Abstract
While the First World War raged in Europe, less sanguinary combat was waged in the heart of Africa. The battles of Lake Tanganyika may have been of relatively little international consequence; the salvos traded between tiny Belgian batteries dug in before remote missionary outposts and steam-powered German launches sporting a gun or two may have been futile; yet the war did prove unsettling to the African populace. As people from distinct worlds were thrust together with great precipitance, so were politics — international, national (metropolitan and colonial) and local-level or village — collapsed in a manner never before experienced. A case study of local-level politics during the war years requires recognition of international and national factors, and reveals how all these political levels were interdependent at such tenebrous times. Certain local factions were able to exploit these special circumstances, and thrive; others could not, and so did not.
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Notes
E. Storms, untitled pages, MRAC-FS, B-II, F-IV, 14; Mouvement Geographique, 9 August 1885, 65.
Secondary sources are R. Heremans, Les établissements de l’Association Internationale Africaine et les Pères Blancs: Mpala et Karema,1877–1885 (Tervuren, 1966 );
F. Renault, Lavigerie: l’esclavage africaine et l’Europe (Paris, 1971);
N. Bennett. Renault, Lavigerie: l’esclavage africaine et l’Europe (Paris, 1971);
N. Bennett, ‘Captain Storms in Tanganyika’, Tanganyika Notes and Records, 54 (1960) 60–98;
A. F. Roberts, ‘“Fishers of Men”: Religion and Political Economy Among Colonized Tabwa’, Africa 54, 2 (1984) 49–70; and A. F. Roberts, ‘History, Ethnicity and Change in the “Christian Kingdom” of Southeastern Zaire’, in Leroy Vail (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in South and Central Africa (London, forthcoming).
On the ‘Christian Kingdom’, see Roberts, “‘Fishers of Men”’; Joubert’s exploits are set forth in T. Houdebine and M. Boumier, Le capitaine Joubert (Namur, n.d.); and O. Ulrix, ‘Le capitaine Joubert’, Revue Congolaise I (1910) 92–108.
On chapelles-écoles in Tabwa lands, see B. Schmitz, ‘Chapelles-écoles Namuroises’, Missions d’Afrique (Pères Blancs) (1903);
V. Roelens, ‘Les rayons et les ombres de l’Apostolat au Haut-Congo’, Grands Lacs 61, 4–6 (1946) 24–8; Heremans, ‘Missions et Ecoles’.
On the same phenomenon elsewhere in the Congo, see M. Markowitz, Cross and Sword: The Political Role of Christian Missions in the Belgian Congo, 1908–1960 (Stanford, 1973) pp. 14–15; and elsewhere in Africa
R. Strayer, The Making of Mission Communities in East Africa (New York, 1978) pp. 52–66.
WF ‘Diaire Bville’, 10 March 1913, 17 June 1913. This issue is discussed in the context of the political economy of the Tabwa area, in A. F. Roberts, ‘“The Ransom of Ill-Starred Zaire”: Plunder, Politics and Poverty in the OTRAG Concession’, in G. Gran (ed.), Zaire: The Political Economy of Underdevelopment (New York, 1979) pp. 211–36.
A. Sluys, cited in ‘Main-mise de la Maconnerie sur le Congo Belge en trois ans’, Le Patriote, 20 February 1913.
For the Masonic or otherwise critical view, see F. Catter, Etude sur la situation de l’Etat Independent (Brussels, 1905 ).
See V. Roelens, ‘Une bonne reponse’, Missions d’Afrique (Pères Blancs), (1905);
V. Roelens, ‘La liberte de l’apostolat au Congo’, Le Patriote, 27 February 1913;
Anonymous, ‘Comment les missionnaires sont traités au Congo: graves declarations de Mgr Roelens’, Le Patriote, 9 February 1913;
Anonymous, ‘La question des missionnaires au Congo: une lettre du ministre des colonies, la reponse de Mgr Roelens’, Le Bien Publique, 12 February 1913;
A. Vermeersch, Sur nègres ou Chrétiens (Brussels, 1911 ).
The bulk of the following information is from the Baudouinville diary kept by the White Fathers, where a running, if sketchy, commentary is recorded. Reference here is to entries from August to October 1914. The Lake Tanganyika campaign receives very little attention in the literature. For Belgian military memoires, see G. Moulaert, La campagne du Tanganika (1916–1917) (Brussel, 1934 );
C. Stienon, La campagne anglo—belge de l’Afrique Orientale Allemande (Paris, 1917 ).
WF Diaire Bville’, entries from January to July 1915; A. Marissaux, Albertville: Note historique (Brussels, n.d.); P. von Lettow-Vorbeck, East African Campaigns (New York, 1957) p. 86. Lt Robert Billen, slain at Tembwe, was buried in a war cemetery at Mpala with the Congolese soldiers killed with him. Tabwa still resent that Billen was interred across a path from his African soldiers, in a grave surrounded by heavy chain. Tabwa assume this was to restrain his spirit from interacting with those of the black Congolese.
