IBAKA
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Ibaka (circa 1820-April 1889), rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest men engaged in the 19th century Zaire River trade. As chief of the Bobangi collection of villages at Bolobo, 260 km (160 mi) north of Kinshasa, he was a leading ally of early white explorers and missionaries who established outposts in his territory.

PHOTO CAPTION: Ibaka. SOURCE: EA Library.
This man, who took the name Ibaka late in life, came to Bolobo from the Mboshi people in the nearby Jower Alima river region. Perhaps of Teke origin (the Teke are located northeast of Malebo Pool, in the present People’s Republic of Congo), Ibaka was sold as a slave to the Bobangi who had penetrated south along the Zaire River to Bolobo from their 18th century homeland between the Zaire and Ubangi rivers.
Ibaka took his name from his Bobangi master, a powerful chief associated with the founding of Bolobo. Until about 1850, the original chief Ibaka had lived in the village of Kutumpuku on the south bank of the Nkene River, northwest of present-day Bolobo.
Following an internal dispute, several of Ibaka’s notables left the area, crossed over the Zaire River, and took refuge at Bolobo where they established the villages of Manga, Muekuana, Ululu, and Mongo, named after themselves. Several years later, after an overwhelming attack on his village by people from the interior, Ibaka joined his refugee subjects, east of the Zaire River.
Despite their former conflicts, Ibaka was able to regain his old authority over all the other Bobangi chiefs at Bolobo. By the 1870s, the agglomeration of 15 Bolobo villages spread over a distance of two miles and contained a population numbering 10,000 people.
The Bobangi population at Bolobo made part of their living from fishing and growing cassava. Their chief livelihood, however, was commerce, and in the middle of the 19th century, the Bobangi of Bolobo were the most successful merchants of the upper Zaire River.
Travelling throughout the territory by way of the smallest creeks and affluent of the river, they linked the Tio merchants selling European wares at Malebo Pool with people beyond the Iboko-Mabale agglomeration (at the present Makanza). The Bobangi trading network also included portions of the Ubangi and Giri rivers in Zaire, and the Likouala-Mossaka and Likouala-Aux-Herbes rivers in what is now the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville.
Bobangi commercial expeditions included both men and women travelling in convoys of about ten canoes. The canoes carried small bundles wrapped in mats and containing cloth, copper, brass wire, pearls, guns, and powder, which could be exchanged for ivory and daily provisions. For their food, however, the parties fished and hunted along the way.
The large expeditions never had less than 100 armed slaves and the principal entrepreneurs, who remained at home, often conferred great responsibilities on trusted slaves. Slaves who exhibited qualities of courage and honesty rose to the positions of managing their master’s affairs. For example, the slaves of chief Mangulu worked as his commercial agents at the Malebo Pool. Some slaves gained their freedom and amassed fortunes which equaled or surpassed those of lineage chiefs. Stanley reported that Lungumbila, a former Bobangi slave, owned merchandise easily worth 75,000 francs.
Eventually the Mboshi slave purchased by the Bobangi chief Ibaka achieved the status of head slave over his master’s commercial enterprises. As head slave, he directed chief Ibaka’s expeditions to the Ubangi River region.
At the death of chief Ibaka, his head slave continued to manage his affairs and actually took over his master’s position. This take-over was made easier because Ibaka’s actual heir, Lingenji, was still quite young. In fact, the former slave even took the name of his owner in order to reinforce his prestige. Facing strong opposition from his former master’s enemies, the new Ibaka proved his superiority through a series of bloody battles.
Muekuanga, one of these rivals, left Bolobo and moved toward the interior on the edge of the forest. From the time of this victory until the whites arrived in 1882, Ibaka exercised uncontested sovereignty over the entire Bolobo agglomeration. Ibaka’s adjunct was the wealthy slave Lungumbila mentioned by Stanley.
