General Synod
Chapter IV.
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AFRICA
|The Land.| The continent of Africa has been likened to a great ear which waits upon the word of the rest of the world. It is enormous in extent, its area being nearly twelve million square miles. If a line should be run east and west a little north of the Equator, the northern section would enclose all North America, the southern section all Europe. The coast line is low, and the country near the coast unhealthy; the interior is high, composed of vast table lands and mountain ranges. The Congo River, which is said to be thirty times the size of the Mississippi, rushes to the sea over gigantic waterfalls and through deep-cut channels which are almost unfathomable. Besides the Congo there are three other large rivers, the Niger, flowing toward the west, the Nile, toward the north, the Zambesi toward the east.
|The People.| It is estimated that the native population of Africa numbers about one hundred and seventy-five millions. Among this vast throng there is the widest diversity of character, religion and speech. Beside the negroes there are millions of Arabs, Copts, Berbers and Moors. One of the better tribes of negroes, the Kondes of Central Africa, is described by a Lutheran missionary. “You can hardly imagine, for Africa, anything more idyllic than a Konde village. First, well-tilled fields announce that it is near; then we often see a widely-extended banana grove. The dwelling houses are often so neat and clean that they would draw attention even in Europe. The people are strong and of muscular build, their color is dark. You notice among the men many whose features speak of reflection. They are sober and honest. There appears, therefore, to be such a soil for the diffusion of the Gospel as is seldom found.”
Of the worst tribes it is difficult to speak or write. Their degradation seems to put them below the level of the beasts. Indescribable practices, cannibalism and slavery are common. A member of the Congo medical service said of that section of the country: “At N’Gandu, we found that the chief had gathered together about ten thousand cannibal brigands, mostly of the Batatela race. Through the whole of the Batatela country for some four days’ march, one sees neither gray hairs, nor halt, nor blind. Even parents are eaten by their children on the first sign of approaching decrepitude. N’Gandu is approached by a very handsome pavement of human skulls, the top being the only part showing above ground. I counted more than a thousand skulls in the pavement of one gate alone. Almost every tree forming the fortification was crowned with a human skull.”
Commenting upon the conditions in which many Africans live, a missionary says that “when eleven men, women and children, and seventeen goats live together in a hut seventeen feet square, it is difficult for the flowers of love and tenderness to flourish.”
If we wait for evolution to raise these poor people, we will wait forever. Fortunately, here and there, another theory of human development has been applied with magical results.
|The African Woman.| A student of Africa and the Africans has seen in the shape of the continent the figure of a woman with a huge burden on her back, looking toward America. If it is true that “the index of civilization of every nation is not their religion, their manner of life, their prosperity, but the respect paid to women”, then we need seek no further for proof of the sad degradation of the Dark Continent. Bought and sold, rented or given away, living in polygamy or worse conditions, “she is the prey of the strong, her virtue is held of no account, she has no innocent childhood, motherhood is desecrated, and when she wraps vileness about her as her habitual garment, it is encouraged.” In the words of Doctor Dennis, “she is regarded as a scandal and a slave, a drudge and a disgrace, a temptation and a terror, a blemish and a burden”. It is far easier for an African to accept the Gospel for himself than to believe that it is intended also for women. Doctor Day describes the vigorous driving away of the women from his services by the headman or “king-whip” who laid about him briskly as he cried out, “This God-palaver is not for women!”