Congo Arab war
Congo Arab war | |||||||
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Part of East African slave trade | |||||||
Display of artifacts from the Congo Arab war | |||||||
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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
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]
Tippu Tip's men attacked the fort which was defended by the two officers, eighty
Initially, Congo Free State's authority was relatively weak in Congo's eastern regions. In early 1887,
Additionally, Tippu Tip was to redirect his ivory trade through the Congo Free State, to the
Leopold II was heavily criticized in European public opinion for his dealings with Tippu Tip. In Belgium, the
Course of the war
In March and April 1892, Tippu Tip's son
Initial hostilities
The Force Publique, under
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
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
In 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
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
The war ended in a victory for the Free State by January 1894.Aftermath and impact
The war resulted in tens of thousands of deaths among both combatants and civilians,
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
- ^ a b Osterhammel (2015), p. 441.
- ^ Edgerton, p. 85
- ^ ISBN 1842770535, page 21.
- ISBN 0-312-30486-2
- ^ a b Edgerton, p. 94
- ^ Bennett and Brode
- ^ Vandervort 2015, p. 141.
- ^ Harms 2019, pp. 350–351.
- ^ a b Edgerton, p. 99
- ^ Edgerton, p. 98
- ^ Boulger, p. 162
- ISBN 978-0-7007-1589-3.
- ^ a b Cyclopedia, p. 190
- ^ Pakenham, p. 433
- ^ a b Edgerton, p. 100
- ^ Oliver 1985, p. 569.
- ^ Ergo 2005, p. 41.
- ^ Ndaywel è Nziem, Obenga & Salmon 1998, p. 296.
- ^ "Il y a 80 ans, le 27 Mai 1927, Mourait le Captiaine Joubert" (in French). Lavigerie. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
- ^ Shorter, Aylward (2003). "Joubert, Leopold Louis". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
- ^ a b c Ergo 2005, p. 43.
- ISBN 978-0-9553936-5-5.
- ISBN 978-1-136-25681-3.
- ISBN 978-2-84586-682-9.
- ^ Swann 2012, p. 34.
- ^ Harms 2019, pp. 349, 353.
- ^ Harms 2019, p. 349.
- ^ Harms 2019, pp. 349–350.
- ^ Harms 2019, pp. 353–354.
- ^ a b Harms 2019, p. 354.
- ^ a b c d Ndaywel è Nziem, Obenga & Salmon 1998, p. 297.
- ^ Harms 2019, p. 354–355.
- ^ Harms 2019, p. 355.
- ^ Lotar & Coosemans 1948, pp. 229.
- ^ a b Ndaywel è Nziem, Obenga & Salmon 1998, p. 301.
- ^ Auzias & Labourdette 2006, p. 180.
- ^ Hinde 1897, p. 215.
- ^ Harms 2019, p. 356.
- ^ Ergo 2005, p. 42.
- ISBN 0-253-21178-6.
- ^ Hinde 1897, p. 231.
- ^ Edgerton 104
- ^ Ewans, p. 140
- ^ Boulger 1898, p. 179.
- ^ Boulger 1898, p. 180.
- ^ Hinde 1897, p. 6.
- ^ Hinde 1897, p. 7.
- ^ Vandervort 2015, p. 144.
- ^ Willame 1972, p. 110.
- ^ Vandervort 2015, p. 140.
Bibliography
- American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events, Volume 33. 1894.
- Auzias, Dominique; Labourdette, Jean-Paul (2006). Congo: république démocratique. Petit Futé. ISBN 2-7469-1412-3.
- Boulger, Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh (1898). The Congo State. London: W. Thacker & co.
- Draper, Mario (2019). "The Force Publique's Campaigns in the Congo–Arab War, 1892–1894" (PDF). Small Wars & Insurgencies. 30 (4–5): 1020–1039. S2CID 201354431.
- Edgerton, Robert B. (2002). The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-30486-2.
- Ergo, André-Bernard (2005), Des bâtisseurs aux contempteurs du Congo Belge: L'odyssée coloniale, Editions L'Harmattan, ISBN 978-2-7475-8502-6, retrieved 12 April 2013
- Ewans, Martin (2002). European atrocity, African catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and its aftermath. Psychology Press. ISBN 0-7007-1589-4.
- Harms, Robert (2019). Land of Tears : The Exploration and Exploitation of Equatorial Africa. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02863-4.
- Hinde, Sidney Langford (1897). The Fall of the Congo Arabs.
- Lotar, L.; Coosemans, M. (1948). Biographie coloniale Belge. Vol. 1. Falk van Campenhout.
- Moloney, Joseph (2007). With Captain Stairs to Katanga: Slavery and Subjugation in the Congo 1891–1892. Jeppestown Press. ISBN 978-0-9553936-5-5.
- ISBN 978-2-8011-1174-1.
- Oliver, Roland Anthony (1985). The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 6: From 1870 to 1905. Cambridge University Press. p. 562. ISBN 978-0-521-22803-9. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
- ISBN 978-0691169804.
- ISBN 0-380-71999-1.
- Swann, Alfred J. (2012). Fighting the Slave Hunters in Central Africa: A Record of Twenty-Six Years of Travel and Adventure Round the Great Lakes. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-25681-3.
- Vandervort, Bruce (2015). Wars of Imperial Conquest (reprint ed.). ISBN 978-1-134-22374-9.
- Wack, Henry Wellington (1905). The story of the Congo Free State: social, political, and economic aspects of the Belgian system of government in Central Africa. G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 177–195.
- ISBN 9780804707930.
External links
- WHKMLA – History of the Belgo–Arab War, 189201894
- Papers Past, Sydney Morning Herald, 1897: An Unknown War