Archaeology and Ethnography Along the Loango Coast in the South West of the Republic of Congo

In 2011 and 2012, Dr Gerry Wait (then Nexus Heritage) and Dr Ibrahima Thiaw (Institute Fundamental d’Afrique Noire: IFAN, Dakar) undertook an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) project in Kouilou Department in the southwest region of the Republic of the Congo. The initiative had been commissioned by SRK Consulting UK for Elemental Minerals Ltd relating to a proposed a potash mine. These landscapes were little known in terms of the sites and monuments from the distant and more recent past. That the area was important in the understanding of migrations along the African coast had been demonstrated in a pioneering set Wait and Thiaw Archaeology and Ethnography of excavations by Denbow (2012 and 2014). This base line study was undertaken to identify and evaluate cultural resources which might need further investigation. The second part of the study reports on ethnographic surveys undertaken in the same defined area, treating intangible cultural heritage as equally as important parts of the Along the Loango Coast Congo’s cultural heritage and identity. The baseline studies were systematic in that they employed standard best-practice survey techniques but structured on a landscape level. By building upon Denbow’s extensive surveys and small-scale investigations fom 30 years earlier the studies have enabled a richer and more nuanced in the South West of understanding of the Atlantic Coast of Congo during the past millennium. Archaeology and Ethnography Along the Loango Coast in the South West of the Republic of Congo the Republic of Congo Gerry Wait has over 35 years of experience as an archaeologist and anthropologist specialising in heritage assessments for Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs). He has worked in over 30 countries, in Europe, Asia and Africa. Gerry has been active in the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and in the Committee on Professional Associations in Archaeology of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). He is on the editorial board of the Society of American Archaeology’s Advances in Archaeological Practice Journal. He is on the Register of Professional Archaeologists (USA) and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Ibrahima Thiaw is one of the leading practitioners in Africanist archaeology, heritage and in Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs). He leads in the Laboratoire d’Archéologie at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) at the-Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar Senegal. He has worked extensively in the upper Senegal River basin where he conducted multiple Environmental and Social Impact Assessments. He is equally well known for his work on the UNESCO World Heritage site of Goree Island (Dakar). Ibrahima is a very strong advocate of students’ training, community engagement and the decolonization of Archaeological practice in Africa. He has pioneered marine archaeology in Senegal. He is also an active member in Africanist Archaeologists organizations including the PanAfrican Archaeology Association but also on the editorial board of a number of Professional Journals.

Gerry and Ibrahima have worked together on many projects in Sub-Saharan archaeology and ethnography since 2009, notably at Sabodala Senegal (published by Archaeopress Publishing in 2016) in Sierra Leone, and in Burkino Faso.

Elizabeth Gardner has been an archaeological illustrator since 2005. Her work includes all aspects of archaeological dissemination and publication. She is a full Member of both the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) and the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI). Alongside commercial archaeological work, Elizabeth has been involved in monograph projects such as Glastonbury Abbey (University of Reading, AHRC, Society of Antiquaries (London)), Bathwick, Bath (Context One Archaeological Services) and Godmanchester (Historic England and Oxford Archaeology) as well as populist publications such as Glendalough (Christiaan Corlett). She is active in CIfA as the graphics specialist assessment officer for membership validation.

Tim Copeland is a Visiting Fellow in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Gloucestershire. His main interests in the transition from the late Iron Age to the Roman Occupation in Southern England. A native of Caerwent in Wales, he has excavated widely on sites of both periods and has for many years studied the late Iron Age complex of Grim’s Ditch in west Oxfordshire. His recent books include Roman Gloucestershire and An Archaeological Walking Guide to the Cotswold Way for the History Press. He has been published by English Heritage, CADW, the National Trust, the British Library, Cambridge University Press, and the Council of Europe. A former Chairman of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Heritage Committee, he is Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Gerry Wait and Ibrahima Thiaw with Tim Copeland and Elizabeth Gardner

Archaeopress Archaeology www.archaeopress.com

Wait and Thiaw cover.indd 1 11/09/2018 12:08:58

Archaeology and Ethnography Along the Loango Coast in the South West of the Republic of Congo

Gerry Wait and Ibrahima Thiaw

with Tim Copeland and Elizabeth Gardner

Archaeopress Archaeology Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Summertown Pavilion 18-24 Middle Way Summertown Oxford OX2 7LG www.archaeopress.com

ISBN 978-1-78491-994-8 ISBN 978-1-78491-995-5 (e-Pdf)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

Printed in England by Oxuniprint, Oxford This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com Contents

List of Figures and Tables �� ii Introduction ��1 Acknowledgements ��1 The Archaeological Heritage Regulatory Framework in the RC ��2 International Regulatory Framework ��3 The Sintoukola Potash Project ��5 The methodology ��6 Objectives �� 6 Approach and Methodology: �� 6 Desktop Research and Planning �� 6 Field Survey Methodology �� 10 Archaeological and historical background �� 14 Artefact analysis ��17 Pottery �� 17 Lithic Artefacts �� 19 Imports �� 19 Conclusions: archaeology and the location and dating of ancestral sites ��21 Aspects of the Ethnography And Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Sintoukola Permit Area ��28 Objectives ��28 Approach ��28 The social context ��28 Methodology ��30 Communal Organisation ��32 Terrien families �� 32 Religion and beliefs ��36 Sacred sites: Sanctuaries �� 36 Cemeteries �� 40 Tchikombi and Mangoudi and other dances/festivals ��44 Churches ��44 Zéphirin �� 45 Christian Churches and Traditional Witchcraft and Sorcery ��52 Terriens, Village Chiefs, Christian Churches ��52 Distribution of Sacred sites ��53 Conclusions ��53 Bibliography and Sources Consulted ��55 Finds illustrations ��57 Appendix 1: Gazetteer of Archaeological Sites and Site Descriptions ��72 Appendix 2: Summary of indigenous LOANGO COAST ceramic styles after James Denbow ��76 Appendix 2: Tabulated records of artefacts ��79 Appendix 3: Ceramics drawings ��84 Appendix 4: fiche de prospection: card-index records for newly discovered sites ��89 Appendix 5: Gazetteer of Heritage Sites �� 101

i List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1. Location Map of the project area ��iv Figure 2. Map of the study area showing the principal villages mentioned in the text �� 4 Figure 3. Typical household, Dougou village �� 5 Figure 4. Yanika village in the mixed savannah-forest zone �� 6 Figure 5. The village of Nkoutou �� 7 Figure 6. Fieldwalking with the massive plantation of cloned eucalyptus trees behind �� 8 Figure 7. Fieldwalking in the mixed savannah and forest zone �� 8 Figure 8. Site recording; Dt Thiaw and Directrice Mdm Nsania Julienne �� 9 Figure 9. Recording at Lac Ndembo, on one of the sites also recorded by Denbow (note his concrete marker) �� 9 Figure 10. Denbow’s marker for the site at Lac Ndembo �� 10 Figure 11. Map after Denbow of sites �� 11 Figure 12. Fieldwalking through the mixed savannah-forest zone �� 12 Figure 13. Survey team at Denbow’s marker for site BP113 �� 12 Figure 14. Denbow’s marker for site BP113 �� 13 Figure 15. Rim-sherd of pottery found in the coastal zone �� 17 Figure 16. Locations of Archaeological Sites �� 20 Figure 17. Locations of ISO sites �� 22 Figure 18. Density of archaeological remains near the coast up to approximately 8km inland �� 24 Figure 19. Density of archaeological remains in the zone of savannah-forest mosaic �� 25 Figure 20. Density of Archaeological remains in the Mayombe �� 26 Figure 21. Zones of relative archaeological potential �� 27 Figure 22. Village consultation in Koutou �� 30 Figure 23. Meeting with a babongo (pygmy) family near Youbi �� 31 Figure 24. Meeting with villagers in Dougou village �� 32 Figure 25. Map of sacred sites developed during consultation in Koutou with Bouvandji �� 33 Figure 26. Map of sacred sites Lakes Youbi and Yangala developed during consultation with Youbi terriens �� 34 Figure 27. Map of sacred sites developed during consultation with Sintou terriens for Bivabiloangou �� 35 Figure 28 – Sacred site on River Djemba �� 36 Figure 29 – Recording a propitiatory ritual while approaching sacred site 118 near village KM4 �� 37 Figure 30 – Recording ARCH site 42, also a sacred site near Nkola �� 38 Figure 31 – Recording GPS coordinated at a sacred site in the Mayombe forest zone near Kola �� 39 Figure 32. Cemetery sacred site 115 near Youbi...... Figure 33 – Cemetery sacred site XXX near Kaboune �� 41 Figure 34. Learning local narratives about the cemetery sacred site 115 near Youbi �� 41 Figure 35. A grave marker typical of the dispersed burials in the coastal zone �� 42 Figure 36. A relatively modern burial in a well tended cemetery near Youbi �� 43 Figure 37. Roadside cemetery in the Mayombe north of Sintou �� 43 Figure 38. Iron grave marker in a cemetery near Goma Tchiloungo �� 44 Figure 39. A Zéphirin church altar frontal from near Nkola �� 47 Figure 40. The Zéphirin-Lassist church at KM4 village �� 48 Figure 41. The Zéphirin church in Nkola �� 48 Figure 42. Altar decorations in the Zéphirin church in Nkola �� 49 Figure 43. The Zéphirin church in KM4 village �� 49 Figure 44. The current Zéphirin church in Tchiesalamou �� 50 Figure 45. The Zéphirin church in Tchiesalamou under construction (view along Nave) �� 50 Figure 46. The Zéphirin church in Tchiesalamou under construction (view towards the altar) �� 51 Figure 47. The church in the village of Nkoutou �� 51 Figure 48. Areas that have higher potential to be tchibila �� 54 Figure 49. Ceramics - indigenous and imported - from Site ARCH 2 �� 57 Figure 50. European blue-glass trade beads, circa 17th-18th centuries from Site ARCH2 �� 58 Figure 51. Ceramics - indigenous and imported - from site ARCH 19 �� 59 Figure 52. Ceramics – indigenous and imported from Site ARCH 20 �� 60 Figure 53. Ceramics – indigenous – from site ARCH 21 �� 60 Figure 54. Ceramics – indigenous and imported – from site ARCH 22 �� 61 Figure 55. Indigenous Ceramics, iron-working slag worked stone objects and a characteristic rim-sherd from site ARCH 22 �� 62 Figure 56. Ceramics – indigenous and imported – from site ARCH 22 continued �� 62 Figure 57. Ceramics – indigenous and imported – from site ARCH 24 �� 63 Figure 58. Indigenous ceramics and imported bottle-glass from site ARCH 24 �� 64 Figure 59. Chipped quartz: waste flakes and some with retouch for use as tools �� 64 Figure 60. European green-glass bottle neck fragment �� 65 Figure 61. Chipped quartz: waste flakes with retouch for use as tools �� 65

ii Figure 62. Indigenous ceramics and worked stone from site ARCH 29 �� 66 Figure 63. Indigenous ceramics from site ARCH 29 �� 67 Figure 64. Indigenous ceramics and imported glass from site ARCH 31 �� 67 Figure 65. Indigenous ceramics and worked quartz flakes from site ARCH 32 (Denbow’s site BP113) �� 68 Figure 66. Indigenous ceramics from site ARCH 33 (Denbow’s site Lamba) �� 69 Figure 67. Site ISO 1 �� 69 Figure 68. Site ISO 2 �� 70 Figure 69. Site ISO 3 �� 70 Figure 70. Site ISO 7 �� 70 Figure 71. Site ISO 20 �� 71 Figure 72. Site ISO 24 �� 71 Table 1. Chronological periods and pottery styles related to sites discovered in the 2011 survey �� 19 Gazetteer of Archaeological Sites (geographic information removed) �� 73 Sacred sites – accurate geographic location information has been removed. �� 107

iii CENTRAL AFRICAN N REPUBLIC CAMEROON Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development

