Congo Arab war

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Congo–Arab War
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Congo Arab war
Part of
East African slave trade

Display of artifacts from the Congo Arab war
Date1892 – January 1894
Location
Eastern Congo Basin
Result Congo Free State victory
Belligerents
 Congo Free State
Supported by:
 Belgium		 Sultanate of Utetera
Arab-Swahili sultanates in Eastern Congo
Supported by:
 Sultanate of Zanzibar
 Sultanate of Muscat
Commanders and leaders
Ngongo Lutete
(mid 1892–Sept. 1893)		 Tippu Tip
Sefu bin Hamid †
Rumaliza
Ngongo Lutete (until mid 1892)
Units involved
3,500 regular soldiers
Around 10,000 total.		 ~10,000 men
Casualties and losses
Several tens of thousands killed[1]

The Congo Arab war or Arab war was a

Congo basin
between 1892 and 1894.

The war was caused by the Free State and the Arabs contending for the control of regional resources.[2] The war ended in January 1894 with a victory of Leopold's Force Publique. Initially, the Free State collaborated with the Arabs. Still, competition struck over the control of ivory and the topic of the humanitarian pledges given by Leopold II, King-Sovereign of the Congo Free State, to the Berlin Conference to end slavery. Leopold II's stance turned confrontational against his once-allies.[3] The war against the Swahili-Arab economic and political power was presented as a Christian anti-slavery crusade.[3]

Prelude

In 1886, while Tippu Tip was in Zanzibar, a dispute arose between Tippu Tip's fort at Stanley Falls (modern-day Boyoma Falls) and a smaller, nearby Congo Free State fort led by Walter Deane and Lieutenant Dubois. Tip's men at the Stanley Falls fort alleged that Deane had stolen an enslaved woman from an Arab officer, but Deane asserted that the girl had fled after being badly beaten by her master, and that he had only offered her refuge.[4]

A photograph of an enslaved child in Zanzibar c. 1890

Tippu Tip's men attacked the fort which was defended by the two officers, eighty

Ngongo Lutete.[5]

Arab East African slave routes c. 1890

Initially, Congo Free State's authority was relatively weak in Congo's eastern regions. In early 1887,

European colonial powers in Africa and Asia. The territory borders were the Aruwimi and the Lualaba rivers.[citation needed
]

Additionally, Tippu Tip was to redirect his ivory trade through the Congo Free State, to the

strongman Rumaliza considered his deal with the Congo Free State treasonous. Rumaliza abolished the Congo Free State flag and swore loyalty to the Zanzibar sultan's red flag.[citation needed
]

Leopold II was heavily criticized in European public opinion for his dealings with Tippu Tip. In Belgium, the

East African slave trade.[citation needed] Free State authorities stringently adhered to the provisions of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 which prohibited the trade of breechloading firearms and ammunition in "tropical" parts of Africa.[7] In May or June 1890, Tippu Tip left Maniema and returned to Zanzibar, leaving his son, Sefu bin Hamid, in charge of most of his territory from the governing seat of Kasongo, and his nephew, Rashid bin Mohammad, in charge of Stanley Falls.[8]

Course of the war

Congo Arab war is located in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Nyangwe
Nyangwe
Kasongo
Kasongo
Stanley Falls
Stanley Falls
class=notpageimage|
Significant locations during the (1892–1894) Congo Arab war

In March and April 1892, Tippu Tip's son

Ngongo Lutete also led actions in the east at this time.[12]

Initial hostilities

Francis Dhanis in the Congo. His better-armed forces defeated Rumaliza, c. 1900

The Force Publique, under

Batetela and Bakusu. Lutete's forces were heading west to Kasaï, picking up weapons from Angola in an attempt to strengthen their position in the Lomani
region.

After several skirmishes in April–May 1892 with the better equipped Free State forces of Dhanis and Michaux, Lutete decided to make a deal with the Congo Free State. On 19 September, he switched sides and joined the Force Publique – other native leaders like Pania Mutomba before him and Lupungu, chief of the Songe at Kabinda shortly thereafter, had also joined the Force Publique.

