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THE STORY OF KAMBA AND KATHLEEN SIMANGO

No birth records are kept in African Kraals, so Kamba Simango does not know his exact age.  But about thirty years ago he was a little baby in his mother's arms, with skin like black velvet, teeth like pearls and eyes like diamonds.  His home was on the bank of the Sabi River, East Africa, not far from the Indian Ocean.  He was an active little fellow, for he received the name Leopard-Kamba and African names are given to fit.  His home was a hut, his clothing his skin, soft and beautiful, and his food, after his mother's milk, was fish and maize porridge.  His boyhood was wonderfully simple and free.  You might pity the little heathen boy, but he and his chums would laugh at you for your pains.  Fishing, hunting, playing, dancing in the moonlight, listening to the yarns of the old men about the campfires at night, herding the cattle and goats by day with an occasional battle among the herders, what more ideal boylife than that?  It is true that the women and children had often to hike for the woods to hide from the marauding soldiers of Gungunyana, to sit in fear and trembling at the gruesome orgies of the witch-doctors, but there was a lot of fun even in such experiences for a carefree boy, and it gave them something to talk and brag about afterwards.

Kamba's father had but one wife, though he was a brother of the chief, and might have had many.  About the time of his birth the great chief of the country, Gungunyana, was debauched by rum and induced by presents to remove his people four hundred miles south, in order that the Portuguese might gain control of the territory.  Those were awful days, for many of the people who refused to go were tortured and thousands of them died from thirst and hunger on the journey.

During his boyhood a great change took place in his home land.  Portuguese soldiers and police subdued the people to the Portuguese rule.  Sugar, cotton and rubber plantations were established near his home and men and boys had to work on them whether they wished or not.  Even women and girls were forced to go to the sea coast and gather salt for the government for months at a time with no pay, often having to feed themselves while they worked.  His mother was taken for this service and beaten while at her work.

Some of the older boys, however, used to go away to work at Beira, where they learned to do laundry work, to cook, wait on table, or serve in the stores, lumberyards and warehouses of the English, German and other foreigners who were in business there.  This was a much better service than the field work, better pay and better treatment, and Kamba at about fifteen years of age went to Beira for such service.

On arrival there he heard his companions talking about a missionary school which had been recently started there.  The boys were all keen to learn the whiteman's magic of reading and writing.  After their work at night fifty or more of them used to crowd into a small school room and study the new things.  But trouble had come to the school just before his arrival, and the boys were afraid to go any more.  Twelve of the boys, just after leaving school one night, had been caught by the Portuguese police and put in jail, and the next morning were taken before the Commandante of Police and beaten on their hands with twelve blows of the palmatoria, and told if they went to school again they would be treated far worse.  The missionary went to the Commandante and was told that the boys were not beaten for going to school, but for being drunk and making a noise on the streets at night, but everybody knew that that was not true.  But the word went out again that the Government was not opposed to the school, and the boys began to go back again.

One of Kamba's chums, Matakara, was among the boys beaten, but he returned to school almost immediately.  Then Kamba decided to try it.  He became a very apt pupil and soon mastered the charts and began to read the New Testament.  Sundays there were religious services held at the school house and many boys expressed the desire to become Christians.  There were frequent alarms regarding school attendance but the boys were so interested that they came, even though late at night.

About a year after the first raid by the police, the Commandante of Police, who had been made School Inspector, a man feared as though he were the devil himself by the natives, visited the school and found Matakara and two other boys in the school.  He recognized Matakara as one whom he had beaten and had threatened to beat again if he returned.  On reaching home Matakara found policemen waiting for him and he was taken before the Commandante and given 50 blows of the palmatoria on each hand - terrible punishment with that instrument of torture.  This was the fifth time that the school had been broken up by the police, and it had become unsafe for any boy to be seen going to the school or even talking with the missionary on the street.  Police patrols watched both the schoolhouse and the home of the missionary to intercept boys who went to either place.  The boys used to come late at night but they did so at great risk.

Then the missionary made a plan to send the boys who wanted to go on with their studies to Mt. Silinda across the Portuguese line into British Rhodesia.  Eighteen took advantage of that offer and among them Kamba.

Some walked and some went by train, but they were watched and had some narrow escapes before they got away.  Kamba and three others went by train.  They were stopped at the border, but a German, a friend of Mr. Bunker, claimed them as his servants, and they were able to cross into British territory and reached Umatali, whence they walked 170 miles to the Mt. Silinda School.  Others walked the 250 miles overland.