New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area N EQUATORIAL Potash Mine Area GUINEA REPUBLIC Haul / Service Road OF CONGO 0º Planned upgraded Road / Service Road

GABON Power Lines Gas Pipeline

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Project Area GABON Kouilou Republic Department of Congo REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA 10ºE CONGO

Conkoua�-Douli Na�onal Park

NiariNiari

Sintoukola Baseline terrestrial study area

Transport and Mine study area serice corridors

Kouilou

Coastal study area

Madingo Kayes

Baseline marine study area

Pointe Loango Indienne

0 50 km Pointe Pointe Noire Noire Figure 1. Location Map of the project area iv Introduction

In October and December of 2011, Dr Gerry Wait ESIA projects, the works included a reconnaissance (then Nexus Heritage, now Triskelion) and Dr phase which is perhaps accurately termed Ibrahima Thiaw ( Institute Fundamental d’Afrique ‘unsystematic’ in that the zone of potential impacts Noire : IFAN) undertook an Environmental and from the proposed mining and infrastructure Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) project in Kouilou was rapidly traversed in vehicles and on foot. The Department in the southwest region of the Republic subsequent baseline studies were systematic in of Congo. The initiative had been commissioned that they employed standard best-practice survey by SRK Consulting UK (SRK) the lead consultants, techniques, but randomly structured on a landscape coordinating all the ESIA activities and reports for level in that the study zones – effectively a 35km Elemental Minerals Ltd who proposed development transect across the landscape – was a ‘given’ based of a potash mine in what had been designated as on engineering designs rather than one selected on the Sintoukola Project Permit Area development. any archaeological or anthropological criteria. The specified zone was approximately 50km to the north of Pointe Noire and extends along the coast north west towards the border with Gabon and Acknowledgements inland for some 40km as illustrated in (Figure 1). This study has benefitted greatly by the editorialwork The two constituent sous prefectures that make of Dr Tim Copeland and the illustrations of Elizabeth up the Kouilou Department are the Madingo Kayes Gardner. The project in the ESIA stages also received and Loango. These landscapes were little known in assistance from Dr Hilde Van Vlaenderen and Dr terms of the sites and monuments from the distant Paul Mitchell of SRK Consulting (UK) Limited (SRK), and more recent past. That the area was important Mike Linklater, Ken Wheeler and Lloyd Kirtley on site, in the understanding of migrations along the African Madame Nsania Julienne (Directrice des Fouilles coast had been demonstrated in a pioneering set of Archéologiques, Direction Générale du Patrimoine excavations by Denbow (2012 and 2014). et des Archives, Ministère de la Culture et des Arts, Government de la République du Congo) and Dr Leopold Mpika of the Université Marien Ngouabi, The first part of this study concerns the archaeological Brazzaville. project comprising of a baseline study (just over 35km in length) that followed on from a reconnaissance Prof J Denbow of the University of Texas (Austin) study for archaeology, which encompassed the undertook seminal work in the Congo (published in Sintoukola Project Permit Area. This base line study 2012 and 2014 as well as earlier partial or interim was undertaken to identify and evaluate cultural reports). His excavations are vital in drawing resources, especially the artefacts, which might need contrasts and similarities in field work approaches further investigation to mitigate the effects. As part and methodology between his work and that of the of the ESIA project, SRK and the mining company Sintoukola Project Area initiative and so enriches were made aware that these outcomes might be in both investigations. the form of additional work to evaluate the resources in terms of their scientific and cultural importance. Test excavations might be required to determine the age of sites, their character (e.g. settlement versus industrial versus agricultural sites), their rarity (a common site type versus a rare site type), and their degree of preservation. Test excavations might also be used to determine the depth, extent, nature and density of buried artefacts and features within the site.

The second part of the study reports on an ethnographic survey undertaken in the same defined area, treating intangible cultural heritage as equally as important parts of the Congo’s cultural heritage and identity.

Because of the procedural and reporting cycles of

1 The Archaeological Heritage Regulatory Framework in the RC

To put the research reported here a wider context uncovered during public work and that these should it is important to understand the value put on the be declared to the competent services at the Ministry historic environment by the Republic of Congo in the of Culture. This also applies to chance finds and face of commercial development. Though relatively extends to subaquatic cultural and natural resources. weak when compared to western standards of All discoveries during archaeological research are the best practice, the national regulatory framework exclusive property of the Congolese State. developed to protect Congo’s cultural resources is supplemented by a number of international charters, Congo is also a signatory of the Cultural Charter policies, and conventions to which the country is for Africa adopted in Port Louis, Mauritius in July signatory. Both of these national and international 1976 and enforced in September 1990. The Cultural guidelines are used for assessing impacts of the Charter for Africa urges all signatory states to carry project on cultural resources. out a systematic inventory of their cultural heritage in the spheres of traditions, history and arts. Article The principal cultural heritage legislation for Congo 1 (b) sought to rehabilitate, restore, preserve and was promulgated in 2010 with Law n° 8-of July promote African Cultural Heritage. The member 2010 which protects national cultural and natural states agreed to defend and develop the people’s heritage. It instituted the National Commission culture, rehabilitate the functions of artists and for National Cultural and Natural Heritage, in craftsmen, and use information and communication the Ministry of Culture, which delivers research technology for cultural development and raise clearances, enforces the legislation and oversees awareness about heritage resources. In 2006, the the inventory, classification and preservation of sites Charter of African Cultural Renaissance replaced and objects of cultural significance. Law n° 8 of July the 1976 Cultural Charter for Africa. Under this new 2010 stipulates that cultural and natural heritage are charter, member states commit to defend minorities Congolese national patrimony and their protection and their culture to promote cultural diversity, to and preservation are ensured by the State. Protected protect and develop tangible and intangible heritage under this law are the following: archaeological and use cultural heritage resources to build Pan- collections and sites, and objects that are 50 years Africanism. This Charter urges member states to of age and validated by the National Commission for take all necessary measures for the establishment Cultural and Natural Heritage, and this may include of an African World Heritage Fund. In Article 31, inscriptions, seals, currencies, objects associated African states agreed to build capacities, particularly with the history of science and techniques, military for the specialized institutions of the African Union history, historical personages or events, manuscripts, Commission to enable it to coordinate, monitor, evaluate and harmonize best practices and policies and iconographic, and cinematographic archives. concerning programmes and networks. This law also protects artistic creations such as paintings, engravings, drawings, tapestry as well as The Republic of Congo is a signatory of the European ethnographic collections including ritual and musical Union Cotonou Agreement of 2000 that was revised instruments, clothes, culinary objects and produces in Luxembourg in 2005. Joint Declaration XI on the of pharmacopoeia. In addition to all elements from 79 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the archaeological sites, caves and monuments, this Pacific (ACP) expresses the common will of signatory law extend its protection to all objects, sites and states for the preservation and enhancement of monuments with interest to history, anthropology, art the cultural heritage at the international, bilateral and science, as well as, rare collections and specimens and private level to promote the development of of zoology, botany and mineralogy. Article 45, Section information exchange on the cultural heritage of I of Title V strictly prohibits the exportation from ACP States. Member States also expressed the national Congolese territory of all classified heritage usefulness of providing assistance in training for the resources. Under current Congolese law, inventoried preservation, protection and exhibition of culture or classified objects cannot be exported without heritage properties, monuments, and objects and a written permit from competent services in the the promulgation and enforcement of adequate Ministry of Culture. Article 34 of Title III states that legislation. approval of all major development projects is subject to impact studies to assess their impact on cultural The RC is also a signatory to United Nations resources. Article 43 of the same title stipulates that Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization all activities must stop if archaeological vestiges are (UNESCO) and the UNESCO Conventions and may, 2 at the government officers’ discretion, use those • International Finance Corporation Operational conventions as if they were national legislation. Policies (e.g. OP4.01) (1998).

International Regulatory Framework In the last 40 years, standards of ‘best practice’ The international regulatory framework for cultural have developed, particularly in North America and heritage within an ESIA is well known at a strategic Europe, with regard to the identification, protection, level, but less developed in terms of project and management of cultural heritage sites and implementation. The principal conventions and resources. Many of these standards derive from the guidance are: work of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an international non-government organisation of professional which is dedicated to promoting • UNESCO World Heritage Convention (1972); application of theory, methods and scientific • International Finance Corporation’s techniques to the conservation of the architectural Performance Standards on Social and and archaeological heritage. ICOMOS’ work at a Environmental Sustainability ( 2012), especially project-specific level complements the strategic advice of the other organisations listed above but Performance Standard 8: Cultural Heritage; which provide little practical guidance. • World Bank Operational Policy/Bank Procedure (OP/BP) 4.11—Physical Cultural Resources; and

3 Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area N Potash Mine Area Kola Mine Study Area Baseline Terrestrial Study Area Transport and Service Corridors Coastal Study Area Location of Villages Mentioned in text

0 10km

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou

Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga

Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes

Figure 2. Map of the study area showing the principal villages mentioned in the text 4 Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development The Sintoukola Potash Project New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area N Potash Mine Area Kola (RSF) for the insoluble residue generated from Mine Study Area The Project itself comprised of three main ore processing and the employee facilities (all Baseline Terrestrial Study Area Transport and Service Corridors components: of which are in the terrestrial environment) Coastal Study Area 1. Mine area – specifically the underground and the marine facilities, such as the waste Location of Villages Mentioned in text brine discharge into the ocean, a seawater mine, mine shafts, run-of-mine (ROM) ore intake, a jetty, breakwater and transhipment 0 10km pad and stockpile, truck loading facilities zone (all of which are primarily in the marine and other supporting infrastructure (such Sintou environment). as internal roads), buildings (administration, Kekoloungou change houses, etc.) and services. The area with surface structures associated with the The descriptions included above and elsewhere in underground mine is referred to as the mine this report pertain to the project as it was envisaged at the time of the investigations, but the project Koutou-Konambi site. elements and design have continued to develop. For 2. Roads and service corridors – specifically the example, we are advised that a conveyor is now being haul road, service roads, overhead power line, considered instead of a haul road, and land disposal of gas pipeline and water pipelines. residues is currently not being considered (this latter 3. Coastal area – the area occupied by the is important because the footprint of disturbance has reduced as a result). Some data (e.g. those for Youbi project’s coastal facility, which comprises health and education) have likewise changed in the unloading facilities, process plant and the intervening years and the data mentioned here associated buildings, a residue storage facility should be treated as historical data. Dougou

Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Kola Tchboula Kanga

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi Kouani Youbi Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika Tandas - Youmbi alamou Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes Kayes Figure 3. Typical household, Dougou village

Figure 2. Map of the study area showing the principal villages mentioned in the text 5 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Figure 4. Yanika village in the mixed savannah-forest zone Tandas - Youmbi Kayes

The methodology and on-the-ground scouting informed the baseline study) permitting the targeting of areas within the Objectives wider Sintoukola Project Permit Area (specifically the mine site, road corridor, and coastal facility and The objectives of the archaeological baseline study gas pipeline/power corridor) without committing were established in a Sintoukola Potash Project to the expense and time associated with detailed Terms of Reference for Baseline Studies developed archaeological studies over such a broad area. This by SRK and were defined as follows: comprised basic desk-based research undertaken using available secondary sources to provide • Identify archaeological resources in the project background information. This also allowed the components as defined above and surrounding relevant regulatory context to be summarised for areas. archaeology (and cultural heritage), as it applies to • Inform the project design team of archaeological the project. Research into the known archaeology assets, constraints or opportunities. and history of the areas likely to be impacted by the • Provide indications of potential impacts of the project is summarised below. proposed project on archaeological resources/ sites of the study area and recommend Available satellite images were analysed to provide practicable management measures to information on areas of either enhanced potential to minimise/reduce negative impacts and contain archaeological sites (e.g. by links to particular enhance positive impacts. vegetation zones) or reduced potential (e.g. because of ground-disturbing activities – such as commercial Approach and Methodology: forestry plantations, roads, mining-related activity Desktop Research and Planning etc.).

