089 La Politique Idigene in the History of Bangui.Pdf
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La polit...iq,u:e indigene in t...he history o£ Bangui William J. Samarin impatltntly awaiting tht day when 1 Centrlllfricu one wHI bt written. But it must bt 1 history, 1 rtlltned argument biSed 01 Peaceful beginnings carefully sifted fact. Fiction, not without its own role, ciMot be No other outpost of' European allowtd to rtplace nor be confused with history. I mm ne colonization in central Africa seems to have atttmpt at 1 gentral history of the post, ner do I inttgratt, had such a troubled history as that of' except in 1 small way, the history of Zongo, 1 post of the Conge Bangui, founded by the French in June 1889. Frte State just across tht river ud foundtd around the nme Its first ten or fifteen years, as reported by timt. Chronolo;cal dttlils regarding tht foundation of B~ngui ll't the whites who lived them, were dangerous to be found in Cantoumt (1986),] and uncertain, if' not desperate) ones. For a 1 time there was even talk of' abandoning the The selection of' the site for the post. that. Albert Dolisie named Bangui was undoubtedly post or founding a more important one a little further up the Ubangi River. The main a rational one. This place was not, to beiin problem was that of' relations with the local with, at far remove from the last. post at. Modzaka; it. was crucial in those years to be people •. The purpose of' the present study is able to communicate from one post to to describe this turbulent period in Bangui's another reasonably well by canoe as well as history and attempt to explain it. Why was it by st.eamer.z [28y ont &CCount it toet nint days to go from · different from that, for example, of Modz&R to the rapids and fivt days to return dewostrum Leopoldville, Brazzaville, and Bangala Gater <Utistrofftr 1931:154). Hewtvtr, tht Frtnch had dtstrttd Medzw t.o be called Nouvelle Anvers, and now Mankanza)? This is the question we address by 1896 <Anenymous 1896:224; Bobichen 1899:tD.l But an equally important, if' not more important, ourselves t.o.t [1My tiSt conctrns itself with what WIS factor was the presence of' rapids. In dry called tht politique illdigtat, 1 frequtntly occurring rubric undtr season they would have prevented or made which reports were madt by lllmillistrators concming relations very difficult. the use of' a steamboat.. with the indigenous people of the Haut ·Oubangui. If this study Geography, than, played a critical role in ~pptars to be biiStd in favor of tht French point of vitw, it is the selection of' the site, Just as it did in not bg intention. That is, I do not want to pretend that the only deterring both George Grenfell, the English history of Bugui, or that of any othtr part of Africa, worthy Baptist missionary, and Alphonse Vangele, of considtration is one that dtlls with the Europtan experitnce. the Congo Free State officer, in their Indted, I deplore such 1 point of view. Colonization WIS u explorations of' the Ubangi basin. experienct that untold numbtrs of Africans were immtdi&ttly or very soon touched by ud suffertd undtr. This is OM of tht Other factors that. figured in the themes of my Tht blact mu's burdtn (in press), whost titlt is selection of' colonial outposts seem t.o have mtut to evob what colonization mtut for Afric~ns in the 1880s played a less important role in Bangui's ud 1890s in central Africa. lonethtltss, it Is excusult to tm choice: for example, a large population whose one perspectivt IS 1 first sttp in 1 historical tiSt. Evtn though labor would contribute t.o colonization, a Bugui's history WIS not tntirtlg white, but Ubugiu IS well, we hospitable reception on the part. of' the local accomplish much by undtrst~nding how the whites nw it, people, and the availability of' food. Their PAGEi absence boded ill for the future of the seen before. It was attacked by fifty canoes, establishment of French authority in this whose passengers threw at it spears, arrows, region.:t [3Jhll population wu probably nol 1 f~elor is sttn sticks, and stones, apparently seeking to in lht facl lhlt A. Dolisie rtporled only "trois petits viUqes" drive it off more than take lives. In any in the area <AISOH &C JU.D141>, and Husy wrote on 28 September case, Grenfell was able to land somewhere 1889 lhat "il g a peu de 9ill•s aulour de nous" (quoted in hlct nearby and make friends with the people 1970a(2):351). Conlradiclorg dlta from others do not, in mg (Johnston 1908<1):132>. This must have been an opinion, weaten mg cue, because I am focussing on whal the impressive landing but a very peaceful one, founders of Bangui saw. They mag baH missed much, strange for Grenfell was in the habit of taking though thal mag seem lo us now. ftr example, Alis reported a along with him on his exploratory dense population &rtllld Bangui (1891:105), and Buatier a treat expeditions persons who would demonstrate number of people upri9tr of Zinga, in olher words bttween Bangui that his intentions were peaceful, not and this site <Buatier [18971:20). Further downri9tr, presumably warlike: African children, and on some on the left bant, U111gele I'Rpll'ted "les pays des Ba-Atis, des occasions even his wife and infant child <MH Honzembo et Hon- Toumbi prfsent une succession non interrompue 1885:293; 1886:110>.