BOLANGWA

Bolangwa (circa 1860-1910), or Bolangbwa, was the first chief invested by the colonial authorities to rule the Bobangi chiefdom located east of the Congo River, in what is now Equateur region. Formerly a slave, Bolangwa came to rule over territory extending from Irebu at the confluence of the Ubangi and Congo rivers to Bolobo further downstream.

In the beginning of the 18th century, the Bobangi were only one of many small ethnic groups living in the swamps at the fork of the Congo and Ubangi rivers. During the 19th century, however, as they became involved with the growing slave and ivory trade, the Bobangi expanded along the Congo River from their original homeland to as far south as the confluence of the Congo and Kasai rivers. In the 1800s the Bobangi experienced great demographic changes as their population was increased by the acquisition of slaves they purchased from other peoples.

Some of these slaves came to play a decisive role in economic and social life. As among the Bobangi of Bolobo, who were ruled by Ibaka , a former slave, the Bobangi of lower Ubangi had had a series of chiefs of foreign origin who had also formerly been slaves. Prominent among these were Bolangwa, and his successor, Ensala .

Bolangwa, of Nkundo origin (a Mongo ethnic group southeast of Mbandaka), was born in a village whose people claimed Eleke as their common ancestor. Since, however, Bolangwa’s father had received his wife Bodjimba as a part of the dowry paid for his sister, Nkundo custom decreed that Bolangwa and Bodjimba were the possessions of the sister and her children. Thus, Bolangwa belonged to Balakata, a man from nearby Baminia village. Eventually Balakata sold both Bolangwa and his mother to a Bobangi man named Bobitu.

Bolangwa therefore grew up in the lower Ubangi region. This was at a time when slaves were used on a massive scale for labour on long-distance trading expeditions. This provided them with opportunities to acquire a degree of freedom, as well as to obtain some property of their own. Intelligent and energetic, Bolangwa made the most of these opportunities, and was able to buy his freedom. He subsequently became a chief, thus joining the political elite.

The agents of the International Association of the Congo (the A.I.C., an organisation that was to be renamed the Congo Free State in 1885) penetrated Bobangi country in 1884. Relations between the Association, and later the Congo Free State, and the Bobangi remained good until 1891, despite some tensions arising from the suppression of the slave trade on the Lulonga River. As, however, the Bobangi were located 200 km (120 mi) south of the colonial post at Bangala (presently, Makanza), they remained undisturbed in their commercial activities and their political life.

But, in 1891, when it became the policy of the A.I.C. in Equateur province to impose rubber production quotas, the Bobangi traders withdrew across the Ubangi River to what was then French Equatorial Africa, where they remained for almost seven years. It was not until soon after 1900 that they once more returned home. It was at this time that Bolangwa made an alliance with the whites to play an intermediary role in attempting to obtain the submission of neighbouring groups to the Congo Free State. This submission, however, did not take place without fighting. Clashes took place between the Free State troops, led by Bobangi, and other groups, principally the Bokongo. In this fighting the Bokongo, who fought bravely, lost many men.

Shortly after 1906, the great Bobangi chiefdom, instituted by the Belgians, was founded. Situated on the left bank of the Ubangi, it extended from the river mouth to well beyond the confluence of the Ubangi and Giri rivers, near Bolobo. The chiefdom included not only the Bobangi, but also the Baloi and the Bangele (on the banks of the Ubangi), the Bokongo between the Ubangi and Congo rivers), the Mampoko (between the Giri and the Congo), the Ndjondo (Diundu) from the lower Giri and Ubangi region, and the Makutu and the Manga (between the Ubangi and the Giri). From local testimony, collected in 1926 by a Belgian administrator named J.B. Delobbe, Bolangwa, who was appointed to rule the new Bobangi chiefdom, enjoyed unchallenged prestige in this period. His authority was, however more fictitious than real in a great part of the vast, but somewhat artificial, chiefdom. After his death in 1910, therefore, government agents divided it into numerous sub-chiefdoms.

MUMBANZA mwa BAWELE na

NYABAKOMI ENSOBATO