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ABSTRACT
This article discusses the origins and development of the Sanga insurgency of the 1890s with a view to demonstrating that, contrary to commonly held stereotypes, pre-colonial warfare was neither simple nor unchanging. Its tactics, it is argued here, repay the sort of close analysis commonly reserved for other typologies and theatres of war. The Yeke, against whose exploitative system of rule the Sanga and their allies rose up in 1891, survived the onslaught by entering into a strategic alliance with Lofoi, a newly established station of the Congo Free State, and its limited contingent of regular Force Publique troops. An in-depth examination of the joint Yeke-Force Publique counterinsurgency campaign leads to the conclusion that the novelty of the ‘small wars’ that accompanied the Scramble for Africa should not be overstated. In southern Katanga and, by implication, elsewhere, these confrontations were shaped by processes of mutual borrowing in which African military practices and even political aims were not necessarily subordinate to European ones.
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Notes
1. Reid, War in Pre-Colonial Eastern Africa, 3.
2. For more on this point, see Thornton, “Placing the Military in African History.”
3. Macola has recently edited and co-translated into English seventeen of Brasseur’s ‘Katangese’ letters to his brother Désiré: Macola ed., The Colonial Occupation of Katanga. All future references to Brasseur’s letters come from this edition. A full description of the original collection – housed in the historical archives of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC), Tervuren, RG 768/81.15 – can be found in G. Macola, “Introduction: Brasseur’s Papers and the African Roots of the Congo Free State”, in Macola, The Colonial Occupation of Katanga (henceforth TCOK).
4. The classic statement is Terence Ranger’s two-part article: “Connexions between ‘Primary Resistance Movements’ and Modern Mass Nationalism in East and Central Africa”. The long life of this whiggish interpretation is attested, inter alia, by Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila, chapters 1–2.
5. See, e.g. Vandervort, Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830–1914. A more accomplished and ambitious work of synthesis is Walter, Colonial Violence: European Empires and the Use of Force.
6. For a critique of the ‘presentism’ of much recent Africanist historiography, see Reid, “Past and Presentism,” 135–155.
7. The timing of Msiri’s arrival in southern Katanga is discussed by Legros, Chasseurs d’ivoire, 28–29.
8. The incorporation of the central African interior into the Indian Ocean and Atlantic trading frontiers has long formed a subject of scholarly enquiry. Recent overviews of the relevant literature are Gordon, “The Abolition of the Slave Trade and the Transformation of the South-Central African Interior during the Nineteenth Century,” 915–938, and Macola, The Gun in Central Africa, chapter 1.
9. Arnot, Garenganze, 233; Legros, Chasseurs, 119.
10. “Lettre de Mwenda II Mukanda Bantu à S.M. le Roi Albert à l’époque, Prince héritier de Belgique. Traduit par A. Mwenda Munongo,“ 41, 43; and Legros, Chasseurs, 121.
11. One of the principal Lualaba crossing points was located to the immediate south of Lake Kajibajiba, among peripheral Luba peoples subjugated by the Yeke in the early 1870s. Another one was to be found further upstream, in the area of the Kazembe of the Lualaba. See, e.g. Le Marinel, Carnets de route dans l’Etat indépendant du Congo de 1887 à 1910, 155–156, 159; and Arnot, Bihé and Garenganze, 56–7.
12. See, e.g. Arnot’s fascinated description in Garenganze, 235.
13. Reichard, “Herr Paul Reichard,” 119.
14. Giraud was told of Msiri’s military might while among the Aushi of the upper Luapula in 1883; Les lacs de l’Afrique équatoriale, 318–9.
15. Legros, Chasseurs, 80–85.
16. Ibid., 110–111.
17. Delcommune, Vingt années de vie africaine, 329.
18. D. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, in Echoes of Service (henceforth ES), 273 (Nov. 1892), 257.
19. C.A. Swan, 14 December 1889, in ES, 230 (Jan. 1891), 25.
20. F.S. Arnot, 11 August 1886, in ES, 184 (April 1887), 59–60.
21. Arnot, Garenganze, 243.
22. Ibid., 194.
23. Ibid.
24. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 258.
25. Legros, Chasseurs, 3–74.
26. Capello and Ivens, De Angola á contra-costa, 169, 173.
27. For more details, see Macola, The Kingdom of Kazembe, 155–9, 171–2.
28. Macola, TCOK, 4.
29. Ibid., 35, 56.
30. Ibid., 33; Arnot, Garenganze, 198n.
31. Macola, TCOK, 61.
32. Delvaux, L’occupation du Katanga, 1891–1900, 70.
33. Smith, Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa, 50. See also Reid, “Revisiting Primitive War,” 1–2.
34. Macola, TCOK, 54. For a consistent, though less stridently formulated, view, see C.A. Swan, 23 January 1888, in ES, 202 (Oct. 1888), 317.