A broad reconnaissance study was undertaken Planning for the most appropriate methodology took (incorporating a review of available information into consideration local conditions. The Republic of

6 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi Ntouyola

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiezalamou Yanika

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Figure 5. The village of Nkoutou Tandas - Youmbi Kayes

Congo has distinct dry and wet seasons; there isa which were crossed by the north-south route of the defined dry season (June to September) and a wet roads and services from the mine site to the coastal season (October to May) that is punctuated by a short infrastructure. Closest to the Mayombé Mountains dry season from December to January, when rainfall is a plateau with an area of closed tropical forest declines. Undertaking the reconnaissance study with valley bottoms cleared for agriculture which is in October 2011 during the wet season, and then referred to by local people as the ‘Mayombé’. It was the fieldwork during the drier season in December, in this topographical region that the mine workings followed by ethnographic studies at the start of the were sited. Further towards the coast is what the rainy season in 2012, ensured that the heavy rain local communities call the ‘Plain’, a wide belt ofa had settled the dry season’s dust and made artefacts mixed savannah/forest mosaic lower- lying than the more visible. ‘Mayombé’ with stands of regenerated forest in valley bottoms and linear or oval copses of regenerated The reconnaissance work consisted of an initial drive forest on hill or ridge tops. The boundary between across the area of potential impacts, followed by a the plateau and the plain is often rapid and like a consistent, if rapid, walking survey of the area of the tall fence of thick vegetation. Agricultural fields in mine and the infrastructure links to the coast, as well both ‘Mayombé’ and the ‘Plain’ are on low-lying land as preliminary meeting with local village elders, the recently cleared of forest/jungle –the soils having terriens for information about the structure of the much higher fertility. This made the observation family lineages. As this work was all overtaken by, of archaeological sites extremely difficult during a and subsumed within the following baselines studies, simple walkover. However, a few sites were located the results of the reconnaissance phase may be and more importantly the authors gained confidence treated summarily here. that abandoned ancestral (archaeological) village sites are consistently located on the upper slopes The south west the Republic of Congo comprises of and flat-topped ridges adjacent to the flat-bottomed four parallel zones: the Chaillu Mountains, the Great stream courses and are likely to have been favoured Niau Depression, Mayombé Mountains and the agricultural locations throughout the last 500 years. Coastal Belt. This project was situated entirely within Such sites, once abandoned for settlement, have the Coastal Belt which is a low-lying lying (<200 m regenerated forest cover, which also includes oil above sea level), narrow strip of land (~50 km wide) palms and mango trees originating in the period of between the Mayombé Mountains and the coast. occupation. Along the coast is a narrow (500-1000m) The landscape of the Sintoukola Project Permit Area strip based on hummocky sand dunes, where in which the fieldwork was undertaken comprised infrastructure for the mine was to be sited. two major and one smaller topographic zone, all of 7 Figure 6. Fieldwalking with the massive plantation of cloned eucalyptus trees behind

Figure 7. Fieldwalking in the mixed savannah and forest zone

8 Figure 8. Site recording; Dt Thiaw and Directrice Mdm Nsania Julienne

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiezalamou Yanika

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kouani Kanga Lac Tandas - Youmbi Ndembo Kayes

Figure 9. Recording at Lac Ndembo, on one of the sites also recorded by Denbow (note his concrete marker)

9 Figure 10. Denbow’s marker for the site at Lac Ndembo

Field Survey Methodology visibility was poor, but judged to be adequate for the purposes of identifying surface manifestations The field survey methodology was based upon a of previous and relict cultural interactions with wider ‘corridor’ rather than a narrow fixed alignment the landscape. To accommodate these sections of (for the haul road) or fixed location (for buildings reduced visibility, the crew members would zig-zag and facilities at the mine site or coast). This had the along their lines to maximise the soil and artefact benefit that any specific archaeological or heritage visibility. sites found could be considered in the project design process. A concomitant of this is that the survey The proposed route corridor was relatively easy to corridor is used as the basis for an extrapolation, or follow and was predominately across savannah. North ‘prediction’ of areas of the landscape with differing of this point however, the route entered the zone of levels of potential to contain archaeological/heritage mixed savannah and forest gradually changing over sites – and these areas could have differing responses the distance of 3-4km to predominately forest with by means of ‘mitigation’ or ‘off-setting’ as outcomes discrete clearings. Without a GPS line or polygon of the ESIA process. for the corridor, the crew relied upon a satellite image downloaded onto handheld GPS units, and Surveys were conducted with crew members spaced the paper base-maps supplied by other consultants at approximate 20-25m intervals walking in successive to Sintoukola Potash, to follow the proposed route linear transects, based upon a centre-line recorded across the increasingly complicated landscape. by way-marks using hand held GPS units. The crew of However, the proposed route occasionally cut through survey crew of 5 or 6 walked in a longitudinal manner belts of forest, impenetrable to the survey crew. In along the line of the road corridor which averaged a number of instances the crew knowingly deviated 150m in width, or about 75m either side of the way- from the proposed line in order to utilise nearby marked centre line. In general the surface visibility areas of savannah with better visibility, returning was good, with the first 4-5km, nearest the coast, had to the mandated survey route as soon as ground being noticeably better than the remainder of the conditions allowed. Thus, it is conceivable that the 30+ km route. Inland, there were some areas where survey could have missed one or more specific sites 10 Lac Tchitembo

Kouilou River Meningue

Ntombo Marsh Lac Ndembo Tandou-oumbi Gray Sand ayes Madingo-ayes

Loubani Mvindou Tchissanga Condé

ignou 1 4

Pointe Noir Original extents of areas covered by tropical forest (prior to Eucalyptus planting) Original extents of savanna grasslands (prior to Eucalyptus planting) Marsh River/Lakes Urban area Dated sites

0 30km

Figure 11. Map after Denbow of sites within heavily wooded areas, but, by adopting this systematic baseline survey are more directly within strategy, the survey overall resulted in a more robust areas of potential impacts and therefore their nature understanding of the landscape. Considering the very are relevant to the development of appropriate sparse distribution of archaeological material within mitigation actions. the forest-savannah mosaic, the likelihood of having not found a specific site within the surveyed transect Initial extensive base-line fieldwalking surveys such as is considered low. those undertaken at Sintoukola need not necessarily involve any collection of artefactual material. Within As a result of the un-systematic nature of the the first days of the systematic exploration, itwas reconnaissance fieldwork, the sites located in apparent that many of the sites (especially in the that phase were more widely scattered across the coastal zone) contained large numbers of artefacts landscape, whereas those discovered during the that appeared a priori likely to be diagnostic of 11 Figure 12. Fieldwalking through the mixed savannah-forest zone

Figure 13. Survey team at Denbow’s marker for site BP113 12 Figure 14. Denbow’s marker for site BP113

certain periods of ethno-historic cultures, and more may have originated in a single episode, for example a importantly, with the notable exceptions of site ARCH dropped and broken glass bottle, and were recorded 2, those found in the first visit of the reconnaissance as GPS coordinates and photographed. study were not revisited, nor artefacts collected. Archaeological sites (‘ARCH’s) were generally defined Denbow (2012) had assembled a ceramic typology as cultural materials at least 50 years old if any of the for this region that was anchored at certain key following conditions were met: points by radiocarbon dating. These factors led to the decision to collect artefacts: ceramics (indigenous and • Five or more artefacts of any class or type except imported from Europe), quartz tools, glass trade beads, fire-cracked rock (from thermal features) are imported European glass bottles, and fragments of recorded within a 15m diameter area, unless slag/furnace waste from iron-working or some similar these artefacts appear to originate from a process. The artefacts are classified and quantified single source, such as a ceramic vessel that in tabular format in Appendix 2 and drawings of the has been dropped or a single flint knapping profiles of potentially diagnostic rim-sherds of pottery episode; vessels are also included in Appendix 3.The artefactual • One or more datable archaeological features – primarily ceramic – assemblages from the principal are identified; sites are illustrated photographically (see Figures 49- • Two or more undatable archaeological features 72), and comments providing identification and dating are identified, and by comparison with Denbow 2011 are included. A • An undatable feature with associated artefacts synthesis of these identifications has been inserted is identified. into Tables 1 and 4. Cultural manifestations not meeting one or more Discrete isolated finds (‘ISO’s) were defined as single of these criteria were designated as sites at the artefacts or small clusters of similar artefacts that discretion of a field supervisor where they represented

