Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin

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143DOI: 10.4324/9781003025832-13
11
SLAVERY LEGACY IN
THE CONGO BASIN
Noemie Arazi, Igor Matonda, and Alexandre Livingstone Smith
Introduction
Situated in the heart of Africa, between the Great Lakes region and the Gulf of Guinea, the Congo
Basin was exposed to slave raids, trade, and exploitation unlike any other area on the continent. It
experienced the largest and most long-lived trafc with the Atlantic world (Eltis and Richardson,
2015) and from the second half of the 19th century onwards, it became tied to a predatory extrac-
tion sector involving ivory and enslaved people. The latter played out across two regions: in the
northeast via the western Bahr al-Ghazal, which during the end of the 19th century became one
of the most active exporting zones of enslaved people in Africa (Sikainga, 1989), and in the east
along the well-documented central caravan route, connecting the area west of Lake Tanganyika
with the Swahili coast (Alpers, 1975; Sheriff, 1987). After the ofcial abolishment of slavery
and the start of the colonial period, a change in the nature of labour systems appeared. Initiated
during the Congo Free State era, King Leopold II’s reign became the signature example of co-
lonial violence with his brutal system of forced labour to collect wild rubber (Vangroenweghe,
2010; Gordon, 2017), which was continued by the waning but ongoing forced labour practices of
the Belgian Congo (Rapport Spéciale, 2021). Recent research has indeed shown that ‘free’ wage
labour conditions were slow to take hold and that violence remained commonplace until independ-
ence in 1960 (Seibert, 2016). The legacy of these labour regimes, which were marked by the use
of force and violence, is most blatant in the eastern Congo. At the centre of one of the deadliest
conicts in recent history, this legacy is closely associated with the contemporary plunder of its
minerals and unfree labour (Brabant, 2016), with various observers arguing that the events in the
eastern Congo mirror the historical events of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century (Faber
et al., 2017; Bashwira and Hintjens, 2019; Ndaywel È Nziem, 2009, 2020).
These diverse histories connected to unfree labour and extraction might be expected to have
left signicant tangible and intangible legacies, which would allow acts of remembering and re-
engagement. However, with reference to slavery and the slave trade, an evaluation of the literature
shows that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the principal countries situated
within the Congo Basin, has been slow in tackling public representations and commemoration.
This contrasts with countries such as Senegal, Ghana, and Benin where various slave heritage
initiatives have been elaborated that have ultimately contributed to the development of tourism

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
144
in these countries, especially regarding African American and African Caribbean descendants
(Araujo, 2010). In the DRC, the suppression of any form of public memory has taken on such
a scale that different quarters talk of a national amnesia about slavery (M’Bokolo, 2014). There
are no commemorative events nor any lieux de mémoire such as monuments or museums (Nora,
1989), while initiatives for site preservation and valorisation remain in the blueprint. This seems
remarkable for a nation that witnessed one of the most long-lived histories of slavery and the slave
trade and whose legacies are still palpable today. This lack of ownership seems to be amplied by
the fact that Central Africa has been considered, at the international level, to have been affected
signicantly less by this tragedy compared to West Africa, which is reected in a recent UNESCO
brochure dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Slave Route Project. It shows a series of maps
spanning the 15th to 19th centuries with the major deportations from Central Africa occurring only
The chapter’s overarching theme revolves around the DRC’s ambiguous attitude vis-à-vis its
slavery legacy. By sketching various episodes of its history and the initiatives that were imple-
mented by the actors involved in re-engagement and commemoration, we attempt to arrive at
the crux of why there seems to be an amnesia about slavery and the challenges involved in re-
membrance. Whilst focusing on the history of slavery and the slave trade in the Lower (western)
and Upper (eastern) Congo regions, the rst part attempts to situate the extensive geographical
networks, different time frames, and the multitude of internal and external actors. This is followed
by an analysis of how the DRC and its neighbour, the Republic of Congo, have tackled those
legacies, drawing attention to government initiatives as well as academic research. Next comes
two recent case studies involving archaeological research, which illustrate the potential for the
identication of slavery and the slave-trade as tangled junctures of materiality, collective memory,
and landscape. The challenges of how to bring these legacies to the surface for remembrance or a
potential tourist industry will also be highlighted, which include practical matters such as the lack
of necessary infrastructures, security concerns, and issues concerning the materiality of slavery
pasts. The nal section draws attention to the uninterrupted nodes of unfree labour, armed conict,
and mineral extraction, which highlight the political and social exigencies for engagement with
slavery histories and their legacies in the present.
