America's African heritage; 15 And 16

The National Association of educational broadcasters presents America's African heritage recorded in Africa by Skip Westfall program 15 of visit with the king of the book who is here is kept Westfall our program today is being recorded in a bamboo hut about 20 feet long and 8 feet wide. The roof is made of leaves and branches from the palm tree. The floor is a dirt floor and the only furniture here is the wooden bench on which I'm sitting. A small table and a large armchair in the far corner of the room. Above the door is a tapestry depicting an Arab one a camel and above the large chairs a picture of the buffalo and the bins of the Bakuba drive. In fact this is the reception room where the king receives visitors and in a few minutes we hope to have the opportunity to meet the famous King of the Bakuba. I've been looking forward to this event ever since landing in my toddy when an immigration official on learning that I had come to the Congo to do a series of radio programs. Suggested that by all means I try to get an interview

with the king of the book. I've been told that it is not proper to knock on the king's door and introduce yourself without the proper good credentials. So I took great care to go through channels. Three days ago I got a letter of introduction from the Belgium territorial officer at Port Frankie to the territorial officer of mica who in turn contacted one of the king's sons informing him that I would present myself to the king at 10am on Monday it is now 10:30 and the great looking though has not yet put in an appearance. I understand that if His Majesty is in a jovial mood he will no doubt be glad to see me. He is indisposed. The sixty mile trip over here to Michigan over very rough roads will have been in vain. I'm not yet discouraged however for it seems to be the custom of African royalty to keep visitors waiting. Important people seem to feel that that is their prerogative. While we're waiting let's give a little background information about the kangaroo. But

territorial officer at my gate inform me that the blue kangaroo is one of five remaining kings in the Belgian Congo. The main source of livelihood of these people is the palm oil palm tree from which they obtain the precious palm oil which they use for cooking as well as the material from which their homes are built and the straw match which they use for beds. They also raise some corn man you're not going peanuts. Agriculture in this part of the Congo is the most primitive I have ever seen. There are only two farming to a heavy hole which takes the place of a plough and a cultivator and a large knife known as in the ship. That's quite a contrast to farming methods back in my home state of Iowa where a farmer has an investment of ten to fifteen thousand dollars in machinery. The farmer needs to make an investment of only 85 cents to get into business. Fifty cents for the machette and thirty five cents for a whole. There is one accomplishment however for which these people have reason to be proud. They are known

all over the world for their beautiful colored mats made with their own clay paints their unique wooden stools the masks used in their dances and their artistic statuettes the artwork of the booboos has appeared in museums and exhibitions all over the world. The King of the book did not speak a word of English so I would be at a serious disadvantage today if it were not for the fact that Dr. Robert Dunn of Atlanta Georgia Presbyterian Medical Missionary of his with me to act as my interpreter. I'm most grateful to Bob Dunn for taking the time today to drive me over to me for this meeting with the king. Several of the subordinates of the King are now arriving. Each one sits cross-legged on the dirt floor as they are not permitted to stand in the presence of His Majesty. Bob Howell to me that when the king speaks to his subjects and they clap their hands twice before replying in deference to their ruler we hope that when the

kangaroo arrives we will be able to record a bit of that ceremony. We hope too that he won't get Mike right when he sees this tape recorder. It's quite a bustle of activity right now although everyone moves about very quietly and speaks in hushed voices. We hope that the next voice you will hear will be that of the kangaroo binge the killing of the gun you know you eat and you live in the new job. In the conversation you just heard the King spoke of his American visitors and mentioned the dance which will be given later for our special benefit. Then he agreed to our making a brief recorded interview. We will now address the king. The kangaroo I've heard a great deal about the beautiful artwork of your people

as any of your handicraft been sent to America. When we look at the command be today in the Cuba you know Cleveland would write about beauty beyond doubt I haven't put them in among Muslim Baba. You can then begin to be attempting to get good in that the body and most guys don't. There's a many of the Idols Andy the beds and the the special chairs used by the chief of the village have gone into great many foreign lands including many of the museums in our own country and they've been sent also to the exposition of Brussels as I have been about Pleiku Exodus you know who said that it was. There's very many I'm also have gone to Brussels including whole Bakuba houses are now being shown there at the Exposition. They're saying now what do you have an art school here at move that's about about