13 examples of particularly rare or significant aspects of making sites in the Mayombé Mountains (Schwartz the region’s cultural- history or prehistory, such as a et al 1990) pre-modern burial. Both ‘ISO’s ‘ARCH’s were located by hand-held GPS to an average accuracy of +/- 3m, The period between the end of the Middle Stone and either the ‘ISO’ find or samples of the ‘ARCH’ Age and the period straddling the fourth and site artefacts were photographed in situ with the third millennia BC is poorly understood. However, image being geo-tagged. Site record sheets (Fiche archaeological and paleo-botanical research de Prospection) based upon the sheets developed indicates that the late Holocene climate in the and used by IFAN, were completed for each new site wider region underwent significant environmental found (retrospective sheets for sites found during the alterations after approximately 2500 BC (Sowunmi reconnaissance study were not created). 1999; Stahl 1993; Delègue et al. 2001; Schwartz et al. 1996; Vincens et al. 1998). Data from the Republic In general, artefacts found as ‘ISO’ were not retained. of Congo (Delègue et al. 2001; Schwartz et al. 1996) On ‘ARCH’ sites, a judgemental sample was collected, and evidence from pollen cores (Vincens et al. 1998) with an emphasis upon (in decreasing importance) indicate that the drier climatic regime established rim-sherds, decorated sherds, and representative at this time led to savannah openings in the forest examples of the different pottery fabrics as observed around 3000 years ago. The Sintoukola Project in the field. All artefacts were washed and dried in Permit Area can be considered to have experienced the site offices provided by Sintoukola Potash, and an a drying climate between 2000 BC and AD 1000, artefact index (Le Dossier du Artefacts Sintoukola) was and after 1500 BC contributed to the appearance completed providing a quantification of the numbers of savannah openings in the once-closed tropical of different classes of artefact recovered. Artefact forest. In turn, habitats were established which were assemblages for each site were photographed as a favourable for the settlement of food producing collection, and in addition sherds considered likely communities, which could exploit the multi-faceted to be diagnostic (‘feature’ sherds by virtue of rim opportunities, provided by coastal, savannah and morphology, decoration, or distinctive fabric) were forest environments in close proximity. photographed individually. The reader should bear in mind that ARCH sites 1-17 were found during the The coastal plain exhibits climatic and vegetation reconnaissance study and were not deliberately changes which correlate with the first appearance of revisited – only ARCH 2/6 was revisited and the archaeological sites containing pottery, flaked stone, surface artefacts sample-collected, thus ARCH sites 1 and deep pits filled with the carbonized oil palm nuts. and 3-17 have no artefact collections. These sites were identified and investigated during important research, reconnaissance and survey The artefacts were subsequently boxed and sent work which began during the early 1980s (Denbow to Mme Nsania Julienne (Directrice de Fouilles 1990) and continued into the 1990s (Denbow, 2012) Archéologiques, Direction Générale du Patrimoine In 1987 Professor James Denbow of the University et des Archives, Ministère de la Culture et des Arts, of Texas, began work in the coastal area of Loango Gouvernement de la République du Congo) for onward resulting from a chance find by geologists working donation to the National Museum in Brazzaville. for Conoco Oil Company who noticed potsherds Copies of all the record sheets, photographs and the and stone flakes eroding from a borrow pit near finalised baseline report were incorporated into the Tchissanga, 45 km north of Pointe Noire in what project archive, to be curated by the Museum and was then the République Populaire du Congo, now made available to legitimate inquiry. Republic of Congo or Congo-Brazzaville. Conoco was in the midst of a bidding competition for new oil Archaeological and historical background leases and, thinking opportunistically they supported a project that respected the culture of the indigenous Archaeological research in the first half of the occupants; archaeological research might have given twentieth century during the construction of the deep them an edge over their competition. water harbour at Pointe Noire suggests the presence of communities in the area during the Middle Stone After a promising beginning, the archaeological Age, which dates elsewhere in Africa to between excavations at Tchissanga were cut short when the site approximately 250,000 and 30,000 years ago. Stone was destroyed by eucalyptus planting in 1989. Over tools were recovered from a terrace 5m above the the next five years, these plantations transformed sea (Lombard 1931; Doux and Kelley 1939). The raw 68,000 hectares of the coastal savannah of Congo- materials from which these artefacts were made Brazzaville into a mono-specific stand of cloned are not present on the coastal plain and must have eucalyptus. In consequence, further excavations at been imported from the Mayombé Mountains c. 150 Tchissanga were cancelled and the research project km inland. There had also been excavations of iron was reoriented to include the identification and 14 conservation of as many sites as possible in the face such in-depth research might be profitable. Most of the industrial-scale eucalyptus planting. In more importantly, Denbow’s project area overlapped with recent terms this might be seen as moving from a the Sintoukola Project ESIA and his findings could be ‘research’ model into a ‘rescue’ context, the latter extrapolated on to that scheme especially at the sites now being avoided by ESIA policy of base line studies. of Lamba, BP 113, and Lac Ndembo which were in explored in common. While the Sintoukola project Because archaeological reconnaissance in 1988 and extended the Denbow’s findings, it was also validated 1989 found the greatest density of sites on the 100m by his work. terrace overlooking the sea, Shell agreed not to plant new fields in this physiographic zone. Site density was Denbow (2012) summarised his finds thus: also high on the slopes looking onto Ntombo marsh to the north and south of the Kouilou River, but much of In the second millennium BC the Ceramic Late this had already been planted. Because site visibility Stone Age (or ‘Neolithic’) is characterised by deep on unploughed savannahs was relatively poor, Shell pits filled with organic-rich soil, the fragmented agreed to plough cut-lines for archaeological survey remains of ceramics, carbonized oil palm nuts, at intervals of 100m across each new savannah in and occasional chert or quartzite flakes. The advance of planting Approximately 400km of cut-line shapes and design motifs on these early ceramics were surveyed between 1990 and 1993. In addition, relate them to material found along the coast gullies and erosion surfaces were examined along between Gabon and the Democratic Republic of with previously planted plantations where artefact Congo and suggest a migration southward by sea, visibility was still good. that may have introduced an early Bantu language During the dry season, each site was revisited to plot that has now disappeared (Bastin et al. 1987; its location on a master site map and evaluate its Bastoen 2007). The first appearance of these sites potential significance. Excavations were conducted at correlates with evidence for a dryer, more open thirteen sites that represent a cross-section of Later environment…….. (Ngomanda et al. 2009; Brncic Stone Age to Iron Age periods. The sites were chosen et al. 2007) for excavation on the basis of differences in ceramic style; they produced the suite of 40 radiocarbon dates. Iron first appears in the third or fourth century BC. Stratified sites, or sites thought to represent poorly No smelting furnaces or slag heaps were found on known periods in the emerging cultural chronology, the coastal savannah, and iron production may were signposted for conservation. The systematic have been confined to more inland locations on nature of the reconnaissance has given a reasonable the forested slopes of the Mayombé in the last estimate of prehistoric site distribution and density centuries BC. From the third century AD, iron was from approximately 15km north to 15km south of the Kouilou river. Diagnostic assemblages were found in common use, with remains of barbed arrow in the 202 sites discovered by the reconnaissance. points, bangles, and other materials recovered at Because some sites were occupied more than once, sites near Madingo-Kayes. 310 cultural components, marked by differences in ceramic style, were identified at these sites. New ceramic styles characterized by “Herringbone” decoration appear in the last two In many ways Denbow’s work and that of the centuries BC and dominate ceramic assemblages present project have contrasting and complementary during the first half of the first millennium AD. aspects. Denbow’s work took place in a compact area Given its distinctiveness from the earlier Neolithic of the grassland plateau overlooking the coastal strip material, Denbow suggests it is likely they were and there were opportunities for area excavation introduced from the east or northeast, perhaps with the retrieval of artefacts and opportunities along with millet cultivation (Kahlheber et al. for undertaking carbon 14 dating of archaeological 2009). sediments. The Sintoukola Project Permit Area investigations comprised a linear section/transect based on engineering designs rather than on any Towards the middle of the first millennium AD archaeological or anthropological criteria. However, another new ceramic tradition characterized this did provide opportunities to locate evidence for by carinated and deeply grooved ceramic wares the density of settlement across through the whole appears. Only two excavated sites on the coast coastal region. While there no excavations were produced such material, but it is considered to undertaken (this being considered as mitigation for a be related to ceramics recovered from Dundo in subsequent phase of work under normal international north-eastern Angola over 40 years ago. While the ESIA methodology), areas were identified where origin of this ware must lie between the Loango 15 coast and north-eastern Angola, more work is at the end of the nineteenth century often called needed to support such judgments. the people of Loango Bafiote, and their language Fiote. Their ethnic name today is usually given as Vili In the seventh century another cultural intrusion (singular) or Bavili (plural). occurred from the area south and east of the Congo River, based upon elaborately decorated The origins of the kingdom are obscure. The most ancient complex society in the region was at Madingo wares that have no earlier precedents on the Kayes, which was already a multi-site settlement in Loango coast, and may have developed in the first century AD as described by Denbow. Loango northern Angola. Whereas it had been thought is not mentioned in early travellers’ accounts of the that the linguistic and cultural history of the region, nor is it mentioned in the titles of King Afonso western Bantu south of the tropical forest was I of Kongo in 1535 AD. The earliest reference to a relatively straightforward one of gradual Loango in a documentary source is around 1561 by expansion of a single cultural unit southward, the Sebastião de Souto, a priest in Kongo, that King Diogo archaeological data suggest much more complex I (1545-61) sent missionaries to convert Loango to processes of ethnogenesis in the period prior to Christianity. Duarte Lopes, ambassador from Kongo AD 800. One implication might be that all modern to the Holy See in Rome in 1585 AD, related that Bantu languages here have a “mixed” heritage ‘Loango is a friend of the King of Congo and it is that, certainly in the south, resulted from complex said that he was a vassal in past times’ which may hybridizations of language and cultural traditions be consistent with Loango’s origins from Kakongo, a between Bantu strains of migrants and hunter- vassal of Kongo (or indeed that could have been a gatherers (Wilmsen et al. 2009; Denbow 2011; post-hoc means of establishing a claim). Wilmsen 2011). On the basis of later traditions from the nineteenth Finally, the ceramics from Condé and Loubanzi and twentieth centuries AD that linked the founding suggest that the social and economic values of Loango to that of Kongo, Phyllis Martin (1986) posited a much earlier foundation, in the late attached to cloth and its decoration developed fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries AD. She then many centuries before European contact. Slavery argued that the absence of Loango from early titles existed in Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans, of the King of Kongo is evidence that Loango was but the quantities of cloth and other exotic already independent at that time. goods arriving on African shores with European contact called for explanation – explanation that Dutch visitors recorded the first traditional account found resonance in the ideological structure of of the kingdom’s origin in the 1630s or 40s. In their indigenous religion which saw imported goods, account as reported by the geographer Dapper (1989), and sometimes the people that manufactured and the region where Loango would develop was populated brought them, as imbued with supernatural power by a number of small polities including Mayumba, (MacGaffey 1983). To African eyes especially, the Kilongo, Piri and Wansi, ‘each with their own leader’ imported cloth and other items were not simply who ‘made war on each other’. The founder of Loango, industrial commodities that replaced earlier from the district in Nzari in the small coastal kingdom native products, but goods whose very mode of of Kakongo, itself a vassal of Kongo, triumphed over all production and exchange was understood within his rivals through the skillful use of alliances to defeat a traditional ideological system that saw them those who opposed him, particularly Wansa, Kilongo enmeshed in relations of power, witchcraft, and and Piri, the latter two of which required two wars to the supernatural (MacGaffey 1986; Denbow 1999). subdue. Having succeeded in the conquest, the new king moved northward and after founding settlements in a variety of places, eventually built his capital in This final stage of Denbow’s chronology is where Buali in the province of Piri. the historic accounts of the area complement the archaeological material (Proyart 1814). When Nicholas Uring an English merchant, came to Loango to trade in 1701 AD, he reported that the The Kingdom of Loango, was a pre-colonial African king had died and the power of the administration state from approximately the 15th to the 19th was in the hands of the ‘Queen or Chief Governess’ century AD. At its height in the seventeenth century of that country named Mucundy and with whom AD the country stretched from Mayombe in the he had to deal as if with the ruler. When the French north to almost the mouth of the Congo River. The missionaries came to Loango in 1766 AD, they noted inhabitants spoke a northern dialect of the Kikongo that there was no clear succession to the throne and language. Missionaries who visited the Loango coast that anyone born of a person regarded as a princess 16 Figure 15. Rim-sherd of pottery found in the coastal zone

