MUYANGALA

Muyangala (circa 1875-February 3, 1950) was chief of the Pende Akwa Ndala people, living along the upper Bwelo Milondo River, 100 km (60 mi) south of Kikwit, holding this position from 1932-50.

Originally from Nzemba Munene village and the Akwa Hago clan, Muyangala was elected Mwene Kongo (Akwa Ndala chief) in 1932. His predecessor, Mwene Kongo Kabemba, had been removed following the great Pende revolt of 1931 and eventually died in prison.

Mwene Kongo Muyangala received customary investiture from the local people. In addition, he was officially invested and decorated with a medal by the district commissioner, Vandevenne, on October 8, 1934. (He was re-invested on December 17, 1936.)

Muyangala was an energetic chief who worked hard in the service of the colonial administration and promoted the development of his chiefdom. His situation forced him, at times, to be very severe with his own subjects who did not bend promptly to colonial demands.

In the end, however, he was subjected to humiliation by the territorial administration and therefore refused to cooperate with the government. In 1937, he refused to attend a series of meetings with the territorial agent Malvoz, who was in charge of his region. When he was summoned, in August 1937, to explain his conduct to the territorial administrator at Gungu (located about 80 km, or 50 mi, southeast of Kikwit), Muyangala did not go. As a result, the government punished him by withholding his salary for three months. In 1939 Muyangala refused to supervise the cultivation of fields, required by the government. Therefore, on September 27, 1939, the territorial administrator, J.B. Bomans, proposed to the Kwango district commissioner that Muyangala be dismissed from office. After taking into account the services he had rendered, however, District Commissioner Peigneux retained Muyangala, after severely rebuking him. But Mwene Kongo Muyangala was deeply angered and, ever after, he took advantage of every opportunity he could find to impede the smooth operation of the colonial government.

When Muyangala died on February 3, 1950, he was succeeded by Mukwakeza, a man of the Kigudi clan, from Lusanga village.

SIKITELE GIZE a SUMBULA