Black and white lantern slide showing a group of men, women and children, speakers of the Ngombe language. Members of the group wear both African and Western dress. An older Congolese man sits to the front centre of the image, wearing a white wide brimmed hat that singles him out from the group. The Ngombe-speaking people had a fearsome reputation amongst both neighbouring ethnic groups and European missionaries, as fierce warriors and cannabals. The caption of the slide refers to an expedition undertaken in 1891 by Harry Grattan Guinness (later founder of Regions Beyond Missionary Union) and John McKittrick, an early pioneer of the Congo Balolo Mission. The pair set out to explore lands north of Bondinga. They visited a sympathetic settlement, Bosi Dikolo, where they were asked to make a diplomatic trip to a neighbouring Ngombe speaking tribe at Bongwongo (Bongwonga). After an initially hostile reception at Bongwonga, all did seem well until the feelings of the local chief seemed to turn, and McKittrick and Guinness received news that they would be killed. McKittrick, Guinness and their party fled Bongwongo, firing their guns, with the hostile Ngombe people in pursuit. However, they safely returned to Bosi Dikolo, leaving the dispute in the hands of the State and the villages themselves. This slide comes from a collection generated by missionaries working for the Congo Balolo Mission, a mission begun in 1889 under the supervision of the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions that developed into the interdenominational evangelical mission Regions Beyond Missionary Union after 1900.
Format
lantern slides 8.2 x 8.2cm lantern slides photographs
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