Life on the Congo

by W. Holman Bentley

Among our hired labourers from the coast and elsewhere, we have often had in our gangs rascals making much fuss about their charms, and in consequence much feared by all their work-fellows. They were consulted by their mates in sickness, and demanded heavy pay for their advice. Then, because they were supposed to have such great powers for evil as well as for good, they would borrow money or goods, and no one dare refuse, or make them repay. They would need to be constantly propitiated, and thus one scoundrel would get eventually a large share of the wages of his mates. We could never get direct evidence or proof, and could not interfere; and as the payments would mostly be made after they had received their wages, and were beyond our reach, we had to know of the evil, but were powerless to check it.

This, however, is more a coast type. Those nearest to ‘civilization’ are far more superstitious, or rather make more use of superstitions, than the natives of the interior. But everywhere the same principles work in a variety of forms.

There are doubtless many simple folk who believe it all; many must, however, be consciously imposing on their fellows. To-day, even in England, there are people who would hesitate to take down the horseshoe which was put up over the doorway ‘for luck.’ Others still believe it unlucky to pass under a ladder. Dream-charms and fortune-telling have not yet disappeared from this Christian land.

There is an infinite variety of nkixi in Congo, almost anything may go towards their composition. Dry leaves, snakes’ heads, hawks’ claws, feathers, elephant’s skin, stones, seeds, nuts, beans, the horns of the smaller antelopes, but with all a quantity of red ochre. Pipeclay also plays an important part.

Images have been mentioned, not that they are idols, or more personal than bundles of mysteries; but just as children playing with clay would think first of making a little man, so Congos, often make little images, hideous, rudely carved, with perhaps a piece of looking-glass on the chest.

In some towns there may be seen a great image, under a sheltering roof, which represents the charm that protects the town. Children are placed under its protection by the payment of a fee to the Nganga, who weaves certain spells and makes certain articles taboo. In some places it is nlongo (taboo) to eat an egg, or a fowl, goat’s head, hippopotamus flesh, pork, yams, antelope flesh, rats, bananas. This taboo must be observed to insure the protection of the fetish; to break it would entail disease and death. Sometimes a town possesses an image-charm which will enable its doctor to find out thefts, and in consequence the people are afraid to steal. Talking with a man once about this ‘thief-medicine,’ he positively declared the truthfulness of the oracle. ‘Why, I was found out myself once,’ he said; ‘I went to Dedede’s town, and stole a piece of cloth from a man’s house. No one saw me, or had any means of knowing that I did it; and yet the thief-doctor found me out at once. What can you say after that?’

Often in the houses of the sick, the ‘medicine’ may be seen in one corner of the room, a dirty image and charms, bespattered with blood and chewed cola-nut.

So strong is the belief in the discerning power of these charms, that a thief will sometimes return what he has stolen, rather than incur the disease that might follow. I know a case in which a man lost something in a town. He paid a small fee to the thief-doctor, who arranged with his charms to curse the thief with disease if the articles were not restored by the next morning. The things appeared in due course, and were found lying in front of the door, having been returned during the night.

These charms are sometimes addressed and often scolded when they do not act as they ought; but even the images in no way take the places of idols, neither are they regarded as personalities or sentient beings. Any such address is only by way of apostrophe or ill-temper. Such a scene as that depicted in a recent work on The Congo, of a native prostrate praying to his fetish image, is altogether due to imagination and a graphic pen; such a thing we have never heard of, and it is contrary to radical principles.

A fetish, of whatever kind, is but a charm, and imports no more than is conveyed by that word. It is an appeal to the black art for protection and help, as they know nothing of a God who loves and cares for them, and with whom there can be any communication. The gospel of the love of God in its fullest revelation in Christ, and brought to bear upon their hearts by the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, is the only power which can lift these poor people out of their darkness and degradation, and satisfy the yearnings of their hearts.