^{page 257 note 1} Language policy in Beligium was a perennial political and cultural issue. There had been considerable opposition to the Dutch (Flemish) language policy of William of Orange, due to hard feelings against his Protestant régime, 1815–30, and so when Belgium became independent, French was made the official language. The upper and middle classes in the Flemish as well as the Walloon areas spoke French as it represented ‘culture’. The ethno-linguistic ‘Flemish Question’, long smouldering in nineteenth-century Walloon-dominated Belgium, began to become a political issue at the time that Léopold II acquired the Congo. In 1883, Flemish was made a compulsory subject in secondary schools in the Flemish provinces, and in 1898 became the second official language of Belgium.

^{page 258 note 1} There were reportedly some 200–500 Zaïrian idioms spoken in the Belgian Congo, perhaps even 700. See Byusa, Abbot Eustache, ‘La Langue de l'enseignement au Congo’, in Questions scolaires aux missions. Rapports et compte renths de la 24e semaine do missiologie de Louvain, 1954. Museum Lessianium, Section missiologique, No. 32 (Brussels, 1954), p. 98Google Scholar.

^{page 258 note 2} Instructions and Circular of the Governor-General, 6 August 1887; État indépendant du Congo, Gouvernement central, Recueil usuel du la législation avec des notes de concordance et la jurisprudence des tribunaux de l' État indépendant du Congo (Brussels, 1903–1912), Vol. I, p. 169Google Scholar, hereinafter referred to as Recueil usuel.

^{page 258 note 3} Circulars of the Governor-General, 1 July 1895 and 11 March 1896, ibid. Vol. II, pp. 410 and 475; Départment de l'Interieur, Recueil administratif, 6 May 1900 and 30 June 1903; Recueil usuel, Vols. III and IV, pp. 323 and 471; and Circular of the Governor-General, 7 August 1903, ibid. Vol. IV, pp. 812–13.

^{page 258 note 4} Recueil administratif, July 1907, p. 101.

^{page 259 note 1} ‘Règlement d'organisation intérieure pris par le Gouverneur Général en execution du décret du 12 juillet 1890’, in Bulletin officiel de l'État indépendant du Congo (Brussels), 1892, p. 192, hereinafter referred to as Bulletin officiel.

^{page 259 note 2} The legislation covering five schools – trade (3), agriculture (1), and clerks (1) – specifically required French in the curriculum; Bulletin officiel, 1906, p. 54, and 1907, pp. 11–12, and Recueil usuel, Vol. VI, p. 337. As regards the N.C.O. school for book-keepers, the pupils were recruited from the colonies scolaires. It must also be assumed that French was a subject in the school for male nurses since the pupils, like those at the N.C.O. school, took oral examinations before European officials; Bulletin officiel, 1897, pp. 202–7, and 1908, p. 253.

^{page 259 note 3} Ibid. 1907, p. 12.

^{page 259 note 4} Colonies d'enfants indigènes. Arrêté d'éxecution, 3 août 1892, Bulletin officiel, 1892, p. 242. This Education Act specified only that the ‘vocational curriculum should conform as much as possible’ with that of the government colonies scolaires.

^{page 259 note 5} Ibid. 1906, pp. 158–61. The question of ‘national languages’ was confusing. Did this mean one or the other, or both? The 1906 Concordat said simply ‘national languages’, but in the 1929 Code the curriculum plans called specifically for French. These ambiguities reflect the political sensitivities of the ethnic-linguistic controversy in Belgium.

^{page 260 note 1} Smith, H. Sutton, Yakusu, the Very Heart of Africa, Being an Account of the Protestant Mission at Stanley Falls, Upper Congo (London, 1912), p. 151Google Scholar.

^{page 260 note 2} Dorman, Marcus, A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State (Brussels and London, 1905), p. 57Google Scholar.

^{page 261 note 1} An exchange of correspondence on this subject during the 1890s is to be found in the Archives of the former Ministry of Colonies (hereinafter referred to as AMC), Fonds des Mission (hereinafter M), 127 (589). The numbers refer to individual portfolios and dossiers. The Archives are located in Brussels.