Maniema campaign

By October 1892, Sefu was leading a force of 10,000 men, some 500 Zanzibari officers and the remaining were Congolese.[9] The Force Publique army led by Francis Dhanis, consisted of a few dozen Belgian officers and several thousand African auxiliaries.[13] Open warfare broke out in late November 1892, when Sefu set up a fort on the Lomami River, where the Force Publique attacked him and eventually was forced to retreat.[13] Dhanis used this battle as a pretext for advancing against the Arabs in force.[14] He allowed his army to travel with all of their wives, slaves, and servants, who did all of the army's cooking and cleaning and acted as a supply train.[15] In addition, he did not allow his men to harm local non-combatants, earning him the goodwill of the local people.[15]

Rumaliza campaign

By this time, the Congo Free State gained military strength in the region and became less tolerant of "Arab" strongmen, determined to stamp them out.[16] The Congo Free State forces under Francis Dhanis launched a new campaign against the slave traders in 1892, and Rumaliza was one of the main targets.[17]

By 1892, the Swahili slave and ivory trader Rumaliza dominated Tanganyika from his base at Ujiji on the old slave route that led from Stanley Falls up the Lualaba River to Nyangwe, east to Lake Tanganyika and then via Tabora to Bagamoyo opposite Zanzibar. The total number of Swahili fighters in this huge region numbered around 100,000, but each chief acted independently from the main body. Although experienced in warfare, they were poorly armed with simple rifles. The Belgians had just 600 troops divided between the Basoko and Lusambo camps, but were much better armed and had six cannons and a machine gun.[18]

In the previous years (1886-1891), the

Alphonse Jacques—financed by the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society—came to the relief of Joubert on 30 October 1891.[21] When the Jacques expedition arrived, Joubert's garrison was down to about 200 men, poorly armed with "a most miscellaneous assortment of Chassepots, Remingtons and muzzle-loaders, without suitable cartridges." He also had hardly any medicine left.[22][23][24] Captain Jacques asked Joubert to remain on the defensive while his expedition moved north.[25]

On 3 January 1892, Captain Alphonse Jacques' anti-slavery expedition founded the Albertville fortress on Lake Tanganyika's shores, and tried to end the slave trade in the region. Rumaliza's troops surrounded Albertville on 5 April and besieged the outpost for 9 months. Eventually, Rumaliza's forces had to retreat because of the arrival of the Long-Duvivier-Demol Anti-Slavery expedition, a relief column sent from Brussels at captain Alphonse Jacques's aide.[21]

The capture of Nyangwe and Kasongo

On 28 January 1893, Congo Free State forces reached the western bank of the Lualaba River opposite the city of Nyangwe, a major trading port for slaves and ivory in the region.[26] The forces made no attempt to cross and instead established a camp on their side of the river, though over subsequent weeks they would occasionally fire musket rounds at the city. On 4 March, the Free State forces crossed the river using 100 dugout canoes piloted by Genia fisherman. Surprised by the crossing, the Arab defenders and their allies in the city fled, allowing it to fall largely without resistance. Free State forces established a fortified position in an elevated area in the city.[27] On 13 March, residents in Nyangwe revolted. The Free State troops defeated the insurrection and, out of fear of further unrest, set most of the city ablaze. The majority of Free States forces left on 17 April. Free State Army Captain Sidney Langford Hinde wrote that by the time the troops departed, the city "had been reduced from a well-built town of about thirty thousand inhabitants to one large fortified house with a soldiers' camp around it."[28]

With Nyangwe secured, the Free State forces focused on capturing Kasongo. Tippu Tip's capital in Maniema, the city was 35 miles south of Nyangwe and regularly hosted 20,000 residents, but the population had tripled due to an influx of refugees from Nyangwe as well as troops led by Said bin Abed and Muhammad bin Amici.[29] Having never anticipated that Kasongo would be threatened, Sefu's lieutenants hurriedly worked to organise defences.[30] Dhanis advanced up the river to Kasongo on 22 April 1893, while sending Lieutenant Doorme and his advanced guard to encircle the city.[31] Caught between the Free State troops, the Arab defenders as well as civilians and slaves fled the city, letting it fall to their attackers in two hours.[30] The Force Publique found a large supply store at Kasongo, including ivory, ammunition, food and luxuries such as sugar, candles, gold, and crystal tableware.[31][32] Sefu and the other Arab leaders escaped.[33] For the next six months, Dhanis remained inactive, setting up supply routes and befriending the local tribes, while Rumaliza's forces were swelled by Swahili fighters who escaped earlier defeats by Dhanis.[31]

Fight for the Stanley Falls

The steamer Ville-de-Bruxelles on the Congo River, 1890

In 1893,

Riba Riba, near present-day Kindu.[35] At this point, smallpox had broken out in his caravan, and Chaltin was forced to return to Basoko. Chaltin arrived at Stanley Falls on 18 May, where Captain Tobback and Lieutenant Van Lint had for five days been resisting the attacks of the forces of Rashid ben Mohammed, the nephew of Tippu Tip.[35] On the landing of the troops from Basoko at Stanley Falls, the Arab attackers decamped, leaving the town. After defeating them again at Kirundu, the Arab traders were expelled from the region.[36] Chaltin went on to secure the Dungu region in the northeast of the Congo Free State, and was commander of the Haut-Uélé
district from 1893.

