KALALA KAFUMBE

Kalala Kafumbe (18?-1895), a leader of the Mulenge people of eastern Kasai, united the decentralised Mulenge clans into a single political organisation. Like many other African individuals who rose to prominence in the late 19th century, Kalala Kafumbe owed his power to the guns he was able to purchase directly or indirectly, from Angolan slave dealers. Thus, Kalala Kafumbe’s ascendency set aside traditional Mulenge concepts of political authority.

The Mulenge people are one of the numerous Luba peoples from Shaba who migrated west across the Lubilash River into Kasai. Organised into a multitude of autonomous clans, the Mulenge settled between the Lubi and Mujila rivers, about 60 km (35 mi) southwest of modern Mbuji-Mayi. Except in periods of war, when the Mulenge joined together under the guidance of a military general, the various clans lived relatively independent of each other.

Before the time of Kalala Kafumbe, the Mulenge chiefs were elected by local clan leaders and sanctioned by neighbouring rulers. Candidates for office distributed gifts to an incumbent chief and his friends until the chief agreed to turn over his office to the petitioner. Once this agreement was reached, the candidates traveled to the neighbouring Kanyok chief who then legitimised the candidate by conferring upon him chiefly power, symbolised by a red parrot feather which the newly invested chief wore on his head. Theoretically, this power derived from the Luba mulopwe (chief) in Shaba who possessed bulopwe (royal power), transmitted through the royal bloodline. While the Mulenge claim they once journeyed to Shaba to receive investiture, since at least the early 1800s, they have gone instead to their close southern neighbours the Kanyok. Supposedly the Kanyok ruling dynasty was founded by Chitend, a woman of Luba royal blood, who thus brought the bulopwe power to Kasai.

Kalala Kafumbe gained control of the Mulenge by circumventing the traditional channels of political advancement. The son of chief Kafumbe Bibau and his second wife, Kalala Kafumbe was sold as a slave to the Kanyinda clan of the Mpuka people. The Mpuka had been introduced to a new religious cult, the lubuku, by the Luba people living immediately to the west in the Lula River region near modern Kananga. Adherents of lubuku smoked hemp and believed the many small Luba Kasai groups would someday be united under their departed ancestors. The Luba Kasai chiefs Musamba Mputu and Mukenge Kalamba had invented and promoted the lubuku cult in the 1860s. These hemp smokers were also attracted by guns, which until that time had been unknown in the region. As early as 1865, Mukenge Kalamba had established contact with the Cokwe (Chokwe) of what is now Congo, who supplied him with rifles. The power to unite people into the lubuku groups thus came to be based on force and conquest.

Living with the Mpuka, Kalala Kafumbe became adept in the new military arts. Eventually, these skills earned him his liberty. In about 1875, as the head of a group of soldiers, Kalala returned in triumph to his homeland where his half-brother, Katende Kafumbe, had succeeded their father, Kafumbe, as chief.

Powerful and ambitions in his new position, Kalala Kafumbe demanded that his brother share power with him. Once his brother agreed, Kalala Kafumbe set about to create an army, composed of Mulenge men from every clan. With this army, he conquered the nearby Dish clans and forced the people of the river” clans among the Mpuka to pay him tribute. Conquered rulers who refused to accept Kalala Kafumbe’s demands were brought to his village, Cilundu, and subjected to torture.

To guarantee a constant supply of the guns and ammunition, upon which his power rested, Kalala Kafumbe allied himself with Kasongo Lwaba, also called Fuamba, a Luba Kasai slave trader who lived about 65 km (40 mi) southeast of modern Kananga. Following the example of Mukenge Kalamba, in 1875 Kalala Kafumbe went to the Malange in Angola, hoping to establish direct contact with the Cokwe traders. Thus, the chief of the Mulenge was one of the first to open the Portuguese-African trade to the Luba-Lubilash. From then on, the Cokwe traded directly with the Mulenge, and Kalala Kafumbe’s prestige grew.

Kalala Kafumbe also sought to strengthen his position by establishing links with the Europeans who were beginning to arrive in Kasai. In October 1881, when the explorers Paul Pogge and Herman von Wissmann arrived for the first time at Malandje near present day Kananga, Kalala Kafumbe was among the first chiefs to welcome them. He clearly wanted them to recognise him as an important leader. He also greeted the Scheut mission leader, Father Cambier, who arrived on November 14, 1891 to found the parish of Mikalayi, near Malandje. To gain an advantage over his rival Fuamba, in April 1892 Kalala asked the missionaries to found a mission at his village, Cilundu. Accepting the request Father Camber arrived among the Mulenge on June 2, 1892 to prepare for the establishment of the new mission of Merode (the present parish of Cilundu).

Ultimately, however, Kalala Kafumbe recognised his security depended upon his military organisation and not merely his alliances. Because of his many warriors, Kalala was able to repulse an attack from Cokwe raiders and from Panya Mutumbo’s Bayembi, who had already ravaged the eastern area of the Luba in the Lubilash River area. After Panya Mutumbo’s son was killed by the Mulenge at Cilundu, the discouraged Bayembi returned to their own lands.

By acquiring modern military technology, by recruiting numerous soldiers, and by cultivating powerful allies, Kalala Kafumbe was able to centralise Mulenge political structures and to subject neighbouring peoples. The unity he created by force of arms, however, was not enduring. When Kalala Kafumbe died in 1895, he was followed by his son Kalala Kamwanga, who in turn was succeeded by his son Dumba wa Kalala in 1913. After Dumba wa Kalala was deposed by the colonial administration in 1937, Mulenge political organisation became increasingly decentralised. Kalala Kafumbe’s state, like those polities built by other warrior rulers, was ephemeral. Based on the force of arms and not on the authority of tradition, his work had only a temporary impact.

MALENGU MUBAYA