Among Congo cannibals

Three causes of death—By act of God—By another’s witchcraft—By one’s own witchcraft—An explosion—Decorating the corpse—fee to view the body—Smoking the body—Making coffins—Three kinds of graves—Killing slaves—Burying women alive—Signs of mourning—The nether world—Suicides—Funeral dance for a man—Dance for a woman.

There are three causes of death well recognized among the Boloki: To die by an act of God; to die by another’s witchcraft; and to die by one’s own witchcraft. On the Lower Congo the first and second causes of death are acknowledged, but I never heard there of a person dying by his, or her, own witchcraft.

In cases of accidental death, as caused by the swamping of a canoe in a storm, they say that God has caused the death. There is a certain amount of fatalism in this statement; but other accidents in which they observe what they consider exceptional circumstances, as the upsetting of a canoe by a hippopotamus or by a crocodile, they place to the account of witchcraft. Thus a canoe swamped in a storm is “an act of God,” but a canoe upset by a crocodile is “an act of witchcraft,” as no crocodile will upset a canoe unless it is told to do so by a witch, or unless a witch has gone into the creature and compels it to commit the outrage; therefore it is necessary to discover the witch and punish the person who harbours such an evil spirit. The word for sorrow is nkele, which really means anger, indignation, and the idea is that they are “angry” that their relative has been done to death by the witch. I tried very hard, but I found no other word for grief, sorrow, etc., at the death of anyone than this word nkele or anger—a very suggestive sidelight on the native view of death.

On the death of a sick man the body is opened, and the arteries connected with the liver are examined by a witch-doctor, and if they are full, or only one is empty, then the deceased was bewitched to death, i.e. he died by witchcraft (awi moyengwa); and consequently someone is accused, and the ordeal is administered to one person after another until the guilty party is discovered, i.e. until someone succumbs to the ordeal, and falls intoxicated by it to the ground.

There is another view of death held by the Boloki folk, and expressed in the phrase awi na likundu, which means that the person died by his own witchcraft, or he (or she) tried to kill someone else by witchcraft, and the other person’s protective charms, etc., were too strong, and it has resulted in the bewitcher’s own death. The word likundu literally means smartness, craftiness, skill, occult power, being too clever.

The witch-doctor decides the matter, for he holds a kind of post-mortem on the corpse, and if the arteries near the liver are empty, then the man died as a result of his own witchcraft. If one artery only is empty, that counts for nothing and is disregarded, but if four or five are empty the witch-doctor says: “That,” pointing to one, “is the secret power by which he so skilfully made canoes, or worked at his smithing” (according as the man was a canoe maker or blacksmith); “that one is the power by which he was successful in fishing” (or hunting, and so on); “and that other one is the power by which he bewitched people, hence someone with stronger occult power has overcome and killed him, or he has died by his own witchcraft.”

If only one artery is empty, that is allowable, as a man must have skill to do ordinary things like other folk, but if several are empty, then he had more than his share of cleverness, or occult power, and no one pities him in his death.

The following is an illustration of the wide-reaching effects of witchcraft among the natives of Africa: Some years ago the steamer Matadi was lying off the English Trading House at Boma, and one night the whole town was aroused by a terrific explosion. It was found on investigation that the gunpowder on board the s.s. Matadi had exploded, and two or three white people and forty “Kroo boys” (men engaged on the Kroo coast to work the cargo) were killed. During the inquiry that followed it came out that the “Kroo boys,” while searching the hold with a naked light, had accidentally set fire to the powder. Many months afterwards we heard incidentally from other “Kroo boys” that a big witch palaver had been held in the Kroo country and over fifty people had been done to death for bewitching the “Kroo boys” to death on the s.s. Matadi by causing the explosion of the gunpowder by their witchcraft. The Kroo coast is many hundreds of miles from the Congo, and the probability is that not one of those who died by the ordeal in the Kroo country had ever been in Congoland.

Relatives attend the sick and nurse them faithfully; and it is a sign of true friendship to visit a sick acquaintance, or to send regularly and inquire after his health. The women are so fond of attending the sick, i.e. sitting in the house, suggesting charms, remedies, etc., and giving advice, that they often neglect their farm work and various duties.

When a man of any importance dies, those who are expert in the art of decorating corpses attend and decorate the body with coloured pigments, beads, cowry shells, and fine cloth; and the artists charge two brass rods per person to view the body. The family supply the cloths, pigments—arnotta dye, chalk, red camwood powder, blue and yellow earths, beads, shells, bottles, and looking-glasses. The figure is often fixed in a sitting position with a bottle in one hand, as though drinking, and a looking-glass in the other, as though he were admiring his decorations. They aim at posing the figure in as natural a position as possible, but the effect is ghastly on a civilized mind.

