Formerly the term Bangala was applied only to those natives who lived at Diboko (Nouvelles Anvers), and for forty or fifty miles up and down the river on either side of them; but in a work published in Brussels called Les Bangalas,[[18]] the term Bangala is made to cover an area reaching far east of Bopoto, west of Equatorville, north of the Welle, and south of the Congo River for some distance. This includes a dozen or more different tribes, talking as many distinct languages, having various tribal marks, possessing in many instances very different customs, etc., and among whom there is nothing in common except their black skins and backwardness in civilization. Since seeing the above-mentioned book, I have preferred using Boloki as a more definite term for denoting the inhabitants of certain towns on the main river, on the Mobangi River, and the Libinza Lake. Intermixed with the Boloki towns on the Congo River are other towns belonging to a hinterland people well known to us as the Bomuna.
[18]. By M. Cyr. van Overbergh and M. de Jonghe.
The Boloki folk have very hazy ideas about relationship, and scarcely any two will give the same name to all the relatives, and, moreover, if you take a list of the names of relations from a young man and put it away for six months, and then ask the same lad about the same relations in the same order as before, with your list in front of you, he will give you another set of names that will not tally with your first one in several points. I have made many attempts to draw up a complete list,[[19]] and if I had been satisfied to take one man and examine him once only, I might have procured a list of the names of relations that would have been full, but it would have been inaccurate, i.e. it would have been that man’s list then, but it would not have been his six or eight months later, and it would not have been anyone else’s list even at the time he gave it to me. In this there was no desire to deceive us, for we found the same difficulty on the Lower Congo.
[19]. See Appendix, Note 4, page 342.
Among the Boloki there is no historical literature, for not a single member of the tribe could write until we taught them; but although there is no written history there has been much oral communication dealing with the origin of the tribe, the place from whence it came, the approximate time of the migration, and the reason for it. Their communications have been handed from father to son, and the facts have been the constant theme of fireside conversations.
The following incidents connected with the migrations of a large portion of the tribe from the low-lying Libinza Lake district to the main river I gathered from a man of about 35 years of age, of good intelligence, and I have every reason to believe that they are the putting together of what he frequently heard around the evening fires, as well as what he learned from his father. Besides, in chatting with other folk, I have gathered various particulars that confirm his statements, and the constant antagonism shown by the Bomuna people to the Boloki, and the geographical distribution of these two tribes, all go to prove the truthfulness the main facts of this page from native history.
Photo by: the AuthorA Monitor
These creatures are very scarce; but our lads killed this one, and brought it to me before cutting it up for the saucepan. It was 8 feet 7 inches long.
A Native Hut
A native house of the size and shape that we bought for 5s. 1d. The old man on the right illustrates a method of hair dressing—shaving the hair so as to show a very round face and high forehead.