamerun was added to Bolobo's equipment when BMS work was closed out in Kamerun with the German occupation. This press was first brought to Underhill, where it remained until that station was closed down in 1896. It then went to Bolobo in 1898. For further discussions of press activities see Missionary Herald: Baptist Missionary Society Annual Reports for 1892, 1894, 1895, 1897,1899, 1900, 1901, May issue respectively (1893), 221; (1895), 218, 223; (1896), 272; (1897), 512-13; (1898), 249; (1900),258, 262; (1901), 161-62; and (1902), 238; Annual Report of the Committee of the BMS for 1904, 93, 105 and for 1905, 52; Grenfell to Baynes, 19 July 1898, quoted in Hawker, George, The Life of George Grenfell, Congo Missionary and Explorer (New York, 1901), 459Google Scholar; Smith, H. Sutton. Yakusu, The Very Heart of Africa, Being an Account of the Protestant Mission at Stanley Falls, Upper Congo (London, 1912), 207Google Scholar; ABMU Annual Reports for 1892, 1896, in Baptist Missionary Magazine, (July 1893), 347Google Scholar; (July 1897), 411, and ABMU Annual Report for 1904, 317; Missionary, (April 1896), 149Google Scholar; and Kassai Herald, (April 1903), 20.Google Scholar

10. Smith, Herbert, Fifty Years in Congo, Disciples of Christ at Equator (Indianapolis, 1949), 25.Google Scholar From time to time both Protestant and Catholic missions had books printed in Europe or America, but the volume was never large because of the cost of shipment and the long delays and inconvenience of sending proofs back and forth.

11. The Plymouth Brethren in the Katanga set up their press in 1905, although beginning in 1896 they had materials printed at Livingstonia in Northern Rhodesia. See Echoes of Service (January 1906); (February 1907), 57; and Tilsley, G.E., Dan Crawford, Missionary and Pioneer in Central Africa (London, 1929), 464.Google Scholar

12. Starr, , Bibliography. 39Google Scholaret passim; Carpenter, George W., Highways for God in Congo: Commemorating Seventy-Five Years of Protestant Missions, 1878-1953. (Leopoldville, 1952), 24Google Scholar; Regions Beyond (1904), 108Google Scholar; (January 1909), 6; Guinness, Harry, Not Unto Us: A Record of Twenty-One Years' Missionary Service (London, 1908), 89Google Scholar; FCMS Annual Report for 1900-1901 in Missionary Intelligencer (November 1901), 288Google Scholar and (May 1906), 156.

13. See note from Grenfell, George in Missionary Herald (November 1885), 453Google Scholar; Kassai Herald (October 1903), 42Google Scholar; Missionary (June 1905), 287Google Scholar; Missionary Intelligencer (November 1907), 490Google Scholar; Echoes of Service (December 1907), 610Google Scholar and Tilsley, , Dan Crawford, 464.Google Scholar

14. For the White Fathers see Mouvement Antiesclavagiste belge (février 1900), 48. For the Jesuits and Redemptorists see Van Hencxthoven, 6 October 1902, Kisantu to Jean Huyghe owner and editor of Nieuws van der DagGoogle Scholar; undated from Wombali, , Missions belges (février 1903), 72Google Scholar, as well as (juillet 1903), 272, and (décembre 1903), 446 and Redemptorist Father Veys, undated, Tumba, in La Voix du Rédempteur (janvier 1901), 26Google Scholar and Sadin, Fernand, La mission des Jésuites au Kwango; Notice historique (Kisantu, 1918), 59.Google Scholar For information on the Scbeutist press at Nouvelle-Anvers see Starr, , Bibliography, 97Google Scholar; Scheutist Fr. Alfred Corman to T. R. F. Superior, 30 March 1905. Kangu, , in Missions en Chine et au Congo, (juillet 1905), 150Google Scholar; and DeWit, Joseph, Mouvement des missions Catholiques au Congo. (juin 1910). 44.Google Scholar

15. See American and British Baptist and Disciples of Christ annual reports and missionary comments in Missionary Herald (July 1890), 266Google Scholar; (May 1893), 217; (May 1896), 272; (May 1902), 238, and (May 1905), 261; the Baptist Missionary Magazine (July 1899), 379Google Scholar, and the Missionary Intelligencer (December 1907), 618 and (November 1908), 485.Google Scholar See also Starr, , Bibliography, 22–23Google Scholar, 93 et passim, and Tilsley, , Dan Crawford, 437–38.Google Scholar

