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52 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
And the Zi Nganga, or priests of the groves of Nyambi and Senza, sought hard for the
cause of God's wrath, and they divined that it was on account of the immorality of
certain persons unknown, who were ignoring the traditions and laws of their God and
country. Then Mamboma sent word to his Kongo Zovo, or chiefs, that there were people
in their towns who were the cause of God's wrath. And the Kongo Zovo each in his
district called his people together and bid them make the necessary inquiries. And it
was discovered that three girls were pregnant, who had ignored the customs of their
country and had been defiled by men before having passed through the "paint-house."
As there is much misconception abroad about this custom of putting maidens into the
paint house, originating no doubt in the first impressions of people who without a
proper study of the subject have concluded that it must be bad because it is a custom of
a people living in a different stage of civilisation from their own, let us digress for a
moment to describe it. We in England know what it is to suffer from the vicious fables of
ignorant scribes bent on informing the Continental public of all the evil that exists
amongst us. We cannot blame the public in question for the opinions they have formed
of us, we can only pity them, and curse the idiots who have only studied one side of our
character, or who have come to us so prejudiced that even our virtues are distorted by
them into some cute scheme of the devil to put them off what to them may seem a true
appreciation of our character. So it is with the European and the African generally; the
European is white and therefore pure, the African black and therefore impure. And all
the good we find in him, we proudly put down, not to the influence of God who has been
with him from the beginning, but to our own good influence. And so, when we drop
from our atmosphere of twentieth century refinement and find ourselves after a few
days' sea voyage in the middle of twelfth and thirteenth century frankness, we are apt to
see sin and immodesty where really neither exists.
At the first signs of puberty the maiden's (xikumbi) family rejoice, and the men fire off
their guns. Then a small hut or shed is built outside the town for the girl. The hair of her
head is shaved off and her whole body is covered with takula, or the powdered red
wood mixed with water. Thus painted the maiden retires with friends of hers who have
already gone through the ceremony to the little hut. Here she is presented with a fowl,
or if the family cannot afford this, an egg. The maiden rests here for six days while her
companions watch and amuse and feed her during the day, serving her as if she were a
princess, and at night singing and dancing to the music of the misunga (the great dried
pod of the Baobab tree).
In the meantime a nice shimbec or hut is built for her in town, wherein two beds are
placed. Upon one of these, accompanied by two of her older friends, the maiden sleeps,
while the other is placed at the disposal of her other and younger friends. Each day she
twice submits to the painting process, and for four or five months is not permitted to
work in any way.
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