There is a sequel to this story also, which I shall relate. This chief Esona, whom I flogged, announced a few days later that he was going to marry Sara. He already had seven wives, and the thought of such a marriage was repugnant to Sara. But she had no choice in the matter and was compelled to marry him. Polygamy is not always a happy institution, even in Africa. The seven wives were angry and jealous. Being powerless to injure Esona they avenged themselves upon Sara. One day shortly after the marriage, as she was walking along the street, they suddenly came running from their houses with knives and attacked her. They wounded her and would have killed her but she was rescued by some men who happened to be near. A woman costs money and her life may not be sacrificed wantonly.
Then these wives tried another expedient. Four women in succession, coming from different towns, visited Esona and solemnly told him that they had had a dream concerning him—all four of them in succession relating the same dream. They had seen Mb’Obam, Sara’s dead husband, who was very angry that Esona had married Sara, and threatened all kinds of plagues and finally death, if he would not put her away. A few days later their word was confirmed when five houses belonging to Esona were burned to the ground. They were perfectly aware that a certain young man of the town had accidentally let some live coals fall upon some dried thatch and the fire had started forthwith. Nevertheless, with one voice the people attributed the fire to Mb’Obam, and Esona in great fear, believing that his life might be the next forfeit, let Sara go. After a period of various trials and sorrows dire fortune at last relented and I was glad to learn that Sara was comfortably married to a Christian man.
One quiet day, as we were pulling up the river in the Evangeline, seventy miles from the coast, a man suddenly emerged from the forest and came rapidly towards us in a canoe. When he came near I recognized a Fang friend, a young man about twenty years old, named Ingwa, who had been one of my first boat-boys in the Evangeline, and who was a Christian. After a hearty greeting I said: “I am surprised to see you, Ingwa; I sent word to you long ago that I would like to have you again in the Evangeline, and I have not heard a word from you.” But, observing that he looked worn and sick, I asked him what was the matter; and he told me the following story: “A year ago I was married to a woman whom I had loved for a long time and who loved me. I paid the dowry and took my wife home. We both were very happy, for I loved only her and she loved only me. After six mouths her father and brothers agreed with another man to take her from me and give her to him, wishing to make friendship with his town. Her father invited her and me to visit him. During the night they suddenly rushed in upon us and made us prisoners. They tied my wife’s hands and led her away. Then they bound me, hands and feet, and put me into a canoe and pushed the canoe out into the current of the river. Far down the river towards the sea I was picked up by some people who knew me and were friendly. They set me free and I borrowed a paddle and reached my own town. But I could not stay there, it was so lonely; for my wife was gone and my heart was sick. They sent her to the other man’s town, but I knew that she loved only me. I hid in the forest near that town, but I could never see her. Six months I have been hiding in the forest, night and day, and I have been hungry, and sometimes sick. They know I am there and are trying to kill me. Her father sent word to me that he would pay me back the dowry; but I want only my wife. And surely God will help me; I will meet her again, and she will go with me. For I love only her, and she loves only me.” The story ended in a sob.
With a hasty good-bye he turned and sped towards the shore, while I sat, silently and with aching heart, watching, till the dark form was merged into the darkness of the forest and we saw him no more. But how changed was nature’s aspect! How different the impression of the hazy, languid atmosphere, the torpid life of bird and beast, the deep mystic forest with dark forms moving like phantoms to and fro, screened from the river by a heavy veil of vine and flower that hung from the tops of the trees and lay upon the water below; and behind the veil a real and tragic world of human suffering and breaking hearts!
Not long after this Ingwa, still watching and waiting in the forest, met his wife. They fled together, days and nights through the forest, until they reached a town far away, which Ingwa had once visited in trading for rubber and ivory and where he had made friends. There they were still living when I left Africa. A native trader afterwards visited that far distant town of the forest, and returning, brought me a message from Ingwa. The trader informed me also that he found the people of the town singing Christian hymns and praying, and that through the influence of Ingwa many had thrown away their fetishes and were followers of Christ.
XIV
A SCHOOL
The schools of the Congo Français are under the inspection of the government, and there is a law that the French language shall be the language of the school. It has been very difficult for an American mission to comply with this law, and when it was first enforced some of our schools had to be closed. It was mainly because of this difficulty that several stations on the Ogowé River were transferred to a French Protestant missionary society. Our missionaries then enlarged their work at Batanga, which is in German territory, and opened the several stations among the Bulu of the interior, a work that has greatly prospered. It was only a few years, however, until they were required to teach the German language in the schools; and the German law was as rigidly enforced as the French. There was also a similar law in the English colonies. This requirement had been regarded as unjust and as a great hindrance to the success of missionary work. Personally I have no quarrel with it in either respect, and I think that the mind of the whole mission in late years has undergone a change on that subject. Even if there were no such law, I believe that the ultimate success of the work would necessitate a European language; and that language must be and ought to be that of the governing power.
Of course the people of the various tribes must hear the Gospel preached in their own native tongue; as it was on the day of Pentecost, when every man heard the word in the language in which he was born. The itinerating missionary must use the native dialects. But when the native becomes a student, seeking more extensive and more accurate knowledge, the native dialect is beggarly and wholly inadequate. If ideas require words for their conception, then the paucity of words and the poverty of expression make it impossible for the student using the native language to think as it would be required of him in the class-room. The acquisition of French is a cultural factor to the African in a sense that it is not to the American. For most of the French words have no exact equivalent in his own language, and such words present new thoughts. Moreover, education introduces him to the world of books, and without the foreign language he is confined to the very few and meagre translations that missionaries may make into an obscure dialect of a small tribe.
The future of the boys also, their material welfare, depends largely upon the knowledge of a European language. It is not to be expected, and is no way desirable, that the boys of the schools should return home only to “sit for town” all their lives according to native fashion. Idleness is the devil’s opportunity; and those who have been in the schools invariably desire to work. For most of those in the French Congo work means employment with white men—the government officials or the traders—and in either case the knowledge of French is necessary. But others of these boys become catechists and ministers in after years and, as I have said, if these are to be educated they must know French. It is fortunate for the missionary teacher that the Africans are very apt linguists. They have but small talent for some studies; in mathematics they are usually stupid, but in the acquisition of languages they are scarcely surpassed.