22 YEARS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. CONGO ANGOLA RHODESIA 1912

22 YEARS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. CONGO ANGOLA RHODESIA 1912 THINKING BLACK 22 YEARS WITHOUT A BREAK IN THE LONG GRASS OF CENTRAL AFRICA D. CRAWFORD, F.R.G.S. (Konga Vantu ) MORGAN AND SCOTT LD 1912 One of the most remarkable missionary texts. Dan Crawford's enlightened attitude in Thinking Black reveals an openness to Africa far in advance of prevailing ideas at the time. Dan (Daniel) Crawford (1870 – 1926), also known as 'Konga Vantu', was a Scottish missionary of the Plymouth Brethren in central-southern Africa. He was born in Greenock, son of a Clyde boat captain. He was influenced to go to Africa by meeting Frederick Arnot in 1888, a missionary who had just returned from two years at Bunkeya, capital of the Garenganze King, Msiri, where he had founded the Plymouth Brethren's Garenganze Evangelical Mission. Crawford arrived at Bunkeya in 1890 to join two Plymouth Brethren already at the mission. He was therefore a junior observer rather than a player in the dramatic events of late 1891 when British and Belgian expeditions competed to take Msiri's kingdom into their respective colonies, and Msiri was killed by Lieutenant Bodson of the Belgian expedition, In the aftermath of the killing and a massacre of Msiri's men, the 10,000-strong population of Bunkeya fled into the bush, and Crawford moved to the western shore of Lake Mweru and established a mission there. The Congo Free State's agents took over Katanga with a brutality which caused many refugees to come to Crawford's mission, which was the origin of his nickname 'Konga Vantu' which means 'gatherer of the people'. Crawford also persuaded many chiefs to give up their slaves whom he took into his mission. Soon he had to move to a better site which could support more people at the Luanza River near where it flows in to Lake Mweru. Crawford was an individualist who did not work well for long in the company of his seniors or colleagues, but he did much to travel around the Luapula valley founding and encouraging other outposts of the Garenganze Evangelical Mission. He studied African languages and sought to understand African customs and traditional rule, and was a frequent visitor to chiefs such as Mwata Kazembe. When the latter rebelled against and was defeated by the British, Crawford and his mission colleagues had a role in persuading the chief to accept the inevitable and to achieve a working relationship with the colonial authorities. He wrote two influential books, of which one, Thinking Black was recommended reading for those Europeans who wanted to work in partnership with, rather than over, Africans. Crawford also encouraged other Protestant missions to come to Luapula, such as the London Missionary Society, and he was invited to open their Mbereshi Mission in 1900 CONTENTS BOOK I FIRST FEARS JUSTIFIED FIRST THINGS FIRST FAR, YET NOT FARTHEST, IN OUR AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP " BORING IN" FARTHER EASTWARD HO! "OWN UP AND PAY UP" DARK DOINGS IN LUVALELAND THE DESERT JOURNEY BOOK II FARTHEST, BUT SHUT, IN VICE VERSA SHUT IN, BUT ALMOST OUT BLACK SUFFRAGETTES THUS FAR AND NO FARTHER RED SUNSETS BOOK III "NEMESIS, DAUGHTER OF NIGHT" OUR EASTERN EXODUS BORING OUT EAST KAVANGA : THE GATES OF THE MORNING "GREAT WHITE LAKE" A PAGE OF HISTORY. BLACK MAN = BLACK MANNERS "THE YEAR OF LOVE": AN EPILOGUE L'ENVOI INDEX 23 x 15 cm. (9 x 6), xvi + 485 pp + 18 page index + publishers catalogue + tipped in colour plate + b/w photo plates. Map endpapers. Top edge gilt. Very good + condition, spine slightly faded and minor bumping to corner of boards, endpapers tanned, previous owners signature on half title page. Contents clean, no foxing, binding good. POSTAGE AND PACKAGI... read more