At Mt. Silinda the boys from Beira took a high place in the school, both as to study and to Christian character.  The school of persecution in Beira had made them strong in faith and purpose.  Here they were trained in industry, brick-making, carpentry and the like, as well as taught the three Rs.  After a year or two some of the boys risked visiting their homes.  Kamba made the journey to his home and back to school three times during the six years he stayed at Mt. Silinda, and each time he brought back other boys with him to school.  Several girls also came with them and afterwards became wives of the boys at Mt. Silinda.

After six years of study and training Kamba decided to try and get higher training than he could get at Mt. Silinda.  He was encouraged in this by Miss Minnie Clark, one of his teachers, who had taken a deep interest in him and wanted him to have better advantages.  He went for a year to Lovedale, a very fine school in Cape Colony, but not getting what he wanted there, he decided to come to America.

He went to work to earn his passage money and in June, 1914, he sailed on a German steamer from Durban, Natal, and reached Southhampton, fortunately just before war was declared.  He crossed to New York and went immediately to Hampton Institute.

He spent five years at Hampton, from 1914 to 1919.  There he learned the carpenters trade as well as taking an academic course.  He took high standing at the institution.  He became the President of his Class and the President of the Y.M.C.A. during his senior year.  He volunteered in the Student Army Training Corps and was training for the U. S. Army when the Armistice came.  One in authority, who knew him well, said that he was one of the best men in character and work in the Institution, and he has been chosen to represent Hampton on two summer campaigns throughout the country, and the student body proposes to help support his work in his future life in Africa.

In October, 1919, he entered Columbia University in the Teacher's Training course.  He had saved money which he had earned in working at his trade while at Hampton to get started in Columbia, and worked as a waiter, etc. to meet his expenses.  As he went on, friends were raised up to assist him in his course.  His professors became his friends and have said publicly, that he is fully capable of taking any course that the University affords.  Prof. Boas, the Professor of Anthropology, has especially befriended him and has used him in connection with his work on African Anthropology, even associating him in the authorship of a book on that subject.  He has also published a book on African music.  He has now completed his course in the University, taking the degree of Bachelor of Science.  In addition he has taken courses in bricklaying and other industries in the trade schools of New York.

He has decided to return as a missionary to his own people, and as it will be necessary to use the Portuguese language in the schools in that territory, he will go to Portugal to study the language, and while there proposes to attend the University of Portugal and get a degree as teacher.  This will give him a standing in Portuguese East Africa which he could not otherwise secure.

Mrs. Simango was Kathleen Easmon of Sierra Leone, West Africa.  Her people were of the Susu and Fantee tribes of West Africa, but she is of the third generation of Christian Africans.  Her great grandfather was an escaped slave from the southern states of America, having passed via the "Underground Railway" to Nova Scotia and thence to the Freedman's Colony in Sierra Leone.  His son, Easmon, by name, became a trader into Susu country and married a chief's daughter, who had been educated in a mission school.  They sent their son, Kathleen's father, to England to be educated as a doctor.  He there met her mother, Annette Kathleen Smith, and they were married and returned to Gold Coast, West Africa, where he became the chief medical officer under the British Government at that place.

Her mother's father was half Fantee and half white.  He was trained in the mission schools at Sierra Leone and became the Registrar of the Court at that place.  He had a large family of seven sons and seven daughters, and decided to take them all to England to educate them.  They lived on the island of Jersey.  All the sons became doctors and lawyers, and all the daughters were educated and married educated young Africans, and the whole family went back to Africa for service.

Kathleen was born on the Gold Coast and she and her brother were the first trained in the mission schools of Sierra Leone, and afterward went to England for further education.  He became a doctor and is in Government employ in West Africa, while she gained a scholarship in competitive examination at the Royal College of Arts, South Kensington, London, graduating in 1914 with the degree of A. R. C. A., ​and returning to Sierra Leone in 1917.

Kathleen was not at all interested in missions at first, but only wanted to help her people develop their art and craft work.  However, when she traveled in the interior and saw the real needs of the masses of her people, she decided to give her life to helping them, so with her Aunt, Mrs. Caseley Hayford, she came to America to study a method of teaching that would be better suited to their needs.  Mrs. Hayford had had a purely academic school and so desirous of raising funds to introduce industrial training.