R. Cornevin, Histoire du Congo (Paris, 1970) pp. 178–9;
J-A. Wullus-Rudiger, La Belgique et la crise européenne,1914–1943 (Brussels, c. 1943 ) pp. 82–3. WF ‘Diaire Mpala’, August 1915.
WF ‘Diaire Bville’ and Diaire Mpala’, entries 1915–16; W. Downes, With the Nigerians in German East Africa (London, 1919) pp. 26–7; 39;
R. Dolbey, Sketches of the East African Campaign (London, 1918) p. 44.
WF Diaire Bville’, 23 January 1918, 28 February 1918, 24 October 1917, 10 September 1918, 2 November 1918, 10 January 1919, 26 March 1919, 13 April 1919. The Marungu appears to have been spared the ravages of dysentery ‘brought from Tanganyika’, which took a terrible toll among the Kuba of Kasai at this time (J. Vansina, personal communication, 1980). Tabwa lion-men and terrorism are discussed in A. F. Roberts, ‘“Perfect” Lions, “Perfect” Leaders: A Metaphor for Tabwa Chiefship’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes 53, 1–2 (1983) 93–105
A. F. Roberts, ‘“Like a Roaring Lion”: Late 19th Century Tabwa Terrorism’, in Donald Crummey (ed.), Banditry, Rebellion and Social Protest in Africa ( Portsmouth, NH, 1986 ), pp. 65–86.
Related cases of local-level politics and conflict resolution are in A. F. Roberts, ‘Anarchy, Abjection and Absurdity: A Case of Metaphoric Medicine Among the Tabwa of Zaire’, in L. Romanucci Ross et al. (eds.), The Anthropology of Medicine: From Theory to Method (New York, 1983 ) pp. 119–33;
A. F. Roberts, ‘“L’Authenticité”, “l’alienation” et l’homicide: dossier d’un processus social au Zaire rural’, in B. Jewsiewiki (ed.), Pratiques et savoirs populaires en Afrique (Paris, forthcoming); A. F. Roberts, ‘The Comeuppance of “Mr. Snake”, and Other Tales of Survival from Contemporary Rural Zaire’, in N. Nzongola-Ntalaja (ed.), The Crisis in Zaire: Myths and Realities (Trenton, 1986), pp. 113–123. 30.
V. Turner, The Ritual Process (Chicago, 1969 ).
V. Turner, Schism and Continuity in an African Society (Manchester 1968 ).
A straightforward explanation of this approach is in J. Van Velson, ‘The Extended-Case Method and Situational Analysis’, in A. Epstein (ed.), The Craft of Social Anthropology (New York, 1967 ) pp. 129–180.
Manda’ is spoken of by Tabwa (as here) as being a single person, whereas his is a hereditary name, inherited by a succession of chiefs. Discussion of this long-standing conflict between Manda and his followers of the ‘Leopard’ clan, and chiefs and their people of the ‘Bushpig’ clan, appears in the author’s writing cited above, and in A. F. Roberts, ‘The Social and Historical Contexts of Tabwa Art’, in A. F. Roberts and E. M. Maurer (eds), The Rising of a New Moon: A Century of Tabwa Art (Ann Arbor, 1986 ).
Joubert, Diaire’; Anonymous, ‘Chefferie de Tumpa’ (n.d.), BAC-drap d/Moba; V. Roelens, Notre Vieux Congo,1891–1917 (Namur, 1948 ) p. 47.
Anonymous, ‘L’Histoire d’un Seminariste Noir’, Missions d’Afrique (Pères Blancs) (1905) p. 290.
This version of Manda’s history, and the early years of Stefano Kaoze, are presented in Msgr Kimpinde et al., Stefano Kaoze, Pretre d’hier et d’aujourd’ hui (Kinshasa, 1982).
Missionaries in other parts of eastern Congo were able to extend their material and moral influence during these troubled times; see Mushagasha Chakirwa, ‘Note sur la dynamique d’une mission du Kivu: Nyangezi (1906–1929)’, Etudes d’Histoire africaine, VII (1975) pp. 125–35.
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© 1987 Melvin E. Page
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Roberts, A.F. (1987). ‘Insidious Conquests’: Wartime Politics Along the South-western Shore of Lake Tanganyika. In: Page, M.E. (eds) Africa and the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18827-7_10
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