Colonial ethics: "The school of Coquilhatville" (1937-1960) / By Honoré Vinck

Note: biographies and bibliographies of most of the figures mentioned in this text can be found in the section 'Bio-bibliographies of people'.

The city of Mbandaka (up till 1969, 'Coquilhatville') is located on the intersection of the geographical equator and the Congo river. During Belgian colonization, Coq, which was first named 'Equateurville' to receive the name 'Coquilhatville' in 1891, stayed more or less out of reach of the major axes of colonial development within the Belgian Congo. Nevertheless, between 1937 and 1960, it was the source of a host of publications, expressing avant-guard ideas on the detrimental social implications of colonization. Among these publications were magazines published by Catholic missionaries, some of which were destined to the Europeans (such as La Page Chrétienne, Pax and Aequatoria) while others were to be read by the Congolese (Le Coq Chante, Efomesako, Etsiko, Lokole Lokiso). Both attracted a number of collaborators of various backgrounds. Aequatoria, a scholarly publication, had an important national and international audience, the others were of local disclosure. But all were controlled in the same sense by the same people: Edmond Boelaert and Gustaaf Hulstaert. The local publications served the popularisation of the ideas of these 'leaders', with the very active collaboration of an important number of Congolese, while Aequatoria acted in a way as the 'colonial conscience' of certain colonizers. The philosophical and political choice of all was clear: civilization and evangelisation had to be based on a rigorous respect of the local people, their languages and their cultures. This 'indigenist' stance can be called, with the benefit of hindsight after more than half a century, the "School of Coquilhatville".
The ultimate person 'responsible' of the whole enterprise was Msgr E. Van Goethem. He was himself an eminent "indigenist" in his thinking but he opposed the expression of "School of Coquilhatville", and found it conceited.

CRITICAL TO COLONIAL POLITICS

It wasn't self-evident for clergymen to take on a political position critical of the authorities. There was the resistance on behalf of the "Superiors". The bishop hesitated and opposed the idea of Boelaert to use Aequatoria as a war song.
In 1945, the Apostolic Delegate in the Belgian Congo, Giovanni Dellepiane, suspended Aequatoria for its so-called propaganda for "the turpitudes of the heathenism". But some years later Boelaert began to denounce "the turpitudes of the colonization". In the meantime a big number of colonial political topics passed in the columns of Aequatoria: fundamental rights, depopulation, school education, linguistical politics, polygamy, dowry, civilization.
Between 1951 and 1959 Hulstaert published yearly excerpts of the program-speeches-of the Governor General of the Belgian Congo, which included some very critical remarks. Towards independence (1960), Hulstaert felt that he was going to lose his right to speak and he wrote to Boelaert in Belgium "We must be very prudent and avoid political topics" (28-5-59).

1. THE PROTAGONISTS

A large number of people, of various horizons, all honestly committed to a moralization of the colonization, expressed themselves in Aequatoria. The first to present themselves beside the missionaries were magistrates, then some administrators, finally a colonist, and with the approach of the independence, some "évolués".

"THE LINGUISTS AND THE ARTISTS"

