French Sailors Visit Harris Religious Sect | Bregbeo, Cote d'Ivoire | February 1969

Sunday, February 2nd 1969. Footage of crews from the French naval vessels; The Colbert, a cruiser, and D'Estrees, an escort vessel visiting members of the Harris Religious sect in Bregbeo, a village by a legoon, 40 miles from Abidjan, the capital city of the Ivory Coast. M. Raphael Leygue, the French Ambassador, accompanied the crew to the village where they ate a feast of African dishes which was washed down with beer and whiskey. Afterwards, they presented the sect's renowned prophet-Faith Healer Albert Atcho with a medal. Atcho had a reputation for the use of psycho-analytical healing of mentally ill patients. The Harris Sect was started in 1914 by William Harris, a Liberian, who taught that Christ was a Black man who wished to see all happy. The leader of the sect in the country was John Ahui (1888-1992) and the group had over 15,000 members in Cote d'Ivoire at the time. Source: Reuters News Archive.