House boys, Congo, ca. 1900-1915

Black and white lantern slide showing a group of five 'house boys' for the Congo Balolo Mission. The adolescents range from around fourteen to seventeen years of age, and are dressed in long shortswith belts and white shirts. They pose on the steps of a mission building. Young men would progress from education in mission schools to house staff and then into roles in the indigenous Christian community. 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.