Iso La Bendele
We and the Whites
Considerations by Paul Ngoi on the traditional life of the Mongo and their confrontation with the Belgian colonization (1938)
PRESENTATION
by Honoré Vinck
The author of the text, Paul Ngoi (1914-1997) was one of the main informants of Edmond Boelaert (1898-1966; Congo 1930-1954) and of Gustaaf Hulstaert (1900-1999; Congo 1925-1990). At the time the Africa magazine (London) had programmed a yearly concourse for a literary composition in an African language. Under the influence of the latter, the lomongo had been indicated for the year 1939 as a language in which the texts could be presented. Under the impulse of his two mentors, Paul Ngoi participated with a manuscript relating in detail and with numerous comments the earlier traditions of the Mongo. He puts a particular accent on the period of the arrival of the Whites in his region, not fearing critical remarks not unlike those of Boelaert (see the bibliography.) At the time of the composition of the text the author was committed to the printing office of the Catholic Mission in Coquilhatville, up to then under the direction of Edmond Boelaert. The composition has not been crowned but received a honourable mention [Africa 12(1939)471-472 and Aequatoria 3(1940)30.]
Two copies of this text are in the archives of the Archdiocese of Mbandaka and a photocopy is integrated in the Aequatoria Archives in Bamanya. Another copy is kept among the Boelaert papers in the archives of the MSC-Congo in Borgerhout (Belgium). This one is not an original copy-carbon but has been retyped (44 pages in quarto to 37 lines the page). It carries several light corrections of linguistic and editorial nature. It is likely that this is the copy used for the composition of the manual of Frans Maes, or is this the original copy come out of the hand of Paul Ngoi in 1938 and corrected by Boelaert before its presentation to the concourse in 1939 ? I cannot decide the question because I don't have access anymore to the copy of Mbandaka. The corrections and the numbering of the paragraphs of the copy of Borgerhout are also nearly all introduced in the manual Bosako wa Mongo . In the copy of Borgerhout there are three pages of translation, probably from Boelaert who had begun a French translation (in 1959?) with the purpose to publish it (letter of the 14-12-1959 in: Arch. MSC-Borgerhout, Hulstaert papers.)
The French translation of Iso la Bendele was made in Bamanya in 1997 (on a copy of the Schoolbook Bosako wa Mongo) and was reviewed on a copy of Iso la Bendele kept in the diocesan archives in 1999 by the secretary of the Centre Aequatoria, Charles Lonkama, and reviewed a second time by myself in July-August 2000 (on the copy in lomongo of Borgerhout and the three there existing translated pages.)
Some additions have been made to explain the scientific terms in lomongo. They are put between square brackets [ ]. The botanical identifications are taken from G. Hulstaert, Dictionnaire Lomongo-Français, Tervuren 1957.
The translation from French to English is based upon the L&H Power Translator Pro 7.0 and consequent adjustments on the French and lomongo texts.
Two points remain especially important in this text:
(1) the testimony of a very good connoisseurs of the social institutions and customs of the mongo people in the moral and spiritual domain.
(2) the view of a colonized person on the colonial history.
One can ask how far the author has been influenced by the nativist and anti-colonialist ideology of Boelaert who has been his school director when the author was a teacher in the Junior Seminary in Bokuma (1931-1936).
The text is not deprived of internal contradictions.
In 1957 Father Frans Maes, Then director of the primary school of the Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB) in Flandria-Boteka, fully takes over the text (adding some paragraphs of other origins.) This manual of history was destined to the 5th and 6th years of the primary school (Bosako wa Mongo, History of the Mongo). This book has also been used in the school of Boende and has been divulged by the diocesan school inspection and by some persons responsible of other schools of the Catholic network of the diocese of Coquilhatville.