A Brief History of Slavery and the Slave Trade
As for the rest of Africa, the study of slavery in the Congo Basin has mostly been led by historians,
who have for the most part concentrated on the external slave trade. However, various forms of
enslavement (co-)existed as everywhere else (Lane and MacDonald, 2011), including slavery as
an indigenous institution. The latter was rooted in the tradition of kin-based societies, incorporat-
ing enslaved people when possible as a means of enlarging kin groups (Lovejoy, 2011). However,
the issue of internal forms of slavery is somewhat obscured by the lack of records. The problem is
that written sources mostly report on slavery and the slave trade around the ports of embarkation.
On the other hand, the interior slave trade or inland societies involved in slavery have mostly been
left undocumented (Mobley, 2015). Also, the sources that exist for internal forms of slavery date
to the later periods of the external slave trade and to the beginning of colonialism, which makes it
difcult to track it to earlier periods and to disassociate it from the external demand for enslaved
people (Lovejoy et al., 1979).
from the 19th century onwards. However, the work of those who contributed to the SlaveVoyages.
org website1 has highlighted the preponderant share of the West Central African region, which
started well before the 19th century, and it now seems clear that most of the enslaved people trans-
ported to the Americas came from this part of the continent (da Silva, 2017).

Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin
145
One of the better known examples of the occurrence of slavery in earlier periods is the Kongo
Kingdom in the western (lower) part of the Congo Basin. Its well-documented history, especially
for the period of the kingdom’s apex during the 17th century, reports that its capital São Salvador
was surrounded by plantations worked by enslaved people. They were required to produce cer-
tain crops but were also permitted to establish their own self-supporting households (Thornton,
1982). It has also been suggested that the formation of the capital associated with Lukeni lua
Nimi (c. 1380–1420), the rst Kongo king, was possible due to a concentration of servile labour
and that the kingdom’s slavery mode of production can be traced to his rule (ibid). The Kongo
kingdom also played a central role in the external slave trade, which can be traced to the end
of the 15th and the 16th century. It developed throughout the next four centuries to become the
most important and long-lasting trade in the Atlantic world. As it was custom to prevent free-
born Kongos from enslavement, Kongo rulers established social categories to clarify who could
and could not be sold and exported as a slave. Letters from King Afonso I (1509–43) include
terms such as dalgo (noblemen), gente or naturaes forros (freeborn Kongos or free citizens),
espriuos/ espravos (slaves), and peça (piece). The latter, peça, were the ones who could be ex-
ported (Heywood, 2009: 4). During Afonso’s reign, many enslaved people were usually captives
from the wars with neighbouring kingdoms or freeborn citizens condemned for various crimes.
The restriction of the sale of Kongo subjects (dalgo, gente, and naturaes forros) also included
women. For instance, Afonso pleaded with King Manuel to remind the priests that the purchase
of enslaved people (peças) should be restricted to males (espriuos). Indeed, Christian religious
orders were also involved in the trade: some possessed enslaved people, others engaged in the
lucrative deportation business or administered the sacraments on the ships or in the trading posts
where they were assigned. With the ourishing of the Atlantic trade, Kongo’s economic policy
became increasingly entwined with the procurement of enslaved people to pay for commodities
and alliances as were other kingdoms along the coast and its hinterland, which resulted in the
enslavement of an increased number of freeborn people. The records of Dutch traders contain
extensive information on supply areas in this space (Dapper, 1668; Jadin, 1975). Estimates from
the Slave Voyages database suggest that approximately 5.7 million enslaved people embarked
from around 30 known locations along the west coast of Central Africa (da Silva and Sommerdyk,
2010), which exerted major long-term socio-economic impacts comparable to what has been ob-
served for other regions on the continent (Rodney, 1972; Bertocchi, 2016).
During the 19th century, the Congo basin experienced a marked increase in what has been
coined the ‘legitimate trade,’ which encompassed the export of commodities such as ivory, palm
products, rubber, and other goods. However, much of the labour involved in production, transport,
or in supplying areas of production was done by enslaved people. During this period, the Congo
River was indeed a major artery for captives from the Central African Republic (Ubangi), Chad,
and the present-day Equateur region of the DRC (Jewsiewicki and Mumbanza Mwa Bawele, 1981;
Nganga, 2021).