16. Yates, Barbara A., “African Reactions to Education: The Congolese Case,” Comparative Education Review, 15 (1971) 158–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Smith, , Yakusu, 238.Google Scholar

18. Missionary, (June 1906), 154.Google Scholar

19. Regions Beyond, (October 1900), 402.Google Scholar See also British and American Baptist annual reports in the Missionary Herald (May 1905), 248Google Scholar, and Baptist Missionary Magazine (July 1901), 471.Google Scholar

20. Rev.Seymour E., Moon, Manteka, Banza, “Progress on Congo,” Baptist Missionary Magazine (October 1906), 398.Google Scholar The wage was one-half franc a day in the Lower Congo. See Missionary Herald (May 1904), 259.Google Scholar

21. “Annual Report for 1904,” Missionary Herald (May 1905), 248.Google Scholar

22. Carpenter, , Highways for God, 21Google Scholar; Svenska, , Congo Mission 14–15Google Scholar; Axelson, Sigbert, Culture Confrontation in the Lower Congo (Falköping, 1970), 282.Google Scholar

23. Annual Report of the BMS Committee for 1905, 52.

24. BMS Annual Reports for 1892 and 1904 in Missionary Herald (May 1893), 221 and (May 1905), 253Google Scholar; Annual Report of the Committee of the BMS for 1905, 52; Starr, , Bibliography, 39.Google Scholar

25. W. M., Morrison, 15 February 1901, in Missionary (June 1901), 271.Google Scholar

26. Eva N., Dye, Bolenge: A Story of Gospel Triumphs on the Congo. (Cincinnati, 1913), 83.Google Scholar

27. See Kratz, Michael, La mission des Rédemptoristes belges au Bas-Congo: La période des semailles (1899-1920) Brussels, (1970).Google Scholar

28. See Mouvement des Missions Catholiques au Congo,(mars 1904), 92Google Scholar; Jeanroy, V., Notice sur la Mission des Falls, fondée et dirigée par les prêtres du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus (Brussels, 1904), 19.Google Scholar

29. See, for example Missionary Intelligencer (December 1905), 525Google Scholar; (February 1907), 67 and FCMS Annual Report for 190304, (November 1904), 412; Missionary (March 1898), 125Google Scholar; (December 1900), 550 (June 1902), 283; (May 1903), 221; Kassai Herald (April 1903), 20Google Scholar; (October 1905), 40; (January 1907), 4; Regions Beyond (February 1892), 91Google Scholar; (June 1895), 279; (April 1901), 92-93; Missionary Herald, BMS Annual Reports for 1901 and 1904, (May 1902), 234 and (May 1905), 248Google Scholar; Baptist Missionary Magazine (October 1906), 401Google Scholar and ABMU Annual Report for 1900 (July 1901), 471; Smith, , Yakusu, 246Google Scholar; Dye, , Bolenge, 83Google Scholar; Fanny E., Guinness, The New World of Central Africa: With a History of the First Christian Mission on the Congo (London, 1890), 380Google Scholar; Grenfell to Baynes, 1 October 1904, quoted in Hawker, , George Grenfell, 529.Google Scholar

30. Missions d'Afrique des Pères blancs, (décembre 1898), 366Google Scholar; Missions des Pères blancs, (août 1900), 240Google Scholar; (juillet 1900), 199; (avril 1901), 122; Missions belges (juin 1902), 237Google Scholar; Sadin, , Mission, 59Google Scholar; Règne du Coeur de Jésus (février 1907), 19Google Scholar; Règne du Sacré-Coeur (avril 1901), 52.Google Scholar

31. Yates, Barbara A., “The Origins of Language Policy in Colonial Zaire,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 18 (1980), 257–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32. The best evidence of “mistakes” in choosing languages is the handful of materials produced in other than the main language of each mission station (e.g., Kitabwa by the White Fathers, Kikete by the American Presbyterians, Mpama by the British Baptists, Ileku by the Congo Balolo Mission and Ntumba and Kiteke by the American Baptists).

33. Quoted in Catherine L., Mabie, Congo Cameos (Philadelphia, 1952), 42.Google Scholar

34. John H., Weeks, Among Congo Cannibals (London, 1913), 81.Google Scholar

35. Crawford, Dan, 25 April 1904, in Echoes of Service (July 1904), 259.Google Scholar

36. See annual reports and missionary comments in Missionary Herald (December 1889), 436, (May 1890), 188Google Scholar; and (May 1905), 248.