"In Coquilhatville, there are only the artists and linguists". By this joke assigned to Mgr Van Goethem (EB to GH, 7-9-1937), the constellation of a concentration of remarkable men was characterized, by their unit of vision, by their engagement and by the wealth of their talents.
It is Boelaert who "invented" Aequatoria. By his capacity for sharp analysis, he had better seen the implications of some colonial problems than the bishop and the superior did. Hulstaert was attracted by its impetus: decline in the birth rate, the indigenous land rights, were questions first advanced and then better studied by Boelaert than by Hulstaert. Both were convinced that the linguistic question, Lomongo against French and Lingala, is the core problem of their vocation as "civilisers". The linguistic and literary research will remain their first preoccupation.
Hulstaert "discovered" Paul Ngoi (1924-1997) in the Junior seminary of Bokuma in 1934. They only separated in the 1970s. Paul Ngoi was Hulstaert's most important informant in Mongo linguistics and oral literature. Innumerable notes by Hulstaerts, on which he based his based his Lomongo Dictionary and the Grammar, testify to this. Paul Ngoi answered Hulstaert's idea of the "truly modern African" (évolué): respect for his own language, and love for his culture and history... and being a convinced Christian. Hulstaert's idea of an évolué was quite opposite to the mainstream, colonial idea of an évolué, which had an African who had completely assimilated Western culture in mind. Augustin Elenga (1920-1986) worked during many years on Hulstaert's side. He was his informer-secretary.
Hulstaert greatly encouraged Albert De Rop in his African studies (1950-56). He knew him from Bokuma as a colleague and until 1946 as his Religious Superior.
One can count Father Joris Van Avermaet among Hulstaert's best friends, whom he consulted in all business concerning Aequatoria. Van Avermaet left the colony precociously (in 1947) and would then be Hulstaert's contact in the Belgian African Linguistics Commission (Tervuren). Frans Maes followed him of little. He was the promise. He had studied pedagogy at the University of Leuven and started immediately to work: educational investigations in the schools, redaction of new style schoolbooks, learned publications on problems of an African pedagogy. Gust Wauters on his side, prepared a survey on the Pygmy of the Mongo region, fruit of his engagements for this marginalized group. He published some large excerpts.
The artists were; Alfons Walschap, Paul Jans and Jules De Knop for music, Jos Moeyens, Jos Yernaux, Petrus Vertenten, Raymond Carlé and Edward Van Goethem for drawing and painting, the same Walschap and Vertenten, for literature, Sister Auxilia and Brother Herman for the production of oratories and spectacles of dances in Bamanya.

"THOSE THAT ARE INTERESTED IN THE COLONIAL STUDIES"

Hulstaert contacted the authors of articles or books for an exchange of ideas or to polemize. He was thus in the epicentre of a current of critical ideas on the colony.

Missionaries

By an epistolary exchange between January 1944 and the beginning of 1945, Hulstaert accompanied Placied Tempels in the writing of his Bantu Philosophy. He began in unison with him to finish nearly in total dissension. But by intellectual honesty, he accepted to publish in Aequatoria the introductory chapter of the Bantu Philosophy.
Basiel Tanghe, the "indigéniste" bishop of Molegbe, big sympathizer of Hulstaert, is one of pioneers of the study of the peoples of the Ubangi, but he also introduced Lingala in his Secondary School. His confreres, Vedaste Maes and Rodolf Mortier, produced meticulous research on the same group and published in Aequatoria.
Jozef Van Wing, the eminent Jesuit of the "Etudes Bakongo", never published in Aequatoria, but remained for Hulstaert the man to consult. Vaast Van Bulck, presented himself as very committed to the Aequatoria ideals, and was to a certain moment member of the editorial board of Aequatoria.
John Carrington, of the Baptist Missionary Society, maintained a long epistolary exchange with Hulstaert and John Davidson, Protestant pastor at the Ngombe, published also several articles in Aequatoria.
Leo Bittremieux, Scheutiste, representing a Kikongo and a flamingantism pure, was a sister soul. They enter into the same fight and meet the same difficulties. A remarkable epistolary exchange awaits editing and publication. Raf Van Caenegehem, the youth friend of Hulstaert, was a fruitful publicist on the Baluba, committed collaborator of Aequatoria. Tormented as he was by his "colonialist environment", he has to leave it. Jules De Boeck, superior of the Missionaries of Scheut in Inongo during the forties, was ready to accept Lomongo as language of the teaching and the church in the region of the Ekonda, Bolia, Basengele, Ntomba, but the bishop of Léopoldville, Mgr Six, prevents it. Other Scheutists publish in Aequatoria and discuss with Hulstaert, for or against his theories, among them: Percy De Witte (Kesakata) and Hugo Rombauts (Lokonda) of which we kept the long and instructive correspondences. Later, the professional missionary-linguist, Leo Stappers entered into the same way.
When in 1951 Albert Maus (ex-Scheutiste and correspondent of Hulstaert for a long time) was elected president of the Federation of the Colonists of Congo and Ruanda-Burundi, Hulstaert wrote to him: "Not every body is the president of an important association as yours that has a lot to say. To speak honestly, I fear for the harmonious future of Congo. I believe that your desire to remain devoted to the Blacks is sincere, but I don't believe in the possibility to avoid the racial conflicts with the constitution of a class of colonists" (Letter of 9-9-1951).
At the Ndengese, there is Alfons Goemaere who shows an efficient sympathy for the ideas and (linguistic) propositions of Hulstaert.
The neighbouring diocese of Basankusu, under the responsibility of the Missionaries of Mill Hill, sheltered a good part of Mongo next to Ngombe and Bongando. Some missionaries (e.a; Hartering, Rood, Heyboer and Harry Van Thiel) were very sympathetic to the views and the practices of Hulstaert and collaborated to Aequatoria and to Le Coq Chante.