being and actually being a being to Houdini whom private who people who don't know about it but got the bug bonded out of the rubble by the book so that the new the new learners in this art in this ancient art of the buckle learn at the foot each one of one of the old masters rooms there and then there is also a school there is a school at the mission isn't there. But about Egypt but it could lead in a comparable bread to be opened with not a move or several will lose you but will the entire record and. God I don't think that that's of course a little bit different affair that is a well organized school that is run to teach the. But they aren't worth the time and normally people as I say go for what I like to ask just one more

question if I may. Is there any likelihood that the work of your artisans here at the Shangri will become a lost art when all the good deeds done by debate about good but how the bubble of the economy so there are more people now probably than at any time in a good many years learning and the actual numbers of this tribe is on the increase. Many of the diseases have been stamped and there's a definite increase both in the number of people and in the learning these ancient arts. What sounds very encouraging doesn't it. Well thank you your kangaroo for granting me the courtesy of this interview. May you have many more years as ruler of the cougars. The king is not taking his leave and in a few moments we'll make our way to a kind of courtyard in the center of the village where the dance is to be staged. Perhaps I should give a brief description of the king so that you can have a mental image of what he looks like. He's 80

years old and weighs about 280 pounds. He wears only a kind of skirt tucked in at the waist hung rather low I would say displaying his ample stomach. He also wears brass bracelets on his wrists and on his ankles. The king was in quite a friendly mood today and willingly agreed to submit to the interview which we played back for his benefit. He seemed to take great delight in listening to the playback of the interview. I was particularly interested in the statement that the handiwork of his people is not becoming a lost art and that in recent years it is being revived. It is good to know that the people through their creative work will in years to come continue to make their contribution to expositions and museums as well as to gift shops throughout the world including Lowe's in our own country. After our recorded interview the King mentioned his wives. He has a present two hundred and eighty one. He says he once had 800 but the

number has dwindled to a mere two hundred eighty. However he hopes to be able soon to increase that number. He didn't mention his slaves of which he has many. Most of the slaves are the servants of his wives. We'll pick up our story again as we move on to the center of the village to get a recording of the demonstration of the Kings dancers. I'm going to sound you just heard with a recording of a blacksmith's bellows. Three men are sitting in the shade of an open shelter made of palm branches. Two of them are pumping a crude kind of bellows to keep the fire going while the third hammers a rod of brass by pounding it on a rock. He's in the process of making some bracelets like the ones that we saw a moment ago on the king's ankles. These bellows are an amazing contraption. Two holes have been burned into two pieces of a crooked tree root and attached to the top is a small hollow log over which you

stretch to go to skin. The men pump the bellows with sticks attached to the goat again. The air is blown through the hollow root into a gourd which extends into the burning embers of the fire between the tubes and the gourd is a space of about an inch which permits the barrows to suck in the air without drawing in the burning embers from the fire. Very ingenious invention I would say. Have you noticed that the bellows sound very much like a steam locomotive. Let's listen to it again. It was a bit too dark under the shelter for me to get a picture of the three blacksmiths so they lifted the roof off one side to let in enough right for a picture. These big houses are very convenient if the inside is too dark you just take off a part of the roof. Now you hear an O verite gentleman singing and playing the lead can be a small

instrument about the size of two hands with labor. I suppose you would call this my well kind of minstrel story I'm told he's singing a song he has just come forward about the two distinguished American visitors. We're still waiting for the Dems to begin. It has now been three hours since our interview with the king. Evidently you have to have a lot of patients when you're dealing with. The Congo Congolese royalty they believe in taking their time for everything. First we stand on one foot about 10 minutes and then they do as they're going to move the xylophone to another spot

so we stand on the other foot for another 10 minutes and they report they can't friend the man who plays as I'm a phone. So we sit down for 15 minutes. And so it goes hour after hour. But now it looks like the musicians are getting ready and the show is about to begin. So we'll conclude the story of our visit to machining with the sound of the war drums of the king's musician. This has been programmed 15 of America's African heritage featuring recordings made by a world traveler skip Westfall on a recent trip to Africa. The series is made possible by a grant in aid to radio station WOIO will state college from the Educational Television and Radio Center and the National Association of educational broadcasters.