37. The American Baptists and Presbyterians, the Swedes, and the Congo Balolo Mission all reported selling their literature on various occasions. See, for example, Baptist Missionary Magazine, August 1888, p. 342, July 1890, p. 305, October 1906, p. 398, May 1907, p. 185Google Scholar; Regions Beyond, June 1905, p. 150Google Scholar; Missionary, April 1896, p. 149Google Scholar, June 1901, p. 245, February 1903, p. 70 and Kassai Herald, January 1909, p. 14Google Scholar and Bentley, Margo H., W. Holman Bentley: The Life and Labours of a Congo Pioneer. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1907, pp. 287–88Google Scholar; Bentley, , Pioneering II, p. 355Google Scholar; Missionary Herald, August 1895, p. 223Google Scholar; October 1897, p. 269; and December 1894, p. 470 and Annual Report of the Committee of the BMS for 1905, p. 48.

38. Annual Report of the Committee of the BMS for 1905, 48.

39. See W.H. Sheppard, 30 April 1895, Luebo, , in Missionary (October 1895), 465.Google Scholar See also Missionary, (April 1896), 149Google Scholar; (March 1898), 125.

40. See pioneer missionary comments in Missionary (April 1896), 149Google Scholar; (February 1899), 18; (May 1903), 221; (January 1904), 6 (February 1904), 59; (May 1908), 209; and Kassai Herald (April 1903), 20Google Scholar; (July 1904), 34; (January 1907), 5.

41. Missionary (May 1908), 209.Google Scholar For other comments on frustrations with publishing see Mrs. Snyder, 18 July 1900, Luebo, , in Missionary (December 1900), 550Google Scholar; and Thomas, L. M., “Our Schools,” Kassai Herald (April 1903), 19–20, and (January 1907), 2.Google Scholar

42. Bedinger, Robert D., Triumphs of the Gospel in Belgian Congo (Richmond, 1920), 53.Google Scholar

43. I have excluded grammars and vocabularies written with the intention of teaching Europeans an African language and not to serve as texts for use by native speakers. For example, the Redemptorists in 1907 and the Scheutists in 1908 prepared French-Kikongo and French-Kiyombe books, which appear to be for European use.

44. White Father A. Huys, Superior at Mpala to colleague in Belgium, undated, Mouvement Antiesclavagiste (février 1900), 48.Google Scholar

45. The British Baptists, the Swedes, and the Jesuits issued monthly magazines. The Swede's Minsamu Miayange, and the Jesuit's Ntetembo Eto, begun in 1892 and 1902 respectively, continued regularly beyond 1908. See Laveille, E., L'Evangile au centre de l'Afrique. Le Père Emile Van Hencxthoven, S.J., fondateur de lá Mission du Kwango (Congo belge) 1852-1906 (Louvain, 1926), 256Google Scholar; Missions belges (novembre 1901), 410, 437Google Scholar; (mars 1902), 119; and Svenska Missionsforbundet, Congo Mission, 14–15Google Scholar, and Axelson, , Culture Confrontation, 282.Google Scholar A third, the British Baptist's Ngonde ya Ngonde, published at San Salvador, lasted about a decade (1899-1908).Google Scholar In addition, the Swedes and the Jesuits published annually small almanacs from 1901 and 1902 respectively. Two other British Baptist magazines were very short-lived. Wathen station began Se Kukiangu (Dawn is Breaking) in Kikongo in March 1891, but it lasted only a year. The British Baptist Missionary Society upriver press at Bolobo began in 1896 a quarterly, Ntoto li Meya (Sparks), in Bobangi, but it, too, folded after four issues. See Carpenter, Highways, 21 and Bentley, , Pioneering, 2:244.Google Scholar

46. Fr.Hoornaert, G., Missions belges (novembre 1906), 406.Google Scholar

47. Quoted in Vandervelde, , Belgique, 251–52.Google Scholar

48. Crawford, Dan, 25 December 1905, in Echoes of Service (May 1906), 176.Google Scholar

49. Kassai Herald (January 1909), 10.Google Scholar See a similar American Presbyterian comment in The Congo Missionary Conference held at Leopoldville, 19-21 January 1902 (Matadi, n.d.), 25.Google Scholar

50. Congo Missionary Conference 1909.(Bongondanga, 1909), 93–102.Google Scholar

51. See, for example, Weeks, , Among Congo Cannibals, 199Google Scholar, and Missions belges, (septembre 1903), 325.Google Scholar

52. Vinson, T.C., William McCutchan Morrison: Twenty Years in Central Africa (Richmond, 1921), 65–66.Google Scholar

53. See Rev. Stapleton's comments in Baptist Missionary Society annual report for 1904 quoted in Smith, , Yakuru, 238.Google Scholar

54. I have examined all but the first Jesuit catechism printed in 1894. The second catechism, described by the Jesuits as “more extensive and complete” was a small twenty-three page booklet at no more than a second grade reading level. The hymnal and prayer book of New Testament selections (90 pages) appears to be at a mid-primary grade reading level. See Jesuit missionary descriptions of these materials in Missions belges, (janvier 1899), 8Google Scholar; (juin 1902), 237; (septembre 1903), 325; (mars 1906), 102; (novembre 1906), 406.

