Yeke Kingdom

Yeke Kingdom
Yeke Kingdom
1856–1891
	South-central Africa in 1880 showing the central position of Msiri’s Kingdom and the principal trade routes, with the approximate territories of Msiri’s main allies (names in yellow) and the European powers (names in orange) before borders were settled by the Berlin Conference. The east coast trade was controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar. Areas of influence of other tribes and of France and Germany not shown
Capital	Bunkeya
Government	Monarchy
• 1856–1891	Msiri
Historical era	Scramble for Africa
• Msiri's rise to power	1856
• Msiri's death	20 December 1891
	Succeeded by
Congo Free State

Last updated July 30, 2024

The Yeke Kingdom (also called the Garanganze or Garenganze kingdom) of the Garanganze people in Katanga, DR Congo, was short-lived, existing from about 1856 to 1891 under one king, Msiri, but it became for a while the most powerful state in south-central Africa, controlling a territory of about half a million square kilometres. The Yeke Kingdom also controlled the only trade route across the continent from east to west, since the Kalahari Desert and Lozi Kingdom in the south and the Congo rainforest in the north blocked alternative routes. It achieved this control through natural resources and force of arms—Msiri traded Katanga's copper principally, but also slaves and ivory, for gunpowder and firearms—and by alliances through marriage. The most important alliances were with Portuguese–Angolans in the Benguela area, with Tippu Tip in the north and with Nyamwezi and Swahili traders in the east, and indirectly with the Sultan of Zanzibar who controlled the east coast traders.^[1]

Msiri was in fact a Nyamwezi (also known as 'Yeke' or 'Bayeke') from Tabora in Tanzania who got himself appointed as successor to a Wasanga chief west of the Luapula River by defeating the chief's Lunda enemies. Once installed he conquered the neighbouring tribes and expanded the chieftainship into a kingdom.

From its capital at Bunkeya, the Yeke Kingdom took over the western territory of Mwata Kazembe, stopped the southwards expansion of the Luba Empire and subjugated tribes in the southwest, on the trading route to Angola.

When King Leopold II of Belgium was told that the Yeke Kingdom controlled east-west trade and was rich in copper and possibly gold, he sent expeditions to try to obtain a treaty for the kingdom to join his Congo Free State (CFS). Cecil Rhodes also sent expeditions to sign up the kingdom to his British South Africa Company's chartered territories. The 'scramble for Katanga' was won by Leopold's Stairs Expedition, which ended the kingdom by killing Msiri, and took over the territory for the CFS, but with its own administration until it was more closely incorporated into the Belgian Congo.^[1]

Captain Stairs, the expedition's leader, installed one of Msiri's adopted sons, Mukanda-Bantu, as his successor but of a vastly reduced area with a radius of only 20 km from Bunkeya, and with the status of a chief.^[1] The chieftainship continues to this day under the title Mwata Msiri.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Lake Mweru is a freshwater lake on the longest arm of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. Located on the border between Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, it makes up 110 kilometres (68 mi) of the total length of the Congo, lying between its Luapula River (upstream) and Luvua River (downstream) segments.

The pre-colonial history of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo encompasses the history of the Congo Basin region up to the establishment of European colonial rule in the era of New Imperialism and particularly the creation of the Congo Free State and its expansion into the interior after 1885. As the modern territorial boundaries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo did not exist in this period, it is inseparable from the wider pre-colonial histories of Central Africa, the Great Lakes and Rift Valley as well as the Atlantic World and Swahili coast.

Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, and southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom of the Kiluba-Chibemba, speaking the language of the Eastern Luba-Lunda people of south-central Africa. Its position on trade routes in a well-watered, relatively fertile and well-populated area of forestry, fishery and agricultural resources drew expeditions by traders and explorers who called it variously Kasembe, Cazembe and Casembe.

The Kingdom of Lunda was a confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola, and north-western Zambia. Its central state was in Katanga.

Msiri founded and ruled the Yeke Kingdom in south-east Katanga from about 1856 to 1891. His name is sometimes spelled 'M'Siri' in articles in French. Other variants are "Mziri", "Msidi", and "Mushidi"; and his full name was Mwenda Msiri Ngelengwa Shitambi.

