05/03/2006 My uncle is a man,
big, strong, enjoyed a good fight as a boy, had too much energy,
wanted to become a professional boxer or cyclist
but somehow ended up joingning a Roman Catholic missionary congregation
called Congregatio Immaculatae Cordis Mariae,
better know as the Scheutists or Paters van Scheut.
The congregation was founded by Teophiel Verbist
who went to inner Mongolia in 1865,
missonaries on horse back.

My uncle took the boat to Congo in his mid twenties, in '53,
some 70 years after the first Scheutist,
some 500 years after the first Portuguese
who started out with their non-violent intermarriage christianisation.
Close to the ecuator my uncle not only taught christianity to the local population but also math.
In the early sixties he remained two weeks a captive of the 'rebels',
but still went back for another tour in '62.
He finally came back with many fine stories
and some that remain untold till today.
My uncle also brought back exotic weaponry.

Visiting him on Sundays in the elderly home of his congregation,
I started nosing in their library.
I find out we own
a mbili ngiaka, from the Ngbaka tribe in the Ubangi province (North from where he was based),
typically part of the bridal treasure.
A Kuba short sword, the one every Kuba man was carrying
A ngulu or executioners sword, crafted by the Ngombe or Doko,
probably just used for dances by the time my uncle acquired it,
but back in 1910 it would have been worth two 30 kilo ivory elephant teeth.
And a throwing knife, also crafted by the Ngombe or Doko.

Originally these objects were used for hunting, warfare and executions,
some of them mutated into currency and or ceremonial objects
but by the time my uncle arrived, white man had enforced his own currency and religion,
so as my uncle claims they were lying unused in the corner of some caban.
To my surprise he had never heard of the throwing knife,
so I tried this one out in the garden:
it circles like the best thing you've ever seen in a martial arts movie.
It has a long central-african history and an extensive variety of shapes.

Just as my uncle remained ignorant of the throwing knife
-it seems standard policy to stay away from the home culture-
I know close to nothing about the history of our former colony.
Except that they were of course underdevelopped, constantly at war
and suffering from gruesome raids by Arab slave hunters.
L'homme blanc a apporté la paix, white man brought peace,
is still our best excuse for exploiting Africa's 2nd or 3rd biggest nation.
But it seems white man in his hunger for slaves and gold
already started disrupting Central Africa from the 16th century on.
A time when some parts just were just settling after major migrations
while other parts knew their final kingdom,
in the case of the bakubas, with a 1000 year history.
A (hi)story basically untold in my country.

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© photo Peter Mertens