| AdminHistory | The Congo Institute, also known as the African Training Institute, was established in 1890 at Nant y Glyn, Colwyn Bay in north Wales by a returned missionary and pastor in the town, Reverend William Hughes.
Reverend Hughes, who was a friend of Sir Henry M Stanley whom he had met while a missionary in the Congo, returned to Wales in 1885 with two Congolese students and settled at Colwyn Bay, living on charity and money collected at lectures. He believed the African students should be given a Christian education and trained in a craft apprenticeship, such as carpentry, printing, tailoring, blacksmithing etc. (Mr FW Bond, who features in the collection, taught printing at the Institute.) The intention was that they would then return to Africa and act as missionaries in their own country. Students attended Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel, Colwyn Bay and Calfaria Welsh Baptist Chapel, Old Colwyn. In the Old Colwyn cemetery there are gravestones of Congolese students who died in the area. The Institute finally closed in 1911. Reverend Hughes died at Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth. |