1945: It takes a courageous man to stand for God and his Theocratic kingdom in [Belgian Congo]. Not only are the work and literature completely banned, but Congo Africans professing association with us are liable to be transported to a certain district where they are kept in a loose sort of confinement sometimes for several years. Letters sent us from the Congo seldom reach here [Northern Rhodesia], and mail sent back is, it seems, not delivered; but . . . everything possible is being done to help our fellow Kingdom workers in this priest-ridden country.

For years African publishers have been in prison serving indeterminate sentences because of their witnessing work, and to make things worse they are sent to a special concentration camp at Kasaji, about [300] miles [500 km] from Elisabethville [now Lubumbashi]. Here they labor on small plots, and suffer isolation with or without their families. . . . The time may extend to even ten years. Often years and years of this seclusion are endured without the slightest hope of liberty or justice, except at the terrible price of selling their integrity.

The result has been that the work has been driven underground; meetings are held in secret, and the centers have to be changed for fear of arrest. Much of the witnessing was done by calling upon known friendly persons and their friends, but even then trouble has fallen upon one and then another. The witness is arrested and rushed to the Kasaji camp.

1950: The past year has been the most difficult of any, and, for the brethren who have lived in the Congo Belge, that means a good deal. Early in the service year not all books and letters to the territory were received and means of communication almost closed down. Next, on the 12th of January, the governor-general interdicted the Society and imposed a sentence of two months’ imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 francs upon all who assembled with, supported in any way, or were members of the Society. This decision was hailed with delight by the Catholic press. Arrest after arrest followed. Lists taken a year before from a former [congregation] servant at Elisabethville were used as a means of tracing hundreds associated with the Society and they, with their wives, were arrested. After serving their sentences Northern Rhodesian Africans were deported, but the indigenous friends of Congo were, in many cases, sent to Kasaji, a concentration camp [about 300] miles [500 km] from Elisabethville, where a proportion still are. Some of the deported brethren were given a minimum of food and compelled to walk the final 18 miles [30 km] from Sakania to the Northern Rhodesia border.

Secret police have recently been multiplied, and the presence of a Bible is sufficient to have a man suspected of being one of Jehovah’s witnesses.

News has just been received that two European sisters from the Elisabethville district have been sentenced to 45 days’ imprisonment, suspended for three years on condition of good conduct (which means, of course, no work for the Lord), for being in possession of The Watchtower and witnessing. They face daily the prospect of deportation.