VICARATE APOSTOLIC OF BASANKUSU. - The first station (Yumbi on the Congo River, upstream from Kwanout, at present in the apostolic prefecture of Bikoro) was founded in 1905 by the Society of St. Joseph of Mill Hill, at the invitation of King Leopold II. In 1919, when the vicariate of Belgian Congo was dismembered, the mission, transferred to Bokakata in the Lulonga basin, passed to the vicariate of New Antwerp (now Lisala), and was then erected as a prefecture (1928). Its territorial limits were defined and its boundaries with the mission of Coquilhatville rectified in 1931. On 8 January 1948 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate. The area of the territory is approximately 70,000 sq km; total population: approximately 226,000 inhabitants of Bantu stock (Mongo, Ngombe, Monganda, etc.), of whom 33,405 are Catholics and 3,508 catechumens; pagans approximately 155,500; Protestants approximately 21,500. The 15 primary stations (14 churches, 183 chapels) are entrusted to 50 priests and 7 brothers of Mill Hill (almost all Dutch), assisted by 45 sisters (of the Charity of Morslede and Franciscan Tertiaries of Asten); 275 catechists and 107 teachers. Works of the mission: 45 elementary schools (3,716 pupils), 2 vocational schools (43 female pupils), one normal school (52 pupils), several centers for maternal and infant care, 10 dispensaries.
Evangelization, besides being hindered by unfavorable climatic and hygienic conditions, is hampered both by progressive depopulation, especially among the Mongo, caused by widespread immorality, and by a greater dispersion of the natives, in search of profitable work (extraction of copal), during the war. Good hopes are nevertheless offered by the increased attendance at schools and the founding of colleges, nurseries of future Catholic families.