author
John H. Weeks
1860–1924
A British Baptist missionary who spent about three decades in the Congo, he turned close observation into vivid books on local life, folklore, and belief. His work preserves stories and customs that still draw readers interested in Central African history and ethnography.
2 Audiobooks
Among Congo cannibals
by John H. Weeks
Congo life and folklore
by John H. Weeks
About the author
Born in London in 1860, John Henry Weeks became a Baptist missionary and went to the Congo in the early 1880s. He remained there for many years, learning local languages and recording the daily life, traditions, and oral storytelling of the communities he lived among.
Weeks is best remembered for books including Among Congo Cannibals, Among the Primitive Bakongo, and Congo Life and Folklore. His writing reflects both his missionary work and his strong ethnographic interest, and it offered many English-language readers one of their first detailed looks at Congolese societies.
He died in London in 1924. Today his books are read both as period travel-and-mission narratives and as historical records that preserve folklore, language, and social customs from the Congo during a time of enormous change.