Colportage. Book display in village, Congo, ca. 1900-1915

Black and white lantern slide showing a Congolese man with a bicycle engaged in colportage work, the distribution of religious books and tracts. A selection of printed material is displayed in a small wooden case on a wooden table covered by a patterned cloth. Books also lie loose on the table. The display is set in front of a thatched village house. One figure stands in the doorway whilst another young man looks on next to the table of books. This slide comes from a collection generated by missionaries working for the Congo Balolo Mission, a mission begun in 1889 under the supervision of the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions that developed into the interdenominational evangelical mission Regions Beyond Missionary Union after 1900.