Leon de Sousberghe, S.J. 1903-2006

"Nous parlons de l'art Pende actuel..."

Leon de Clerque-Wissocq de Sousberghe, the author of Lart pende (1959) and many other important treatises, died on March 30, 2006, at the age of 102. He was born on October 25, 1903, at Conjoux Hall, Conneux, in the Province of Namur. Scion to one of the aristocratic families of Belgium, de Sousberghe wryly remembered a happy childhood hunting rabbits on the picturesque family domain. Following the chaos of the German invasion in 1914, his family sent him to secondary schools first in Paris and then on the Isle of Jersey. In 1918, he transferred to the College jesuite de Marmoutier in Tours, where he obtained a French Baccalaureat in Letters and Philosophy. Returning to Belgium, de Sousberghe began graduate studies at the University of Louvain and received doctorates in both philosophy and law, 1929-30.

The son of a vicomte and grandson of a count, de Sousberghe forfeited his title to join the Jesuits in 1930. He achieved his lifelong desire of being ordained as a Catholic priest in August 1936. His younger sister, Anne, showed a similar dedication and joined a congregation of cloistered nuns in London. De Sousberghe spent two years teaching constitutional law and social legislation at the Institut superieur de commerce St. Ignace in Antwerp before war once again intervened. In 1939, he was mobilized as a military chaplain. Assigned to serve the Allied troops because of his superb English language skills, he was captured and interned as prisoner of war by the Germans.

Although de Sousberghe had long been interested in the formal study of prehistory and ethnography, he initially pursued philosophy and law, believing that he would be more likely to gain entry to the Jesuit order.

However, in 1950, his superiors authorized his professional retooling and sent him for a year of independent study in London with Daryll Forde, head of the department of anthropology at University College London and director of the International African Institute. Forde directed the studies of many leading Belgian Africanists after 1948, including Jacques Maquet, Daniel Biebuyck, and Jan Vansina (Biebuyck 2001:105-106). For such a mature student, the switch from law to ethnography was more credible, since prehistory was classed as one of the natural sciences. Following the year of coursework in London, de Sousberghe conducted his first field research among the Pende of the Belgian Congo, 195153, supported by the Institut pour la Recherche scientifique en Afrique centrale (IRSAC). After a furlough, he returned for additional fieldwork, 1955-57, funded this time by both IRSAC and the Academie royale des Sciences coloniales.

From 1951, de Sousberghe became a professional researcher and only occasionally performed teaching or other duties for the church. From 1960-62, he served as professor

of social anthropology at the Universite Ibero-Americaine in Mexico. In 1963, he taught at the Universite Lovanium in Kinshasa and at the University of Bujumbura in Burundi. In 1965-67, he conducted another two years of fieldwork in Bukavu among the Havu and Nyanga.

Many have speculated that the great anthropologists experience alienation from their home culture which renders them sympathetic to and curious about the mechanics of culture elsewhere. Although de Sousberghe renounced his family fortune in joining the Jesuits, his social position sometimes isolated him. It is probably no accident that he spent most of his adult life abroad before retirement. As a Belgian imprisoned among Allied troops in a German prisoner-of-war camp; as an anthropologist working among missionaries; and as a scholar usually berthed outside of a university, he never fit easily into any one community.

When finally authorized to conduct ethnographic research, de Sousberghe requested a posting in the Great Lakes region. However, his Jesuit superiors insisted that he be lodged in one of their own mission stations and selected Totshi, just west of the Kwilu River, arguing that the Kongo had already received much scholarly attention, whereas there was nothing comparable for the Pende. As a result, the Kwilu Pende became the center for de Sousberghe's research. He spent the first nine months attached to the mission of Totshi, near the Shimuna chiefdom, studying the language (Kipende). He then conducted six months further research at Ngashi among the South-Central Pende, who are culturally allied to those west of the Kwilu. He spent three weeks visiting small chiefdoms on the left bank of the Loange River, several weeks at Kilembe, a few days in the territory of Idiofa (with the help of the Abbe B. Sheta), three weeks among the Eastern Pende, and returned for another six-month stay west of the Kiwlu, this time concentrating on the chiefdom of Mushinga. The Pende language is characterized by great dialectical diversity. De Sousberghe found that each zone required significant linguistic adaption, since even the Kipende spoken at Mushinga differed significantly from that at Ngashi.