BASANKUSU, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. — The first station (Yumbi on the Congo River, upstream from Kwanout, currently 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 the Belgian Congo was divided, the mission, transferred to Bokakata in the Lulonga basin, passed to the vicariate of New Antwerp (now Lisala), and was subsequently erected as a prefecture (1928). Its territorial extent was defined and its boundaries with the mission of Coquilhatville adjusted in 1931. On 8 January 1948 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate. The territory covers approximately 70,000 sq. km.; total population: approximately 226,000 inhabitants of Bantu stock (Mongo, Ngombe, Monganda, etc.), including 33,405 Catholics and 3,508 catechumens; approximately 155,500 pagans; approximately 21,500 Protestants. The 15 primary stations (14 churches, 183 chapels) are entrusted to 50 priests and 7 Mill Hill brothers (almost all Dutch), assisted by 45 sisters (of the Sisters of Charity of Morslede and Franciscan Tertiaries of Asten); 275 catechists and 107 teachers. Mission works: 45 elementary schools (3,716 pupils), 2 vocational schools (43 female pupils), one teacher-training school (52 pupils), several maternal and child-welfare centres, and 10 dispensaries.
Evangelization is hampered not only by unfavorable climatic and hygienic conditions, but also both by the progressive decline in the birth rate, especially among the Mongo, caused by widespread immorality, and by the greater dispersal of the indigenous population, in search of profitable work (the extraction of copal), during the war. Nevertheless, increased school attendance and the establishment of boarding schools, nurseries of future Catholic families, offer good prospects.