(in a matrilineal society) could aspire to the throne. The Artefact analysis death of a king could lead to a long interregnum during which time the affairs of the country were managed Artefacts found during the survey can be grouped in by a regent referred to as the Mani Boman. The Mani two broad categories: indigenous artefacts including Boman was appointed by the king during his lifetime, essentially pottery and lithic in the first and imported usually two were appointed to cover the eventuality of artefacts in the second category. the death of one of the two. Pottery Phyllis Martin (1986) contends that the external trade of The collection and recording procedures of the pottery the country had enriched some members of the nobility assemblages was informed by Denbow’s work to situate ahead of others and had thus put pressure on an older the ceramic typologies in regional and interregional constitution as wealthier upstart princes pressed their prehistory and history. Therefore the surface collection political cases. She argues that important members of the strategies targeted rim and decorated body sherds council were people who had obtained their positions which were the most diagnostic artefacts. A total of 490 through contact with external trade, particularly the slave potsherds comprising 444 body and 46 rim fragments trade, and they had come to share power with the king. were collected and processed. Overall however, the She goes on to suggest that this change in relative power sample is relatively small and varied considerably in allowed the council to dominate the king by forcing density from one site to another. Analysis was carried longer and longer interregna. In fact, after the death of out in the field laboratory established in the Sintoukola King Buatu in 1787 AD, no king was elected for over 100 Potash exploration camp. Prior to analysis, all pottery years. However, to some extent royal authority remained was washed and air-dried. It was then sorted into body in the hands of a person entitled the Nganga Mvumbi sherds and ‘feature sherds’. The latter category was (priest of the corpse) who oversaw the body of the dead composed mainly of rim sherds, but also included rare king awaiting burial. Several of these Nganga Mvumbi but diagnostic feature sherds such as lugs. However, succeeded each other in the late eighteenth and through most sites lacked ‘feature sherds’. the nineteenth centuries AD. 17 Body sherds analysis chronology of the assemblage. Rim morphology, The analysis consisted of sorting the assemblage decoration, vessel diameter, wall thickness and, of each site into decorative classes that were then non-plastic inclusions were systematically recorded counted and recorded. Multiple sherds from the for each sherd. Decorative elements were analysed same vessel were counted as one whole. Body sherds using the attributes classes described earlier for the were grouped into three broad decorative categories: body sherd. ‘Feature’ sherds were extremely rare. plain (non-decorated), slipped, and plastic-decorated. Everted (out-turned) rims largely predominated in Plastic or moulded decoration was subdivided into the collection, but other forms including unrestricted two major subclasses—subtractive and additive— and restricted, carinated, collared and ledged wares each of which also included a wide variety of motifs. were recovered. Surface colours varied from one Sherds with more than one motif were frequent and assemblage to another, generally between red were grouped in the category “multiple attributes.” and, grey, and this might reflect cultural change, or variations in firing. However, like other attributes, The major decoration motifs identified in the a bigger sample is needed for a firmer assessment assemblage include: slip; incision; channelling; of the characteristics of the assemblage and its appliqué; comb, rocker or shell stamping. The variability in time and space. assemblage also included undecorated vessel with rare twine impressions. Slip is a fluid-clay coating A closer examination of rim morphology and applied to a vessel to produce lighter and clearer decoration permits tentative correlation with the surface colours (Shepard 1974). The fine coat fills pottery sequence established by Denbow for the in the vessels’ pores and improves surface texture, Kouilou region from the Later Stone Age to the rendering the pottery less permeable. Incision, twine, Historical Period. The rim assemblage collected from channelling and, stamping, like other subtractive Denbow’s Lamba site, recorded as ARCH 33, has plastic impressions, implies the use of a decorating yielded sharply everted rims with incised motifs in implement that penetrates the clay prior to firing the the neck. This material was also found at ARCH 31 and vessel (Rice 1987). Only three types of twine roulette was attributed by Denbow to the Ceramic Later Stone were identified: a twisted and rolled twine, pleated Age (Phase 2 – 400-200 BC). It is possible that this twine roulette and, a braided twine. When applied assemblage dates to the Early Iron Age period (Early to the surface of a vessel, the twisted and rolled Iron Age – 150 BC – AD 500) as at both ARCH 33 and twine produces parallel and obliquely oriented rows ARCH 32 (Denbow’s BP 113) some of the vessels have of beaded depressions. The pleated roulette has pronounced neck and comb-stamped herringbone imprints that form parallel rows of raised dashes or motifs, a feature that Denbow attributes to the oval beads. The braided twine roulette observed in Early Iron Age. However, the presence of glass bottle the assemblage is made of two or three cords that fragments in association with earlier material makes are pleated together to produce chevron shaped ARCH 32 a palimpsest. Other potentially older sites imprints. Slip appears as the most common decoration include ARCH 29, ARCH 28, ARCH 24 (all three being in the body sherd assemblage, but unfortunately, it is palimpsests because of the mixture of old material poorly diagnostic of a specific time period. This type with European imports at their surface) and ARCH 27. of treatment was followed by incisions, combination The rim assemblage from sites ARCH 28 and ARCH of different motifs grouped in the category multiple 27 is poorly decorated, but rim morphology includes decorations and dimple impressions. small globular vessels that Denbow recovered at Tchissanga West and Lamba and attributed to the In contrast to subtractive motifs, additive or appliqué Ceramic Later Stone Age (Phase 1 – 1000-500 BC). techniques imply the application of additional clay Unlike these two sites, ARCH 29’s rim morphology of variable shape and size to parts of an existing include elements attributable to the Ceramic manufactured ware. However, a large part of the Later Stone Age (Phase 2 – 400-200 BC) also found collection from many sites, particularly nearby the previously at Tchissanga West, Lamba and, Mvindou coast, was much eroded and the raised surface but there too, they are poorly decorated. However decoration could be barely identified. It is likely that the material of these sites is heavily weathered and it this characteristic was more frequent on sites with is likely that decoration may have eroded. ARCH 24 is Late Stone Age and Iron Age components than those also difficult to place in Denbow’s pottery sequence of more recent origin. with confidence. The rim assemblage includes one unclassified ware with space undulating incisions as Rim sherd analysis well as slightly oblique incisions along with dimple The rim assemblage only counts 46 sherds and is impressions; one short-neck globular vessel and; relatively small. Although considered highly diagnostic, one slightly inturned carination with rather oblique it only gives a broad understanding of the nature and incisions combined with dimple impressions. On the

18 Approx. Dates Cultural Period (after Denbow 2012) Sintoukola 2011 ARCH Sites To 1000 BC Pre-Ceramic Later Stone Age 1000 BC - 500 BC Ceramic Later Stone Age ARCH 24, ARCH 28 ARCH 27, ARCH 31, ARCH 33 Phase 1 (Lamba), 400 BC – 200 BC Phase 2 ARCH 33 (Lamba), ARCH 24, ARCH 28 150BC - AD500 Early Iron Age ARCH 31, ARCH 32 (BP113), ARCH 33 Herringbone Ware AD 300 – 600 Carinated Broadly Grooved Ware ARCH 19, ARCH 22, ARCH 29, ISO 21 Spaced Curvilinear Ware Components ARCH 24, ARCH 34 (Lac Ndembo) AD 1100 – 1500 Later Iron Age Pre-Contact LIA AD 1500 - 1900 Atlantic / Historic Period ARCH 2, 19, 20, 22, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, ISO 2, ISO 3

Table 1. Chronological periods and pottery styles related to sites discovered in the 2011 survey basis of rim decoration motifs, ARCH 24 is tentatively other on flint. However both are characterised by situated in Denbow’s Spaced Curvilinear Ware one or several contiguous slots either small or large Components (650-800 AD) found at Madingo Kayes defined by tooth-like marks in between. Retouches and Lac Ndembo. on the edge are generally opposite and often peripherical. The second category comprises only The most recent assemblage collected includes ARCH one piece also made out of quartz and characterised 02 and, ARCH 22. In addition to their association by the development of a broad deep notch. with European trade imports, these sites include pottery styles reminiscent of Denbow’s description The scraper is the only piece made out of black flint. of material from the Historical Period dated AD 1500- Its technical characteristics are distinguished by a 1900. According to Denbow, by the 15th century simple sub-parallel retouch releasing a bevel on the AD, flared-rim “chamber-pot” shapes significantly distal transverse. developed at the expense of earlier forms such as necked jars that dominated in the assemblages Debitage (waste) debris predominates in the during the Early Iron Age and the first phase of the collection with ten pieces of quartz that are Late Iron Age. Neckless wares with incised or woven sometimes translucent. They are generally small, patterns below the shoulder grew in the assemblage. and their shapes are either trapezoidal or triangular. Other motifs including shell-impressions produced A closer examination of the debitage debris shows by cockle shells began to appear (e.g. ISO 21). a lack of cortex. This implies a technically advanced and sophisticated exploitation of the nucleus.

Lithic Artefacts Due to the small size of the sample, it would be premature to draw any conclusive interpretation During the survey, 45 lithic pieces, from seven (either chronological or cultural) in terms of the sites were collected. However examination of the significance of this material. However, it is a good collection ultimately identified only 14 pieces with start towards understanding prehistoric stone tool technological and typological features attributable making technology in this region. to prehistoric stone tool making. The bulk of the collected material was constituted of quartz nodules Imports and debris and was of little diagnostic value. Therefore analysis focused on the 14 pieces of which quartz was the dominant raw material. However, two pieces Several sites in the survey area yielded material were made out of flint. Analysis of the material has culture attributable to the Atlantic commerce permitted us to identify three notches, one scraper beginning AD 1500 until AD 1900. European imports and the rest is un-diagnostic waste or debris. were collected at several sites. Ceramics and glass dominated largely in the collection. While the The three notches can be divided into two groups importance of local consumption of these trade on the basis of their technical characteristics. The goods would require further contextual information, first category includes two pieces of which, one is it is likely that some items such as alcohol and knapped on quartz with reddish inclusions and, the European ceramics were in relatively high demand in

19 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou- Konambi

Youbi

Dougou

Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area Potash Mine Area Kayes Location of Villages Mentioned in text Locations of Archaeological Sites 0 10km

Figure 16. Locations of Archaeological Sites 20 the region and may have had a significant impact on end of occupation at any of the identified sites, and it the lives of the populations. On the other hand, glass is a more realistic to suggest that these sites remain beads were only collected at ARCH 02 and tobacco undated. Without archaeological excavation to pipe fragments only at ARCH 22. The reasons for determine the stratigraphic sequence and contents this apparent low demand for these products are of the deposits, it is not possible to identify the range probably culturally grounded and would require of cultural episodes or functions of individuals sites, further investigation. which might have included subsistence (particularly agriculture), economic (e.g. charcoal production), Within the category of indigenous artefacts, pottery habitation (sedentary and transient villages) and was most frequently recorded in most of the sites ritual (religious places or sanctuaries, burials). encountered during the survey. Lithic artefacts were However, the presence of European ceramics only recorded at a handful of sites mainly situated in indicates that inhabitants of the region had contact the coastal region. Evidence of metalwork including with wider regional cultural trends and events in the slag and iron artefacts was rare and was only noted periods following the 15th century. at ARCH 24, located in the coastal region. Since the known sites as listed above are represented Imports were largely of European origin and reflect only by artefacts that survived and were visible on the the vitality of the Atlantic economy in the region after surface, this limits interpretation. This is particularly AD 1500. Densities of Atlantic imports were variable the case with attempts to understand the functions from one site to another and included a wide range of of the sites. It is probably safe to assume that many of artefacts including European ceramics, bottle glass, the sites were settlements, but this probably masks glass beads and tobacco pipes. However, glass beads a more complicated range of locations from villages, (ARCH 02) and tobacco pipes (ARCH 22) were quite to hamlets, to farms, to sites used periodically for rare and were each only recovered at one site. As more specialised purposes (e.g. agricultural, fishing discussed above, the evidence indicated that many or hunting). This breadth of function will only be sites were palimpsest occupied at different time revealed when detailed future site investigations are periods. This was reflected in their surface collections undertaken, although the ranges and nature of the that showed a mixture of material dating to different ceramic artefacts are likely, in time and with a level periods. This was particularly true for the coast area of detailed study not appropriate to a pre-feasibility where European imports were found on sites that study, reveal further clues to site size and function. were initially occupied either during the Late Stone Age or the Iron Age (e.g. ARCH 28; ARCH 31; ARCH An overview of the general locations and relative 32; ARCH 24; ARCH 29). densities of the archaeological remains – sites and isolates – is provided by the Figures 16-17 below, which cover the whole of the surveyed corridor from Conclusions: archaeology and the location and exploration camp (in the area of the future mine site) dating of ancestral sites to the coast.

