COQUILHATVILLE, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. – The designation derives from Coquilhat, the name of the founder of the city of C. (Belgian Congo), currently its principal centre, which has approx. 25,000 inhabitants, several hundred of whom are Europeans. It is situated on the equator.
The territory of the vicariate has an area of 185,775 sq. km.; it is marshy and forested, traversed longitudinally
by the Tshuapa River, which has a network of tributaries and constitutes a good means of communication. The inhabitants, in 1948, numbered approx. 424,000: the Bantu Nbando-Nlango, who practise agriculture; the Elinga, scattered along the rivers and devoted to fishing; the Batava, pygmies, numbering approx. 50,000, who live by hunting. They have the idea of a single God called Njakomba or Mbombianha, but offer sacrifices to the spirits (elima) and to the souls of the dead (bahali). The evangelization of the territory was undertaken in 1894 by the Belgian Trappists. On 11 February 1924, its upper part was erected as an apostolic prefecture under the name of Tshuapa and entrusted to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the Belgian province. In order to preserve the work accomplished by the Trappists, who would have had to return to their homeland by order of their superiors, they were given permission to transfer to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and their territory was added to that of the prefecture of Tshuapa, whose name was changed to that of C. on 28 January 1926. On 27 April 1927, it underwent a rectification of its boundaries with the Apostolic Vicariate of Léopoldville; on 3 January 1931, the sui iuris mission of Bikoro, now an apostolic prefecture, was partly detached from it;
then, after a rectification of boundaries on 1 March 1931 with the Apostolic Prefecture of Basankusu, now an apostolic vicariate, it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate on 22 March 1932. In 1948 there were 79,155 Catholics, 2,765 catechumens; 58,000 Protestants; 76 Muslims; approx. 280,000 pagans; 1 indigenous priest, 52 foreign missionary priests, 16 lay brothers and 5 indigenous ones; 21 seminarians; 97 sisters, 1 of them indigenous; 376 catechists, 231 male teachers, 7 female teachers, 1 physician; 6 principal mission stations, 350 secondary ones; 32 churches, 226 chapels; 12 hospitals, with 550 beds; 15 dispensaries; 5 leprosaria with 1,622 inmates; 140 elementary schools with 8,800 pupils, 14 secondary schools with 332 pupils. There are numerous Catholic Action associations and a printing press, which prints two periodicals, one with 1,150 copies and the other with 475.