The Lunda are a Bantu ethnic group that originated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the Kalanyi River and formed the Kingdom of Lunda in the 17th century under their ruler, Mwata Yamvo or Mwaant Yav, with their capital at Musumba. From there they spread widely through Katanga and into Eastern Angola, north-western Zambia and the Luapula valley of Zambia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congo Pedicle</span> Southern protrusion of Congo into Zambia

The Congo Pedicle is the southeast salient of the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which divides neighbouring Zambia into two lobes. In area, the pedicle is similar in size to Wales or New Jersey. 'Pedicle' is used in the sense of 'a little foot'. 'Congo Pedicle' or 'the Pedicle' is also used to refer to the Congo Pedicle road, which crosses it.

Sir Alfred Sharpe was Commissioner and Consul-General for the British Central Africa Protectorate and first Governor of Nyasaland.

Daniel Crawford, also known as 'Konga Vantu', was a Scottish missionary of the Plymouth Brethren in central-southern Africa.

Omer Bodson was the Belgian officer who shot and killed Msiri, King of Garanganze (Katanga) on 20 December 1891 at Bunkeya in what is now the DR Congo. Bodson was then killed by one of Msiri's men.

Chiengi or is a historic colonial boma of the British Empire in central Africa and today is a settlement in the Luapula Province of Zambia, and headquarters of Chiengi District. Chiengi is in the north-east corner of Lake Mweru, and at the foot of wooded hills dividing that lake from Lake Mweru Wantipa, and overlooking a dambo stretching northwards from the lake, where the Chiengi rivulet flows down from the hills.

Joseph Moloney was the Irish-born medical officer on the 1891–92 Stairs Expedition which seized Katanga in Central Africa for the Belgian King Leopold II, killing its ruler, Msiri, in the process. Moloney took charge of the expedition for a few weeks when its military officers were dead or incapacitated by illness, and wrote a popular account of it, With Captain Stairs to Katanga: Slavery and Subjugation in the Congo 1891–92, published in 1893.

Maria de Fonseca was the great wife of Msiri, the powerful warrior-king of Katanga, at the time when the Stairs Expedition arrived in 1891 to take possession of the territory for the Belgian King Leopold II, with or without Msiri's consent.

The Garanganze, Yeke or Bayeke are a people of Katanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They established the Yeke Kingdom under the warrior-king Msiri, who dominated the southern part of Central Africa from 1850 to 1891 and controlled the trade route between Angola and Zanzibar from his capital, at Bunkeya.

The Stairs Expedition to Katanga (1891−92), led by Captain William Stairs, was the winner in a race between two imperial powers, the British South Africa Company BSAC and the Congo Free State, to claim Katanga, a vast mineral-rich territory in Central Africa for colonization. The mission became notable when a local chief,, was killed, and also for the fact that Stairs, the leader of one side, actually held a commission in the army of the other.

This is a history of Katanga Province and the former independent State of Katanga, as well as the history of the region prior to colonization.

Alexandre Delcommune was a Belgian officer of the armed Force Publique of the Congo Free State who undertook extensive explorations of the country during the early colonial period of the Congo Free State. He explored many of the navigable waterways of the Congo Basin, and led a major expedition to Katanga between 1890 and 1893.

Bunkeya is a community in the Lualaba Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on a huge plain near the Lufira River. Before the Belgian colonial conquest, Bunkeya was the center of a major trading state under the ruler Msiri.

The Sanga people are an ethnic group that lives mostly in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Stanley Arnot</span> British missionary to Central Africa (1858-1914)

Frederick Stanley Arnot was a British missionary who did much to establish Christian missions in what are now Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

References

1 2 3 Joseph A. Moloney: With Captain Stairs to Katanga. S. Low, Marston & Company, London, 1893.
↑ http://www.kingmsiri.com/index2.htm "Mwami Msiri, King of Garanganze". Website accessed 8 February 2007.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Moloney-1] 1 2 3 Joseph A. Moloney: With Captain Stairs to Katanga. S. Low, Marston & Company, London, 1893.

[Kingmsiri-2] ttp://www.kingmsiri.com/index2.htm "Mwami Msiri, King of Garanganze". Website accessed 8 February 2007.

[1]

[2]

Yeke Kingdom

See also

Related Research Articles

References