The Upper Congo in the meanwhile became absorbed into the Islamic orbit, which combined the
legitimate trade, especially in ivory, with slavery and the slave trade. Some of the lead players were
Africans and Arabs, generally from Zanzibar, who were backed by Omani and South Asian capital
but Africans from inland polities such as Unyamwezi also participated. Their caravans succeeded
in penetrating the area west and southwest of Lake Tanganyika by the second half of the 19th cen-
tury (Sheriff, 1987). From there they radiated throughout a large area that at times extended as far
as the Angolan coast, but most of their activities were concentrated in the Upper Congo region
and to a lesser extent in Katanga. Reports on slave raiding and the slave trade associated with the
coastal traders came invariably from Victorian travellers such as Livingstone (1874) and Stanley

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
146
(1878). Enslaved populations were indeed part of the major Swahili trading centres that developed
throughout the Upper Congo such as in Nyangwe and Kasongo on the Lualaba River. They worked
on plantations and in various domestic capacities but were also exported as enslaved people and
porters along the central caravan route to Ujiji, Tabora, and the East African coast (Page, 1974).
In the urban agglomerations of present-day Tanzania and Zanzibar, the former heartland of the
Swahili and Arab traders in the eastern Congo, migrant communities self-identifying as Manyema
can still be found (Zöller, 2019). It was also suggested that with the coastal merchants’ expansion
of operation in the eastern Congo, a new distinct class emerged known as waungwana (freemen)
among whom distinctions between enslaved and free became blurred (Rockel, 2009). One of the
most famous examples of someone rising to waungwana status might have been Ngongo Luteta.
Originally enslaved in the retinue of the renowned Zanzibari trader Tippu Tip, he was placed in
charge of an area on the west bank of the Lomami River collecting tribute of ivory and enslaved
people destined for the markets along the caravan route. Indeed, Congolese intermediaries such as
Ngongo Luteta seized the demand for enslaved people and ivory as a window of opportunity to
acquire wealth and followers even if alliances had to be shifted (Gordon, 2014, 2017).
Before long, the Swahili and Arab mobilisation of slave labour in the eastern Congo became
the basis for the Belgian colonial labour system. African chiefs were compelled to furnish quotas
of men, including soldiers, railroad labourers, and porters, for various projects – quotas the chiefs
often lled by sending their own enslaved people (Northrup, 1988). Even when not drawing upon
existing enslaved people, the chiefs supplied recruits to the Force Publique (the paramilitary colo-
nial police) and workers to the state under circumstances that strongly resembled the labour requi-
sitions practised by the Swahili and Arab merchants (ibid). The resemblances to slave labour and
the accompanying violence were particularly strong during King Leopold II’s rule of the Congo
Free State. But coerced labour continued well into the era of the Belgian Congo, notably with the
forced recruitment of workers for railway and road constructions but also in the mining sector
(Seibert, 2016, 2020). However, violence and coercion were not only conned to the recruitment
phase; they were also present in the day-to-day execution of the work, marked by threats of beat-
ings and punishments. While conditions slowly changed for the public works and mining industry,
forced labour remained commonplace in the agriculture sector until Independence (ibid.).
Studying and Commemorating Slavery from the Inside
Despite these rich historical legacies, the two principal states of the Congo Basin, the Republic
of Congo and the DRC, face various challenges as regards the management of heritage resources
related to slavery. There is a tendency to organise one-off events at long intervals, which reects
the general state of neglect and indifference by the political elite who allocate extremely limited
resources to the culture and heritage sector.2 As regards the Republic of Congo, in 2008 a series
of activities were launched towards the valorisation and commemoration of its slavery past. One
of the principal outcomes has been the inscription of the Loango slavery harbour on the tentative
list of the World Heritage Convention.3 In 2014, on the 20th anniversary of the Slave Route Pro-
ject, the authorities organised a regional workshop during which the issues of the slave trade and
the potential for memorial tourism in the sub-region were discussed. The main outcome has been
the rehabilitation of the Mâ Loango Museum with major contributions from Total Energies.4 The
tendency for the private sector to intervene, especially from the extractive industries, indicates
the underlying power dynamics for heritage funding. Moreover, Total Energies’ performance in
Africa has come under scrutiny as a result of its entanglements on human rights and environmental
violations.5 The region’s uneven attention towards the valorisation of its slavery past is summed

Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin
147
up by Samuel Kidiba, the General Director of Heritage and Archives who remarked: ‘Nous osons
croire que ce brassage d’intelligences servira à traduire dans les faits les projets fédérateurs au
niveau de la région d’Afrique centrale, des projets qui intégreront la mémoire, le passé, l’histoire,
l’économie et le tourisme, des projets qui favorisant une véritable intégration régionale à visage
Cultuel des pays de l’Afrique centrale qui ont du mal à décoller.’6 Indeed, it was only ve years
ture, archives, museums, and memorials. Since then, no other projects have materialised. Another
important group of stakeholders who try to push for public memory and commemoration are civil
society organisations such as the Organisation pour la Mémoire, l’Education et le Tourisme en
Afrique Centrale (OMETAC). It has been working towards creating a network of actors in memo-
rial tourism between the Central African Republic, the DRC, and Angola and reconnecting the
African-descendant diaspora with Central Africa. However, these types of organisations do not
receive much governmental support.