35. Macola, TCOK, 512.
36. Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, 52.
37. D. Crawford, 18 May 1891, ES, 252 (Dec. 1891), 299; Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 183.
38. Macola, TCOK, p. 32; Campbell, In the Heart of Bantuland, 264.
39. Here, my observations echo Storey, Guns, Race and Power in Colonial South Africa, 78.
40. Campbell, Heart of Bantuland, 26. See also Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,“ 191.
41. Delcommune, Vingt années, 314–315.
42. See, e.g. C.A. Swan, 10, 21, 26 and 28 Feb. and 1 March 1890, in ES, 251 (Dec. 1891), pp. 288–289; and “Lettre de Mwenda II Mukanda Bantu”, 47, 49, 51.
43. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 258.
44. C.A. Swan, 21 February 1891, in ES, 251 (Dec. 1891), 288; Jenniges, Dictionnaire français-kiluba, 17.
45. Swan, 21 February 1891, 288; Legros, Chasseurs, 84.
46. See, e.g. Macola, TCOK, 145.
47. C.A. Swan, 26 February 1891, in ES, 251 (Dec. 1891), 289.
48. C. A. Swan, 20 March 1891, in ES, 251 (Dec. 1891), p.290; C.A. Swan, 22 April 1891, in ES, 253 (Jan. 1892), 9.
49. C.A. Swan, 20 March 1891, in ES, 251 (Dec. 1891), 290; “Lettre de Mwenda II Mukanda Bantu,” 51.
50. D. Crawford, 18 May 1891, ES, 252 (Dec. 1891), 299; D. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, in ES, 273 (Nov. 1892), 257.
51. Swan, 20 March 1891, 290.
52. C. A. Swan, 30 March 1891, in ES, 251 (Dec. 1891), 291; Le Marinel, Carnets de route, 201.
53. Crawford, 18 May 1891, 299.
54. F.S. Arnot, 11 August 1886, in ES, 184 (April 1887), 60.
55. C.A. Swan, 10 May 1891, in ES, 253 (Jan. 1892), 10; Le Marinel, Carnets de route, 194. On the ‘omande’ (mpande), see Arnot, Garenganze, 234.
56. C.A. Swan, 5 June 1891, in ES, 253 (Jan. 1892), 11.
57. Macola, TCOK, 64.
58. Macola, TCOK, 32. See n. 11.
59. Le Marinel, Carnets de route, 202.
60. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 257.
61. C.A. Swan, 24 May 1891, in ES, 253 (Jan. 1892), 10.
62. Le Marinel, Carnets de route, 190–1.
63. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, p. 257. For information on Ntenke, see Delcommune, Vingt années, 277–278. See also “Lettre de Mwenda II Mukanda Bantu”, 51.
64. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 257.
65. Ibid. See also Arnot, Bihé and Garenganze, 112.
66. Delcommune, Vingt années, 249. See also Le Marinel, Carnets de route, 204.
67. A. Legat to A. Delcommune, Lofoi, 13 October 1891, in Delcommune, Vingt années, 272.
68. Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 257.
69. P. Briart (ed. Dominique Ryelandt), Aux sources du fleuve Congo, 177, 179.
70. Delcommune, Vingt années, 274, 295, 298.
71. Ibid., 243, 296–297.
72. Ibid., 260, 276, 291; Legat to Delcommune, 13 October 1891, in Ibid., 272; and Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 183.
73. Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 191.
74. Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 197.
75. “Lettre de Mwenda II Mukanda Bantu,“ 53.
76. Arnot, Bihé and Garenganze, 111; and Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 259.
77. Arnot, Bihé and Garenganze, 111.
78. Ibid., 111–2.
79. Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 191; “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 198; and Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, 260–261.
80. Stairs, “De Zanzibar au Katanga,” 199. Bodson himself was wounded by Msiri’s gunmen and died shortly thereafter.
81. Mwenda Munongo ed. and transl., “Chants historiques des Bayeke,“ 64.
82. D. Crawford, 25 June 1892, in ES, 281 (March 1893), 56–57.
83. H.B. Thompson, 2 March 1893, in ES, 296 (Oct. 1893), 238.
84. Ibid.; D. Crawford, 12 February 1893, in ES, 297 (Nov. 1893), 251.
85. Macola, TCOK, 3, 5, 382.
86. The payment of premiums on the amount of produce that territorial officials were able to siphon out of their respective regions was a key means through which the CFS’s central administration sought to encourage extractive activities in Leopold’s colony. See, e.g. Stengers and Vansina, “King Leopold’s Congo, 1886-1908,” 339.
