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History, archaeology and memory of the Swahili-Arab in the Maniema, Democratic Republic of Congo
Abstract
History, archaeology and memory of the Swahili-Arab in the Maniema, Democratic Republic of Congo - Volume 94 Issue 375 - Noemie Arazi, Suzanne Bigohe, Olivier Mulumbwa Luna, Clément Mambu, Igor Matonda, Georges Senga, Alexandre Livingstone Smith
... In 2015/16 the DRC government launched the Slave Routes in the Congo River Estuary project. This initiative, which had a scientific commission made up of historians and archaeologists, component was also developed to address the Swahili and Arab slave trade in the Upper Congo (Champion et al., 2017) from which the project The Archaeology and Oral History of Slavery in the Maniema was born (Arazi et al., 2020;Arazi and Senga, 2021). The approach by the DRC later for another conference to be organised focusing on Loango's slavery history. ...
... En ce qui concerne les périodes plus anciennes, les données archéologiques étaient inexistantes pour la région investiguée. Les seuls points de comparaison étant les recherches menées au nord-ouest, entre Kisangani et Bumba (Livingstone Smith et al. 2017), et, dans une moindre mesure, au sud, dans les zones de Kindu et Kasongo (Arazi et al. 2020 ;Champion et al. 2017). La séquence chronoculturelle reposant sur les données archéologiques distingue trois phases chronologiques principales. ...
The early history of the lower Lualaba, the region between Kisangani and Lowa, is mostly known from Moeller’s Les grandes lignes des migrations des Bantous de la Province Orientale du Congo belge (1936). This work is largely based on vernacular histories collected and reinterpreted by various colonial administrators. Here, we present recently recorded vernacular histories and a reanalysis of relevant documents from the AIMO colonial archives. The combination of these sources allows for sketching a cultural chronostratigraphy of the region. Moreover, the proposed paths and cultural exchanges display striking similarities to the history of the concerned languages. We conclude that the current inhabitants of the region arrived in the late precolonial period, after which cultural admixture took place, especially between Lengola, Mbole and Wagenya-Mokpa-Metoko. Vernacular histories and linguistic evidence seem to suggest that the region was sparsely populated before, except for the Falls area, which was already buzzing with activity before the Wagenya occupation in the early 19th century. The two types of evidence do not offer access to earlier periods, which can be revealed only by future archaeological research.
Mtumbei Kitambi site in Matumbi Hills, southern Tanzania, has generated contradictory interpretations among the locals. Its famous alternate name, Kwa Akida Mwidau, literally means a settlement of Akida Mwidau in Swahili language. Yet, much more mystery is attached to the place than the name suggests. The local people hold that it was a place where troublesome Africans were hanged to death during the nineteenth-century colonial incursions. Some reported seeing human skeletal remains, chains and shackles at the site. In the present, the locals avoid conducting any activity at the site to for fear of disturbing human remains. Using historical archaeology, this article examines the local narratives to disentangle myths from the historical reality of the site. It scrutinises both oral accounts and nineteenth-century European documents against on-site material evidence to determine the historical facts. The article concludes by establishing that the bones interpreted by the local people as human skeletal remains are, in fact, donkey bones and metal objects—the latter hitherto mistaken for chains and shackles.
During the months of May and June 2016 archaeological investigations were carried out in the Maniema Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which until then constituted unexplored territory. Until now the area's history was only known as far as the 19th century, with the establishment of the slave and ivory trades by Swahili-Arabs from the East African Coast. Surveys and test-pit excavations were carried out in Kindu and Ka- songo, situated on the Lualaba River. Even though it is too early to provide any data on the region's occupational history, our first observations indicate that the Maniema Province exhibits an old, rich and varied archaeological heritage. © 2017 Society of Africanist Archaeologists. All rights reserved.
This paper offers a reappraisal of the slave trade networks linked to the Swahili Coast before the mid-eighteenth century. It is based on extensive research carried out in Portuguese archives and other material.
Si les documents rédigés en kiswahili à l'aide des caractères arabes provenant d'Afrique de l'Est sont bien renseignés depuis longtemps, qu'il s'agisse de correspondance ou de littérature, l'existence de tels documents provenant d'Afrique Centrale, et en particulier du Congo, est encore très mal connue. Pourtant, outre les témoignages de divers observateurs ou acteurs européens des débuts de la colonisation, plusieurs documents conservés pour la plupart en Belgique ont subsisté jusqu'à nos jours. Il s'agit essentiellement de la correspondance de marchands swahilis établis dans l'ancien district des Stanley Falls, mais aussi de traités, d'échanges «diplomatiques» ou de notes personnelles, remontant essentiellement aux deux dernières décennies du 19ème siècle. Ces documents se révèlent être une source intéressante à la fois pour l'Histoire du Congo précolonial et pour l'étude diachronique du kiswahili et de son expansion géographique.
This paper presents a new approach to relationship of heritage places and communities who in fact create, develop, shape, and make heritage places significant aspects for their identity, memory as well as daily life. Because of these, I argue that local and indigenous communities cannot be separated from the decision-making process of any heritage places. The old approaches such as “top-down approach” are unethical and not helpful for protection of heritage places. Instead of this colonial and elitist approach, heritage practitioners should more focus on people-centered bottom-up approach, and local and indigenous communities should be in the center of decision-making process. In this paper, I will discuss the concept and structure of community and expose three heritage sites and associated local and indigenous communities and then will discuss pitfalls and potentials of including and excluding communities from their cultural heritage.
Historic sites, memorials, national parks, museums... We live in an age in which heritage is ever-present. But what does it mean to live amongst the spectral traces of the past, the heterogeneous piling up of historic materials in the present? How did heritage grow from the concern of a handful of enthusiasts and specialists in one part of the world to something which is considered to be universally cherished? And what concepts and approaches are necessary to understanding this global obsession? Over the decades, since the adoption of the World Heritage Convention, various 'crises' of definition have significantly influenced the ways in which heritage is classified, perceived and managed in contemporary global societies. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the many tangible and intangible 'things' now defined as heritage, this book attempts simultaneously to account for this global phenomenon and the industry which has grown up around it, as well as to develop a 'toolkit of concepts' with which it might be studied. In doing so, it provides a critical account of the emergence of heritage studies as an interdisciplinary field of academic study. This is presented as part of a broader examination of the function of heritage in late modern societies, with a particular focus on the changes which have resulted from the globalisation of heritage during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Developing new theoretical approaches and innovative models for more dialogically democratic heritage decision making processes, Heritage: Critical Approaches unravels the relationship between heritage and the experience of late modernity, whilst reorienting heritage so that it mighht be more productively connected with other pressing social, economic, political and environmental issues of our time.
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