How did Congo come into being?
Before 1880, there was no unified Congo as a single country. The region was a vast and diverse territory — part of the European “Scramble for Africa” (ca. 1880–1900). Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) covers nearly 2.3 million km², making it the second-largest country in Africa, and home to over 110 million people in 26 provinces.
It is predominantly Christian (over 90%), with Catholics and Protestants as the largest groups, alongside 1–2% Muslims, Kimbanguists, and traditional religions, often mixed with Christianity. Despite its vast natural wealth, the country continues to face the so-called “resource curse” — abundant resources but limited prosperity for its people. The mining sector provides significant, though risky, employment, and while gradual health improvements are visible, economic inequality remains high.
The DRC is a global mining power, rich in cobalt, copper, coltan, tin, gold, and diamonds. Yet this wealth has not translated into broad-based development due to governance challenges, conflicts, and limited local value creation. Cobalt alone represents 70–75% of global production (2023) — a metal crucial for the energy transition (batteries, electric vehicles, cancer radiotherapy, medical sterilization, and other industries).
Alongside large-scale industrial mining, there is massive artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Estimates suggest employment up to 2 million artisanal miners nationwide; in the eastern regions alone, roughly 427,000 have been identified.
Are the resources being “well used” for the population? Not sufficiently. Despite its wealth, poverty remains widespread — a textbook case of the resource curse, worsened by conflict, weak governance, and illegal exploitation, some of which funds armed groups.
The area of present-day Congo was once a mosaic of kingdoms, federations, and chiefdoms — not “stateless tribes,” but organized polities with governance systems.
In the 19th century, several major states existed:
In total, there were around ten major polities and hundreds of smaller entities.
Only after 1885 — through treaties, coercion, and force — were these territories gradually absorbed into the Congo Free State, and later into Belgian Congo.
During the colonial era (1908–1960), the Belgian administration relied heavily on missionary networks for education and healthcare — especially in cities and mining regions.
At the same time, the colonial economy remained highly extractive (first rubber, then copper, cobalt, and diamonds).
Following independence (>1960), leadership in churches, schools, and hospitals gradually passed to Congolese priests, sisters, and laypeople. Missionary congregations shifted focus from direct administration to training local leaders.
After Vatican II and with the rise of NGOs, the mission emphasis evolved toward education, healthcare, rural development, and human rights — less visibly “missionary,” but still deeply evangelical in spirit.
The Congo Crisis (1960–65), Simba Rebellion (1964), and later wars (from 1996, mainly in the east) made large-scale foreign presence difficult. At times, missionaries were evacuated or denied visas because of Political unrest and safety.
Since 1960, the number of foreign missionaries has declined — due to decolonization, security issues, national policy, and European secularization — but their mission work in education, healthcare, and pastoral service continues, now primarily under Congolese leadership.
Catholic and Protestant Churches remain deeply rooted in Congolese society nowadays. Tens of thousands of schools, health centers, parishes, and Caritas projects are now managed largely by Congolese staff, often with technical or financial support from foreign partners (religious orders, NGOs, dioceses). Thus, “less European missionary work” does not mean less evangelization or care, but rather a new model of local leadership — supported by training, exchange, short-term missions, and project partnerships.
Further Background: The Origins of Congo and the Belgian Missions
Was Christianity already present?
Mainly in the west: in the Kingdom of Kongo, Christianity was introduced in 1491 with the baptism of the king and the arrival of Portuguese missionaries. This produced centuries of Christianized elites and syncretic religious practices.
However, Christianity was not widespread across the country — outside the western region, its presence before 1880 was minimal.
Large parts of the interior did not encounter systematic missionary activity until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
What Was the Missionaries’ Main Work in Africa?
Their core mission was evangelization: to preach, baptize, and establish parishes or mission stations — both Catholic and Protestant.
But in Belgian Congo, missionaries also became the practical operators of:
The colonial state relied heavily on missions to provide schooling and health services; in return, the missions received funding and legitimacy.
Evangelization remained the central goal, but education and health care were both a means and an end, and often the most visible legacy of their presence.
Christianity already existed in parts of the west, but not throughout the territory of present-day DRC before 1880.
For the missionaries, the proclamation of faith was the primary aim — while education and medical care were essential tools to serve that purpose and to build lasting community structures.
When Did Congo Become a Colony?
How Many People Lived There? An official estimate just before annexation (1907) listed 9.13 million inhabitants, though census data were incomplete and are debated.
