Emil Torday was born on June 22, 1875 in Budapest. He moved to Brussels in 1895 where he was employed for five years in a clerical position in a Brussels bank. He developed an interest in Geography and Ethnography, and he found delight in reading the books of Henry Morton Stanley and Livingstone.

He arrived at Boma, capital of the Congo Free State, in March, 1900. He was sent to Katanga Province int he east on his first mission, which was to last four years. He sailed for twenty days up the Congo river to Stanleyville (Kisangani today). He gained a life-altering experience while sailing down at the Stanley Falls with the great Vagenya paddlers. He spent four years in Katanga province as a Belgian official.

He occupied himself with exploration and hunting. He lived on the territory of the Baluba and became fluen in their language (Besides that, by the end of his third expedition Torday spoke seven other Congolese languages.) He conducted a geographical expedition to the Marungu Mountains and was able to locate the Akalonga- cape, previously mentioned by Livingstone.

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum

In the framework of his second trip in 1905- 1906 he explored the territory between the Kwango and Kwilu Rivers to the south, reaching the borders of Angola. As an agent of the Company of Kasai his mission was to find new commercial interests for the Company in the region.

“Dear Mr, Joyce, I have received your very kind letter. I reply only in a few lines as I am on a ‘track’ and very, very tired: since more than a month I am marching about 20 miles a day, living under the tent.”

(Extract of a letter of Emil Torday to T.A. Joyce. 15 September 1906, Luchima)

He wrote his first short studies on the Mbala, Mbuun, Yansi, Hungaan, Kwesi and Yaka. Torday also observed local economic systems. He took detailed notes on of the media of exchange (the djimbu, for example).

Supported by the British Museum he made his third expedition in 1907-1909. Melville William Hilton-Simpson fully, Norman Hardy painter partly participated on the trip. Both Torday and Hilton-Simpson made photographs during the travel. (Most part of the photographs showed in the exhibition was made during this trip.) He conducted longterm field research among the Bushongo, in the capital of the Kuba Kingdom and among the Bangongo on the east side of the kingdom. Torday was busy sending back his collected objects and notes for Thomas Athol Joyce, associate of the British Museum. While Torday made records and fieldwork in the Congo, Joyce re-drafted the notes and prepared for publication. Several scientific publication and monography was published under their joint names.

“I send you today registered cover notes on the Batetela. I hope you will like them. As you object so very much to my hand writing I dictated them to Simpson whilst I discussed the different points with the natives. I have taken some photograph records which I shall send soon... Hardy has sketched many of the very elaborate tatuations on women; he must complete them in Europe.I send today six boxes to the B.M. by the Kasai Company who will send the bill of freight to Mr. Read. The vocabulary will soon follow.Have you received the Bakuba objects?”

(Extract of A letter of Emil Torday to T.A. Joyce. Early 1908, Mokunji)

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum.

At the last part of the third expedition he explored the undiscovered land between the Kasai and Loange Rivers. At the end of his journey a rhinoceros attacked Torday. He walked with cruches until his death. He never returned to his beloved continent, Africa.

He settled down in London, he did scientific, literary and museological work. He was a member of the council of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Folklore Society. He was the vice-president of the Society of Anthropology, University of London. He was a curator of the Congolese collection of the University Museum, Philadelphia, a correspondent fellow of the Hungarian Geographical Society and a leader personality of the Hungarian community in London. He died on May 9, 1931 at the age of 56. 60 publications, 9 books, more than 3000 ethnographical objects and photographs memorate his life and work.

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum

Books online:

Emil Torday, Camp and Tramp in African Wilds, 1913. Read the full book here!

Hilton-Simpson, Land and Peoples of the Kasai, 1911-ben. Read the full book here!

George Grenfell and the Congo; a history and description of the Congo Independent State and adjoining districts of Congoland, together with some account of the native peoples and their languages, the fauna and flora; and similar notes on the Cameroons and the island of Fernando Pô, the whole founded on the diaries and researches of the late Rev. George Grenfell, B.M.S., F.R.G.S.; and on the records of the British Baptist Missionary Society; and on additional information contributed by the author, by the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt, Mr. Emil Torday, and others (1908) Read the full book here:

Some of the most important books and publications of Torday: 

Torday E.
1925b Causeries Congolaises. Brussels, Vronant.

TORDAY E.
1929d „Azande folklore.” Man 125: 164.

TORDAY E.
1930a African Races. London, Williams and Norgate.

TORDAY E. – JOYCE, T. A.
1906a „Notes on the Ethnography of the Ba-Yaka. With Supplementary Notes on the Ethnography
of the Ba-Mbala.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 36: 39-59.

TORDAY E. – JOYCE, T. A.
1906b „Notes on the Ethnography of the Ba-Huana.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute 36: 272-301.
TORDAY E. – JOYCE, T. A.
1907a „Notes on the Southern Ba-Mbala.” Man 7: 81-84.

TORDAY E. – JOYCE, T. A.
1907b „On the Ethnology of the South-Western Congo Free State.” Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute 37: 133-156.

TORDAY E. – JOYCE, T. A.
1911 Notes ethnographiques sur les peuples communement appelés Bakuba ainsi que sur les
peuplades apparantées les Bushongo. Brussels, Musée du Congo Belge.

TORDAY E. – JOYCE, T. A.
1922 Notes ethnographiques sur les peuplades habitant les bassins du Kasai et du Kwango
orientale, peuplades de la forêt, peuplades des prairies. Brussels, Musee du Congo
Belge

TORDAY, Emil
1923 Bolyongások Afrikában. Három utazás az egyenlítő vidékén +
Budapest, Világirodalom

TORDAY, Emil
1924 Afrikai emlékek. Egy Afrika-kutató naplójából
Budapest, Világirodalom