MUMBENDU

Mumbendu (circa 1880-April 1915) served the Belgian colonial administration as chief of Bomana, an extensive, arbitrarily-created territory along the Giri River in the northeastern part of Zaire.

Mumbendu was born in the village of Bomana (located on the Giri River 160 km or 100 mi north of modern Mbandaka), an agglomeration of separate hamlets containing the following family groups: Bomoko, Bonsobo, Mokondola, Bolinga, Modjoka, Bonkombi, and Boyombo. From the end of 1898 until early 1899, the Congo Free State established a station at Bomana. At that time, the young Mumbendu enlisted as a soldier in the Force Publique (colonial army). When his military service was over, he returned home to Bomana where he served as an intermediary between the African population and the Europeans.

Probably between 1908 and 1910, Mumbendu received investiture, from the colonial government, as head of the newly formed Bomana chiefdom. Extending about 120km (75 mi) along the Giri River. Mumbendu’s domain also reached inland to the Ubangi-Giri watershed in the west, and to the Zaire-Giri watershed in the east. This heterogeneous, non-traditional chiefdom included the Loi, Kikila, Mbonzi, and Jamba peoples-ethnic groups too small to be administered efficiently as single units.

Like Chief Mungembe, who governed the remaining area of the lower Giri, Mumbendu had little knowledge or affection for much of his land. To gain acceptance from his subjects, he often found it necessary to use force. Along with similar chiefs imposed by colonial officials, Mumbendu, aided by Ekita of the Bomongo people and other armed adventurers, attacked disobedient villages, capturing many women and children, whom he sold to the Boloki and the Bobangi river people from near Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka).

In exchange for the slaves, Mumbendu received rifles which came from the nearby French territory. The Jamba people, especially the warrior Ekonda of Sikolo, resisted Mumbendu’s conquests. Despite his superior weapons, Mumbendu feared to visit the Jamba villages, located west of the Giri River from his capital, Bomana.

Mumbendu’s campaigns against his fellow Africans were either encouraged or permitted by the Europeans. Since the state posts responsible for overseeing the region were situated 160 km (100 mi) upstream at Bomboma and Musa, Mumbendu was free to rule as he wished.

With the re-establishment of a state post at Bomana in 1911, Mumbendu’s freedom of action was greatly curtailed. Forbidden to use force, as he had done in the past, Mumbendu worked hard to satisfy his European masters and supporters. Thus, he made frequent visits to the scattered river villages in his chiefdom. His main concerns were tax collection, village sanitation and upkeep, and the construction of way-stations along the roads.

In the years after 1911, administrative reorganisation gradually reduced Mumbendu’s authority. First, to facilitate the administration of his large chiefdom and to avoid unnecessary travel, the European head of the Bomana post divided Mumbendu’s domain into four groupings, each with its messenger: Ekita of Bomongo, Sikandja of Koli, Siniaki of Botshongo, and Sako of Mobena.

Although this avoided sub-chiefdoms which would have seriously fragmented Mumbendu’s power, the new formula was but a step in the process of diminishing Mumbendu’s political role. As other ambitious Africans urged the whites to give them more authority, the territory was reorganised in 1914. At that time, Bomana was divided into four independent units: Bomana and Bobena along the Giri River, and Kikoro and Mokondo between the Ubangi and Giri rivers.

By this time, however, Mumbendu was more concerned about his failing health than about his diminished land. Stricken with the sleeping sickness which had swept the Giri region, he went to local hospitals for treatment. In December 1913 he traveled to the Protestant mission at Bolobo 450 km (300 mi) south of the Congo River, while in July 1914, he went to the Ikiko mission on Lake Leopold II (now Lake Mai Ndombe), seeking a cure. During this time, he nevertheless tried to carry on his work as chief. He died in April 1915.

Succession was complicated by the fact that Mumbendu’s brother had also died from sleeping sickness a few months earlier, while his son Mohua was only five years old. Although Mumbendu had wanted his principal collaborator Ebenga to follow him in office, Ekwete, a relative of the deceased chief, was invested in the office on August 1, 1916.

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