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301
Congolese was that of child, disciple and apprentice. It was thus neces- sary to accept a missionary regime for a long period of time for the proc- ess of reaching spiritual maturity was slow. Neither from the point of view of the Congolese, nor from that of the missionary, did the father role have any humiliating connotations. 463
These questions are not asked in order to criticize because that would be to discredit all historic conditions given. Each generation has to take a stand and to act according to the given conditions and its acts will be judged accordingly. If we base ourselves on the given premises we reach the conclusi on that the missionaries did not go astray following the wrong way.464 It is interesting to compare the dilemma of the Protestant missions in the Congo, trying to establish autonomous native Congolese churches and thereby making themselves redundant, with the Roman Catholic Church which through its co nnections with Rome was from the very beginning a between Belgium and the Holy See concerning the Catholic Missions in the Bel- gian Congo (La Nouvelle Convention entre la Belgique et le Saint Siège, concer- nant les Missions Catholiques au Congo Belge) where it is seen that the solu- tion from 1953 for that Church was a new convention with the col onial power and not a convention with the Congolese themselves. With the independence of the Congo in 1960 the process turning the Pro- testant missions in the Congo into autonomous churches was accelerated. With today's time perspective in mind it is however strange that it had to should be working - in o rder to become superfluous here" to become real- ity. A new convention between Belgium and the Holy See was signed in Brus- sels on December 8th 1953, ratified by the Chamber of Representatives in

Brussels on March 11th

1954.
465
The last convention between Belgium and the Holy See had been signed in 1906 in the days of the Free State of the Congo. At that time the activities 463
465
The Brussels Archives, Série 13, volume 20 et Série 17, volume 35.

take 80 years for Nils Westlind's idea from 1876 "we are working - and native" Church in the Congo. See below the section on The New Convention "

302
kind" but now, with the new convention, the presence of a large Catholic Church in the Congo was acknowledged. It was claimed that the growth of the work within the Colony and the new conditions justified this new con- vention. The Secretary General H. Wakelin Coxill from the Brussels Bureau writes the following among other things in a commentary on the new convention to the Minister of Colonies in Brussels: Many Belgian socialists and liberals in the Parliament have opposed the ratification of this convention. Some people say that the Catholics took advantage of the fact that the new government is a Catholic one (PSC) in order to address this convention before there was a change of govern- ment at the next elections. They fear that through this convention the Bel- gian and Congolese Governments commit themselves to paying lavish and unpredictable sums of money to the Catholic Church and to their missions and they also see the danger of this convention making the

Catholic Church the State Church of the Congo

[...] They do not like the article nr 21 stating that the Chief Chaplain of the Congolese Army re- ceives his jurisdiction directly from the Holy See. van Bilsen thirty-year-plan was the date marking the beginning of the in- when the colonial power found itself facing the final phase of this indepen- dence struggle. Patrice Lumumba, who was to become Congo's first Prime Minister in

1960, had taken part in the All-African People's Conference in Accra, Ghana in

December 1958. Ghana, with its President Kwame Nkrumah, was a model country in Africa at that time. Ghana was the first country on the continent south of Sahara to become independent. By pure chance Lumumba got the opportunity to go the Conference where he met - and was strongly influ- enced by - among others Frantz Fanon and Ahmed Sékou Touré. Coming back to the Congo he brought with him a fresh vision of the work towards Congolese independence. On December 28 th

1958 he orga-

nized a rally where he presented his new ideas to thousands of Kinshasa inhabitants. Kasa-Vubu, who having failed to get permission to go to Accra by the

Belgian Colonial authorities, was spurred on by Lumumba's success and in dependence struggle in the Congo, then January 4 1959 was the day

th

If August 23

rd

1956, when Kasa-Vubu published his manifesto against the

of the Roman Catholic Church in the Congo were only "of a missionary 303
order not to lose ground in the political duel, wanted to organize a similar rally for his ABAKO supporters. This rally was to be held on the 4 th of January 1959 at the YMCA centre in Kinshasa, but the Belgian authorities prohibited the holding of the rally. The Attendant was not allowed to speak. This ban resulted in a rebellion by the people having intended to people passed through the city, looting and vandalizing. But according to hearsay only schools, dispensaries and buildings belonging to the State or to the Catholic Church were vandalized. No Protestant buildings were touched which made the authorities accuse the Protestant missionaries of supporting the Congolese. At this rebellion 49 Congolese were killed by the police and the army but the death toll was probably considerably higher. The number of dead amounted to between 300 and 400. death blow was also directed towards the Belgian colonial power. The Bel- gians got cold feet and a little more than a year later, on June 30 th

1960, the

Congo became a free nation.

ready mentioned several times the historical survey I have written is only a synopsis of the relationships between the five actors in the Congo. This special event, on January 4 th

1959, which came to be the prelude of the in-

dependence one and a half years later, is remarkable because it says some- thing about the relationships between the actors. If the story is true, why were the buildings of the Protestants spared in Kinshasa on that Sunday,

January 4

th 1959?
For the history of the Christian Church in the Congo it is interesting to look into events like this one before all eye witnesses are gone. My work on the Brussels Archives is part of that research and an encouragement to to- day's Congolese researchers to take care of the present time and interview witnesses before it is too late. The civil wars and rebellions in the Congo during the period stretching from 1960 to 1965 are well known, often spoken about and documented in writing. The country celebrated its independence on June 30 th

1960, but

only some days later, on July 5 th , the Congolese Army started a mutiny at the large military camp of Mbanza Ngungu (Thysville). This became the prelude to the Congo Crisis which lasted until November 24 th