Historians widely agree that the population declined sharply during the rubber exploitation period (1890s–1900s) due to violence, disease, famine, and forced displacement.
There are no reliable “poverty rates” for the early period (1885–1908), but the structural causes are well documented:
After 1908, the economy remained highly extractive, centered on mining and plantations.
Mission schools continued to offer education but were closely linked to the colonial administration.
The first Mission Stations were located:
Who Were the First Missionaries and From Which Orders?
Among the earliest key figures were Fr. Emeri Cambier (often called “the founder of the Kasai Mission”) and Fr. Van Ronslé, both Scheut Fathers (CICM), who also played a major role in the development of Lingala as a missionary language.
The Jesuits arrived shortly afterward (1893) and rapidly expanded their network of schools and pastoral centers.
Other orders followed regionally:
The Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary (Berlaar)
The first sisters from Berlaar arrived in Belgian Congo in 1899.
Their mission fields included education and health care, with numerous posts in the Uélé and Bondo regions.
Their Buta mission began in the mid-1920s, in connection with the new ecclesiastical center there under the Norbertines.
Their work focused primarily on girls’ education, catechism, needlework, and basic health care.
The Congo mission of the congregation was officially ended in 1998.
The Sisters of the Holy Childhood of Jesus (Zusters Kindsheid Jesu)
Founded in Trieste in 1835, the Sisters of the Holy Childhood of Jesus were active in the Congo for about 75 years, primarily in the Inongo district, where they worked in education, dispensaries, and hospitals.
The Kasai region only became an important mission area between the 1920s and 1930s.
The Scheut Fathers (CICM) had already opened their first mission stations in Luebo and Luluabourg (Kasai) at the beginning of the 1900s, paving the way for female congregations such as the Sisters of the Holy Childhood of Jesus, who later expanded their work from Kasai to Inongo.
After more than 75 years of presence, the Belgian sisters withdrew completely in 2002, while the local Congolese community continued their mission work.
Their official return to Flanders in 2002 marked the end of their direct presence in Congo, though strong ties remain with the Congolese branch of the congregation.
The Sisters of “De Jacht” (Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary – ICM)
The ICM Sisters, also known as the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, were likewise active in the Congo.
Founded in 1897, with their motherhouse “De Jacht” in Heverlee (Belgium), the congregation included Congo among its main mission fields alongside India and the Philippines.
In Congo, they worked particularly in the Diocese of Boma and in places such as Mushie, focusing on education and catechetical work.
Collaborations or coordination with the Scheut Fathers (CICM) were common — sometimes formally agreed upon, sometimes simply based on shared missionary methods, mutual understanding, or logistical cooperation.
Even when each congregation acted independently, they often paved the way for one another — opening doors to regions or communities, or establishing precedents that strengthened mutual trust and credibility, both among missionaries and with the local Congolese population.
This pioneering spirit often meant that one group’s success created opportunities for others — tangible examples of “missionary synergy” that characterized early 20th-century evangelization in the Congo.
How Did Missionary Work Develop — and When Was Its Peak?
Between the 1890s and 1910s, mission activity expanded rapidly along major rivers and trade routes, leading to the formation of apostolic vicariates and prefectures.
The Scheut Fathers and Jesuits built the first large networks of schools and catechist training centers.
During the 1920s–1950s, the colonial boom period, missionary activity reached its organizational and territorial high point.
Most education in the Congo was run by missions, state-subsidized but church-managed, with extensive systems of catechists, seminaries, and religious institutions.
In 1959, the formal Catholic hierarchy was established, creating new archdioceses and dioceses — a milestone in the church’s institutional growth.
Main focus areas of missionary work:
Persistent challenges:
Post-Independence Mission Growth (1960s–1970s)
Despite turmoil, the 1960s and 1970s were a period of strong renewal and local growth:
By the late 1970s, the Congolese Church counted 48 ecclesiastical jurisdictions (6 archdioceses and 41 dioceses), reflecting a remarkable institutional expansion.
Why This Growth?
After the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) came the movement of Africanization (indigenization) — Congolese priests, brothers, and sisters quickly assumed leadership roles.
Centers such as Kinshasa became hubs for theology, catechesis, and lay formation.
At the same time, new local congregations flourished: by around 1970, there were over 400 Congolese brothers and more than 1,100 sisters, and by 1979, at least 29 fully African congregations were active in Zaire.
This rise coincided with new challenges — including the wars and instability of the 1990s, which led to looting of church property and renewed humanitarian crises — but these came after the vibrant missionary resurgence of the 1960s and 1970s.
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