By contrast, it is noteworthy to mention the signicant research output from the Marien Ngouabi
University regarding the cultural, political, and social consequences of the Atlantic slave trade on
West Central African societies (see, for example, Kala-Ngoma, 2011; Nganga, 2019; Yekoka and
Zidi, 2019). Paradoxically, in the DRC, slavery, especially for the lower Congo area, has hitherto
received relatively little attention (Ndaywel È Nziem, 2006). The rst doctoral thesis from a na-
Jewsiewicki and Mumbanza Mwa Bawele, 1981), research has mainly focused on the ‘receiving’
countries in the Americas rather than on local developments. There has indeed been considerable
work on tracing Central African languages of descendants of enslaved people in the Americas at
the Centre d’études et de recherches documentaires sur l’Afrique centrale (CERDAC) and the
Centre de linguistique et techniques appliquées (CELTA) at the University of Lubumbashi. Pro-
moted by linguists such as J.P. Angenot and J. Vincke (Angenot et al., 1974), a doctoral thesis was
defended by Yeda Pessoa de Castro (1976). For the Upper Congo region and its entanglement with
the eastern African trade, there has been relatively important output by the Institut Supérieur Péda-
gogique of Bukavu. The only doctoral thesis, however, produced at the University of Brussels, was
devoted to the socio-economic formations in the Maniema region under the impact of the Swahili-
Arab rather than on the issue of slavery per se (Kabemba Assan, 1987).
In the DRC in the early 1990s, with the support of UNESCO, a short-lived project on the iden-
tication of historical sites linked to the Atlantic slave trade took place in the region of Moanda
(Central Kongo Province). Thus, the village of Nsiamfumu (known during colonisation as Vista),
which served as a slave warehouse, was listed as one of the major sites of the slave trade. However,
no in-depth studies followed. It was not until the launch of the UN’s International Day of Remem-
in slavery rekindled. A national scientic committee of the Slave Route Project was established
with the jurist and law professor, Théodore Ngoy, as president. Congolese historians developed
new textbooks on the Atlantic and the East African slave trade adapted for primary and secondary
In 2015/16 the DRC government launched the Slave Routes in the Congo River Estuary pro-
ject. This initiative, which had a scientic 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. One of the ses-
sions, focused on cultural tourism and local development, stressed the lack of tourist infrastruc-
tional university was defended as late as 2021.7 Except for a handful of articles (see, for instance,
brance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 20078 that a renewed interest
schools.9
focused on the identication of the physical cultural heritage linked to the Atlantic trade.10 A

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
148
government to involve archaeologists and historians was innovative insofar as until then archae-
ologists had not yet engaged with this topic in this part of Central Africa. However, much like the
Republic of Congo, the DRC lacks an ofcial policy and long-term strategy for the cultural herit-
age sector, which creates constant bottlenecks for extended and sustainable initiatives.
Slave Heritage at Ground Level
The identication of the routes travelled by the slave caravans has principally relied on the use
of historical sources. In fact, it appears that most of the time, the enslavers used pre-existing
trade routes developed to move goods such as cloth, salt, or metals like iron or copper. But these
routes have been difcult to locate accurately. In the case of the DRC’s Slave Routes in the Congo
River Estuary project, it was suggested to consider the problem by confronting oral history with
historical and archaeological data. Two short eld missions combining oral surveys and archaeo-
logical prospection were carried out, the rst in September 2015 and the second in January 2016
( Figure 11.1). The oral surveys aimed to collect the memory of sites associated with slavery and
Figure 11.1 Map of the lower stretch of the Congo River between the Pool and the sea at the end of the
19th century. The circles in black indicate the locations identied during the 2016 mission,
and the circles in white are known from historical references. The web of settlements and
tracks connecting the two areas have been reconstructed using colonial maps of the end of the
19th century (such as Koch 1886). While at the time, slavery being ofcially abolished in the
West, these tracks were mainly used in the circulation of legitimate trade goods such as rubber
or ivory, and they had long been part of the network transferring enslaved people from the in-
terior of Central Africa to the Atlantic Ocean ports and were apparently still used for the illegal