^{page 261 note 2} Governor-General Wahis to Secretary of State for the Interior, 10 July 1894, and 5 January and 9 October 1895; ibid. M125 (588).

^{page 261 note 3} Circular of the Governor-General, 13 April 1897, Recueil usuel, Vol. II, p. 597.

^{page 261 note 4} Dorman, op. cit. p. 57.

^{page 262 note 1} Yates, Barbara A., ‘Christian Patriarchy and Colonial Dependency: the origin of schools in Zaïre’, typescript; and ‘Shifting Goals of Industrial Education in the Congo, 1878–1908’, in African Studies Review (East Lansing), XXI, 1, 04 1978, pp. 33–48Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 2} Emile van Hencxthoven to Superior-General, quoted in Sadin, Fernand, La Mission des Jésuites au Kwango. Notice historique (Kisantu, 1918), pp. 26–7Google Scholar. See also van Wing, Joseph, S.J., Le Vingt-cinquiéme anniversaire de la Mission du Kwango (Brussels, nd. [1918]), p. 7Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 3} Roelens, Victor, Notre vieux Congo, 1891–1917: souvenirs du premier évěque du Congo belge (Namur, 1948), Vol. II, p. 166Google Scholar.

^{page 263 note 1} Governor-General Wahis to Secretary of State, 2 November 1905, AMC, M41(569).

^{page 263 note 2} Laveile, E., L'Evangile au centre de l'Afrique. La Pète Emile van Hencxthoven, S.J., fondateur de la Mission du Kwango (Congo belge), 1852–1906 (Louvain, 1926), p. 228Google Scholar, note 3. See also Redemptorist Superior Joseph Heintz, 8 December 1905, from Matadi, quoted in Sept anaées au Congo (Brussels, 1906), p. 13Google Scholar; Redemptorist Father de Lodder, 16 January 1906, Mouvement des missions Catholiques au Congo, February 1906, p. 63; Redemptorist Father van Cleemput, , undated from Kinkanda, and van Cleemput, 1 03 1908Google Scholar, from Tumba, La Voix du rédempteur, July 1905, p. 273, and June 1909, pp. 234–5; Sacred Heart Fathers Gontier at Stanleyville and Joseph Slanger at Pontierville, Règne du Coeur de Jesus, November 1906, p. 161, and April 1907, p. 51; Holy Ghost Father E. Conrad, 2 July 1909, Messager du Saint Esprit, 11 1909, p. 340Google Scholar; and Jesuit Fathers A. Brielman, 28 December 1906, from Sanda, F. Sadin, 6 January 1907, from Kisantu, and de Von, 22 February 1907, from Wombali, , in Missions belges de la Compagnie de Jésus (Brussels), 03 1907, pp. 103 and 105, and 09 1908, p. 353Google Scholar, hereinafter referred to as Missions belges.

^{page 264 note 1} Father Struyf, Ivan, undated, in Missions belges, 08 1906, pp. 300–1Google Scholar.

^{page 264 note 2} Vice-Governor-General Wahis to Secretary of State, 14 May 1891, AMC, M41 (569).

^{page 264 note 3} Bentley, H. Margo, W. Holman Bentley: the life and labours of a Congo pioneer (London, 1907), p. 271Google Scholar

^{page 264 note 4} Missionary Herald (London), 05 1890, p. 187Google Scholar; Baptist Missionary Magazine (Boston), 11 1891, p. 482, 05 1892, p. 145, and 07 1894, p. 354Google Scholar; Smith, op. cit. p. 276; and Guinness, Fanny E., The New World of Central Africa: with a history of the first Christian mission on the Congo (London, 1890), p. 456Google Scholar.

^{page 265 note 1} When the 1904 Commission of Enquiry investigated alleged atrocities in the Congo, only three of the Protestant missionaries interviewed were able to read or communicate in French. The Congo. A Report of the Commission of Enquiry Appointed by the Congo Free State Government. A Complete and Accurate Translation (London and New York, 1906), pp. 8–9Google Scholar.

