CHAPTER VI.
Cannibalism, Freemasonry and Charms.
Cannibalism is not met with on the Congo until we ascend almost to Stanley Pool. The first tribe of the Bateke—the Alali—on the north bank, are said to eat human flesh sometimes, but only those who have been killed for witchcraft. The Amfuninga, or Amfunu, the next tribe of Bateke, are also credited with the same vice. It is only a report; we have no evidence of the fact. From Bolobo (2° South lat.) upwards it is known to be a custom. White men have had to witness the cutting up of victims, being powerless to prevent the act. When remonstrated with, the natives have replied, ‘You kill your goats, and no one finds fault with you; let us kill our meat then.’ When eating their ghastly meal, the parents give morsels of the cooked flesh to the little ones, to give them the taste for such food.
Why they eat human flesh it would be difficult to say. Tribes towards the east coast eat their enemies that they may gain their strength and courage, and it is probable that some such notion underlies the custom on the Upper Congo. We hope to settle among these folk soon, and may get to understand the reasons.
It is customary on the upper river to bury—sometimes alive—slaves or wives of a deceased chief. This is done that he may not appear without attendants in the spirit world.
‘The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.’
There are two customs which prevail through the country—Ndembo, and another, very much like Freemasonry, called Nkimba.
In the practice of Ndembo, the initiating doctors get some one to fall down in a pretended fit, and in this state he is carried away to an enclosed place outside the town. This is called ‘dying Ndembo.’ Others follow suit, generally boys and girls, but often young men and women. Most feign the fit; but sometimes, when it has become the fashion, others will be attacked with hysteria, and so the doctor gets sufficient for a wholesale initiation, twenty or thirty, or even fifty.
They are supposed to have died. But the parents and friends supply food, and after a period varying, according to custom, from three months to three years, it is arranged that the doctor shall bring them to life again. The custom is not only degrading, but extremely mischievous in its results. So bad is it, that before we reached San Salvador the king of Congo had stopped the custom in his town; and others had followed suit in neighbouring districts, giving the reason that it was too vile to be continued.
When the doctor’s fee had been paid, and money (goods) saved for a feast, the Ndembo people are brought to life. At first they pretend to know no one and nothing; they do not even know how to masticate food, and friends have to perform that office for them. They want everything nice that any one uninitiated may have, and beat them if it is not granted, or even strangle and kill people. They do not get into trouble for this, because it is thought that they do not know better. Sometimes they carry on the pretence by talking gibberish, and behaving as if they had returned from the spirit world. After this they are known by another name, peculiar to those who have ‘died Ndembo.’ There seems to be no advantage accruing to the initiated, the license and the love of mystery seem to be the only inducements. We hear of the custom far along on the upper river, as well as in the cataract region.
The Nkimba custom is an introduction from the coast of comparatively recent times. The initiatory fee is paid (about two dollars of cloth and two fowls), and the novice repairs to an enclosure outside of the town. He is given a drug which stupefies him, and when he comes to himself he finds his fellow Nkimbas wearing a crinoline of palm frondlets, their bodies whitened with pipeclay, and speaking a mysterious language. Only males are initiated into this rite, which is more like our own Freemasonry. Living apart for a period, varying from six month to two years, he acquires the mysterious language, and at the end of his time he is reckoned a full brother, Mbwamvu anjata, and all Nkimbas in all districts hail him as a brother, help him in his business, give him hospitality, conversing freely with him in the mystic language. It is no gibberish, as that attempted by the Ndembo folk, but until quite lately no white man could get any collection of words. I have, however, been able to get over two hundred words and forty sentences; and while still unable to understand thoroughly the principles on which it has been made up, it is evident that it has been made. The vocabulary is limited, and is characterised by the system of alliteral concord. Some words are slight changes of ordinary Congo, and others bear no resemblance.