slave trade

Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin
149
the slave trade. In most cases, it turned out that slavery is still very present in the collective mem-
ory and landscape. In Luango-Nzambi at the mouth of the Congo River, for example, we were
told that enslaved people arrived in the region by land from Boma as well as from the interior of
Mayombe in the north (Figure 11.2). They were gathered in the village of Mbaka and from there
they were transferred to three ports: Landassi, Lunga, and Kimbanda. The existence of a locality
called Baka has been conrmed by a map dating to 1910 (Droogmans) but it does not mention the
names of the other three. Ruins of brick buildings and wooden piles that appear during receding
oods attest, according to the villagers, to the location of these harbours. From there, enslaved
people were transferred to Sumba in Angola. Archaeological surveys near the ancient village of
Luango-Nzambi revealed numerous shards of European origin. They mainly include fragments
of blue banded annular ware, fragments of cut sponge ware, and whiteware, of English manufac-
ture, dating from the second half of the 19th century (Gonzalez-Ruibal, personal communication,
2019). As slavery was gradually abolished during this period, it transformed into an illicit activity
whose actors favoured discreet anchorage such as those offered by the mouth of the Congo River
(Twiss, 1885; Pélissier, 1977; Bontinck, 1979, 1980; Martin, 1987). Sherds of locally made pottery
could also be dated from the same period (Coart and de Haulleville, 1907). Earlier activities in the
area are indicated by a small salt glaze vessel, which may date to the 18th century. Other places in
the area, which we did not have time to visit, may yet yield important ruins. One example is Ponta
da Lenha. Numerous reports from the anti-slavery campaign cite this settlement as a conrmed
site of the trade between 1700 and 1870 (Parliement, 1858), with its British, French, and Dutch
Factories (Monteiro, 1875; Burton, 1876). According to Droogman’s map (1910), Ponta da Lenha
is located on the western side of Katala Island. The earliest mention dates to the 17th century
Figure 11.2 The crest in the back of the photo is where enslaved people were moved from Boma to Luango-
Nzambi at the mouth of the Congo River

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
150
(Dapper, 1668) but only refers to the locality of Catala. Further west, on the coast, lies the village
of Nsiamfumu, known during the colonial period as Vista. A Portuguese map from 1888 shows a
Dutch Factory (Sousa et al., 1888). During our surveys, we noted the ruins of what seemed to be a
colonial era building, but limited time and resources did not allow for the clearing of the remains
nor for excavations. The destination was the village of Kimbongo, near the Pool in the Kinshasa
region. This locality was the second capital of the province of Nsundi (Toso, 1984). Capuchin mis-
sionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries left descriptions of their journeys to this place known for
its rafa cloth and the slave trade (Bontinck, 1970). We were told of the anxiety generated by the
trade, even off the slave routes, which conrms that the cultural and historical heritage linked to
this tragedy is not only to be found on the coast.
Despite the exploratory nature of our surveys in the Congo estuary, we are convinced that more
in-depth investigations would have the potential to yield insightful data on slavery and the slave
trade. However, instead of looking for physical evidence of slavery per se, research should focus
on the landscape as illustrated, for instance, by Kusimba (2004) and in the edited volume by Lane
and MacDonald (2011). As one of the most auspicious markers, this approach may converge on
the tracks travelled by the slave caravans but may also include the different mooring stations as
well as possible refuge sites. This would need to go hand in hand with in-depth research on ar-
chival sources such as maps as well as the estuary’s oral history. Indeed, without the participation
of resident communities, identifying and documenting the various slave tracks, mooring stations,
and refuge sites would hardly be possible. Comprehensive landscape studies would not only con-
tribute to reinforcing African agency but also possibly uncover many hidden histories. Moreover,
investigations at specic sites such as Punta da Lenha or Boma, which used to be the localities of
European factories, may yield surviving ruins as well as the remains of specic commodities and
foods connected to consumption patterns, which have proven to be a powerful analytical frame-
work for studies on enslavement and the slave trade elsewhere (see, for example, Croucher, 2015;
Marshall, 2019; Rødland et al., 2020).