This is the end of the Radio Network. In many sections of the Congo children are so eager for an education that they're willing to walk as far as 25 miles every day to and from school. The National Association of educational broadcasters presents America's African heritage recorded in Africa by Skip Westfall. Program 16 attending school in wild animal country. Here is Skip Westfall this morning our tape recorder is set up on the lawn in front of the home of the Methodist missionary at the Mission School and Wimble in

those in the Congo. To reach this mission we had to travel by plane from Little Bird villages some 300 miles then by car a distance of one hundred and twenty miles over roads which at times were little more than woodland trails. We were measured by Mr. and Mrs. Burley law formerly of West Virginia and Florida really is away in machinery presently engaged in the construction of a hospital here at Wimbledon young Virginia law the supervisor of the primary school. This is one mission station which is really located out in the bush but the setting resembles a college campus back in the states in the center of the mission settlement is a spacious green long rectangular in shape covering about 30 acres. Two roads run along either side of the clearing lined with stately palm trees the homes of the missionaries and the various buildings of the mission. At one end of the area is a tennis court and here and there we see bushes of purple and red blue convey

them in the surrounding countryside are the native villages with their colorful fights huts made of mud and sticks where the people live whose lives have been blessed and inspired by the work of the mission. When you have traveled for hours through this wild bush country and suddenly come upon this beautiful spot it seems like you've reached and awaits us in the desert. We don't wonder that the Africans look upon it as a paradise on earth. It is difficult to imagine that this very spot was once the place where he even tribe used to send their own people to die. When they had reached the age where they had outlived their usefulness. Here in wretched hobbles these unfortunate old man women were condemned to die. Some of them starve to death for very little food was provided for them. Many of them were eaten by lions and leopards which roamed in the dense forests surrounding the area. For these unchristian savage tribes. That was their idea of an old people's home. The forest and grassland

around Wimbledon Yama is still a wild animal country. It wasn't so very long ago that bird shot a man eating lion only about five miles from here. Shortly before that an African pastor was chased by a lion on a motorcycle. Perhaps I should clarify that statement what I meant to say was that it was a poster on the motorcycle who was chased by the one. The pastor was. I was riding along a narrow road about dusk when suddenly the lion leapt at him from the grass along the roadside. But the lion misjudged the speed of the motorcycle and missed the frightened pastor looked over his shoulder and saw that the lion was giving chase stirring up a big cloud of dust as he galloped up the road only a few rods behind him. He turned us right up to full speed. His heart in his throat for fear that the motorcycle might break down and leave him at the mercy of the line. He was always having trouble with a spark plug fouling up and if that should happen no more was would be in serious trouble. But fortunately the sparkplug kept firing and Pastor

Mose made his escape. Well there we have just a little picture of the setting of the wimble and you're on the mission. At this moment the pupils from the school. Several hundred of them are marching up the road from the lower end of the grade. I understand they're coming over to give us a welcome. As they round the bend in the process the spot where we're standing here in the shade of a palm tree. We see that they're caring to fly the flag of Belgium and the flying of the bows and convert. I've been told that one of the students will give a brief address of welcome. Mrs. Law who is standing beside me. We will act as interpreter. Louis. Now the marketing students have come to a home. For boys and girls are standing several columns deep facing us. And one of them is about to speak.

But they got the limit let me down. I'm here just to this and so loud yes that oh yeah I love Baka. OH MY like I need to call this. We have great fortune because of your remembering that they got Ike Yana the newcomer hollowed out. Yes we have today got a lot of the time we yeah like last Yeah I'm out and I kind of on auto plant where we live go to a shot of me died. Yes and also because you're remembering. Yeah. Yeah yeah look on that guy would know it all right.