55. See Crawford communications, 30 October 1899 and 27 December 1899, in Echoes of Service (March and June 1900), 73, 173.Google Scholar

56. Tilsley, , Dan Crawford 433, 464, 466.Google Scholar See also Crawford, 30 June 1903, Livingstonia, in Echoes of Service (September 1903), 356Google Scholar and (February 1907), 57.

57. Clarke, John, 24 October 1904, Koni Hill, in Echoes of Service (September 1904), 339.Google Scholar

58. Andrew F., Hensey, My Children of the Forest (New York, 1924), 117Google Scholar; and Missionary Intelligencer (May 1906), 156.Google Scholar

59. See respectively American Baptist Missionary Union Annual Report for 1898, in Baptist Missionary Magazine (July 1899), 379Google Scholar, and the Annual Report of the American Baptist Missionary Union for 1905, 348 and for 1907, 161. The Plymouth Brethren in the Katanga obtained grants from the National Bible Society of Scotland. Tilsley, , Dan Crawford, 464.Google Scholar

60. Faris, E. E. in Foreign Christian Missionary Society Annual Report for 1899-1900, in Missionary Intelligencer (November 1900), 297.Google Scholar

61. L. M., Thomas, “Our Schools,” Kassai Herald (April 1903), 19–20.Google Scholar

62. Starr, , Bibliography, 6–7.Google Scholar

63. Lewis, Thomas, These Seventy Years: An Autobiography (London, 1929), 282.Google Scholar

64. Ibid., 282-86. Modern Bible translators working with people without a written language estimate that it usually takes about fifteen years to analyze and put a language into written form.

65. ReverendWelles, E. T. at Banza Manteke, 13 June 1902, Baptist Missionary Magazine (October 1902), 652.Google Scholar Bentley made similar comments on the universality of Kikongo, as did Reverend Westlind of the Swedish Missionary Society (who translated the entire Bible), and various American Baptist missionaries, see Bentley, , Pioneering, 2: 235Google Scholar; American Baptist Missionary Union, Baptist Missionary Magazine (June 1891), 159Google Scholar; Richards, in Annual Report for 1903, Baptist Missionary Magazine (June 1904), 493Google Scholar; and staff at the United Training School at Kimpese, quoted in Hawker, George. An Englishwoman's Twenty-Five Years in Tropical Africa (New York, 1911), 316.Google Scholar

66. Denis, Léopold, Les Jésuites belges au Kwango, 1893-1943 (Brussels, 1943), 28–29.Google Scholar

67. Lewis, , These Seventy Years, 282–85.Google Scholar

68. Axelson, , Culture Confrontation, 282.Google Scholar

69. Richards, in American Baptist Missionary Union Annual Report for 1902, Baptist Missionary Magazine (July 1903), 508.Google Scholar See also Rev.Ellis, E. T., undated, Banza Manteke, Baptist Missionary Magazine (April 1899), 51.Google Scholar

70. Kassai Herald (October 1902), 47.Google Scholar

71. Annual Report of the American Baptist Missionary Union for 1906, 348 and Annual Report of the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society for 1906, 47-55. Paper by Rev.Harvey, Charles H. of the American Baptist Missionary Union in Congo Missionary Conference 1907. ((Bolobo 1907), 161.Google Scholar

72. Welles, E. T., 13 June 1902, Baptist Missionary Magazine (October 1902), 652.Google Scholar

73. Report of the Language Conference, Supplement to Report of the Second Conference of Missionaries of the Protestant Societies Working in Congoland. (Bolobo, 1904), 53, 63–79.Google Scholar

74. Rev.Richards, Henry in American Baptist Missionary Union Annual Reports for 1902 and 1903, Baptist Missionary Magazine (July 1903), 508Google Scholar and (July 1904), 493.

75. Fullerton, William Young, The Christ of the Congo River (London, 1928), 198.Google Scholar

76. Carpenter, , Highways, 65.Google Scholar