Nyangwe

Nyangwe is a town in Maniema, on the right bank of the Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of Congo (territory of Kasongo). It was an important hub for the Arabs for trade goods like ivory and also one of the main slave trading states in the region at the end of the 19th century.[1]:Vol.Two,94–97[2]

Slavers attack nearby Nyangwe

The town was founded around 1860, and a first sultan named Dougombi established in 1868. Munia Muhara was the sultan of the town by the time of the 1892–1894 war in the Eastern Congo. The town was established after the Arabs drove out the original inhabitants in and around the village. As a result, the original inhabitants of the place called the Wagenya had become distrustful of any foreigners visiting the region.[2]

David Livingstone was the first European to visit the town in 1871. Livingstone stated that on July 15, 1871, and he witnessed approximately 400 Africans massacred by three Arabs who worked for Livingstone's associate, the Arab ruler and slave trader Dugumbe. The cause behind this attack is stated to be retaliation for actions of Manilla, the head slave who had sacked villages of Mohombo people at the instigation of the Wagenya chieftain Kimburu. The Arabs attacked the shoppers and Kimburu's people.[3][2]

Researchers who scanned Livingstone's diary stated that he feared that his own men might have been involved in it. The account describing the massacre was changed in the "Last Journals" published in 1874.[4] While his published journal blamed Dugumbe's men, it is Manilla who seems to be leading the raid and breaking the treaty with Kimburu according to the researchers who decoded his diary. In the diary, he states that he had sent the Banian slaves, liberated slaves who were sent to him by John Kirk, to assist Manilla's brother which may indicate their role in the attack. In addition, the field diary doesn't contain any record of Livingstone refuting the Muslims who accused the English of the massacre. In the published journal however, the events are changed and much of the reprobate behaviour of Banian slaves mentioned by Livingstone is omitted.[5]

It was the last known town for people coming from the East, and Livingstone thought that the Lualaba was the high part of the Nile River. Verney Lovett Cameron visited the town in 1874. In 1877 Henry Morton Stanley followed the river downstream from Nyangwe with local reigning Tippu Tip, and as he arrived in Boma, he established that this was the Congo River. Hermann von Wissmann visited Nyangwe in 1883.

Notes
  1. Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, Vol. One ISBN 0486256677, Vol. Two ISBN 0486256685
  2. http://www.livingstoneonline.org/spectral-imaging/livingstone-in-1871
  3. See also Jeal, Tim (1973). Livingstone. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pp. 331–335.
  4. "Researchers now presume that Dr Livingstone lied". cbsnews.com. November 2, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  5. Wisnicki, Adrian S. (2011). "Livingstone in 1871". livingstoneonline.org. Retrieved April 25, 2019.


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