DARKEST AFRICA

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 January 1926, Page 5

DARKEST AFRICA

FATAL NATIVE "BAPTISMS”

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.)

CAPETOWN, January 20.

The trial has begun at Broken Hill in Northern Rhodesia of twenty-seven natives, members of the sect known as Watch Tower. They are charged with drowning twenty-two natives, mostly women, during a baptism. The central figure is a native, Tomo Njindera, known in the Congo as Mwanalesa, “Sun of God,” who has lost both arms.

The Crown case is that the accused baptised converts by immersion, informing them that anyone not baptised was a wizard or witch. Sometimes they held the converts' under water till they were drowned, and issued a warning that anyone giving information would die.

WEST AFRICAN MISSION.

LONDON, January 20.

Hon. Ormsby Gore, accompanied by Commodore Rhys, and two Colonial Office officials have left London en route for West Africa, where he undertakes a comprehensive investigation of the West Coast colonies and protectorates, especially directing attention to transport development, health, sanitation, education and agriculture, particularly palm oil, in connection with which he will endeavour to reconcile the Native land policy with the necessity for meeting competition from the Congo and Sumatra.