ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of the Kongo culture on the expression of the Catholic sisterhood among the African members of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Lower Zaire. It describes the consequent way in which these women perceive religious life, thereby offering to other sisters an insight into a different facet of their given call. The Churches of Africa are today very much bringing to the fore a heightened awareness of the cultural question in the larger community of Christian Churches. The Sisters of Notre Dame first arrived in what was then the Congo Free State in 1894, one year after the Jesuits. The Vatican had entrusted the latter with the evangelisation of the Lower Zaire north of the Inkisi River. The priests invited the sisters to join them and be responsible for working with the women and children.
