BIKORO, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. - On 10 Sept. 1926 the first Lazarists arrived at B. (Belgian Congo) to evangelize the district of the same name, situated along the middle Congo, which shortly before (28 Jan. of the same year) had been transferred from the vicariate of New Antwerp to the apostolic prefecture of Coquilhatville (formerly Thsuapa).
The same district, enlarged by a portion of territory on the left bank of the Congo River, from Irebu to its confluence with the Kasai, near Kwamouth, belonging to the vicariate of Léopoldville, first constituted (3 Jan. 1931) the mission sui iuris of B., which subsequently became a prefecture (25 June 1940).
Area of the territory: 60,000 sq. km.; total population (approximate estimate): 79,812 inhabitants, of whom in 1948 there were 12,608 Catholics and 8,050 catechumens, 11,135 Protestants, and 50,590 pagans. There are 12 missionaries, 4 brothers, 12 sisters, and 140 catechists. Primary stations: 6; secondary stations: 143; elementary schools: 57, with 3,208 pupils.
The mission is developing normally, even where Protestants had preceded it (regions of Bolobo, Tondo, etc.), as also among the Batwa (equatorial pygmies), one of the most primitive populations (the station of Bolongo, founded in 1936). Everywhere works of charity (care for mothers and children, treatment of lepers) win the hearts of the natives; the strong body of catechists and teachers also cooperates in this work, the latter graduating from the school at Bamanya (Coquilhatville).