Honoré Vinck, Lovenjoel 29/08/2000
BibliographY
General literature
H. Vinck et Charles Lonkama, Tradition et modernité mongo. Bio-bibliographie de Paul Ngoi (1914-1997), Annales Aequatoria 19(1998)335-391
H. Vinck, L’enseignement de l’histoire au Congo Belge. Deux textes contradictoires, Annales Aequatoria 19(1998)167-194 [Presentation and french translation of chapter 7 to the pages 173-193]
H. Vinck, De studie van het schoolboek in Belgisch Kongo, Bulletin des Séances/ Mededelingen der Zittingen, Koninklijke Academie voor Overzeese Wetenschappen, Brussel, 2000 (to be published soon)
Publications of Paul Ngoi on the same subject:
Le veuvage chez les Nkundo, Aequatoria 4(1941)68-78
Jengi [dowry], Le Coq Chante 1948,88 et 94
La dot, Mbandaka 4(1950)3,21 janvier 1950, p.1
La limitation de la dot, Zaire 1950, 643-650
Nos palabres, Lokole Lokiso 1 septembre 1955, p.1
A qui cet enfant? Lokole lokiso 15 mai 1955, p. 1
Publications of E. Boelaert near to this text:
Hekserij bij de Nkundo, Kongo-Overzee 2(1935-1936)139-155 (summary of articles published in local magazines in Flanders)
De Elima der Nkundo, Congo 17(1936)I,42-52
Les épouvantails-amulettes, Congo 17(1936)I,677-679
Towa la bote o? [Shall we die by the fetishes?]Coquilhatville, Mission Catholiqiue, 1937, 64 pages
De rechtsproeven bij de Nkundo, Congo 19(1938)II,526-546
A set of articles (in Dutch) on the problem of the of the culture shock in Nieuw Vlaanderen 1939
Contemporary publications of G. Hulstaert on the problems evoked by P. Ngoi:
Coutumes funéraires des Nkundo, Anthropos 32(1937)502-527; 729-742
Les idées religieuses des Nkundo, Congo 17(1936)II,668-676
La réaction indigène contre le divorce, Congo 17(1936)I,11-26
Losilo jwa bonanga bokiso, [ The extermination of our country], Mbandaka 1937, 15 pages
Les sanctions coutumières contre l’adultère chez les Nkundo, Mémores de l’ I.R.C.B. Bruxelles 1938, 53 pages
Note: The texts published at Coquilhatville in local lomongo magazines are available (at the address of Aequatoria in Belgium) in photocopy or on microfilm. Several of these texts have been translated in French.
THE TEXT OF PAUL NGOI
We and THE WHITES
FOREword
The present booklet expresses our customs before the arrival of the Whites. Because, even at the present, most Whites think that our ancestors were very wild animals, without any morals, and with all kind of shortcomings, without any virtue. That is why the reader will find how our ancestors previously lived there, and how we are living now since the arrival of the Whites. It is only in this way that we shall be able to find out their thoughts.
The booklet is composed of two parts and six chapters. The first part speaks of activities of the ancestors before the arrival of the Whites. The second part speaks, of the arrival of the Whites and the violation of our customs.
Chapter 1:
1st The lies;
2nd The robbery;
3rd The laziness;
4th The lust;
In this chapter, you will read how the ancestors lived with these shortcomings.
Chapter 2:
1st The dowry;
2nd The woman;
3rd The polygamy;
4th About the woman's liberty;
5th The paternal authority,
6th Divorce and desertion of the marital roof.
This chapter speaks of the marriage.
Chapter 3:
1st The human sacrifices;
2nd Anthropophagy,
3rd The slavery,
4th The test of poison (ordeal),
5th The wars.
This chapter speaks of the domains in which the ancestors were badly organized.
Chapter 4:
1st The belief in God,
2nd The soothsayer,
3rd The sorcery,
4th The fetishes.
This chapter speaks of the beliefs of the ancestors.
Chapter 5:
1st The authority of the chief of the village,
2nd The judge's prerogatives,
3rd The right to punish a guilty party.
This chapter speaks of the common law.
Chapter 6:
1st The wars,
2nd The Rubber,
3rd The Damages caused to the villages and the law,
4th The destruction of the country,
5th The rejection of our culture,
6th The race for wealth and lust,
7th Our depopulation.
This chapter speaks of reverses of the order imported in our country by the Whites.