While in America, besides speaking in many colored churches, (for they appealed largely to the colored people for aid), Kathleen put on pageants of African life in Baltimore, Boston, New York and Philadelphia, sometimes with a cast of several actors.  Among those actors she secured the services of Kamba Simango, a Columbia University student, and he was assigned with her to enact a bethrothal scene as the chief event in the pageant.  It was not long before the acting became a serious matter to these two young people for they became bethrothed in reality, and in June 1922, were married in Wilton, Connecticut, by Rev. Fred R. Bunker, Kamba's former missionary in Beira.

Since their marriage, they have not only been studying in New York, he at Columbia and she at Pratt Institute, but they have also been speaking in many churches about New York and Connecticut.

At the Autumn Meeting of the Fairfield County Association of Congregational Churches and Ministers of Connecticut, it was decided to adopt Mr. and Mrs. Simango as the missionaries of the Association in Africa, and to support them under the American Board.  The Board approved of such adoption.

The Association will not only raise the money to pay their salary but enough to support several native workers who will be associated with them on the field.  They have made a host of friends among the churches and it is hoped they will be provided with an excellent outfit for their work.

It is not yet known what form their work will take on the field, but the thought is that they will direct their energies to opening up work in the Lowlands of Mozambique where nothing has yet been accomplished for the large population living there.  There are not only the obstacles of heathenism to overcome in the field, but there is the opposition of the ruling commercial interests which hold sway in the territory.  Work in a distinctively heathen community is unhealthful and there are many difficulties, but they choose that field in preference to several others which have opened to them, because of the great need.

Their training and equipment will enable them to bring the very best that science can offer to the solution of the material problems which will face them, and their spiritual training and character give promise of noble service being done for their stricken and needy people.

F.R.B.

THE PLAN OF SUPPORT

The Goal.   $2500 per year, divided into 100 shares at $25.00 each.  This money will be used to pay salary, traveling expenses, outfit, living allowance while in Portugal, and for the development of the work.

How Raised.   Each church in the Association is asked to assume at least one share, and as many more as possible.  The shares can be raised by 1) appropriation by the church Committee; 2) by Sunday School Classes and Young People's Organizations; 3) by Missionary Societies; 4) by private parties.

Wherever possible the shares should be assumed as a yearly obligation, the money to be paid before Sept. 30th each year if convenient, and surely by Dec. 31st.

Where Sent.  All money for the Simangos should be sent to Mr. Richard W. Cogswell,  City Savings Bank, Bridgeport, the Treasurer of the Association, together with a statement of the source of the gifts.  He will forward all money to The American Board.

Relation to Apportionment.  All of this money will count on the Apportionment of the various churches.  It is understood however, that this money is to be given in addition to what was given last year to the American Board.  For instance, if your church last year gave $200 to the American Board, and you assume 4 shares for the Simangos, this year your American Board gift should be $300.

Certificates.  Printed certificates, displaying the photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Simango will be issued to organizations or individuals who subscribe for shares.  They are very attractive and suitable for framing.

Pictures.  Pictures, similar to the illustrations in this booklet, printed on heavy cardboard, may be obtained from a representative in your church at a small cost.  You are urged to purchase these to help defray the expense of publicity.

Communications regarding this enterprise, and a record of pledges made, should be sent to the Chairman of the Apportionment (Missionary) Committee of the Association, who for the present is R. C. Whitehead, 956 Broad St., Stratford.
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1.
The date that I have given this booklet is just a guess.  I'm figuring it was the result of the Autumn Meeting in Connecticut mentioned in the booklet.  No year is given for that, but it would have been after Kamba's and Kathleen's June 1922 wedding.  In November 1923, according to Wikipedia, Kamba was in London, England, and Kathleen died in June 1924.  So the Autumn Meeting must have been in 1922, and this booklet would have been produced after that.  December 20 isn't even a guess; it's just a convenient date for the chronology of:
2.
But about thirty years ago he was a little baby in his mother's arms, with skin like black velvet, teeth like pearls and eyes like diamonds.
So Kamba was born in the early 1890s.

