A lion story from a small African Hut on a Rainy afternoon

Forty-five kilometres to the east of Kipushya Mission is the village and Christian centre of Kabula Lusala. I have forgotten the reason for travelling to this Village  where there was a vibrant village church with school and dispensary/maternity all built by the local population.

The village where the Rains did not come.

It was in this area in a nearby village where the church needed to be rethatched during one dry season in the 1940s and the villagers had not made the time to do it. It was becoming urgent as the rains only stop for four months in that part of the Congo, in East Kasai, usually from mid-May to mid-September. The Missionary came on his bicycle to see how things were progressing. Nothing had been done.

He was a man of prayer and had seen many miraculous interventions from God. He’d built a special prayer hut at the mission where He could give Himself to fasting and prayer and he’d seen God move in Revival Power on two different ocassions in the early years.

Basonge Thatching a school building.

He said in this village near Kabula Lusala, “There won’t be any rain on your crops until you have put the last thatch on the church roof”. Meaning the special thatch ridge-capping so beautifully done by the Basonge. They went on with their own work ignoring what the Pastor had said and they were busy getting their gardens ready to plant corn and manioc for the new season.

Well like Elijah of old who prayed that God would shut up the heavens and it didn’t rain for three and a half years so it didn’t rain. They were now already in October and there was very little thatching grass to be found and it need to be carried for many kilometres if it was found. The rains were just not coming and the winds were getting stronger and hotter.

All at once they realised that what the Pastor had said would cause them famine if they did’t oblige. They soon had the thatching done and as they finished down came the rains.

Now back to my story. WE sat in this very small hut on this rainy Saturday afternoon. In the one room there were four bamboo relaxing chairs; a bed made from Makadi, a tall bamboo which grows in swampy areas; and a grass mat on the floor.

The rain was dripping off the thatch onto the soft loamy soil. These pastors who had come with me were eager to tell me some African stories of Lions. There was the one about men turning themselves into two lions. Africans believe that through witchcraft they can change themselves into a big cat if they wish to kill someone. There was another one about the lion which came out of the bush and roared at the little group of men on the path. It then ran off down the path that they were taking.

Pastor Ngoie Shalumbo spoke of the day they were out on a hunt about twenty kilometres to the east of Kipushya Mission. They had their bunderbus guns over their shoulders, primed and ready with gunpowder and raffia and pieces of bike axle in the barrel as bullets. After hunting for about three hours, Pastor Ngoie and a friend were tired and leg weary. They decided to go into a clump of trees and have a rest. The others went on with the hunt.

While Pastor Ngoie and friend were cat-napping in the shade they heard the roar of a Lion nearby. As quick as jack-robinson they were high up a tree swinging in the branches. Apparently lions don’t like noise near them either and they will climb up a tree and pull a man down if you talk. They are cats anyway.

After some time the other group returned and came looking for their friends. They found their hunting gear on the ground but nobody nearby. As they looked up there they were riding high in the tree. Without making a noise they tried to tell them there was a lion nearby and to keep quiet and get up a tree as fast as they could.

Soon all the five hunters were swinging in the branches up in the tree. After some hours and weary of hanging there they quietly climbed down and made their way home not seeing the lion and not catching any prey. They arrived home with only a story of the lion that roared at them. 
"Watch out for the Devil and his tricks. he goes round as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour"
More Stories from Africa 1