LUPUNGU

Lupungu (circa 1875-circa 1940s), the son of Ngongo Leteta claimed to be the legitimate successor to his father’s large domain, straddling the Lomami River southwest of Maniema. The colonial government feared, however, that Lupungu might repeat Ngongo’s insubordination against the State, and this prevented him from exercising power as chief. Thus, for most of his life, Lupungu was exiled from Ngongo Leteta’s former capital, Ngandu, on the Lomami River, 100 km (60 mi) northeast of Kabinda.

Lupungu was named after Ngongo Leteta’s ally and vassal, the great Songye chief Lumpungu. F. Dhanis, Belgian commander of the Arab zone, continued calling him “little Lumpungu.” Although, on the eve of his execution by state authorities at Ngandu in 1893, Ngongo designated Lupungu as his successor, Lupungu’s actual reign over the Tetela and other heterogeneous populations conquered by his father lasted little more than a year and a half, from 1893 until 1895.

On July 4, 1895, Ngongo’s former soldiers, who had been integrated into the Congo Free State army, revolted at Luluabourg (now Kananga) and began a rampage through Kasai. Learning that the mutineers planned to come to Ngandu and restore Lupungu to the power and position of his slave-raiding father Ngongo Leteta, the whites at Ngandu fled with the young chief to the headquarters of Dhanis at Nyangwe, 100 km (60 mi) northeast on the Lualaba River. Finally, in 1896, Danis sent Lupungu, his mother, and 40 Tetela warriors to Stanleyville (now Kisangani).

In the meantime, state agents at Ngandu installed Luhaka, a former nyampara (subordinate) of Ngongo Leteta, as the legitimate ruler. Although Luhaka proved to be capable and, devoted, and an excellent administrator, some colonial officials admitted that Lupungu was the rightful heir to Ngongo. In a letter dated September 3, 1900, Danis the vice-governor general of the Eastern Province declared the children of Ngongo Leteta had the right to succeed their father whose cooperation, so badly repaid, had enabled the whites to acquire Maniema, the large Swahili Arab dominated area southeast of Stanleyville.

In Stanleyville, Lupungu completed his education under the direction of Father Superior Gabriel of the Sacré Coeur mission. The Europeans described Lupungu as a very intelligent, affable, quiet, serious, and polite young man. Aware of his legitimate right, Lupungu attempted with his young brother, the ambitious and bold Adolphe Kitenge, to recover control of the Sambala chiefdom of Katako-Kombe, located about 300 km (180 mi) northeast of Kananga.

In the face of the European’s refusal, Lupungu, in 1908, petitioned high officials at Boma, the colonial capital on the estuary of the Congo River, for permission to return to Ngandu to found a small village in the Lualaba-Kasai district. He argued that this was the country of his birth and that he had not seen it for 12 years. But both the local and central authorities refused his request. Later in 1912, Lupungu’s brother Kitenge clandestinely visited Ngongo Leteta’s youngest son, Mauka, living at Katako-Kombe. Realising Kitenge had come to reclaim control of the chiefdom for himself or Lupungu, Luhaka informed the administrator E. Germain, who immediately expelled Kitenge from his territory. But when Luhaka died on July 15, 1919, Kitenge again returned as Lupungu’s emissary to challenge the succession of Raphael Senga, Luhaka’s oldest son.

Initially, Kitenge was successful for, in 1922, the territorial administrator, J. Collaert, asked for Lupungu’s recall from Stanleyville. Nothing came of Collaert’s request, however, and Raphael Senga was inaugurated as chief of the great chiefdom of the Sambala. In fact, from this time on, Collaert asked higher authorities to forbid Lupungu and Kitenge access to the territory. The European authorities were convinced that their return threatened to unleash a widespread internal revolt in the Tetela chiefdoms of the Sankuru district since many other local notables considered themselves legitimate successors to Ngongo Leteta.

On November 25, 1932, acting as an emissary for Lupungu, Kitenge renewed his claims to the succession of Ngongo Leteta and encountered the same opposition from the administrative authorities of Stanleyville. The following year, Raphael Senga was decorated with a medal for his role as ruler of the Sambala chiefdom, enlarged in 1933. To further undermine all influence of Ngongo Leteta’s sons in the chiefdom, one of the chiefdom’s tribunals under Lutundula, an ardent supporter of Ngongo’s heirs, was abolished on July 20, 1934.

According to the commissioner of the province, Lutundula’s court duplicated Luhaka’s tribunal, only eight kilometers away. Nevertheless, until his death on June 18, 1936, Chief Lutundula Kilinda refused allegiance to Raphael Senga. On September 22, 1936, the interim commissioner of the province, F. Wenner, required Kitenge to move his residence to Lueta, about 200 km (120 mi) south of Kananga in Kasai. On November 2, 1936, the order was modified simply to forbid Kitenge to enter the Sankuru district.

When Raphael Senga died on October 25, 1939, after a reign of 20 years, his 16-year-old son Emery Milambu was too young to rule, and the problem of succession recurred. Both Lupungu, who was in Stanleyville, and Kitenge, who was in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), were contacted by emissaries of the local chiefs Lutundula, Mubimbi, Omeonga, Omana, Lumbuli, and Mundala.

On October 7, 1940, the commissioner of the urban district of Léopoldville transmitted a request from Kitenge to A. de Beaufort, the head of the Lusambo province (later Kasai province), urging that he re-examine Lupungu’s candidacy. According to Kitenge, Lupungu had promised to forget all his family had suffered for 50 years and to conduct himself as a loyal and obedient chief. The district commissioner, E. Valleys, speaking for Beaufort, reported to Governor General P. Ryckmans (term of office 1934-46) that this request should be filed without action because the chiefdom had been assigned to a cousin of the deceased chief Senga Luhaka. Thus Léon Mutambwe, of the Tete Ngomba village, was invested on November 9, 1939.

Despite European approval, Mutambwe’s selection was not in keeping with the consensus of the African notables. Faced with the Belgian authorities’ clear and categorical refusal to give even a small amount of authority to any of Ngongo Luteta’s children, Lupungu was forced to live quietly in Stanleyville until his death. His brother, Adolphe Kitenge who lived past independence, was able to return home after 1960. Kitenge, however, was shot at Katako-Kombe by the soldiers of Moise Tshombe’s central government, despatched to put down a rebellion in 1964.

The influence of Ngongo Leteta’s sons, Lupungu and Kitenge, endured among populations formerly conquered by their father. Despite their distance from the Tetela territories and the heterogeneous peoples of Katako-Kombe, Lupungu and Kitenge were highly regarded for more than half a century. Their return to the region before independence would certainly have resulted in internal repercussions, even possibly revolts against the colonial administration. That is why the Europeans never permitted them to reign or even to return to their native Katako-Kombe territory.

DIMANDJA LUHAKA