Drums in the Darkness
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Journey. CANADA. (Congr^gatim!) of Transcontinental BOARD CHURCH AMERICAN UNITED Livingstone's the the A ••• DRUMS IN THE DARKNESS JOHN T. TUCKER, d.d. MEREN8KY-BIBLI0TEEK 1 - DEC. 1941 . UNIVER8ITEIT VA!I PRE1i j i. 2 Ktesnommentld^±-QA>\ Registtrr.ciTimer^.^S.3rf2 MORE ABOUT AFRICA you wish any of the books mentioned at the end of the chapters IF of Drums in the Darkness; you desire any other books on Africa, including the latest IF publications; you need Lantern Slide Lectures, Photographs, Enlargements, or IF pictures such as are used to illustrate Drums in the Darkness; you can use museum specimens or curios from Africa, together IF with typewritten, descriptive lectures; maps, blackboard and bulletin-board suggestions will help you in IF your study of Africa, or in teaching Study Classes on Africa; you would like to have letters written by our United Church IF missionaries in Africa; your Sunday School desires to secure graded literature and helps IF for each class for the study of Africa; you need pretty pictures, postcards, story books for the little IF folk, cut-out material and African games; your boys and girls are anxious for our new book, “Drum Calls IF from Africa”; a place for a beautiful picture of medical work in Africa can be IF found on the walls of your home or Sunday School; you desire a list of the names and addresses of The United Church IF missionaries in Africa; you desire Pageants, dialogues, impersonations and subjects for IF Debates; you will use an African Cycle of Prayer or a list of subjects for IF which to pray; you are pleased with Drums in the Darkness and wish to send IF the author a letter of appreciation; you have any suggestions, or reports of good meetings or successful IF methods or plans of work; you will help circulate Drums in the Darkness by purchasing it IF at a special wholesale price and giving it to friends and workers or by selling it at the retail price; you think we can help you or you can help us in any way; IF (See page 216) Write to F. C. Stephenson, Secretary Young People’s Missionary Education, 299 Queen Street West, Toronto 2, Ont. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Pretoria, Library Services https://archive.org/details/drumsindarknesssOOtuck The Rev. Walter T. Currie, D.D. Canada’s Pioneer in Angola. Died April 7th, 1915. DRUMS IN THE DARKNESS By JOHN T. TUCKER, d.d. THE STORY OF THE MISSION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA IN ANGOLA, AFRICA COMMITTEE ON LITERATURE, GENERAL PUBLICITY AND MISSIONARY EDUCATION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA F. C. STEPHENSON SECRETARY YOUNG PEOPLE’S MISSIONARY EDUCATION, WESLEY BUILDINGS, TORONTO COPYRIGHT, 1927. BY THE COMMITTEE ON LITERATURE. GENERAL PUBLICITY AND MISSIONARY EDUCATION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA DRUMS IN THE DARKNESS PRINTED AND BOUND BY THE RYERSON PRESS, TORONTO. CANADA TO THE PIONEERS: Some of whom Remain unto this present. But some Are fallen asleep INTRODUCTION This book is a remarkable record of the power of the Gospel as a redemptive force. It is also a tribute to the unremitting industry, infinite care, unfailing goodwill, and tactful leadership of the Christian missionary in dealing with primitive peo- ple, full of fear and prejudice. The writer is possessed of unusual qualifications for his task. For fifteen years he has laboured as a missionary of the Canada Congregational Foreign Missionary Society (now in the United Church of Canada), working through the American Board in West Central Africa, and is the Principal of the Currie Institute at Dondi, Angola, which position he has held since its establishment in 1914. He was appointed a member of the Phelps-Stokes Commis- sion investigating educational needs in West and South Africa; a member of the special commission of the American Board to negotiate on missionary matters with the Portuguese Government in Mozam- bique; and is Secretary of the Angola Evangelical Missions Conference, and Treasurer of the Angola Mission of the United Church of Canada. Dr. Tucker has done a large amount of literary work in the vernacular, and is a member of the Translation Board. Readers will be enlightened by the very large amount of information which the book contains, and their enthusiasm will be fired for the splendid work to which its writer and his associates are giving vii viii INTRODUCTION their lives. That knowledge and enthusiasm must find expression in service. E. C. Woodley, Last President of the Canada Con- gregational Foreign Missionary Society. P. M. Macdonald, Chairman of the United Church Committee on Literature and Missionary Education. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Mother Africa 15 II The Elephant Hunter’s People ... 34 III Rolling Back the Map 56 IV Bubbling Springs in Bie .... 