On 25 June 1893, Commandant Pierre Ponthier arrived at the Stanley Falls from Europe. He immediately collected all the troops he could, took Captain Hubert Lothaire and some men from Bangala with him and followed the Arab units, who had fled from the Stanley Falls up the river. After some severe fighting and many skirmishes, he cleared the river and its neighbourhood, as far as Nyangwe. During a fortnight's severe fighting, Commandant Ponthier's attacks on the forts of Rumaliza failed, and Ponthier was killed in action.[37]

Rumaliza's last stand

Attack on Rumaliza's fort, 1893
German East Africa, 1894. Albertville, Marungu (and Mpala) are to the west of the southern portion of Lake Tanganyika.


After the fall of Nyangwe and Kasongo, Rumaliza, the Arab leader of Ujiji, brought a large army from the Lake Tanganyika region to Kabambare to retake the Arabs' lost ground. His troops then advanced towards the Lualaba River and erected forts south of Kasongo to threaten the Free State's control over the city.[38] Rumaliza's force clashed with Dhanis' column on 15 October 1893, causing the death of two European leaders and 50 of their soldiers. On 19 October 1893, Rumaliza attacked a position one day's march from Kasongo.[39] Dhanis concentrated his forces and defeated Rumaliza.

The war's last major battle occurred on 20 October 1893, on the

Alphonse Jacques[21] Rumaliza took refuge in the German colony of German East Africa.[31]
The war ended in a victory for the Free State by January 1894.

Aftermath and impact

Belgian military heroism wipes out the (Arab) slave trader, (modified) inscription on the Monument to the Belgian Pioneers in Congo in Cinquantenaire Park, Brussels

The war resulted in tens of thousands of deaths among both combatants and civilians,

cultural exchange. Their involvement in the slave trade made Belgian authorities wary of them, and in turn, they were neglected during colonial rule.[49]

The war has generally received little academic attention. According to historian Bruce Vandervort, the conflict was "one of the most obscure of the wars of imperial conquest in Africa."[50]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Osterhammel (2015), p. 441.
  2. ^ Edgerton, p. 85
  3. ^
    ISBN 1842770535, page 21
    .
  4. ISBN 0-312-30486-2
  5. ^ a b Edgerton, p. 94
  6. ^ Bennett and Brode
  7. ^ Vandervort 2015, p. 141.
  8. ^ Harms 2019, pp. 350–351.
  9. ^ a b Edgerton, p. 99
  10. ^ Edgerton, p. 98
  11. ^ Boulger, p. 162
  12. ISBN 978-0-7007-1589-3
    .
  13. ^ a b Cyclopedia, p. 190
  14. ^ Pakenham, p. 433
  15. ^ a b Edgerton, p. 100
  16. ^ Oliver 1985, p. 569.
  17. ^ Ergo 2005, p. 41.
  18. ^ Ndaywel è Nziem, Obenga & Salmon 1998, p. 296.
  19. ^ "Il y a 80 ans, le 27 Mai 1927, Mourait le Captiaine Joubert" (in French). Lavigerie. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  20. ^ Shorter, Aylward (2003). "Joubert, Leopold Louis". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
  21. ^ a b c Ergo 2005, p. 43.
  22. ISBN 978-0-9553936-5-5
    .
  23. ISBN 978-1-136-25681-3
    .
  24. ISBN 978-2-84586-682-9
    .
  25. ^ Swann 2012, p. 34.
  26. ^ Harms 2019, pp. 349, 353.
  27. ^ Harms 2019, p. 349.
  28. ^ Harms 2019, pp. 349–350.
  29. ^ Harms 2019, pp. 353–354.
  30. ^ a b Harms 2019, p. 354.
  31. ^ a b c d Ndaywel è Nziem, Obenga & Salmon 1998, p. 297.
  32. ^ Harms 2019, p. 354–355.
  33. ^ Harms 2019, p. 355.
  34. ^ Lotar & Coosemans 1948, pp. 229.
  35. ^ a b Ndaywel è Nziem, Obenga & Salmon 1998, p. 301.
  36. ^ Auzias & Labourdette 2006, p. 180.
  37. ^ Hinde 1897, p. 215.
  38. ^ Harms 2019, p. 356.
  39. ^ Ergo 2005, p. 42.
  40. ISBN 0-253-21178-6
    .
  41. ^ Hinde 1897, p. 231.
  42. ^ Edgerton 104
  43. ^ Ewans, p. 140
  44. ^ Boulger 1898, p. 179.
  45. ^ Boulger 1898, p. 180.
  46. ^ Hinde 1897, p. 6.
  47. ^ Hinde 1897, p. 7.
  48. ^ Vandervort 2015, p. 144.
  49. ^ Willame 1972, p. 110.
  50. ^ Vandervort 2015, p. 140.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Congo Free State's campaign against the Arabo-Swahilis.

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