Using the unsystematic methods of the The sites found have a consistent association with reconnaissance study and the systematic survey topographic and vegetation characteristics. In the of a single corridor 34 ARCH sites and 28 ISO sites zones referred to in this report as ‘coastal’ and were located (see Figures 16-17 and 18-20). Some of ‘mosaic savannah-forest’ the sites tend to be located these sites appear to be relatively recent (i.e., within on raised land, either hill-top or upper slopes, often the last 500–600 years) and the local communities at some (surprising) distance from lands suitable seem to know of, and to value, them which they for agriculture. The ancestral/archaeological sites interpret (often correctly) as ‘ancestral villages’ and are also frequently covered with regenerated forest as part of the villagers’ heritage. The 34 ARCH sites growth, and contain a noticeable component of oil- were located by the presence surface assemblages palms and mangoes, betraying the former presence consisting predominately of pottery sherds which of villages where these trees were once cultivated. were consistent in form and fabric with pottery These characteristics mean that many more sherds recovered from securely dated sub-surface ‘probable’ sites could be identifiable on traditional context ranging in date from the second millennium aerial photography / LiDAR images, and/or on BC through to the nineteenth century AD (Denbow detailed satellite images. 2012 and 2014). These assemblages represent a mixture of multi-period sites, and perhaps sites The survey plans (Figures 3–6) demonstrate a at which the occupation or activity was restricted considerable density of archaeological remains near to more narrow date ranges. It is impossible to the coast up to approximately 8 km inland. This zone determine the actual establishment, duration and contained 23 ARCH sites and 22 ISO sites. This represents

21 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou- Konambi

Youbi

Dougou

Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area Potash Mine Area Kayes Location of Villages Mentioned in text Locations of Isolate Sites 0 10km

Figure 17. Locations of ISO sites 22 1.4 ARCH sites per kilometre surveyed (as about 16 linear km were walked in this zone) and 1.4 ISO sites per kilometre. The distribution tends to favour sites in upland topographic positions, but the link to vegetation clues (mangoes, palm-oil trees) is weak. These sites have a relatively wide topographic distribution, which indicates that the potential for any specific area to contain archaeological remains is relatively high.

In contrast, the zone of savannah-forest mosaic is one of generally low density of archaeological remains. About 28 linear km were surveyed in this zone, revealing only 11 ARCH and 6 ISO which is approximately 0.4 ARCH sites per kilometre, and 0.2 ISO sites per kilometre. In this zone the sites are much more strongly correlated with hill-tops with regenerated forest cover which suggests that while the potential for any specific area in this zone to contain archaeological remains is low, some specific types of locations are very likely to contain archaeology. The potential of this zone is characterised as generally low, but with localities of very high potential.

The Mayombé, which begins (in the authors’ view) just south of the Sintoukola Potash exploration camp, contains very few ARCH or ISO sites – too low a density to be meaningfully expressed numerically. The potential of this zone is consequently characterised as generally low.

It is clear from the work of Denbow (2011 and 2012) in the adjacent areas, and occasionally overlapping with the base line survey, areas that sites visible on the surface often have a significant depth of archaeological deposits, and that the remains on the surface are likely to represent only some elements (often the chronologically more recent) of a site’s history. Table 1 (above) is a correlation of the findings from the Sintoukola project with Denbow’s scheme.

A gazetteer of the sites discovered, and site record sheets, is included below in 5 page 103. This gave rise to the definition of the three zones of relative archaeological potential that are depicted on Figure 21.

In the ESIA project these results were presented to the mining company along with the likely mitigation works that any particular impact was likely to lead to. The proposed works – and more specifically the proposed infrastructure works which gave rise to almost all the predicted impacts – were redesigned to achieve the preservation of the sites by avoidance. This work was successful in that the final design resulted in no significant impacts upon significant sites. Drs Wait and Thiaw prepared a suite of archaeological works that might be academically valuable, but the baseline studies reported here remain the final results.

23 NAME ESCRIPTION NAME ESCRIPTION NAME DESCRIPTION Arch 02 Cera loc trade imp glass beads euro cer tobacco p Arch 23 Buried pot and glass possible burial Iso 1 2 small red pot frag and 1 ﬁne pot frag Arch 32.5 Denbow Site BP113 .5 Arch 24 Loc pot and imp ceramic Iso 10 Bo�le drop Arch 1 Waypoint Arch 24 E Edge Waypoint Iso 11 Ceramics nr logging bldgs Arch 32.6 Part of BP113 - Denbow test pit Arch 24 N edge Waypoint Iso 16 Ioc pot 2 Arch 33 J Denbow site - Lamba Arch 24 n edge1 Prob extend 400m to NE to mango trees Iso 17 Po�ery Arch 34 Denbow Site Lac Ndembo, S end baseline Arch 24 NE edge Waypoint Iso 18 Ioc pot 3 frag Arch 34.2 Denbow site Lac Ndembo, N end baseline Arch 24 w edge Waypoint Iso 19 Ioc pot frag Arch 4 Waypoint Arch 24-b-1 Imp glass loc pot Iso 2 Imp euro ceramic Arch 18 Ceramics Arch 24-b-2 Ioc pot Iso 20 Ioc pot and imp ceramic Arch 181 Archeo avec pot loc burial imp ceramic Arch 24-b-3 Ioc pot and imp glass Iso 21 Ioc pot Arch 182 Ceramics Arch 24-b-4 Ioc pot Iso 22 Ioc pot Arch 19 Lots of dec sherds Arch 25 Ceramics nr logging bldgs Iso 23 Pot frag Arch 191 Ceramic imp et local Arch 27 Sca�er by iso 17, ceamic + 3 lithics Iso 24 Ceramic in peanut ﬁeld Arch 192 Lots of dec sherds Arch 271 Ioc pot and lithic material Iso 25 Ioc pot frag Arch 2 Ceramics beads Arch 272 Sca�er by iso 17, ceamic + 3 lithics Iso 26 pot frag Waypoint Arch 20 Site by villa Arch 28 Sca�er ceramics n of 27 Iso 3 Imp glass bo�le frag Arch 5 Site with glass and european ceramic Arch 28 cont Waypoint Iso 4 Bo�le drop Arch 21 Ceramics wet of villa Arch 28 cont1 Waypoint Iso 5 Bo�le glass frag Arch 22 Red po�ery loc Arch 28 edge? Waypoint Iso 6 Bo�le glass frag Arch 22 b. drop 1 V large bo�le base Arch 281 Ioc pot several sca�ers Iso 7 3 Sherds Arch 6 Decorated po�ery Arch 282 Sca�er ceramics n of 27 Iso 8 Glass frag Arch 22 b. drop 2 Waypoint Arch 29 Ceramics plus stoneware Iso 9 Ioc pot Arch 22-b-1 Waypoint Arch 29 end End of site very long Arch 22-b-2 Waypoint Arch 29-b-1 Ioc pot Arch 22-b-3 Waypoint Arch 291 Ioc pot Arch 22-b-4 Buried bo�le Arch 292 Ceramics plus stoneware Arch 22-b-5 Concentra�on of glass Arch 3 Bo�le fragment Arch 22.1 NE edge of site Arch 31 Prob part of Denbow BP 113 but seems to have larger Arch 22.2 SE edge of site collec�on more modern material Arch 22.3 SSW edge of site Arch 32 Denbow BP 113 - survey post in concrete base Arch 22.4 Edge of site = erosion feature Arch 32.2 BP 113-2 Arch 22.5 Uphill end of 22 Arch 32.3 More of BP 113.3 Arch 22b Loc pot euro cerami glass Arch 32.4 More Denbow Site BP 113

Iso 23 Arch 1

Iso 24 Arch 29-b-1 Arch 29 end Iso 25 Arch 291 Arch 292 Iso 26 pot frag Bellelo Arch 21 Arch 20 Arch 02 Arch 2 Arch 6 Iso 21 Iso 22 Arch 25

Iso 19 Iso 11 Arch 34.2 Arch cont 1 Iso 20 Arch 34 inset see elow Arch 28 cont Arch 28 edge? Arch 281 Iso 18 Arch 5 Arch 28 Arch 271 Arch 272 Iso 17 Arch 32.5 Arch 3 Arch 32.5 Arch 4 Arch 32.3 Iso 10 Arch 33 Arch 32 Arch 32.2 Arch 32.6 Arch 31 Iso 16 Arch 182 Iso 9 Arch 181

Iso 8 Arch 19 Arch 192 Arch 191 Tchboula

Kouani Arch 24 n edge 1 Iso 7 Arch 24 Arch 24 E Edge Arch 24 w edge Arch 24 NE Edge Arch 24-b-4 Arch 24-b-1 Arch 24 E Edge inset see right Arch 24-b-3 Arch 24-b-2

Arch 23 Iso 6 N Iso 5 Iso 4 Iso 3 Arch 22.3 Iso 2 Arch 22.3 Arch 22 Iso 1 bo�le drop 2 Arch 22-b-5 Coastal Study Area Arch 22.4 Arch 22.1 Arch 22b Arch 22.5 Location of Villages Mentioned in text Arch 22-b-3 Arch 22-b-3 Locations of Isolate Sites Arch 22-b-2 Arch 22.2 Locations of Archaeological Sites Arch 22.3 Arch 22 0 3km

Figure 18. Density of archaeological remains near the coast up to approximately 8km inland 24 Arch 26 Arch 44 N Arch 45 Arch 11SAC1