The artists give their time and skill to the family for a small fee, and take as their perquisites the brass rods paid to view the picturesque (?) corpse. The side of the house is removed

to give more light on the body, and the wall removed forms, with several mats, the screen enclosing the decorated corpse. People come from miles around to view the sight, and the more original the pose the richer the harvest of brass rods gathered by the lucky artists. The pigments and barter goods on a decorated body cost approximately 1000 brass rods, or about £3, a very large sum for these people, but from their point of view it is worth the expenditure, for by giving the deceased such a fine send-off to the nether regions they give no excuse to his spirit to trouble them later with diseases and misfortune.

As a rule the body is buried within three days after death, and by that time it is very necessary. When, however, for various reasons—as lack of means to provide a good funeral—it is not convenient to bury the deceased so soon, they take out the entrails and bury them, place the corpse on a frame, light a fire under it, and thoroughly smoke-dry it; and in this way they are able to keep it for a more convenient time—this may be a matter of weeks, and even months. The dried body is tied in mats, put in a roughly-made hut, and a fire is occasionally made under it. Another mode is as follows: The body is tied in mats and buried in an ordinary but shallow grave, a big fire is made on the top of the grave to dry up the moisture in the body, and to preserve it. At a more suitable time a coffin is made and the corpse buried properly; this is called likaku.

Coffins are often made out of old canoes by men who go about the district for that purpose. Considering the material and tools they are well made, the various pieces fitting closely together.

These native “undertakers,” on arriving at the place where their services are required, put up a fence of mats so as to make a private workshop. They charge so much for the job and are kept in food and drink, and any dogs, goats, etc., that push open the mats and enter the workshop are liable to confiscation if their inquisitiveness causes them to persist in entering after they have been driven away twice.

The coffins are sometimes lined and covered with cheap cloth, but more often they are stained with arnotta dye and ornamented with yellow and blue pigments. All the materials are supplied by the family. Clumsily-made native nails, or wooden pins, are used, unless they can procure nails from the nearest white man. Sometimes the parts are laced together. Poorer folk are rubbed with oil, and red camwood powder, bound round with cloth, and tied up in a mat; and those who are very poor are simply tied in their sleeping-mats; a corpse is rarely thrown into the river or bush.

When the time for burial arrives the coffin is carried round the town on exhibition, then the corpse is placed in it, and men convey it to the place of interment, followed by relatives, male and female—not wives—friends and townsfolk generally; the wives remain behind to continue the mourning. A person often dies away from his house, and sometimes away from his town. The body is brought home and buried—if a free man or woman—in his or her house; but a slave is buried on the edge of the bush, or in any convenient place.

The graves are of three kinds: (1) When the grave is dug deep enough a cutting is made at the side in which to lay the corpse so that the earth does not press on the body, thus:

(2) A notch is cut in the earth along the two sides about two feet from the bottom of the grave, and planks or sticks are laid across after the body is put in position, and the earth is thrown on the sticks. (A and B are notches or ledges to take planks or sticks.) By this means also the earth is kept from contact with the coffin.

(3) An ordinary straight-sided hole, and the earth put on the body. 1 and 2 are for important men—those whose families can afford to pay for a coffin, and they do not want it spoiled at once by having the clay—generally very wet—thrown on it; and No. 3 is for the common people.

There is no special time for burying, and no particular position for the grave and corpse. I have known them to bury their dead at different times, in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Mostly bodies are buried in one or other of the houses (or very near to them) belonging to the deceased, consequently the position of the grave depends on whether the house runs east and west, or north and south, or whether the row of houses owned by the deceased is parallel or at right angles to the river.

In the old days it was the custom to kill two slaves and put one under the head as a pillow and one under the feet of the corpse. In every family of importance there was a slave wife who went by the name of mwila ndako, and it indicated that she was to be buried alive with her dead husband. If, however, this wife had a child before her husband died, then another woman took her place—a young woman was generally selected for this doubtful honour. The number of wives buried in the grave was in proportion to the man’s wealth and importance, but he always made certain of one—the mwila ndako. We were able eventually to persuade them to abandon this custom, but it was not until we had gained their confidence and good-will by long residence among them.

A man while mourning for a relative or a wife wears rags, or an old string fish-net, and allows his body to go unrubbed with oil and camwood powder. Utter disregard of one’s personal appearance is a sign of great grief for the departed. At times men wear women’s dresses instead of their own in token of their sorrow, and they shave off only half the hair of the head, or tie the hair up in little bunches or knots and shave the hair off the spaces between the knots; and some rub their bodies with clay. The modes are many and various, according to the nearness or remoteness of the relationship. In some cases they exhibit real sorrow, but in the majority of cases there is more noise and show than true grief.