^{page 265 note 2} See various annual reports of the Baptist Missionary Society, the American Baptist Missionary Union, and the Foreign Christian Missionary Society for the years 1890 to 1909 in Missionary Herald, Missionary Intelligencer (Indianapolis), and Baptist Missionary Magazine.

^{page 265 note 3} The replies were reproduced some years later in Belgique judiciaire (Brussels), 8 02 1914, cols. 161–75Google Scholar.

^{page 266 note 1} Rev. Laman, K. E. at Mukimbungu, Report of the Second Conference of Missionaries of the Protestant Societies Working in Congoland. Held at Léopoldville, Stanley Pool, Congo State, January 28–31, 1904 (Bolobo, 1904), p. 29Google Scholar.

^{page 266 note 2} Grenfell to Denis, 28 March 1895, from Bolobo, quoted in Hawker, George, The Life of George Grenfell, Congo Missionary and Explorer (New York, 1909), pp. 389–90Google Scholar.

^{page 266 note 3} Bentley, op. cit. p. 271.

^{page 266 note 4} Report of the Fifth General Conference of Protestant Missionaries, 1909, p. 9, referring to Rev. T. Hope Morgan.

^{page 266 note 5} Rev. John Whitehead, in ibid. p. 10.

^{page 267 note 1} Recueil administratif, July 1907, p. 101.

^{page 267 note 2} It was not until the mid-1890s that the militia succeeded in expelling Arab political power from the eastern Congo.

^{page 268 note 1} For a summary of the regulations in effect on ‘orphans’, see Recueil administratif, 15 July 1907, pp. 69–70.

^{page 268 note 2} C. van Ronslé to a colleague, 29 January 1891, from Anvers, Nouvelle, Mouvement antiesclavagiste belge: revue africaine et congolaise, 05 1891, p. 228Google Scholar.

^{page 269 note 1} News notes in Mouvement des missions catholiques au Congo, March 1908, p. 32.

^{page 269 note 2} Laveille, op. cit. pp. 121, 138, and 334.

^{page 269 note 3} Cus, Father, undated, Missions belges, 07 1901, p. 274Google Scholar.

^{page 269 note 4} Smith, op. cit. pp. 159–60. It should be pointed out here that the Catholic mission in this area, the Sacred Heart Fathers, government officials, and Arab traders, all used Swahili.

^{page 270 note 1} Bula Matadi actually meant ‘rock-breaker’ in Kikongo. It was the name given to Stanley by the Bakongo when he began his road building, but later became the colloquial word for the colonial Government. Smith, op. cit. pp. 159–60; Wharton, Ethel Taylor, Led in Triumph: sixty years of Southern Presbyterian missions in the Belgian Congo (Nashville, 1952), p. 17Google Scholar; and Sadin, op. cit. p. 15.

^{page 270 note 2} Weeks, John H., Among Congo Cannibals (London, 1913), pp. 48–9Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 1} White Father Joseph Lenois, 8 May 1908, from Ngagesi, Missions des Pères blancs, September 1908, p. 257.

^{page 271 note 2} Rev. Whitehead, John, ‘Language’, in Report of the Second Conference of Missionaries of the Protestant Societies, 1904, p. 50Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 3} Stonelake, Alfred, ‘Missionary Situation in Congo’, in International Review of Missions (Geneva), VIII, 07 1919, pp. 327–8Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 4} Colonial Act, 18 October 1908, ch. 11, Article 3, Recueil usuel, Vol. VI, pp. 565–72Google Scholar. See legal commentary by Schmitz, L., Des Organismes sans but lucratif des cultes et des missions de l'enseignement en droit congolais (Extrait des nouvelles Corpus Juris Belgici) (Brussels, 1937), p. 91Google Scholar.