NAME ESCRIPTION Arch 44 Loca�on of old village called Yangala 32 M 789550 9540437 - a second old village site on the other side of the road closer to the main road. Both sites said to have been abandoned a long �me ago Arch 45 Loca�on of old village called Yangala 32 M 789550 9540437 - site is under old mango tree a li�le to the east of the road Arch 46 Ancestral villaga Mounga Sangala Arch 46 Arch 11SACR1 Waypoint Arch 26 Complete inverted pot? Not col' prob burials Arch 30 Sherds local n import n glass nr circ ewk Arch 13 Alos Sacr 6 Arch 10 Potsherd fragment Arch 9 Glass bo�le fragments Arch 8 Red eroded undecorated poterie Arch 14 Recently abandoned near tchiessa Arch 15 Abandoned village with local potsherds charcol ex Youbi Arch 16 Waypoint Arch 41 Konga Sounga Arch 40 Arch 40 Ancestral to Tchieszalamou Arch 7 Fragment de poterie

NAME ESCRIPTION Iso 151 Glass frag Iso 152 Bo�le glass Iso 27 Large sherd by wooded hilltop Iso 28 Sherds in charcoal pit spoil Iso 12 1pot frag Iso 13 Pots frag conﬁned Iso 151 Iso 14 3 pot frago cerami glass Iso 152

Dougou

Arch 30

Iso 27

Iso 28 Tchiessa

Arch 13 Arch 10

Arch 9

Arch 8 Arch 14 Arch 15

Arch 16

Tchiess- alamou Arch 41

Arch 40

Location of Villages Mentioned in text Locations of Archaeology Sites

Original extents of areas covered by Iso 14 tropical forest (prior to Eucalyptus planting) Original extents of savanna Iso 12 grasslands (prior to Eucalyptus planting) Iso 13 Marsh Goma- River/Lakes (After Denbow) Tchilounga 0 3km Arch 7

Figure 19. Density of archaeological remains in the zone of savannah-forest mosaic 25 NAME ESCRIPTION Arch Ancestral Tchissa from km Arch 1 Tchimwinda ancestral to km from 13 Arch 11SACR1 aypoint Arch 12 Old koutou illage Arch 2 ancestral ntandou kandji biibiloangou from Nkola Arch 3 Ancestral illage Secksaylo north of Nola Arch 1 aypoint Arch 44 Loca�on of old village called Yangala 32 M 789550 9540437 - a second old illage site on the other side of the road closer to the main road� Both sites said to have been abandoned a long �me ago Arch 45 Loca�on of old village called Yangala 32 M 789550 9540437 - site is under old mango tree a li�le to the east of the road Arch 2 Complete inerted pot? Not col prob burials Arch Ancestral illaga Mounga Sangala Arch 43 Arch Ancestral illage Tchinyonji Arch 48 Ntond samba / tchinyonzi ancestral village Arch 48b End of ancestral village Arch Ancestral illage oungo from M Kola

Arch 50 Arch 49

Arch 51

Arch 17

Sintou

Arch 42 Kekoloungou

Arch

Arch 12

Arch 45 Arch 26 Arch 48b Arch 11SAC1 Arch 48

Arch 46 Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area Potash Mine Area Youbi Location of Villages Mentioned in text Locations of Archaeological Sites

0 5km

Figure 20. Density of Archaeological remains in the Mayombe 26 N

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou LO

Koutou- Konambi

Youbi Dougou MEDIM Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga HIGH

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga

Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area Potash Mine Area Kayes Mine Study Area Baseline Terrestrial Study Area Transport and Service Corridors Coastal Study Area Zones of relative archaeological potential Location of Villages Mentioned in text 0 15km Figure 21. Zones of relative archaeological potential 27 Aspects of the Ethnography and Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Sintoukola Permit Area

Objectives education (six years) and higher education. Literacy rates are relatively high (85%). Levels of school The objectives of the ethnographic or cultural heritage enrolment among indigenous children are low and baseline study are established in the SRK document children who do enrol rarely complete primary Sintoukola Potash Project Terms of Reference for school. There are twenty primary schools and eight Baseline Studies and are defined as follows: secondary schools in the study area. There are no universities within the district however some • Describe the cultural heritage and cultural students travel to study at the university in Brazzaville. resources in the study area and surrounding Generally parents seem to be supportive of education areas. but access is difficult and children are often needed • Inform the project design team of cultural to help out with domestic and economic activities, assets, constraints or opportunities. leading to school drop outs (this is the same for • Provide indications of potential impacts of the indigenous children in the area). The literacy level proposed project on cultural resources/sites varies between villages but ranges between 15% and of the study area and recommend practicable 90%. In terms of women, 50% claim to have a level adaptations to management measures to of education which allows them to speak, read and minimise/reduce negative impacts and write in French. enhance positive impacts upon the cultural Medicine and health heritage. Basic health indicators deteriorated from 1990 to 2005 • Provide information and insights into the as a result of the civil war. The national adult mortality local cultural practices, traditions and belief- rate is 271 per 1000 people, which is lower than the systems to be used by the mining companies African average of 392 per 1000. At 67 per 1000, infant Community Liaison teams in their work as mortality (defined as the number of deaths of children interface between the mining operations less than 1 year old per 1000 live births) is lower than and the local communities, with the aims of the African average of 85 per 1000. The main causes minimising harmful or disruptive relationships of death among children aged five and under are and maximising benefits to the communities. malaria (18%), pneumonia (21%) and diarrhoea (16%) which is associated with poor sanitation and drinking Approach water quality. The physician to population ratio is approximately 1:5000 and there are 16 hospital beds While the first part of the project was focussed on per 10,000 people in the RC. Maternal mortality is material evidence for the past, the tangible buried very high at 580 deaths per 100,000 live births; high and upstanding remains of structures and the rates of assisted deliveries (86%) and high access to artefacts associated with them, the second line of antenatal services (88%) are offset by poor quality enquiry concerned the intangible cultural heritage. maternal services. Health care infrastructure in the The background to the ethnographic factors in the study area is limited, with only seven functional Permit Areas that are relevant to cultural heritage public health facilities. There is a first aid facility at the can be taken from limited social surveys undertaken project’s exploration camp however the service of this by Environment Plus (a Congolese environmental clinic does not extend to general community members consultancy) as part of the exploration ESIA. These (except in rare emergency situations). There is also a were supplemented by a series of comprehensive pharmacy in Diosso and the Hospital of Loandjili in social baseline studies (the study area is shown in Pointe Noire. Diagnostic facilities in the study area are Figure 1) as part of the ESIA. poor, and existing data are not electronically stored. Consequently the true prevalence of different diseases is difficult to ascertain. The majority of people in the The social context study area (at least 75%) have knowledge of traditional medicines; however only 27% of people report Education using traditional medicine. Malaria, a vector-borne The Congolese education system consists of formal disease, was identified as one of the leading causes of and non-formal sectors and is divided into optional morbidity and mortality in the study area. Waterborne pre-school, primary education (six years), secondary diseases causing diarrhoea ranked as the second

28 most common cause of morbidity in the district in strategy within the study area. The majority of farms 2011, largely due to communities’ primary reliance on are between one and three hectares, split into three unimproved sources for their domestic needs and the or four parcels, which may be adjacent or separated poor sanitation facilities. Communicable diseases such depending on availability of land. The number as tuberculosis and HIV are also of particular concern. of fields per household varies, with a trend for Records for the Kouilou Department indicate 51 cases more fields per household in the northern villages, of tuberculosis were diagnosed between 2009 and probably because of the greater availability of 2011. Based on an AIDS Indicator Survey conducted in farmland. Farmers will walk up to eight km to access 2009, the prevalence of HIV in the Kouilou Department farm land. (This may explain the hill and ridge-top was estimated at 5.1% for women and 2.1% for men. locations of archaeological sites, apparently distant Consistent knowledge of HIV transmission is poor at from suitable arable lands, which initially surprised a national level. This is consistent with the findings in the archaeological team) Charcoal and firewood are the household survey; where 98% of households had saleable by-products of farm clearance. The vast heard of HIV/AIDS but none were able to identify all majority (87%) of plants used by people in the study the preventative methods. area are native species growing wild, although use is also made of a small number of non-native weeds, Village structure and political organisation naturalised species, and a few crops or planted trees. Villages in the study area are mostly located along the The plants used are primarily located within forest RN5 and RN6; the two roads that connect the villages habitats; very few plants are located in savannah and to Madingo Kayes and Pointe Noire. Sous-préfectures aquatic habitats. Villages in proximity to CDNP tend to are administratively subdivided into quartiers, which harvest will plants from the CDNP’s eco-development are made up of blocs or villages. The sous-préfet and zone (i.e. areas to the west of the villages). For these the préfet appoint a Chef for each of the quartiers, villages, harvesting to the east is constrained by blocs, and villages. Although the ways in which this competition with other villages. The generic uses of selection is made by the sous-préfet are not all wild plants in the study area include medicine, food, clear, it seems that it is likely on the basis of political fuel, construction and the manufacture of artefacts. affiliation, but there are a number of criteria that the sous-préfet must follow: the village chief must be Hunting includes a variety of activities aimed autochthonous to the village, must be able to read at collecting animal species, mainly for human and write and, must have his children at school. The consumption. Hunting is typically a secondary new trend is to nominate young educated people, livelihood activity; 57% of hunters stated that hunting an approach that creates inter-generation conflicts was their secondary livelihood after farming, fishing with the elderly. Although spiritually disconnected, or charcoal-making activities. On average, hunters however, they know very well the economic and make nine hunting trips per month, with an average patrimonial values of the lands they control. When of 15 catches per month (providing approximately 88 nominated, village chiefs have no choice but to kg of bushmeat). The value of bushmeat has risen accept nomination for the office. Thus, the Chef de from CFA600 per kg in 2007 to approximately CFA1, Village or Chef de Blocs will report to the Chef de 500 per kg in 2012. Hunters typically cover between Quartier, who in turn will report to the sous-préfet. four and 13 km during a hunting trip. The majority The villages have an average size of 95 households of species caught in the area are rodents (70%) and and an average population is 342. Overall, the the frequently caught species are those that thrive in population is evenly divided between males and secondary forest and mixed farmland habitats. females. However, in many of the villages there is a significant gender imbalance. This could be a result Fish are the main source of readily available protein of out-migration, which is common and driven by in the study area villages, which is evident in the the search for employment and income generation detailed knowledge of fishing sites and the diversity and influx to the study area (driven generally by of fishing practices. There are differences between the movement of people seeking employment and men, women, and young children (principally boys) livelihoods opportunities, both unrelated and related in the fishing methods and fishing sites. Men are to the project). more commonly involved in larger scale fishing using pirogues, nets and long lines in the sea and lakes and Agriculture and commercial activities: traps in the larger rivers. Men fish mainly for income Agriculture, wild plants, hunting, fishing, formal through sale of the fish, although small fish are given employment and wood collection for firewood and to women for family use. Women tend to fish for charcoal, plus some crafts and limited commerce are subsistence purposes in rivers, shallow lakes and the main income generating activities. Agriculture pools using a variety of baskets and traps. and farming is the most widely practiced livelihood

29 A small number of people are engaged in formal histories and mythology. The tangible and intangible employment. The main employers include the aspects of heritage are not mutually exclusive with Sintoukola project, WCS eco-guards, a military service areas such as historical and vernacular architectural camp, SITRAD (a landfill site) Tilapia (oil drilling) and TNR. dimensions in the form of shape and materials used, Renatura also runs an eco-tourism facility just north of but also involve the motivations to build and the way the proposed jetty site. There are some shopkeepers that spaces are used culturally. in the study area, most of whom have kiosks within their homestead selling everyday use items and some Basic desk-based research was undertaken using food stuffs such as sweets and tinned tomatoes. The available secondary sources to provide background majority of these kiosks are run by women, who make information. Besides the survey detailed above by weekly trips to Pointe Noire to restock. Bars in the area teams including the Nexus and IFAN members, there also employ small numbers of people. were very few relevant sources to the area, mainly Denbow (2012). Interviews were conducted using Methodology standard ethnographic techniques. Detailed notes were kept on all interviews and these are reproduced Assessments of impacts upon cultural heritage might in the project archive. A photographic record was include a consideration of a wider variety of assets of maintained of most interviews and of all sites that practices, including arts (e.g. painting), crafts (such as were visited. A digital copy of all photographs was ceramics, metalwork, painting), music (instrumental included in the final archive. All sites were also and singing), poetry, dance, literature, and how each recorded using GPS and are summarised in a gazetteer these contribute to, or are based on, complex oral below in Appendix 5 and shown on Figure 48.

