Among the odd cults that nourish in the French Congo, perhaps the oddest of all is the Matswa cult, which takes its name from a Congolese who served as a French army sergeant in World War I. Preaching passive resistance against the French, Andre Matswa persuaded his followers not to pay taxes, accept identity cards or cultivate peanuts as ordered by the French. He died of dysentery in a French Congo prison in 1942. His disciples, deifying him, hold that he is still alive and will return one day to the Congo to drive the whites out. In their legend,...
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