75 V The Blacksmith’s Hammer .... 98 VI Days of Development 115 VII Daughters of Africa 136 VIII New Paths 152 IX Healing Leaves 171 X Doings and Dreams 187 Analytical Index 203 Suggested Study Helps ..... 207 ix ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Walter T. Currie, M.D Frontispiece Group of Ovimbundu—Interior of Ombala (Head Village) 42 The Town Crier 43 A Native Drummer 43 A Witch Doctor, Smelling Out a Case .... 43 A Native Village Near Chissamba .... 84 The Open Door—A Stockaded Village .... 84 A Native Woman Carrier 85 A Native Onjango (Palaver House) Near Chissamba . 85 A Class of Students 92 Pit Sawing at Camundongo 92 The Press 92 A Lesson in Domestic Science, Camundongo . 93 A Student Tailor 93 Preparatory School Girls 93 A Medical Case 110 Chief Kanjundu As He Was 110 Chief Kanjundu with Some of His People and Liberated Slaves After Conversion 110 Native Christian Elders Ill Plowing at Camundongo Ill xii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Fashions in Hair Dressing, Humbe Tribe . 142 An Ocim Vunder Girl 142 Graduation Day, Means Girls’ School, Dondi . 142 Modern Missionary Residences at Dondi, Built of Burnt Brick Made at the Mission . 143 Two Currie Institute Students 176 A Dormitory at Currie Institute. Bricks and Tile Made at Dondi 176 A Group of Students, Currie Institute, Dondi . 177 Native Headmen Visiting a Mission .... 196 Chissamba Hospital, Opening Day .... 196 A Native Ambulance 196 Bush Car Travel 197 Rev. W. C. Bell and His Ford 197 The Benguela Railway 197 DRUMS IN THE DARKNESS — DRUMS IN THE DARKNESS Chapter I MOTHER AFRICA A.D. 1482. The drum booms forth through forest and across river long into the night. The moon is full, “the shape of a mush-basket,” and its silvery- light invites to pleasure. “To revel underneath the moon and sleep beneath the sun” is appropriate to tropical climes, and natives to-night are in specially joyous mood. The simple harvest has been gathered, days of cruel, pinching hunger are for- gotten, and anxious thought for the morrow is drowned with ample portions of beer. “On with the dance, let joy be unconfined!” Their mouths wide open in deafening shouts, the dancers with regular beat of hands keep rhythm "frith the drums and shake the ground with the thumping of their feet. Dance follows dance without apparent pause. Faces and bodies are dissolved in sweat, and shak- ing bodies, almost naked, glisten in the moonlight. What matters such exertion? Thirst may be slaked at one of the immense pots of beer. The beer must be finished, for to leave any would be an insult to the providers and involve fetish complications, for the dance has ceremonial aspects as a harvest thanksgiving. The old chief, surrounded by his counsellors, sits in the palaver house talking of tribal matters and discussing the points of the dance. Into the midst 16 DRUMS IN THE DARKNESS of the old men rushes a youth, breathless with excitement. Strange-looking craft have appeared down the river. Before these ships their dugouts, made from forest trunks, were as insects! Great skins, too, were hung above the ships. “If the intruders are who? If they are who!” exclaims the lad. The dance ceases. The chief calls his drummer. “Order out the warriors from the villages,” he commands him. Another drum of far-sounding tone peals forth. The signals are heard. Obedience is instant. Fighters armed with spears and shields swiftly pass along the winding paths to the chief’s village. Positions are assigned and watch kept until the morning. In the light of dawn a spectacle wholly new to these Africans presents itself. No dugouts these, but great village-like hulls surmounted with sails on which marks are inscribed. It is the Portuguese Cross they see, but they understand not what it signifies. Diogo Cao, who set out from the Tagus in his hundred-ton ships some months before, has ploughed through unknown seas and now weighs anchor in the Congo—the great “gatherer of waters.” The Portuguese are welcomed. Presents and greetings are exchanged. Diogo Cao returns to the Tagus taking with him sons of the Congo chief and leaving Portuguese sailors as hostages. A new era for Africa has opened, destined to witness the trans- formation of the great continent from end to end. The Lure of Africa.—Why did ages pass before Africa’s mysteries and treasures began to be un- folded? From earliest times Africa lured men who sought to unravel her secrets. The ancients talked of the “mountains of the Moon,” supposed to cross from East to West of the continent. They debated the source of the Nile, that river-mother of ancient MOTHER AFRICA 17 peoples and civilisations, but all attempts to pene- trate the continent by way of the Nile failed. Trav- ellers could not cross the great masses of floating vegetation which blocked the river above Khartoum, turning the flat country into expansive lakes and morasses.