Magistrates, Administrators, colonists

Hulstaert considered Emile Possoz as co-founder of Aequatoria. They wrote some texts under the pseudonym ND. [Nous Deux, Us two]. Emile Possoz was the curious "Substitut du Procureur du Roi" in Irumu, Coquilhatville, Elisabethville and finally in Inongo. He made the first translation of Tempels' Bantu Philosophy, and wrote the Foreword. With Hulstaert he discussed some parallelisms between Roman Law and traditional African Law, what will result in the concept of basis of "paternat", later the key idea of Possoz's "Elements de droit coutumier nègre".
In regular relations with Mr. Antoine Sohier, former Attorney General in Elisabethville, Hulstaert endeavours to promote the African concepts and the customary practices as the best guarantee of the stability of the society. To Antoine Sohier (and others), in the meantime member of the Colonial Council in Brussels (1951), Hulstaert didn't stop denouncing the abuses of all kinds committed by the colonial administration.
Antoine Rubbens, the author of "Dettes de Guerre" started his career in Coquilhatville and was in steady relations with Hulstaert, later followed by a brief period of correspondence. Magistrate Philippe De Rode, in Coquilhatville during the years 50, was a better friend and more close to his ideas. The publications on the Bongando of Maurice De Ryck, a former Administrator in Bomdombe and later Governor in Coquilhatville, are always among the most important on this population. With Boelaert, he gets to the composition of a history of the Equateur province.
With Boelaert and also in link with Mr. Lodewijckx, colonist in Bolingo in Equateur Province, Hulstaert leads a campaign to save the Mongo people of the menacing decline of the birth rate.

Congolese

Aequatoria was a magazine of "Colonial Sciences" as Hulstaert defines it himself. He watched over its academic character. Research was done by Europeans about the Congolese. Few magazines would have accepted to publish studies of an "indigenous" author at that time. Aequatoria published more than ten of them: P. Ekonyo, Club wa likili [the charm likili], 2(1939) 66-67; Bayaka J., 8(1945)103-110, Mongo politeness (to see as LCC May 1943,38-39); Nzenze H., Note on the Pagabetes, 13(1950)135; Bolese F., Historic text on the Lusankanis, 23(1960)100; Mr. Isekolongo, historic note on the Nsambas, 23(1960)57; F. Bokoka, A tale mongo, 25(1962)101; A. Bengala, The noble of the Boolis, 25(1962)105. Ngoi P., publish two texts there: Widowhood at the Nkundos (1941) and: Style oral(1945).
In 1945, Alexis Kagame made his first steps in the scholarly publication in Aequatoria. Epistolary relations between Hulstaert and Kagame culminated in a lively discussion on the qualities and the superiority of the black or white cultures.
Congolese were more active in the local publications. The editors (Hulstaert, Boelaert and a few other colleagues, and from 1955 Paul Ngoi), were careful to preserve the "indigénistes" principles. We meet the names of Dominique Iloo, Boniface Bakutu, Ferdinand Ilumbe, Etienne Bokaa, Marc Bolumbu, and many others.
Three names deserve a special mention in this context. The name of Louis Bamala will remain linked to the Nsong'a Lianja epic. It is his version which has been published by Tervuren (in an edition of Boelaert). Pierre Mune was the first African to be proclaimed Award-winning of the Concours of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences with his survey on "Le Petit Ekonda", a Mongo village among Mbandaka-Boende. Nicolas Bowanga, the first Mongo Catholic priest, published regularly in the local magazines and was one of the most precious informants of Hulstaert.

