As an explorer, Dragutin Lerman (1863-1918) was a member of Stanley’s expedition to Congo (Zaire), and a commissary (Commissaire General) of the Belgian government in Congo. By the end of his career the Belgian king Leopold conferred the knighthood of Lion’s order on him. And the famous Stanley wrote: “The Croat is energetic, cautious, in high spirits…” It is interesting that in 1882 Lerman discovered huge waterfalls on the river of Kwil, which he named the Zrinski Waterfalls (Zrinski chutes), in honour of a famous Croatian family of rulers. He donated about 500 artifacts related to various traditional African cultures to the Ethnographic museum in Zagreb.

Misionar na Gornjem Nilu, Damir Zoric