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ABSTRACT
By means of two case studies, this paper demonstrates how customary chiefs in Northeast Congo crafted their power position under colonial indirect rule. The first case discusses chiefs’ role in anioto or leopard-men killings to secure their authority over people, land and resources whilst circumventing colonial control. The second case concerns nebeli, a collective therapy characterised by the distribution of a medicine or charm used to protect, heal and harm in Northeast Congo and South Sudan. These case studies show that indirect rule designed customary chieftaincy too one-sidedly, based on patrilineal succession and land rights. It tried to cut chiefs off from spiritual and coercive power bases such as anioto and nebeli, which were part of local political culture. While colonial authorities framed institutions such as anioto and nebeli as subversive, and expected government-appointed chiefs to renounce them, they were clandestinely used by chiefs to retain their grip on local society whilst fulfilling their state-imposed duties. However, these institutions were not simply used to resist or by-pass colonial control, but also to support it. These historical cases help to gain insight in contemporary chiefs and militia leaders’ continued use of similar coercive, spiritual and remedial means to boast their power.
Acknowledgements
Research presented in this article was conducted as part of the network project CongoConnect funded by the BRAIN-program of the Belgian Ministry of Science coordinated by Ghent University. It has further been supported by ESRC GCRF grant number ES/P008038/1 and FWO, Flanders. Field research was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Charles Kumbatulu, University of Kisangani, and Prof. Roger Gaise, the University of Uele, DRCongo. A research fellowship at the American Museum for Natural History contributed to the findings underlying this article. Thank you to Dirk Seidensticker for the map.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Lemarchand, Political Awakening, 45; Young, Politics, 128–33.
2 Eggers, “Mukombozi”; Feierman, “Colonizers”.
3 Kyed and Buur, “Introduction”.
4 Feierman, “Colonizers”; Johnston, “Criminal Secrecy”.
5 Pottier, “Representations”; Maxwell, “The Soul of the Luba”.
6 Feierman, “Colonizers”; De Jonghe, “Formations”, 56–63. Comhaire, “Sociétés secrètes”, 54–59.
8 Mamdani, Citizen and subject, 53. Schneider, “Colonial Legacies”; Leonardi, “Violence”; Loffman, “An interesting experiment”.
9 Leonardi, “Violence”, 535–58.
10 Komuniji and Büscher, “In Search of Chiefly Authority”.
11 This is discussed at length in the introduction to this issue. See Verweijen and Van Bockhaven, “Revisiting colonial legacies”.
12 Van Bockhaven, “Anioto”.
13 Vansina, Paths, 89.
14 Spear, “Neo-traditionalism”.
15 Biebuyck, Lega. Newbury, Kings. Delpechin, “From Pre-capitalism”.
16 Vansina, Paths, 167–91.
17 See Hunt’s concept of “nearness”. Hunt, A Nervous State, 9.
18 Stoler, Along the Archival Grain, 181–236.
19 Czekanowski, Forschungen, 247; Massmann, An den Ufern des Ituri, 69–75; Salmon, Les Carnets, 68.
20 Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), Archives Indigènes et Main d’Oeuvre (AIMO), Winckelmans (1933: 3); Schebesta, Vollblutneger, 64–6, 69–71.
21 RMCA AIMO Hackars (1919), Strubbe (1920); Hulstaert, “Une Lecture Critique”, 33–5, 37; Muchukiwa, “Territoire Etniques”.
22 F.ex. Moeller, Les Grandes Lignes, 482–3.
23 Stoler, Along the Archival Grain, 181–236.
24 Ivanov, “Cannibals”, 189–93.
25 Vansina, Paths, 71–7. Sahlins, “Poor Man”, 285–303.
26 Schildkrout and Keim, African Reflections, 175.
27 Sahlins, “Poor Man”, 294–5.
28 Schildkrout and Keim, African Reflections, 185–6.
29 Interview, Niangara, November 2018.
30 Vansina, Paths, 167–91.
31 Interviews,Niangara, Dungu, November–December, 2017.
32 Biebuyck, Lega; https://danielbiebuyck.com/
33 RMCA AIMO, EA.0.0.224, 1933. Procès-verbal en vue de la suppression des cérémonies du "Mambela".
34 Schildkrout and Keim, African Reflections, 39.
35 Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, 511–24; Johnson, “Criminal Secrecy”, 170–200.
36 De Jonghe, “Formations”, 56–63. Comhaire, “Sociétés secrètes”, 54–59.
37 Johnson, “Criminal Secrecy”.
38 Bouccin, “Crimes ”, 185–92 ; Belgian Foreign Office (BFO), Africa Archives (AA), JUST GG 3043 (5574), Public hearing, Wamba, 19 June 1934.