On November 10, 1882, Captain Hanssens, who, in Henry M. Stanley’s absence, headed Leopold II’s forces in the Congo Free State, arrived at Bolobo to arrange for the construction of a station. Hanssens wanted place to re-provision the steamers which would soon be traveling the river. Although the other Bobangi at Bolobo expressed hostility to the whites, Ibaka chose to welcome them. Because he hoped to monopolise the trade of these new ‘merchants’, from whom he received many gifts, he gave them some land in an old cemetery and offered them protection.
A few months later, C. Coquilhat, who had met Ibaka for the first time in December 1882, described the Bobangi chief. “Standing under a temporary veranda, we quietly examine the thick circle of…(Africans) which surrounds us. A person of apparent importance cuts through the crowd which stands aside for him respectfully. He quietly shakes the hand of the Captain and points to me. This is Ibaka, the king of the Bolobo.
He appears to be 50 years of age; tall, thin, his muscles worn, his head bent forward, his lips closed and sagging, his eye almost covered by a drooping eye-lid, sunken cheeks;…A huge basket in the shape of an Armenian bonnet, decorated with various copper figures, serves as his head-dress, symbol of royalty and pocket. A goatee ending in tresses elongates his already long face. A string of fetishes hangs crosswise on his chest.
This remarkable lord, having asked the names of the newly-arrived whites, offers us his soiled hand with a smile. He sits down and asks for something to drink. He eyes us carefully, asks interested questions about our voyage and especially about the merchandise the boat carries.”
In the eyes of his Bobangi adversaries, Ibaka’s friendship with the whites made him potentially more powerful. Therefore, these rival chiefs sought ways to antagonise the whites and their African employees. The first signs of overt hostility appeared after the departure of Lt. Orban, the first head of the station who had maintained excellent relations with the Bobangi.
At the beginning of 1883, Gulula, chief of the village next to the newly founded International Association of the Congo (A.I.C.) station, killed two Africans from the garrison. He accused these ‘bachelors’ of having relations with his wife who sold them provisions. Men from the A.I.C. station did not retaliate at that time because they were too few to be sure of victory.
Again expressing their discontent, the lesser Bobangai chiefs attacked the A.I.C. steamers coming to Bolobo in August 1883. The garrison at Bolobo had just experienced a fire destroying 150 loads of merchandise which had been deposited at Bolobo awaiting shipment to the future stations of Bangala and Stanley Falls (now Kisangani). After the fire, the men stationed at Bolobo were without shelter or provisions. Stanley then came to their rescue. Fighting then broke out on August 22, and peace was not signed until September. Ibaka played a crucial role in the signing of the peace. Arguing that Stanley might relocate the Bolobo station and, thus, deprive the Bobangi of the Althe trade, Ibaka convinced the other chiefs to accept the treaty which gave Stanley an indemnity.
In 1884, Ibaka extended the scope of his relationships by opening negotiations with Protestant missionaries. After talking with Ibaka, R. George Grenfell of the Baptist Missionary Society (B.M.S.), established a mission at Bolobo in 1889. Grenfell himself was based at Bolobo until 1906. In the years following 1889, B.M.S. workers at Bolobo helped put the Bobangi language into writing and provided excellent schools for the area.
Although the state station at Bolobo was temporarily abandoned, it was reoccupied in 1896. At that time Bobangi relations with the whites entered a new era. These relations, however, only temporarily added to the prestige of the old chief Ibaka, whose importance was diminished by each new contact the whites made with neighbouring chiefs.
By the end of his life he exercised no real control over his own people, and the Europeans had edged him out of the commerce which had been the mainstay of his power. Nevertheless, the whites remained grateful to him, continued to recognise him with gifts, and accorded him the place of honour at public gatherings. The Bobangi too respected this old man who had cultivated alliances with the whites. When Ibaka died in April 1889, the Bobangi sacrificed seven or eight slaves to accompany him to the other world.
Ibaka was one of the African chiefs who accepted the arrival of the Europeans and tried to use them to augment their own political prestige and wealth. Ibaka also belonged to that group of adroit and determined men from the lowest class who used the influence gained in commerce to rise to the heights of their society.
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