FEATURE These networks primarily trafficked slaves and ivory. The Zombo obtained elephant tusks from the Kwango area and the north via the Bampangu and the Bawumbu in the Stanley Pool region (Birmingham, 1981: 148; Van Wing, 1959: 70; Tshimanga, 1960: 46). Secured in a sort of wooden cage, they were carried on the heads or shoulders 120 of porters (Monteiro, 1968: 140) to trading agencies in Kisembo and Ambriz. From the third quarter of the nineteenth century onward, they also transported wild rubber to the coast. (Birmingham, 1981: 148). In lesser quantities, they traded local agricultural products and cottage industry items such as honey, textiles, and tanned hides to be bartered against Western goods, including silk, cotton, wool, weapons, gunpowder, glassware, porcelain, copper, etc. Because of such trafficking, the name “Bazombo” came to be understood as a more generalized term for eastern Kongo peoples6 who engaged in these trade activities. Indeed, the route they took between the hinterland and the coast came to be known as nzila Bazo(o)mbo.7 “Bazombo” also developed a pejorative connotation. As Fr. Louis Bruyns (1951: 40) puts it, “the Kongo despise the Zombo, and the name ‘Zombo’ became an insult.” This disdain grew out of the export of humans,8 the demand for which increased after the arrival of Europeans. Trade in ivory also was negatively assessed and for related reasons. Writings by members of the Baptist Missionary Society, such as John H. Weeks (1914/1969: 207–208), reveal that the locals believed that white men hid African souls (or dead bodies) in the cavities of the tusks and shipped them to their homelands, where they were resuscitated and used as slaves. The Zombo caravans were viewed with fear because they operated under the protection of mighty “fetishes” that guaranteed luck. These could also bring misfortune to an entire town where such caravans stopped. Despite this, resting places for caravans, slave markets, and toll places9 developed along trade routes (Van Wing 1959: 21) and villages grew up around them. Toll was calculated according to the number of carriers in the caravan and the value of the load they were transporting. These taxes were meant for the Kongo king, but the mani Mbata also benefited from this situation from the point that the trade route entered his land. In addition, this allowed an outlet for any economic surplus (mostly agricultural products and raffia textiles) produced within the borders of Mbata (Hilton 1985: 129). At a certain point in history, the Portuguese chose to deal directly with Mbata out of Luanda, rather than trading through San Salvador. This caused the power of the Kongo king to wane and, as a result, the mani Mbata refused to continue to recognize his authority. The tension between the Portuguese and the Kongo cumulated into the battle of (A)Mbuila/Mbwila in 1665, where the Kongo elite suffered defeat. Internal tensions between rival clans vying for political supremacy eventually led to the decay of the Kingdom of Kongo. Its dissolution was complete by the beginning of the eighteenth century. Where there once was a Kongo state, three subunits, or “tribes,” arose: the Mussorongo in the northwest, the Mushikongo in the center, and the Zombo in the east (Birmingham 1981: 67).10 The construction of the railway (1890–1898) between Matadi and the port installations of the Pool created a quick link between Lower and Upper Congo and allowed the intensification of the volume of exchange products with Europe via the port of Matadi. Charles Tshimanga (1960: 50) writes: “Its start of service also led to the collapse of the Zombo and Kongo trade with the Atlantic coast and they were relegated ... to a subsistence economy.” The territory of the Zombo was cut in half by the demarcation of the Congolese-Angolan boundary, which was determined in 1901 by a Luso-Belgian committee. Today the Zombo are primarily concentrated in the northeastern corner of Angola in Uíge Province, where they live on the Zombo Plateau. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Boone (1973: 168), only a few Zombo villages, including Banza-Mbata, Tumba-Mani, and Kindompolo, still flank the Inkisi River. Christian Influences Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo at the end of the fifteenth century, shortly after initial contact by Portuguese explorers. The church was to maintain a connection with the Kongo royal court for the next two centuries. Despite a close relationship, early efforts toward Christianization had little in the way of farreaching consequences. Some Kongo kings profiled themselves as champions for Christianity, but their ultimate goal was to limit the power of the bitome (sing. kitome) from Mbata. A new mani Kongo might attempt to “complete” his position as a secular ruler through the presence of a representative of the Catholic Church at his inauguration. This was traditionally the role of the delegate of the Nsaku clan, which maintained religious supremacy. Churches were built and crosses erected, but the belief in indigenous “idols,” in the power of “sorcerers” and local healers, and in incantations and rituals remained strong. The actions that would accompany the spread of the new ideology—the destruction of cult places and of power ob- FIG. 4: The Rev. Thomas Lewis, BMS (1859–1929). From Lewis, 1930, frontispiece.
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