Yes thank God. Right at the conclusion of this fine welcoming speech. I reply brief Lake ranking the students for their friendly reception. We didn't make a recording of my response. Later I had the opportunity to visit one of their classes on the way we stopped for a moment to watch some of the boys busily at work grinding meal in several large wooden buckets. We'll continue our recording there. You merely see a group of the boys pounding millet for the evening meal. And over here the willing lady with around bright gray Maida

is throwing the unlit up in the air as the wind blows which path away. The next part of our program will come to you from one of the times we hear it. We are speaking now from a grade school classroom at the window in the on the mission. This is all are these youngsters boarding school you know these walking they walk in I suppose you have no school buses for transporting them to school right now. Well could we talk with two or three of them. Yes I'd be happy for you. Let's begin with this little girl. What is your name. Demba. How old are you demo. She's not 9 years old and what is the name of your home village. I knew she's from ACORN do you want. How far is that

from the mission Virginia. That's quite a hike for a little girl for miles in the morning for miles at night. Here's a bright eyed little fellow and let's talk to him for a moment. What's his name. Onyango. How far do you have to walk to get to school when young wake chemical ocular me down I'm not familiar. He walked about my eight miles you mean to tell me that this little boy walks eight miles to school every morning. Yeah that's right. And how early Does he have to get up in order to get to school on time. Wayman Neko Malacca I knew she'd yak on their welcome when he said believe that the second chicken at the second chicken what does he mean by that. Well they don't have any watches and so they go by the crowing of the chickens and he leaves when the second chicken grows in the morning which is about four o'clock for a walk.

That's amazing the schoolboy getting up at 4 o'clock walking miles every morning at eight miles at night you know order to attend school in most cases do their parents insist that their children attend school. No not at all. It comes from their own design and that's why they they come then of their own accord. Very right they must really be hungry for an education. Yes they really are we have never had we seen such dire for education as we find among our school didn't do the teachers had much many problems in the way of discipline. You know practically none you know because of their intense desire for learning and because they are always aware of the fact that if they don't make progress and if they don't cooperate in the classroom or their mother. Here they are waiting for the opportunity to enter in that interesting. Now I understand Virginia that there are still lions and leopards in this part of the Congo.

The parents of these little ones concerned about having their children start out preschool so early in the morning in wild animal country. Yes many optimal would be however though they may realize the dangers always present they usually know if there happens to be far left in this area. How do they get the word around if they hear their own lines. Well there's always the famous African great find them and then their drummers run this through the countryside. Then they keep the children home and go Really. So they break when they know they're lying about. Yes they usually stay home until the sun is up and as a rule they come with a group of people who are coming this way with spears and arrows to protect them. Now you're telling me the other day about a 14 year old girl who is deserving of a medal for her bravery. Yet here she is.

Charles Charles would you tell us what happened to your little sister the other day. Did he come with you. For my big hype and grafter let you down the screen. How old was your sister. She was about 5 and Char what did you do when the plankton grabbed Rocky he grabbed the child and pulled it out of the clutches of the fight and then you know that it is that pipe and still in line. You know when she came up to the village Why'd she tell the story and had she not had the marks of the teeth of the python on the leg of the child. We probably wouldn't have believed there. But her father went down and found the python there right Paul where she told him it was and he killed it in really measured it was over 13 feet long and bigger around and that certainly was a brave deed.

Oh I can say Virginia is that in all my problems I've never seen children anywhere who have the courage the first systems and the hunger for knowledge of these boys and girls that when boneyard are sad it is to think that there are still so many who are denied the education they yearn for because the mission doesn't have the funds to build more schools and provide the teachers for them. Well I'm here of the dramatic story of these boys about camy triad would be an inspiration to the young people in our school throughout America. The experience of these African children helps us to realize what a Precious Gift education is especially when it can be attained only at such great sacrifice. This has been Program 16 of Americas African heritage. These programs feature recordings made by world traveler skip Westfall on a recent trip to Africa. This ear is made possible by a grant and aid to radio station WOIO was State College from the educational television and radio center. Production is under the

direction of Norman B clearly and this is reggae. Speaking for the National Association of educational broadcasters This is the end E.B. Radio Network.