1965 when,

rebellion spread all over Kinshasa. Great crowds of attend the rally and On that day, January 4 1959, Congolese people died, but that day the th

January 4

th , Martyrs' Day, is a bank holiday in the Congo. As I have al- 304
in a coup, Mobutu declared himself leader of the country. The Congo now power as a dictator for 32 years up to 1997. If we reverse the figures we find that Leopold II was in power for 23 years. Not even a week after the mutiny at Mbanza Ngungu, on July 11 th 1960,
Moise Tshombe declared Katanga independent of the Republic of Congo. The high finance and the Roman Catholic Church in Katanga supported Tschombe's declaration. In September 1960 President Kasa-Vubu deposed his Prime Minister Lumumba who was assassinated in Katanga on January 17 th 1961.
The UN intervened and UN troops took part in the battles in the follow- accident near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, not far from Lubumbashi (Elisa- other Congolese, 179 Catholic missionaries and nearly 40 Protestant mis- sionaries and missionary children were indiscriminately killed during the years 1962-1964 by guerrilla soldiers. Terror held the Congo in a frenzied grip of insanity during the years 1960-1965. Again I refer to the excellent book written by Georges Nzongila-Ntalaja The Congo from Leopold to Kabila for the reader wanting to know more about this part of Congo history. On January 1st 1962, twenty catholic missionaries from the Order of the Holy Ghost were killed at Kongolo in the north of Katanga by cannabis drugged murderers, in a great avenue of mango trees leading to the Lualaba River. Their mutilated bodies were thrown into the river - twenty

Belgians of Flemish, Brussels and Walloon origin.

Later in the 1960s a Memorial Roman Catholic Chapel was built at Gen- tinnes some 40 km southwest of Brussels where some of these catholic mis- sionaries had studied at the school of the Order of the Holy Ghost estab- lished there in 1903. Before the memorial was built, however, additional martyrs fell in 1964, among them the well known Dr. Paul Carlson, from the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church, USA. More than 40 protestant missionaries were killed. During these years hundreds of Congolese Chris- tians, many of them pastors and teachers and their families, were also killed by the Congo rebels. The Fathers working and living in Gentinnes found it impossible not to include all these people at this Memorial. All the got its second Leopold" who was to govern the country and misuse his "

1961. Hundreds of Congolese intellectuals and

th bethville) on September 18 305
names could not be written on the exterior wall, next to the entrance of the chapel but all were included - Catholics and Protestants, black and white.

The Gentinnes Memorial was inaugurated on May 7

th , 1970. Oscar Sten- cutting from a newspaper gives the following agenda : "An open air Mass will be held by Cardinal Suenens assisted by a black tary General of Protestant Missions; the black catholic victims will be hon- oured by Célestin Mubengayi." The newspaper adds: "For the first time in Belgium there is a memorial joining Protestants and Catholics, united in death in a brotherly way. [...] The Republic of Congo has provided the gran- ite for the altar and the wood for the benches: a poignant tribute to the

Congolese victims

466
466

Brussels' Archives, Série 17, volume 54.

priest, representing the Congolese Church [...] During the ceremony, the

306 306

Rév. Josef Nsumbu, Docteur en théologie, lors de la cérémonie de la promotion des Docteurs à l'Université d'Uppsala en 1995. Josef Nsumbu est le premier pasteur congolais à avoir soutenu sa thèse de doctorat devant une université suédoise. Ici, accompagné de son épouse Élisabeth Nsumbu et de ses fils, Bazola, Tutonda, Rev. Josef Nsumbu, Th.D, at the conferring of his doctor's degree at the University of Uppsala in 1995. Josef Nsumbu is the first Congolese pastor to be awarded a doctor's degree at a Swedish university. Here he is seen together with his wife Eli- and his elder brother Bernard Nsumbu. 307
Série 1 : Fédération des Eglises Protestantes 1954-1959 volume 1: 1 Fédération des Eglises Protestantes de Belgique 1954-1959 Série 2 : Foyer Africain David Livingstone 1960-1971 volume 2: 1 Foyer Africain David Livingstone 1960-1963 volume 2: 2 Foyer Africain David Livingstone 1963-1964 volume 2: 3 Foyer Africain David Livingstone 1965-1966 volume 2: 4 Foyer Africain David Livingstone 1967-1971, 1965

Série 3 : Comités Divers 1948-1968

volume 3: 1 Comités Divers 1948-1960, 1957-1961

1. Croix-Rouge du Congo 1948-1960.

2. Fonds Reine Elisabeth pour l'Assistance Médicale aux Indigènes du

Congo Belge FOREAMI 1957-1961

volume 3: 2 Comités Divers 1950-1968

1. Fondation Père Damien pour la lutte contre la Lèpre FOPERDA

1961-1968

2..Fonds Reine Elisabeth pour l'Assistance Médicale aux Indigènes du

Congo Belge FOREAMI 1950-1962

3. Congo REIF, EPI, MBN, Père Damien, Bureau Londre, EFMA 1958-

1966
volume 3: 3 Comités Divers 1952-1962

1. Comité Grande-Bretagne Congo 1952-1961

2. Comité Amérique - Congo 1955-1962

volume 3: 4 Comités Divers 1950-1963

1. Comité Amérique - Congo (1950) 1959-1964

2. Conference of Missionary Societies Edinburgh House 1961-1963

3. Bruxelles Bureau février 1955 - décembre 1957

4. International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa

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