Former rector at Scolasticat Père Laurent Nkongolo and the first rector of the Philosophat Saint Augustin in Kinshasa, Missionary of Scheut Father Damase Ndembe Nsasi (b. 1st of November 1936 in Bete di Niolo, Mayombe, DRC) sadly passed away at the Centre Médical Kinois (CMK), Kinshasa, on April 9, 2025. Three days of funeral program will be held after Easter (21-23 April), including several masses, a condolences book and time for testimonies.
Damase Ndembe Nsasi defended his doctoral dissertation in Leiden, the Netherlands, on the verb in Kiyombe, his mother tongue, under the supervision of Achiel Emiel Meeussen. His dissertation is one of the important Kiyombe sources cited in the doctoral dissertation of Heidi Goes (BantUGent) on the Kikongo Language Cluster.
In August 2021 Father Ndembe Nsasi celebrated 60 years since his ordination as a priest and only two years ago, in april 2023, a celebration was held on the occasion of the release of a book in Father Ndembe’s honour about the promotion of local languages. He spent his last years in Maison Symeon for elderly and chronically sick missionaries, close to the Fatima Mission house, where Heidi Goes and her Kiyombe-speaking partner visited him in the week before the book launch (see pictures). It was a pleasure having a conversation together in Flemish and Kiyombe. Father Ndembe Nsasi will be remembered in and outside of Congo. May he rest in peace! Muelaku u vundila mu ndembama!
