As Mheshimiwa finished her ministrations, my memory was coming back. Of course, her people belonged to the Bayeke hunting tribe, and it was in the village of Bunkeya where I was being ministered to that M’Siri had established his empire in the early 1800s.
John’s particular interest in this region and its history had been dictated by the fact that he had considered the possibility of working at the Bunkeya mission.
Several Bayeke hunters had decided to leave their territory east of Lake Tanganyika and, following a wounded elephant (so goes the legend) reached what is now Katanga. There, they marveled at the fabulous sight of copper ingots. The hunters bought some of the precious metal from the local inhabitants and returned to their land showing their find to their chief Kalassa — yes, like Mheshimiwa’s grandson, the one who saved me.
Thus Kalassa and his men traveled southwards to meet the king of the copper mines, whose name was Katanga. The two rulers sympathized and sealed a bond of friendship, agreeing to trade with one another.
During one of his subsequent journeys, Kalassa brought with him his young son, M’Siri, so the boy could be initiated into the skills of trading and in this fashion perpetuate the good relations that existed between the two chiefs.
King Katanga, whose generosity was fabled, allotted the youth a sizable plot of land, where M’Siri, several brothers, and warriors of his tribe could work and settle.
Soon, the young Bayeke chief commanded the respect of his men for his initiative and bravery. He was ambitious and began to conquer the more fertile regions that linked his father’s distant territory with Katanga’s kingdom. He gained the admiration and pride of both leaders and acquired with each new victory an impressive army of slaves.
To reward M’Siri for such feats, King Katanga offered him his own daughter in marriage. But after the death of the great chief, Katanga’s family accused the young Bayeke of having poisoned their beloved master. M’Siri fled to a neighboring territory. Its ruler, Chief Panda, who had always been jealous of King Katanga, greeted the young man with open arms and even made him his successor. Thanks to Panda’s warriors, M’Siri was able to defeat the late Katanga’s sons, control the right bank of the Luapula river, and put an end to the endemic Baluba incursions. He progressively extended his domination over the whole area between the Congo basin in the center of the country and the Zambezi.
This was the region known as M’Siri’s empire. The European financiers, prompt to appreciate its wealth, called it Katanga. To keep such a vast territory under his yoke, M’Siri did not hesitate to use force, crushing incipient rebellions, multiplying raids, and arrogating to himself the monopoly of the main trades of his time.
He thus dealt in ivory, salt, iron, copper, and slaves, bartering his ware with the Arabs, who controlled much of the trade conducted in East Africa, Uganda, the Zambezi, and Angola. He naturally also traded with the Portuguese in the south and on the Atlantic coast, thus acquiring the weapons, ammunition, and gunpowder necessary to protect and extend the borders of his empire.
M’Siri’s fabulous harem numbered no less than five hundred wives, among whom was Maria da Fonseca, a Portuguese beauty of mixed blood.
His capital, Bunkeya, had a population of about 20,000, which, for that time, was considered very large.
He sent his emissaries to the Portuguese governor of Saint-Paul-of-Loanda, requesting the hand of one of his daughters, his ultimate dream being to marry a white woman. Yet M’Siri was so proud he deemed himself superior even to the Europeans and he therefore always refused to sign any sort of treaty with them. They were forbidden to visit his empire. He made an exception, however, for the two Germans, Reichard and Böhm, whom he deigned to receive at his court in January of 1884. The Portuguese officers, Capello and Ivens, traveling from the Atlantic coast with the intent to reach Mozambique, were not so lucky. M’Siri refused them passage through his territory.
Neither Alfred Sharp, an officer of the South Africa Company, nor Cecil Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia, had better luck.
Le Marinel, who commanded the first Belgian expedition of the so-called Independent Congo State, did get to Bunkeya in April of 1891, but M’Siri saw to it that their entire ammunition depot blew up in a deafening, blazing show of fireworks.
A few years prior, the only white people he had allowed to settle near his capital were English missionaries. His conditions were that they remain at their post and help him communicate with the other Europeans. He considered them his white slaves.
Now old and ill, M’siri let his sons and lieutenants watch over the security of his huge dominion while he himself no longer left the precincts of his harem. He became senile, the valor and courage of his glorious days giving way to sanguinary instincts. He began to treat his wives in the most cruel and sadistic manner. Some he had buried alive, while others were sequestered in a den with ferocious mastiffs that tore them to bits, making a carnage of the poor women. His tyranny knew no bounds, and far and wide he was feared by his subjects. His courtesans were ordered to use similar inhumane methods lest they too end up in agony. The reign of terror spread from the capital to the empire’s confines. Not only was M’Siri abhorred by the numerous tribes he governed, but by his very own Bayeke people. His vassals started ransacking the caravans, deserting the mines, curtailing their tax payments.
Having learnt that one of Panda’s daughters, a wife of M’Siri’s, had been assassinated during an orgy, the Bassanga massacred several Bayeke on their way to the capital, which they partly set ablaze. M’Siri’s warriors in the meantime were engaged in a fierce battle against their Baluba archenemies. Taking advantage of the growing anarchy in the land, Captain Stairs, a Canadian who headed the Belgian expedition, reached Bunkeya in December of 1891 and presented, with the customary gifts, his credentials to the ailing M’Siri. But faced with M’Siri’s arrogance, the Canadian publicly reprimanded the old chief for his tyrannical conduct. The next day M’Siri fired a shot at Captain Bodson, Stairs’ envoy, and was killed in turn. The tyrant’s death brought relative peace to the kingdom, facilitating the Belgians’ penetration into Katanga.
Mukanda Bantu, a son of M’Siri’s, became successor to the throne, but the oath of allegiance he took was to the new Independent Congo State, the private property of King Léopold II of Belgium.
***
M’Siri, beautiful little boy. I owe my life to your father and to your venerable Mheshimiwa.
“And what about me?”
Of course, you too. How could I ever forget? You are the portent of such rich, complex, yet forgotten history. Will I ever see you again? What does the future hold in store for you? Good night, brave child!
- Hidden Essentials - August 30, 2023
- A New World - August 23, 2022
- Harry Wilson’s Congo Diary - February 13, 2022