CHAPTER 1
1. LIES
The inclination to lie goes back at the time our ancestors. They didn't miss an opportunity to lie. But they didn't make it with effrontery. Thereby, some people didn't even practice it. In our culture lying has only one goal: to win a suit or to justify a non achieved promise.
It also arrives when two people fought. One party always accuses the other with exaggeration in order to get victory. The one that didn't provoke doesn't lie. He only tells the beginning of the disputes that degenerated in the fight. But the one that provoked the brawl, the one that began to hit another, made an untrue deposition so that the other part loses the suit.
The lies that we utter all the time, differ always depending on whether it is about a conversation or getting a favour. Those that lie by a conversation are only doing it for joking and to distract the company. But those that are to pity are those that deny the palavers that they provoked. The latter constitute a minority in relation to the common of mortals. Some people think up lies with the cunning to take advantage of others.
People who lie receive the nicknames corresponding to their obsession to lie. Is liar all person who lies both for serious or futile matters.
To be clever and astute are two different realities, but of the same application, because they concern the same person that uses lies to seize something that doesn't belong to him. It is similar with someone whose chicken is going to spend the night in a chicken yard of others. Having looked for in vain, the owner finally recovered it in presence of a witnesses. Passing no far from there, the owner perceives that his chicken is about to enter in the chicken yard of others. Without waiting, the owner of the chicken says what follows to the owner of the chicken yard: Here I recover my chicken that I was looked for. I want to take it and to bring it home. With ruse and malignancy, the owner of the chicken yard may retorts: "It is my chicken that I raised here ". Follows then a serious palaver, and the true owner may propose: "Let's go settle on the business by those that saw how I raised this chicken". Before the judges, the true owner of the chicken loses the suit. Such a man is really cunning. A similar man denies the facts of which he is guilty and imputes them to another person.
The source of the lies, are the fetishists, in this that they try by ruse to explain everything. Their fetishes are only lies.
Maybe that a reader believes or doesn't believe in the fetishes. As for me, I am going to tell you what I know personally in this domain. Indeed, the sister of a childhood friend suffered on the underbelly. One treated it a long time, without success. She knew very fortunately two months of recovery to the end of which she relapsed. The beverages she managed to swallow remained blocked in her stomach. She could not defecate nor could vomit in spite of other potions that one makes her swallow. Before this spectacle, some women informed her father and her mother of the existence of a fetishists in the vicinity, which fetishists, one says, knew how to heal this illness with success. And along the way the girl began to defecate and to feel relieved. She finally arrived at the fetishists in question. He asked the girl's father for fees; the father gave them to him. Thereon, he asked the father and the girl's mother to approach themselves to see what he was going to take out of their daughter's stomach, because a lot of people, he said, like to doubt uselessly. The parents didn't make themselves pushed and accepted to approach themselves. He took the leaves of the esankele-tree [bosankele: Caloncoba welwitschii(Oliv.) Gilg.] and put them on the girl's stomach. Then he said: "A man proposed the girl in marriage. But having been confronted by the girl's refusal, this man had introduced a piece of poisoned money in the girl's stomach, it is why she is suffering”. And he said again: "Another man that she refused put a magic animal in her stomach". He put all the leaves together that he had kneaded, and added: "You won't believe if I myself catch that of which I am speaking of. Then I will call someone among you to blow these rags that will help me to take what is in the girl's stomach”. On that, someone with whom he agreed previously presented himself and got to the work. In presence of the girl's parents, he had the things mentioned of the girl's stomach taken. He the bill and prescribed the (indigenous) medicines. Three months later, the girl relapsed. The fetishist interpreted it on his manner. He said that his fees were not paid sufficiently, and invented other lies. That is why we say that the fetishist is a liar. His acts testify to it. Although in earlier times there weren’t as much fetishists as now. A liar becomes sooner or later also a thief.
2. THEFT
In our custom, we call every bad habit that manifest a person "a defect". The worse defect is theft. The theft is shameful for the one that practices it. A man, however beautiful, if he is a thief, he won't have a wife. For a woman, it is similar, even being beautiful, she won't have a husband. This is the most humiliating of our shortcomings.