• r•However, we do not tnow ex~etlg de 9iUages" <H T, EH s Ill, p. 2). Except for Alis' statiment, which who made up the crew on tht 'PtlCt' at this particular time.] is puzzling without a critical usessment, it would sUII appear Somewhere downriver of the rapids on this &ccurate lo ng that lhe immediate area around lhe new posl same trip, presumably among people who were was nol 9isibly populated h any exlenl. I would guess thal wilbin going to get such a terrible reputation later a perimeter of len tilomelers lht population wu no more lhan on, people, in fact, who had given the &bout 10,880. In 1906, thil is, after a lot more was mown of the impression of being suspicious and warlike area, lhe population of lhe Rtgion de Bangui, which probably on his earlier trips, Grenfell was well extended as far downri9er as the lobaye River and at leut ten received and the people asked him to stop or twenty tilometers upriver, was said te be approximately 30,008 and build (Johnston 1908(1>:133),5 [5 <1907, AIX 4<3)013; cf. AIX 4<3>D15), Tht matter of food is Characterizations lib 'suspicious,' 'wulib,' 'friendly,' and so discussed below.] forth mate up put of the wag Europeans rrsponded to Africans. That th_t_ wag Europeans were receiHd was determined in put by We make this historical Judgement in the wag they appeared amongst the Africans should need no .I hindsight. For Dolisie, and for Vangele, who argument. Whites were not simply 'discovering' Africans u thtg founded Zongo, there may have been were, regardless of what they mag have believed. They were reasonable grounds for hope in planting 'creating' 1 people by how they saw them and how thty behaHd themselves here at the Ubangi7s turn amongst them. Although this is not 1 principal theme of this eastward. If large plantations were not study, it is clear from the exposition. Elsewhere, dealing with this visible to them and if the people did not same area <Samarin 19841>, it is the main thesis.] welcome them with open arms, the first contact was nonetheless more pacific than it The next explorer apparently had an was inimical. If this fact can be established, equally good if not better reception than then subsequent events take on a special Grenfell did. This was Vangele, who arrived significance. Explaining what happened at the rapids in October 1886 and then again later cannot, in any case, ignore how things in November 1887, when he claimed the began. There was a discontinuity in race territory around Zongo for the Congo Free relations, but all that whites saw was an State. Of the inhabitants he had nothing but unchanging and implacable hostility good to say: "'Les riverains sont paisibles et towards themselves. accueillants .... C7est le meilleur peuple que. J7aie Jamais rencontri" <Cuypers 1960:44>.' [5Jt The first white to arrive at the rapids was Grenfell. This was sometime in February is surprising therefore to read what Kalct has to sag about of 1885. The local people were apparently Uangele's arrival in 1886: "En raison de Ia forte crue de I'Oubugui, H ne put ni trouver de passage, ni mfme contourner Ia rive frightened by this apparent invasion by strangers on a noisy, smoke-bellowing boisfe, occupfe par des populations Boum hostiles ... ;" vessel, the likes of which they had never "£V111gele's expedition] fut trfs mal regue par les riverains, Bobangui, Hond,iembo et Bouua" <Kalcl 1970a(2):341>. As so often • PAGE2 happens in hick's history of the Central African Republic, one these transactions as being entirely worthless. If they did not finds here no reference to substantiate this shtemtnt.l constitute binding agrttments for the UbangiiiiS, there must have In the nearby area of what came to be bm somtthing in them that symboHzed good wiD on the part of called Bangui itself relations with the both partits.l residents began auspiciously. Five treaties were made on the Ubangi and three on the Bad behavior Mpoko in October 1888,7 [?The establishment of the In attempting a description of the post is described by Kalct <1970&(2):348) in thm words: "Aprb relations between whites and Ubangians Ia cirimonie de l'fchange des sangs avec It chef m'bika around Bangui one must determine what the propriitlire du Heu, if itlit indiqui que I' on avlit pro cedi i natives did to alarm those at the post, what l'enterrement de Ia guerre, symbolisie par une cartouche de fusil the whites did in response to these actions, et un fer de saglie." This chief is elsewhere identified as Bimbo and what whites believed about the local <Kalct 1970b:66),wbose name persisted as a village name through people.