Rarely does a man give way to crying; and if his dearest friend dies (not his relative) he exhibits no sign of mourning, not because he does not feel sorry, but because he does not desire to attract attention to himself as a person who mourns for one who is not his relative. It would be most unusual, and besides, if he has signs of mourning about him, the folk will be constantly stopping him and inquiring of him which of his family is dead.

During the first few hours after a woman’s death nearly all her female relatives and neighbours cry as though their hearts are broken; but the next day they commence dancing, and continue to do so at short intervals for five or six days. The husband hires a professional dancer to act as master of the ceremonies.

Upon the death of a man his widows cry and drink water mixed with clay, either dress themselves in a few leaves or strip themselves absolutely nude and rub dirt on the body (sometimes only half the body is covered with clay and the other half left its natural colour, giving a very grotesque appearance to the mourner), then taking something belonging to their late husband they parade the town in pretended search for him.

After the funeral they sit in their houses, or inside a rough grass screen, for five or six days, until the sister of the deceased man gives them permission to leave their houses, and then for about six weeks or two months they walk only in the “bush,” and if they hear anyone coming they hide, and during this time they may not walk about the town. Then for another three months they wear long, untidy-looking grass cloths. If their late husband was a great hunter, then the widows will not eat meat during the period of mourning; but should they during this period “live well,” the deceased man’s sister or daughter will upbraid them for not mourning properly, and the folk in the town will regard them as callous, hard-hearted women, and the public opinion of the district will condemn them. The new widows are not supposed to go to the farms or engage in any of their former occupations, and as their visits to the farms are very irregular their supply of food is meagre, so they are said “to fast” during the period of mourning. At the end of the mourning and fasting they wash, don their better dresses, and are distributed among the heirs of their deceased husband, i.e. among his sons.

At the funeral of a man there is more or less firing of guns, according to the importance of the deceased. This they say is to ensure for him a good entrance into the nether world, a place situated somewhere below. The departed spirits in the nether world, hearing the firing, gather about the entrance to welcome the new arrival. Some say that the spirit of the deceased “hovers near the entrance” (others say “near to the body,”) while they decorate the body, dig the grave, kill the slaves, prepare the wife who is to accompany him; then comes the firing, the entrance to the nether world, and the welcome. If the deceased was a great fighter the family arranges a sham fight in his honour, and these sham fights occasionally take place for two or three years.

The names of the dead are freely mentioned for a few weeks after death, and such names are even passed on to children if there is any likeness of the child to the deceased; and some natives have a misty idea of the possibility of the rebirth of the deceased in the child who bears the likeness.

If a slave commits suicide his master will throw his body into the river; but a free man who commits suicide is buried in a shallow grave with little or no ceremony, because he has died by his own hand. Suicide, however, is extremely rare among the Boloki. Women are buried with the same ceremony as a man, and in accordance with their position in the town.

There are two dances that should be mentioned in connection with their funeral rites: The first is named ebala. Directly a man of any position dies the family orders sugar-cane wine, which takes a few days to prepare in any large quantity. As soon as the wine is ready a large hardwood drum is beaten, and the men and women dance for three days and nights, or as long as the wine lasts. Lines are formed and a man leaves the line and advances, and a woman leaves the line opposite and advances to within a yard of the man, there they wriggle, shuffle their feet, shake their bodies for a few moments, and return to their places, and another couple advance, and thus all down the line over and over again. It is a regular wake, accompanied by much drunkenness and immorality—the former openly, the latter under cover.

The second dance is muntembe, from ntembe = stems of cassava plants. When a woman dies who is held in much honour by the other women in the town as a good farmer, one who has taught them much and frequently about farming, and under whose leadership they have been successful in their operations, the other women will, a few days after such a one’s death, form a procession, decorate themselves with leaves, twigs, and creepers, and dance and chant her praises through the town. At the close of the dance they go in a body to the farm of the deceased woman and hoe and plant a large patch of cassava for the use of her family. The family supplies the dancers with sugar-cane wine for this festivity.

In 1890 I saw in Bonjoko—a town just below Monsembe—the entrance, 6 feet by 8 feet, to a house paved with skulls; and it was customary not only to use skulls in this way, but also to put the skulls of enemies at the base of palm trees and to use them as foot-stools. The desire was, by these indignities, to insult the fallen enemy and to maintain some hold on the spirits of those slain in war that they might attend their conqueror in the spirit-land.