ABSTRACT
Figure 5.1 shows a photograph taken on 2 February 1909, in the border region between the French and Belgian Congo colonies (today the Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo, respectively). Boys from the village Kingoyi on the Belgian side have gathered on the ground around one of the huts. Three white men dressed in khaki and sporting pith helmets are seated on wooden boxes under a tarp in front of the hut. They are in Africa in the service of the Swedish Missionary Society, and the man in the middle operating a cylinder phonograph is Karl Edvard Laman. The machine is a German-made Excelsior phonograph, a small and light but sturdy, spring-driven model recommended for use in the fi eld. On the table next to Laman are several cylinder boxes featuring recorded material.