Our second case study concerns the Upper Congo region, where we focused on Kasongo,
located on the right bank of the Lualaba River (Figure 11.3). Founded by Swahili and Arab
merchants from the eastern African coast, it became by the mid-1870s the central residency of
Tippo Tip, one of the most notorious ivory and slave traders from Zanzibar. He positioned the
town on a path of development to one of the largest of all Swahili settlements in the eastern
Congo. Merging archaeological investigations, oral history, and archival sources, we conrmed
its location in the Kabondo Valley. The latter formed the core area of this mercantile settle-
ment, within walking distance from Kasongo’s Catholic Mission. Most of the traders’ houses,
those of their dependents, and the market were located there (Figure 11.4). To this core area or
town centre, oral history tells us, were attached suburbs as well as gardens and plantations that
extended to a great distance all around. The plantations were worked by Kasongo’s enslaved
population. A report by two colonial administrators, who recorded eyewitness accounts of the
descendants who lived in and near the settlement, noted the following (Dallons and Cornet,
1931: 11):
In the morning, when the rooster rst crowed, the gong was struck to wake up the swarm-
ble for driving the slaves to the plantations and they supervised their work. These guards
were overly harsh and used a leather whip made of hippopotamus. At noon, the slaves were
brought back to their village so that they could eat. On the second gong they were taken
ing mass of Mutipula’s (Tippo Tip) slaves. The Ba Mwezi (Nyamwezi)11 were responsi-

Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin
151
back to work until evening. … All disputes and palaver amongst the slaves were judged
by Mutipula and by Djike. Here is how the most important misconducts were dealt with:
disputes between slaves, the whip of up to 100 strokes; indiscipline at work, the whip, fol-
lowed by the ‘kifungu kia koko’ also called in an abbreviated form ‘koko’ or ‘songolea’.
The ‘koko’ consisted of a hole in a tree that provides passage for the leg of an accused; the
slightest scratch became a torture because the ies mingled with it; it caused enema, gan-
grene, then death; theft was punished by the removal of hands; indiscretion was punished
by the removal of the ears; … The slaves called “bayori” could marry each other with the
consent of their master. Children born of such a union were the property of the master; they
were called ‘muzaria’.
This sombre description carries many layers of information but congruent with the issues of
the subsequent chapter are the forms of punishments that continued into the colonial period: the
severed hands of the Congo Free State and the infamous use of the ‘chicotte,’ the hippopotamus-
hide whip. The latter was used as a disciplinary device of colonial law until 1959 (Martineau,
2018). Another example, taken from Tippu Tip’s autobiography, illustrates the use of force in the
Figure 11.3 Map of the area between Nyangwe, Kasongo, and Ujiji at the end of the 19th century. All circles
in white are mentioned in the text. The web of settlements and tracks connecting the predation
areas of central Africa to Lake Tanganyika and the eastern coast of Africa have been recon-
structed using colonial maps (see, for example, Kiepert 1893, Meyer 1905, or the ‘Grandes ex-
plorations (…)’ map on a wall of the RMCA). We can see that important nodes of the networks
were sometimes connected via a series of alternate routes, probably allowing for logistical
adjustments during the voyages

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
152
context of extraction, also documented for the colonial and post-colonial periods. It reads as fol-
lows (Bontinck, 1974: 102):
We arrived in Kasongo in the morning on the third day of walking. My parents were very
happy about my arrival and immediately conferred me all authority. … I decided to go to war
and inicted to the natives a famous defeat. After three months, everyone came to make an act
of submission and now they remained quiet. From now on we had all the power over them.
All ivory that they could acquire even the smallest point, they were forbidden to sell; they had
to bring it to us; besides they had to provide men for any work that we would have to execute.
Apart from small numbers of pottery collected on the surface outside the core area, we were un-
able to identify the households of Kasongo’s enslaved population. But, as already mentioned, we
could single out the houses of the wealthier merchants in the site’s core area. Similar ndings were
reported by Wynne-Jones and Croucher (2007) during surveys near Tabora on the Tanzanian side
of the central caravan route. Persistent farming activities in and around the site may have destroyed
any traces regarding the slave quarters and the plantations worked by the enslaved. Oral testimo-
nies however conrmed the location of the caravan route that passed through Kasongo, connecting
it to Kabambare and subsequently to Uvira on the shores of Lake Tanganyika (Figure 11.5). Many
stretches of this route are marked by mango trees, presumably planted by the coastal merchants.
Our research in Kasongo has indeed shown the potential of studying and documenting the settle-
ments connected to the central caravan route in the eastern Congo; not only because of the physi-
cal remains, however ephemeral they may be, but also because the legacies of this past continue
to occupy and embody today’s cultural landscape and memory. Indeed, with the collaboration of
Figure 11.4 House of Musongela Puya at the former Swahili and Arab settlement of Kasongo

Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin
153
resident communities, we were able to identify a series of other sites associated with slavery and
the slave trade. They include a battle site and two refuge sites used in times of the slave raids. Ac-
fought a bloody war against Tippo Tip and his allies (see Figure 11.3). This battle lasted for three
months during which one of the most signicant massacres of a community took place. Large
numbers of those who survived were taken as enslaved people to mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.
