Adam was an African: A Journey to our Deepest Roots

Daems lived in the Congo as a servant of the Belgian government. He fostered deep bonds with the Sondes. He gained the full confidence of Kianza Luwano, an illiterate chief, who inspired this book. The deep knowledge of the earliest African life is lost forever because those who knew it could not write, and those who could write never knew it. Primitive African life is overshadowed by an 'Africa in transition'. This evolution took less than 75 years. The book covers the period of transition by writing a handful of stories - framed as oral histories, as told by the chief and his father. The social hierarchy of the tribe, their laws and enforcement, worship and witchcraft, slavery and the role of ghosts, initiation processes into adulthood and various secret societies get to the glue that secured the Sondes' cultural conviction.