[MISSIONS; AFRICA] Njembo

WEEKS, John H.; STAPLETON, Walter Henry; DODDS, C. J.; STONELAKE, Henry Thomas

A propos de cet article

Monsembe : Baptist Missionary Society, 1900. 'Imprimerie "Hannah Wade", Baptist Missionary Society, Bolobo, Haut Congo, E?tat Inde?pendant du Congo'(title page verso). Small octavo (174 x 121 mm), original pebbled red cloth over boards, upper board with stamped lettering and decoration in black; front pastedown with pencilled name of early owner Charles W. Carter, pp 79; text in Lingala; a very good copy; loosely inserted is a folded card inscribed in pencil: 'Congo Hymn-Book inLokeli Dialect. From Yakusu. Presented by Rev. Millman to C. W. Carter'. Hymns translated into Lingala by missionaries J.H. Weeks, W.H. Stapleton, C.J. Dodds, H.T. Stonelake and others. This association copy was given by English missionary Richard Millman,one of the most important figures at the Yakusu Mission in the Congo, to C. W. Carter, author of A half century of American Wesleyan Missions in West Africa (Syracuse, 1940). Lingala(Ngala) is aBantu languagespoken in what are today the northwest of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of theRepublic of the Congo, their capitals,KinshasaandBrazzaville, and to a lesser degree inAngola, theCentral African Republicand southernSouth Sudan. 'Yakusuwas a mission in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, on theCongo Riverjust west and downstream ofKisangani.TheBaptist Missionary Societymission was established between 1895 and 1896 at the highest navigable point of the Congo, just below the Stanley Falls. The Stanley Falls zone consisted of strips of land 20 kilometres deep along both banks of the Congo betweenStanley FallsandIsangi. It was declared a free trade zone, where the state abandoned its interests to private enterprise. The people of the region included theLokele,Turumbu, Bakumu, Wagenya, Bamanga and Tovoke. The mission embarked on a program of educating local people, who in turn became teachers in village schools. With high demand, often the education of the teachers had to be rushed. By 1905 the mission had 3,200 pupils at 70 rural schools in the zone. Initially, the mission was on good terms with the authorities. However, as their influence grew there were rumours that the British planned to take over the region. In January 1907 the governor-generalAlbert Lantonnoisordered the district commissioner of the Orientale Province to take vigorous measures to counter the influence of the Protestants. A medical mission hospital was built at the Yakusu mission in 1920. The hospital was designed by architect Arnold Chesterman and was led by his brother Dr.Clement Clapton Chesterman. Dr. Chesterman developed a network of community clinics staffed by Congolese to address the epidemic of sleeping sickness. The mission treated numerous tropical diseases. In 1938 with the work of Stanley George Browne it became a leprosarium. During the colonial era from the 1930s to the 1960s Yakusu was a center of missionary and medical activity. Nurses were trained as both evangelists and health assistants. In the early 1930s the localMbole peoplebegan to be pressed into working on plantations and building roads. The Yakusu doctors were no longer allowed to use porters, and instead took to motorbikes, while the nurses used bicycles. There was a leprosarium across the river atYalisombo.' (Wikipedia).

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [MISSIONS; AFRICA] Njembo
• Reliure: Couverture rigide