During eldwork in 2021, for which we organised a three-day participatory workshop on the
future of Kasongo’s heritage, the participants drafted a call for the national and international com-
munities to safeguard the 19th century settlement and to create a memorial or a museum in re-
membrance of this turbulent past. The difculty, however, is that from the vantage point of the
decision-makers in Kinshasa, Kasongo lies at a geographical periphery. Its (historical) ties are
indeed stronger with other regions of the eastern Congo but also with the interior of Tanzania
and its coast, stimulated by (forced) migration, trade, the spread of Islam, and the adoption of
Swahili as lingua franca. It is regrettable that this connectivity was ignored during the nomination
process of the central caravan route on UNESCO’s indicative World Heritage list. Conned to the
Tanzanian side of the track (Wynne-Jones, 2011), this articial break underscores the coloniality
of the political, economic, and intellectual divide between eastern and Central Africa (Couttenier,
2019) as well as ‘the tension between international aspirations and national machination on the
ground’ as observed by Meskell (2018: xviii) in her examination of UNESCO and its World Herit-
age Programme. Besides, for the government to engage with the DRC stretch of the caravan route
would also imply engaging with the propagation of local geographies of conict connected with
the pillaging of natural resources, as manifested in recent years in Salamabila in the territory of
Figure 11.5 Stretch of the caravan route passing through Kasongo
cording to an informant,12 the Lunda Plain, located near the Musukui River, was where the Bazula
Kabambare,13 which lies adjacent to the caravan track between Kasongo and Lake Tanganyika.

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
154
Indeed, security issues, bad roads, and great distances are just some of the most signicant chal-
lenges that need to be considered for any initiatives concerning commemoration. Another risk
factor in the memorialisation of the history connected to the eastern African slave trade concerns
the perpetuation of colonial stereotypes and narratives. In the historiography of the Upper Congo
region, Africans have been invariably described as the victim, ‘Arab’ coastal traders as the vil-
lain, and white men as the saviours (Couttenier, 2019). Colonial era monuments of the antislavery
campaign in the eastern Congo in Kasongo, its vicinity, and in Belgium’s public spaces constitute
the legacies of these ofcial narratives and the perpetuation of colonial stereotypes, which still
harbour after-effects in our present lives.
Lingering Effects of Slavery During the Colonial and Post-Colonial Period
As powerfully illustrated by Northrup, the direct and brutal mobilisation of a slave labour force
by the Swahili and Arabs began the eastern Congo’s labour history, which became the basis for
the European colonial labour system (Northrup, 1988). With the advent of the Congo Free State
and the Belgian Congo, historians usually talk of coercive and forced labour. As forced labour is
a dening characteristic of slavery, this has led to the interchangeable use of those terms (Seibert,
2011). The gross abuses and extreme violence of Africans concomitant with the territory’s eco-
nomic exploitation during the Leopoldean era provoked an international scandal as documented
by Roger Casement and Edmond D. Morel. Similar abuses were also documented in the French
Congo, where the intensity of exploitation depended on the effectiveness of coercion. Citing Cath-
erine Coquery-Vidrovitch’s investigations, Harms (1975) mentions the graph of rubber produc-
tion that corresponded to the graph of cartridges expended to force the people to bring in rubber.
When the post was forced to adopt less violent methods, its production dropped accordingly. With
the transferral of the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908, a series of reforms outlawed forced
labour and obliged the use of labour contracts, but changes in the labour regime of the Belgian
Congo were slow to take effect. The need for porterage, the development of the agricultural sec-
tor, the production of cash crops, the ‘discovery’ of Congo’s rich mineral deposits, the expansion
of infrastructure for roads and railways, and the service of soldiers in the Force Publique required
large numbers of workers. The many deaths, the exacting working conditions, and the low pay
dissuaded Africans from engaging with the colonial labour regime. Deceptive and coercive means
to force Africans into wage labour were widespread. In 1922 the use of violence became legalised
and penalties for desertion included imprisonment and hard labour (Seibert, 2011). The prospect of
free labour was undermined by the historical reality of coercion and exploitation, which persisted
in various guises until independence.
Post-independence was marred by the legacy of political authoritarianism and economic ex-
ploitation, marked by Mobutu’s presidency from 1965 to 1997 and ‘The Great War of Africa’
(Stearns, 2012) in 1996 and 1997 and again from 1998 to 2002. The prots of mining in the eastern
Congo became gradually entangled with the nancing of militia groups and factions of national ar-
mies. The consequences for local populations have been horric to this day, especially in the Kivu
and Ituri Provinces. Armed conict, massacres, displacement as well as extremely unsafe working
conditions for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), child and forced labour, and the frequent
clashes over the control of mining areas have become normalised. Human Rights Watch (2005: 33)
describes cases of forced labour around the Mongbwalu gold mine in Ituri:
The FNI (Font Nationalisé et Intégratif) combatants come every morning door-to-door.