2. THE ANTAGONISTS

Giovanni Dellepiane, the Delegate Apostolique, was in the eyes of Hulstaert the "Great Satan". This Excellence had the best intentions and wanted to protect the new christians against the "turpitudes of the heathenism", wrapped according to him in the Bantu language and culture. The sure means to reach this goal was the "latinisation" (complete assimilation) of the local culture. In this task, he was assisted with goodwill by the bishop of Elisabethville, Mgr Felix de Hemptinne. These two high dignitaries caused many problems to Aequatoria and to its editor-in-chief.
Egide De Boeck, Scheutist bishop of Lisala, the father of the school Lingala, made life difficult for Aequatoria (In his Reader of 1920 he incites the children "to speak the language of the Whites"). Louis de Boeck, was the first missionary in the Belgian Colony, with a grade in linguistics. In the furrow of his famous uncle, he made himself the fervid propagandist of Lingala and refuted in his publications (and actions) the arguments of Hulstaert.
Not all Africans appreciated the options of Aequatoria. Jean-François Iyeki wanted French in the schools and required an accelerated access to the "superior culture of the Whites", and he didn't know how to keep his contempt for his mother's language. Jean-Robert Bofuky, was the faithful servant of the security chief of the Colony (Colonel Van de Walle) and expressed his poetic emotions in the language of the latter. There were certainly a lot of other Africans, such as évolués writing in the Leopoldville magazine for Africans 'La Voix du Congolais', who preferred assimilation to French.

3. THE DISAPPOINTMENT

When the colonial world collapsed in 1960 and when Africans took their destiny in their own hands, Hulstaert understood that what he had dedicated his life to, didn't interest anybody. It was the big disappointment that he will never surmount and that explains some very bitter ulterior expressions. He confines himself henceforth in merely academic research. End of 1959 he wrote to A.S. Ghenda, an Atetela/Ana Mongo: "You have enough cultural assets in various domains to be proud of, to be thankful to your forebears, (...) you have a vast field for hundreds of researchers. But is time that you get there because many get lost, deteriorate and especially the interest of the natives quits.... It will be very difficult for you to maintain these values in the new Congo." (Letter of the 25-10-1959).
When in 1963 the Democratic Republic of Congo imposes French officially as the sole language of the teaching, his disillusion seems to be consumed and he writes to his old fellow traveller, Mr Possoz: "All want to reject customary laws. They started now to frenchify the whole life: every indigenous language must be banned of the lowest classes of the schools. All must be as at the Whites. The "chefferie" is suppressed. They name it now: "Commune" and "Arrondissement". The land is confiscated to the owners left without investigation and without indemnification. The law doesn't exist anymore, only the colonial codex. The whole of Africa speaks of bantu mentality, African logic etc..., but these are only words and nothing else". (Letter of the 27-5-1963)

GH = Gustaaf Hulstaert
EB = Edmond Boelaert
AA = Annales Aequatoria

Orientation bibliographique

H. Vinck, 1987, Le Centre Æquatoria de Bamanya, 50 ans de recherches africanistes, Zaïre-Afrique, n° 212, 79-102
H. Vinck, 1987, Le cinquantième anniversaire du Centre Æquatoria, AA 8, 431-441
G. Hulstaert, 1988, L'ethnie mongo, Nouvelles rationalités africaines, 3,397-403
G. Hulstaert, 1991, Mission et langue, Annales Aequatoria (AA) 12, 527-533
H. Vinck, 1993, Æquatoria, une identité, AA 14, 7-11
H. Vinck, 1996, Influence des missionnaires sur la prise de conscience ethnique et politique Mongo, Revue Africaine des Sciences de la Mission, 4,131-147
H. Vinck, 1997, Æquatoria 1937-1997. 60 ans d'acharnement, AA, 18,7
Charles Lonkama et H. Vinck, Tradition et modernité mongo: Bio-bibliographie de Paul Ngoi, AA 19(1998)335-390
H. Vinck, 1998, Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer. Volume VIII Bruxelles, [Notices biographiques de]: Albert De Rop ; c. 371-373; Harry Van Thiel, c. 411-413; John Carrington, c. 39-41; Jean François Iyeki, c. 191-192; Charles Lodewijckx, c. 243-245; Gustaaf Hulstaert, c. 182-186
H. Vinck, Dimensions et inspiration de l'œuvre de Gustaaf Hulstaert, Revue Africaine des Sciences de la Mission, n.12, juin 2000, p.208-236
H. Vinck, 2001, Les tableaux des missionnaires-peintres coloniaux: Petrus Vertenten, Jos Yernaux, Raymond Carlé, Edward Van Goethem, AA 22, 435-436