^{page 272 note 1} Kervyn, Edouard, ‘Les Missions Catholiques au Congo beige’, in La Revue congolaise (Brussels), 1912, pp. 299–300Google Scholar. The political fear continued; see belge, Congo, Ministère des colonies, La Réforme de l'enseignement au Congo belge, Mission pédagogique Couton-Deheyn-Renson. Rapport présenté à Monsieur le Ministre Auguste Buisserel, décembre 1954 (Brussels, 1954)Google Scholar.

^{page 273 note 1} Ibid. p. 231, and Ndoma, Ungina, ‘Some Aspects of Planning Language Policy in Education in the Belgian Congo, 1906–1960’, Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, 1977, pp. 3 and passimGoogle Scholar.

^{page 273 note 2} belge, Congo. Organisation de l'enseignement libre au Congo belge et au Ruanda-Urundi avec le contours des Socétés de Missions nationales (Brussels, 1929)Google Scholar, hereinafter referred to as 1929 Code.

^{page 273 note 3} van Hove, Julien, ‘L'Oeuvre d'education au Congo belge et au Ruanda-Urundi’, in Encyclopédie du Congo belge (Brussels, 1953), Vol. III, p. 755Google Scholar.

^{page 273 note 4} belge, Congo. Service de l'enseignement. Organisation de l'enseignement libre subsidié pour indigènes avec le contours des sociétés de missions chréiennes. Dispositions générales (Brussels, 1948), pp. 33–8Google Scholar.

^{page 274 note 1} 1954 Report, p. 235.

^{page 274 note 2} Scanlon, David G. (ed), Traditions of African Education (New York, 1964), pp. 147–8Google Scholar.

^{page 274 note 3} For a selection of views, see Coppens, Paul, ‘Les Missions du Congo vues par un laïque’, in La Jeunesse nouvelle (Brussels), 54, 2, 15 08 1924, p. 258Google Scholar; Rutten, Martin, ‘La Question des langues au Congo belge’, in Bulletin social belge d'études et d' expansion (Brussels), 40, 10 1922, p. 264Google Scholar; Schmitz, op. cit. p. 91, White Father Colle, ‘Étude des croyances nègres au point de vue de l'enseignement religieux’, and Jesuit, Father Vos, de, ‘Formation des missionnaires-prètres’, both in Oeuvres Casholiques au Congo. Vième Section. Rapports du Congrès Catholique de Malines, 23–26 septembre 1909 (Brussels, 1909)Google Scholar.

^{page 275 note 1} Ou en est l'enseignement au Congo? (Léopoldville, 1960), p. 7Google Scholar.

^{page 275 note 2} Le Manuel des instructions missionnaires (Léopoldville, 1930)Google Scholar.

^{page 275 note 3} Scanlon, op. cit. p. 147.

^{page 275 note 4} 1929 Code, p. 45.

^{page 276 note 1} Goetschalckx, P., Situation des écoles postprimaires pour autochtones, 1952–1953 (Léopoldville, 1953), pp. 3–79Google Scholar, and 1954 Report, p. 231.

^{page 276 note 2} 1954 Report, pp. 42 and 229.

^{page 276 note 3} For an analysis of ‘the myth of the Bangala’, see Young, Crawford, Politics in the Congo: decolonization and independence (Princeton, 1965), pp. 242–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Lemarchand, René, Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), pp. 127–39Google Scholar.

^{page 276 note 4} See Bokamba, Eyama G., ‘Authenticity and the Choice of a National Language: the case of Zaire’, in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences (Urbana), VI, 2, Fall 1976, pp. 23–64Google Scholar; also Adelman, Kenneth Lee, ‘The Recourse to Authenticity and Négritude in Zaïre’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XIII, 1, 03 1975, pp. 134–9Google Scholar, and more critically, Ghislain C. Kabwit, ‘Zaïre: the roots of the continuing crisis’, in ibid XVII, 3, September 1979, pp. 388–93.

^{page 277 note 1} Bokamba, loc. cit. p. 30.

^{page 278 note 1} Rutten reports, loc. cit. p. 263, that commercial firms in Katanga preferred to hire Africans from Rhodesia rather than employ Congolese, partly because the former spoke a European language.