They split up to nd young people and they take about sixty of them to the Agula River to

Slavery Legacy in the Congo Basin
155
nd gold. They are guarded by the military and are not paid. They are forced to work. If the
authorities try to intervene, they are beaten. The chief has tried to stop this by reasoning with
them, but they don’t like this.
There is a copious literature on the extractive industry and the various forms of human rights
abuses but what makes it compelling in the case of the DRC is the historical continuity of pairing
extraction with violence, slavery, coercion, and forced labour. The Congo Basin would for obvi-
ous reasons constitute a fertile ground for an archaeology of the contemporary age and its material
excess (Gonzalez-Ruibal, 2019), which are inherent in the predatory extraction regimes and unfree
labour systems of the colonial era as well as the current resource conict in the east. Indeed, inves-
tigations along still active or abandoned sites such as railways, roads, and mines could reveal the
material imprints of extraction associated with unfree labour.
Conclusion
Recognising the risk of sweeping generalisations and gross omissions when synthesising complex
geographies, chronologies, and specic contexts, our intention has been to mark out the uninter-
rupted nodes of extraction, violence, and unfree labour across time periods. The historical rela-
tionship between global consumption, instances of unfree labour, and raw materials seems almost
linear as in the case of the Upper Congo region. By contrast, the legacies of slavery and forced
labour regimes in the Lower Congo have fanned out at the end of the colonial period with residual
after-effects in the form of salongo, which refers to obligatory civic work during the Mobutu era
(M’Bokolo, 2014). The documentation and protection of these complex material and immaterial
legacies would certainly need an elaborate and long-term roadmap with robust funding and par-
ticipation from academia, heritage institutions, and civil society. But apart from that, what would
be appropriate forms to honour and remember the victims of slavery, in a region where major
national and international interests coalesce by maintaining a state of violence, insecurity, and
human rights abuses?
Notes
1 The project uses cross-referenced statistics from several sources on slave ship voyages to estimate the
number of enslaved Africans to have crossed the Atlantic between the 16th and 19th centuries.
2 Available at: https://www.voaafrique.com/a/investir-das-la-culture/5186879.html (Accessed 17 June
2023)
3 Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5373/ (Accessed 17 June 2023)
4 Available at: https://itineraires.totalenergies.com/en/congo-new-ma-loango-museum-diosso-looks-future-
while-preserving-past (Accessed 17 June 2023)
5 Available at: https://www.liberation.fr/planete/2019/06/25/total-mis-en-demeure-pour-violation-des-droits-
humains_1736046/, https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2022/09/15/le-parlement-europeen-denonce-
deux-mega-projets-petroliers-de-totalenergies-en-ouganda_6141794_3244.html (Accessed 17 June 2023)
6 ‘We dare to believe that this pooling of intelligence will serve to translate into federative projects at the re-
gional level, projects that will integrate memory, the past, history, the economy and tourism, projects that
will favor a true regional integration of the culture of Central African countries, but they struggle to take
off’. Translation by the authors. Available at: https://www.adiac-congo.com/content/la-route-de-lesclave-
les-experts-dafrique-centrale-demandent-la-relance-de-ce-projet-unesco (Accessed 17 June 2023))
7 Eyenga, T.M. (2021). Survivances de l’esclavage et de la traite des noirs dans le bassin du Congo de
l’EIC au Congo indépendant (1885-1960). Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Université pédagogique nation-
ale, DRC.

N. Arazi, I. Matonda, and A. L. Smith
156
C’est la date du 25 mars qui a été retenue à l’international pour commémorer cette journée.
Mapwar Bashuth, La traite négrière, l’esclavage et les violences coloniales en République Démocratique
du Congo, UNESCO. This information was provided by Igor Matonda, but no references have been found
on the publication of this textbook.
Livingstone et al. (2016). Rapport de mission sur les routes d’esclaves en Afrique centrale à l’attention du
Ministre du Tourisme en RDC (unpublished).
The Nyamwezi have been described as traders and porters on the central caravan route in what is today
inland Tanzania (see Rockel, 2000).
Interview with Bertin Mukali, former Territorial Administrator of Kasongo (17 July 2019).
Available at: https://www.mediacongo.net/annonce-mediacongo-96346_espace_etudiants_la_situation_
securitaire_dans_le_territoire_de_kabambare.html (Accessed 17 June 2023)
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