3.
About the time of his birth the great chief of the country, Gungunyana, was debauched by rum and induced by presents to remove his people four hundred miles south, in order that the Portuguese might gain control of the territory.
This is not the story that I found online, in either Wikipedia or Britannica.   Wikipedia says:
Gungunhana was the last dynastic emperor of the Empire of Gaza, a territory now part of Mozambique. Nicknamed the Lion of Gaza, he reigned from around 1884 to 28 December 1895, the day he was imprisoned by Joaquim Mouzinho de Albuquerque in the fortified village of Chaimite. Because he was already known to the European press, the Portuguese colonial administration decided to exile him, rather than send him to face a firing squad, as would normally be the case. He was transported to Lisbon, accompanied by his son Godide and other dignitaries. After a brief stay at the Fort of Monsanto, he was transferred to the Azores, where he would die eleven years later.
So, no rum and no presents for Gungunyana.  Kamba was barely more than a baby in 1895, so his knowledge would have come from his elders, who might have felt some bitterness towards the defeated Gungunyana.  And in 1922, when this booklet was written, it would have been very hard to do a quick fact-check of Kamba's story.

On the other hand, who knows what was going on behind the scenes with Gungunyana and the Portuguese?  Maybe Kamba's family knew things that the Portuguese didn't care to advertise.

4.
​Twelve of the boys, just after leaving school one night, had been caught by the Portuguese police and put in jail, and the next morning were taken before the Commandante of Police and beaten on their hands with twelve blows of the palmatoria, and told if they went to school again they would be treated far worse.
For palmatoria, I found three possibilities: ferule, candlestick, or prickly pear.  Take your pick.

5.
​They were stopped at the border, but a German, a friend of Mr. Bunker, claimed them as his servants
This is the first time Mr. Bunker is mentioned in this booklet.  There's no explanation here of who he is, but I figure that F.R.B., who wrote this booklet, is Mr. Bunker, and that he figured everybody would know that, so there was no need for further clarification.

6.
He crossed to New York and went immediately to Hampton Institute.
Hampton University was and is a historically black college in Virginia.

7.
Mrs. Simango was Kathleen Easmon of Sierra Leone, West Africa.  Her people were of the Susu and Fantee tribes of West Africa, but she is of the third generation of Christian Africans.  Her great grandfather was an escaped slave from the southern states of America, having passed via the "Underground Railway" to Nova Scotia and thence to the Freedman's Colony in Sierra Leone.  His son, Easmon, by name, became a trader into Susu country and married a chief's daughter, who had been educated in a mission school.  They sent their son, Kathleen's father, to England to be educated as a doctor.  He there met her mother, Annette Kathleen Smith, and they were married and returned to Gold Coast, West Africa, where he became the chief medical officer under the British Government at that place.
This information is sort of squished together.  The ancestry on Kathleen's father's side is: is:
4. Kathleen's great-grandfather, was an escaped slave in North America, who went to Nova Scotia and then the Sierra Leone.
3. Kathleen's grandfather, Easmon, became a trader in west Africa and married a chief's daughter.
2. Kathleen's father was sent by his parents (the trader and the chief's daughter) to England to be educated as a doctor, and married Kathleen's mother in England.  They came back to Africa and settled in Gold Coast, which is now known as Ghana.
1. Kathleen.

A few years ago I read a novel called Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill, whose main character escaped slavery in the US, went to Nove Scotia, and then to Sierra Leone - like Kathleen's great-grandfather.  Since this was a novel, there were other legs of her journey before the US and after Sierra Leone, but it was fun to see, in this booklet about the Simangos, the US-to-Nova-Scotia-to-Sierra-Leone journey taking place in real life.

8.
Her mother's father was half Fantee and half white.  He was trained in the mission schools at Sierra Leone and became the Registrar of the Court at that place.  He had a large family of seven sons and seven daughters, and decided to take them all to England to educate them.  They lived on the island of Jersey.  All the sons became doctors and lawyers, and all the daughters were educated and married educated young Africans, and the whole family went back to Africa for service.
Here's Kathleen's mother's side:
3. Kathleen's grandfather was trained in mission schools at Sierra Leon and became Registrar of the court.  He took his 7 sons and 7 daughters to England for Education.
2. One of the 7 daughters married Kathleen's father.
1. Kathleen.

9.
Relation to Apportionment.  All of this money will count on the Apportionment of the various churches.  It is understood however, that this money is to be given in addition to what was given last year to the American Board.  For instance, if your church last year gave $200 to the American Board, and you assume 4 shares for the Simangos, this year your American Board gift should be $300.
In other words: 4 shares for the Simangos makes 4 x $25.00, which is $100, which is added to the previous annual donation of $200 to make $300.

​10.
Certificates.  Printed certificates, displaying the photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Simango will be issued to organizations or individuals who subscribe for shares.  They are very attractive and suitable for framing.
I know that Kamba and Kathleen were good people.  I know that all this wasn't a scam.  But as I read this, I keep thinking: "Sounds like a scam to me!"
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