The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 51

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

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but in other respects he will meet with many dis-
appointments. He will not find the religious ad-
vantages which he had down South, he will not
find the good fresh air nor the cleanliness which
he could have on the old plantation.

While in Gary, Ind., last fall, I learned that
the colored population of that industrial center had

quadrupled in the past two years. There was but

one good colored church in the town, and that be-
longed to the Baptists. The Methodist congrega-
tion worshiped in a borrowed tent. Other denom-
inations held services in empty store-buildings and
private dwellings. I was told that the United
States Steel Company intended to develop a colored
colony of probably ten thousand people. Some of
the houses intended for the colony were already
completed, and I found them far superior to dwell-
ings in any other such colony in our country, as
far as my experience goes. The Steel Company
had donated to the Methodists six lots, in the very
heart of the future colony, for a church. But I am
not able to state whether or not the church has
already been. built.

Only a few months ago the Methodist colored
congregation in Brooklyn, a congregation of 110
members, was still worshiping in a private house.
Salem Methodist Church in Harlem, New York
City, in the midst of a colored population of 85,000,
worships in a remodeled apartment house, though
it has a membership of no less than 2,800. Only
one-sixth of the membership can be taken care of
in. a service !

The Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freed-
men appointed a special field secretary for the
Northern States to quicken the activities of the

Ald churches, and to organize new missions and

- churches wherever necessary. ‘This movement had

a good measure of success. Five new places of
worship were opened last year, namely, ab Bloom-
field, N. J., Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus, O.,
and Chicago. In a number of cases congregations
hitherto worshiping in small and inadequate quarters
succeeded in securing larger and better suited homes.
This was particularly the case with regard to several
congregations in Chicago. F. J. L.

—_— OOo

From Cannibal to Christian.

M’baca, the first Christian chief in the Southern
Congo, who to-day is becoming a powerful agent
for good in a part of Africa where the taste of
human flesh is not unknown, has a strange life

history that illustrates how far from American con-
ceptions of morality, family affection, and ordinary
matter-of-course feelings are the ideas of this quarter
of the globe.

The story of M’baca begins with a great war
which an African tribe had on its hands many
years ago. This fierce. tribe, whose capital was at
Kapanga, was going out to invade an enemy’s
country. The warriors were a bit dubious of the
result, for the enemy was most formidable. So
they called on another tribe in the vicinity and
asked for reinforcements. This second tribe held
a powwow, and finally sent a detachment of some
of its finest young men.

The Kapanga tribe was ultimately victorious,
but not until many of their fighters had been killed
and a few unfortunates cooked and eaten.

When the victors came back, the tribe that had
sent reinforcements said: “What do we get for
this? Many of our young men are dead. Give us
some of yours to take their places.”

The Kapanga tribe accordingly sent off a crowd
of their own children to their ally. They even in-
cluded the son of their chief, a boy called M’wata
Yamvyo.

Many years went by. The Belgian Government
perfected its administration of the territory and
carried out a policy of governing through the native
chiefs. The chief at Kapanga died. The Belgian
officials asked the natives, “Where is his successor ?”
The natives thought a long time, and one finally
said, “M’wata Yamvo is the successor,” and told
the story of the exiled children.

The Belgians decided to go and get M’wata
Yamvyo and set him on the throne. They found him
a grown man, engaged in the somewhat humble
occupation of companion to M’baca, a son of the
chief of the tribe that had adopted M’wata Yamvo.

So M’wata Yamvo was brought back and be-
came a great chief, with two hundred wives and
any number of servants to do his bidding.

M’baca went with M’wata Yamvo. Curious?
Yes, but this was in Africa. Apparently no one
of the boy’s family or tribe objected.

M’baca grew up and became a great power in
M’wata Yamvo’s land. He was the head of M’wata
Yamyo’s army, which, of course, under the Belgian
administration, had become a police force. He was
the keeper of M’wata’s harem and could dispose
of the women and young girls in it as he saw fit,
giving some away to his friends when he’ wished.
Also, he had a harem of his own.