39 Van Bockhaven, “Anioto”.
40 Ibid.
41 Marrevée, “Die Anyotos”; Joset, Les Sociétés secrètes, 64; RMCA AIMO De Bock (1932).
42 BFO AA GG 21419, Report by the District Commisioner Laurent, “Meurtres d’anioto dans le secteur Babamba-Agissements du chef Abianga et Consorts”, 26 November, 1924.
43 AA GG 21419, Letter and Reports by Police Investigator L. Brandt, 12 May 1922–24 July 1922; RMCA AIMO Brandt (1923).
44 BFO AA AIMO 13611. Report on chief Mabilanga of the Bekeni by Bouccin, Kondolole, 29/10/34.
45 Schildkrout and Keim, African Reflections, 190–1; Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, 511–24; Mbali, “La Société Secrète Nebheli”
46 Johnson, Nuer Prophets; Middleton, “The Yakan or Allah Water Cult”.
47 Janzen, Ngoma.
48 Hunt, A Nervous State, 11–2; I consider “therapeutic insurgencies” as a manifestation of “collective therapies”.
49 Evans-Pritchard, Witchraft, 511–3. Lagae, Les Azande.
50 Hunt, A Colonial Lexicon, 38; Vansina, The Tio, 75–6.
51 Keim, Precolonial Mangbetu Rule; Schildkrout and Keim, African Reflections, 191.
52 Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, 511–24.
53 Bauwens, “De Apostolische Prefectuur”, 261–7.
54 Ibid.
55 Delathuy, Missie en Staat, 291, 301–2, 337; Documentation Center, Masonic Grand Lodge of Belgium, file L’Ere Nouvelle.
56 de Calonne-Beaufaict, “La Pénétration”.
57 BFO AA GG 4769 (S. 2433)
58 RMCA, Archives of Father B. Costermans, files on Sects.
59 BFO AA GG 12229; Salmon, “Sectes Secrètes Zande”.
60 Salmon, “Sectes Secrètes Zande”; BFO AA GG 11849.
61 BFO AA GG 10987, Letter “Proposition relegation Notable Komboyega, Chefferie Doruma” by Territorial Administrator Liégeois, 28 December 1949; “Réunion du Conseil de Chefferie tenue à Doruma”, by Territorial Administrator Liégeois, 20 December 1949.
62 BFO AA GG 12229, PV de la Réunion du conseil de chefferie Renzi tenu au village Gilima, 15 September 1949.
63 Delathuy, Missie en Staat, 271–6; British National Archives, Congo papers, FO 367 69 006; RMCA AIMO, A. Boucin, “Note sur l’ambodima” (1933).
64 MacGaffey, Kongo, 220; Eggers, “Mukombozi”; Loffman, “An Interesting Experiment”.
65 Titeca, “Haut-Uele”. See also Flaam and Vlassenroot, “Quête de Justice” for justice provisions in this region.
66 Titeca, “Haut-Uele”.
67 Kyed and Buur, “Introduction”; Hoffman et al., “‘Courses au pouvoir’”.
68 Hoffman et al., “‘Courses au pouvoir’”; Administrative Archives, Haut Uele Province, Isiro.
69 Several documents in the Administrative Archives, Haut Uele Province.
70 Interview, Niangara, November 2017.
71 Administrative Archives, Haut Uele Province, Isiro; Interviews, Isiro, December, 2017.
72 Hoffman et al., “‘Courses au pouvoir’”.
73 Interviews in Haut-Uele, November–December, 2017.
74 Interview, Dungu, December 2017.
75 Interviews in Haut-Uele, November–December, 2017.
76 Interviews, Nangazizi, Niangara, November 2017.
77 Interview, Niangara, November 2017.
78 Verweijen, “The Disconcerting Popularity”.
79 Verweijen and Van Bockhaven, “Revisiting Colonial Legacies”.
80 Titeca, I testified at a Trial of Joseph Kony’s commander. Here’s what the jury did not understand. Washington post, 24 January 2019.
81 Allen and Vlassenroot, The Lord’s Resistance Army.
82 Titeca, “Haut-Uele”.
83 Wild-Wood, “Is it Witchcraft?”.
84 Van Bockhaven, “Anioto”.
85 Hoffman et al., “‘Courses au pouvoir’”.
86 Interviews, Isiro, December, 2017.
87 Verweijen, A Microcosm of Militarisation.
88 Feierman, “Colonizers”.
89 Mathys, “Bringing History Back in”.