87. J. Jenniges to Public Prosecutor, Lukafu, 1 March ‘1903ʹ [sic, but 1905], Papiers L. Guebels, MRAC, RG 917.
88. D. Campbell to H.R. Fox Bourne, Johnston Falls, 14 May 1904, in Morel, King Leopold’s Rule in Africa, 460. See also D. Campbell, 7 May 1895, ES, 345 (Nov. 1895), 268, and D. Crawford, 1 September 1895, ES, 351 (Feb. 1896), 45–6.
89. Macola, TCOK, p. 26. A brief discussion of Brasseur’s personality and worldview is to be found in Macola, “Introduction,” xx–xxii.
90. Walter, Colonial Violence, 96.
91. Macola, TCOK, 60.
92. Ibid., 6–7.
93. Ibid., 14.
94. Ibid., 16.
95. D. Campbell, 2 May 1897, in ES, 397 (Jan. 1898), 13.
96. Macola, TCOK, 15.
97. Ibid., 16.
98. See, e.g. Walter, Colonial Violence, 107.
99. Macola, TCOK, 54, 55, 67–8.
100. For contrasting estimates of the size of Mukanda Bantu’s auxiliary force on this occasion, cf. Macola, TCOK, 49 and 52.
101. Ibid., 56, 61.
102. Ibid., 223.
103. Ibid., 227–56.
104. See, e.g. Ibid., 82, 327.
105. C.A. Swan, 17 June 1890, in ES, 239 (June 1891), pp. 137–38.
106. Macola, TCOK, 229; C.A. Swan, 19 November 1889, in ES, 230 (Jan. 1891), pp. 23–4; Legos, Chasseurs, 74–5.
107. D. Crawford, 24 February 1892, in ES, 274 (Nov. 1892), 269.
108. D. Crawford, 5 January 1896, in ES, 364 (Aug. 1896), 250; Macola, TCOK, 35.
109. D. Campbell, 6 June 1897, in ES, 394 (Nov. 1897), 345.
110. Campbell to Fox-Bourne, in Morel, King Leopold’s Rule, 460.
111. Macola, TCOK, 108.
112. Ibid., 123. For a description of a section of these tunnels, see Ibid., 465, and Arnot, Garenganze, 198.
113. Macola, TCOK, 145, 160, 195.
114. Ibid., 294, 295.
115. Ibid., 294.
116. Ibid., 326.
117. Ibid., 327, 359.
118. Ibid., 358.
119. Campbell to Fox-Bourne, in Morel, King Leopold’s Rule, 456.
120. Macola, TCOK, 375.
121. Ibid., 390, 403, 460, 461–462, 470.
122. Ibid., 394.
123. Ibid., 448.
124. Ibid., 460–461.
125. Ibid., 451, 471.
126. W. George, 3 January 1898, in Echoes of Service, 409 (July 1898), 204.
127. Verdick, Les premiers jours au Katanga (1890–1903), 114.
128. Ibid., 115.
129. Delvaux, L’occupation du Katanga, 74.
130. J.W. M’Lachlan, 23 April 1899, ES, 438 (Sept. 1899).
131. Verdick, Les premiers jours, 130–131.
132. Ibid., 137, 139.
133. Ibid., 141–143; and Delvaux, L’occupation du Katanga, 76.
134. Delvaux, L’occupation du Katanga, 76. See also W. George, 12 August 1899, ES, 448 (Feb. 1900), 57.
135. Delvaux, L’occupation du Katanga, 76.
136. W.G. Stairs to D. Crawford, [25 December 1891], in Crawford, ‘Dec. 1891ʹ, p. 261.
137. Larmer and Kennes, “Rethinking the Katangese Secession,” 741–61.
138. Cf., however, Asani bin Katompa, “L’opposition Sanga à Msiri et à l’administration coloniale Belge (1891–1911),“.
139. FitzSimons, “Sizing up the ‘Small Wars’ of African Empire,” 63–78. For a classic example of crude technological determinism, see Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century.
140. Walter, Colonial Violence, 5.
141. Macola, “Introduction.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Giacomo Macola
Giacomo Macola is a specialist in central African political history. His latest books are Liberal Nationalism in Central Africa: A Biography of Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), and The Gun in Central Africa: A History of Technology and Politics (Ohio University Press, 2016). His articles have appeared in several specialist journals, including the Journal of African History, the International Journal of African Historical Studies and History in Africa.
Jack Hogan
Jack Hogan is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of International Hisory at the LSE. His research interest is focused on the economic and social history of precolonial and early colonial Central and Southern Africa. He is presently engaged in revising and extending his doctoral thesis into a book provisionally entitled Wealth Eats Slavery: The Ends of Slavery on the Upper Zambezi 1800-1935. This study, of the complex and contested history of labour, slavery and abolition in the Lozi kingdom, in present day western Zambia, will cast crucial new light on both the nineteenth-century history of slavery in central Africa. It will also examine for the first time in the region the relationship between precolonial slavery and unfree labour, on the one hand, and colonial migrant and coerced labour, on the other.