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou Koutou- Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou Figure 22. Village consultation in Koutou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes

30 The data were collected by two trained and mentioned above – intangible heritage and even experienced anthropologists (Thiaw and Wait) who socio-cultural history seem almost entirely missing in used a structured tiered interview process beginning the Sintoukola study area. with village chiefs and elders, and then engaging with groups (men, women, and young people). This process It is possible that more practices survive and that allowed us to identify—or for villagers to identify for the informants were exceedingly reticent about us—individuals with more specialized knowledge: discussing them, but this is not considered likely. traditional healers, black-smiths, musicians, etc. In The more probable explanation for the relative all, some 100 individuals were interviewed. The initial scarcity of intangible heritage may be found more formal meetings took place in chief’s houses or in the upheavals of the past two post-colonial their residential compounds. Afterwards, interviews generations. Interdisciplinary ethnographic- were with progressively fewer people and became archaeological research by Luke Godwin in Australia more private, which enabled some informants to has documented (pers. comm. 2014) how in the speak more openly. It was in this later context that the space of 20-30 years in the later 19th century AD presence of censorship emerged, not so much as overt the impacts of inward migration, civil strife and ‘political’ censorship, but more of a pervasive social social displacement between colonial settlers and set of attitudes that reinforced the ‘naturalness’ of the Australian aborigines led to the abandonment current leadership. During the more private interviews, of many aspects of traditional culture. In that study for example, informants were more open about a many such practices were successfully revived, or variety of issues. There are inherent limitations in this new forms emerged a generation later. methodology, but careful structuring of questions, and directing similar questions to different informant’s This may be the case in the future in the Sintoukola works to ameliorate the limitations and the results study area. The exception to this paucity of intangible were considered to be very robust. heritage is in the continuing prolific practice of witchcraft and its complex inter-action with The results were surprising with the near-absence ‘universalist’ Christian churches and consequently of so many forms of intangible cultural heritage this was studied in detail and discussed below. The

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika Figure 22. Village consultation in Koutou alamou Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Figure 23. Meeting with a Babongo (pygmy) family near Youbi Kouani Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes

31 few remaining dance practices and uses of drums for Members of the same likanda own land in common music are noteworthy because in this study these are property and share the same shrine/sanctuaries all performed as part of religious rituals and beliefs. celebrating common ancestors and spirits. Lineage lands are generally bounded from one another Communal Organisation by rivers, hills, forest and are sometimes subject to disputes between families particularly in the Terrien families context of mineral exploration and development The basic unit of social organization in the villages of projects. These disputes sometimes take mystical the study area, and among Vili and Yombe speakers forms and may involve witchcraft accusations. There in particular, is the matriclan or likanda. Members of may be a number of terrien in each district and the same likanda translated in vernacular French as their importance belies the fact that they were not terrien, descend from the same ancestor or founder included in the survey above as having political roles. of the lineage and the territory he/she colonized and later bequeathed to them. Although the likanda is Community members have very clear and concise also translated locally in French as famille (family), e.g. mental maps of the sacred geography and how it famille Youbi, famille Bouvendji, this term is certainly overlays a secular geography. In three instances we better rendered as ‘lineage’. Locally, the term terrien prompted community members to commit such is most commonly used and that custom is followed mapping to paper with surprisingly precise results. here, noting that the noun may be plural in reference Terrien play a critical role in the village’s everyday life to the class of individuals who ‘head’ a lineage, or as they are the guardians of the lands not ‘owners’ singular in reference to a particular lineage head. In even if they are often described as ‘landlords’. They the latter case the title of terrien is hereditary, can be are also stewards of village traditions, and even held by a male or female, and is normally conferred though each village is led by a chief, it is clear from to the head of the first family that first occupied the the interviews conducted that the real power seems parcels of land, for which they are now responsible. to be in the hands of these terrien or landlords. The In this case terrains refer to a number of this type of interviews conducted in most of the villages, support social group.

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi Kayes Figure 24. Meeting with villagers in Dougou village

32 Figure 25. Map of sacred sites developed during consultation in Koutou with Bouvandji

Figure 24. Meeting with villagers in Dougou village

33 the interpretation that the landlords are effectively a family council, informants indicated that there is a the managers of lands that they redistribute among woman in the village of Sintoukola who is a landlord. members of the lineage. There are land loans to non-kin The increased pressure on lands by both the post- members and foreigners, but land cannot be alienated colonial state and international companies over the away from the lineage. past few decades may have prompted landlord families to choose young educated members from within their Over recent decades, the social position and role families to defend their interests. The emergence of of landlords seems to have undergone significant these young and educated terrien seem to parallel the changes. Most of the landlords interviewed in most of expansion of mining companies in the region but also the villages of the study area are well-educated and the development of modern land tenure legislation after were relatively young. Today, they are, selected by independence of Congo in the 1960s and subsequent

Figure 26. Map of sacred sites Lakes Youbi and Yangala developed during consultation with Youbi terriens 34 Figure 27. Map of sacred sites developed during consultation with Sintou terriens for Bivabiloangou

35 urban growth. According to an informant in Youbi, many do (or did once) include some form of structure some lineages such as the famille Youbi resident in (a carved decorated pole) or other artefact (such as a the village of the same name registered their lands collection of masks, drums or other objects). To the thanks to an influential member of the lineage living outsider’s eye they most commonly look like large in Pointe Noire. However, this has not prevented dense copses of forest, or densely wooded ravines. land dispute particularly with the Bouvenji family of Koutou in 2002 and 2006. Today, similar problems Terrien have spiritual as well legal rights to occupy set the Bivanbilounangou Bikola Vangi and the Kondi and use the resources of areas of land, and act on lineages in opposition as they both claim ownership behalf entire matriclan as a priest or tchinthomi of lands within the Sintoukola Potash permit area. mediating between and the world of spirits to maintain community well- being and prosperity. Nkisi: There is no one-to-one relationship between lineages si are the divinized spirits of the founding ancestors and villages even where the names coincide: villages who first delimitated and occupied lineage lands, may have multiple lineages present, and lineages so land ownership is tightly linked to sanctuaries may appear in several villages. where forbears are buried and where rituals are performed. It is these sanctuaries, Tchibila (singular) Religion and beliefs or Bibila (plural), which protect lineage members from invisible forces including mermaids/sirens and Sacred sites: Sanctuaries witches. Ceremonies are celebrated at designated sanctuaries, whose access might be prohibited to In this region of the Republic of Congo sacred sites non-members, women in menstruation or who have may take the form of almost any natural feature – they just given birth and to individuals involved in sexual are not primarily architectural in any way although intercourse the night before. This prohibition was

Figure 28 – Sacred site on River Djemba

36 Figure 29 – Recording a propitiatory ritual while approaching sacred site 118 near village KM4

extended to teenage girls. The Sindakola sanctuary consequences, ranging from being struck down by of the Bivabiloango-Bi-Kolovandji lineage is a ravine the spirits to not seeing what one is looking for. whose course defines the path (Sinda) of the mermaid named Kola. According to a terrien of the These sacred sites are usually spatially delimited Bivabiloango-Bi-Kolovandji lineage, women during although this may not always be identifiable to an menstruation are prohibited from crossing that outside casual observer. The team’s research and river. Caretakers of ancestral sanctuaries (or terrien) interviews suggest that the religious significance is were traditionally chosen from among elders and/ not easily moveable or transferable, but is intrinsic or people with physical disability who were seen as to the place. Bibila are designated sanctuaries which embodying mystical powers. are generally located in sacred groves. A total of 244 bibila were identified and plotted using GPS, and the Each matriclan may be affiliated to one or multiple majority were documented photographically. Those divinities or Nkisi: si (the divinity of the land). These recorded during the ethnographic survey have brief divinities and the sanctuaries delimited to honour ‘stories’ recorded in the archival notes explaining the them are extremely variable. Sometimes they are origin of the site – for example as a place where a located in sacred groves, sometimes river streams of tutelary siren (a spirit of a place [a genius loci in Latin] variable size ravines/rivers, trees, sacred forest, hills, envisaged as a water spirit) can be contacted, a kind etc. In other cases they are represented in tangible of portal between this mundane world and the spirit ways including wooden or metallic masks and/or world. Others may be locations where hunters, in a statuettes. The authors were rarely allowed to view time of need, found a freshly killed pangolin and so these representations; access required performance did not need to embark on a lengthy and tiring hunt. of sacrifices that the authors sometimes felt were not A number of tchibila were located and recorded appropriate. As many of the informants intimated, by the social team during the course of village and there is a proper way to visit those sacred places. household surveys – these are included in this dataset Not abiding by the rules is believed to result in many but do not have their stories recorded. Also, during

37 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Arch 42 Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiezalamou Yanika

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes Figure 30 – Recording ARCH site 42, also a sacred site near Nkola the reconnaissance study a potential correlation would do the same for the object representing men. was observed between discrete copses of forest and If they were successful, that would mean that one tchibila. The subsequent research tends to bear this day, they will give birth. If they could not that would out across the coastal plain and the savannah-forest mean that there was no chance of this happening. mosaic areas – all discrete forests are not necessarily tchibila but such forest areas do seem to have an One of the Tchiessa lineage sanctuaries in the village increased likelihood of containing a tchibila. Areas with the same name is a palm tree that one informant that have higher potential to be tchibila are identified referred to as ‘the eye of the mermaid’. According on Figure 48 (see below). to him, it is from that site that the mermaid/sirène commands and protects all the Plain from Tchiessa to These sacred places or things play an important social the sanctuaries of Vemba and Tchissamanou. Another role: in fact one of the primary functions of the bibila tree/sanctuary located in the bush nearby is called is to ensure productivity of economic activities that ‘M’lombo’ in Vili. During ceremonies, participants were traditionally subsistence agriculture, hunting dance around this tree. According to the informant, and fishing. As many of the interviews showed, this this tree also has some virtues and is used to cure prerogative was also largely adopted/re-appropriated diarrhoea, dysentery and the flu. by the churches The acquisition of wealth is often seen as a result of control of supernatural forces and Sometimes, the site of the sanctuary in the forest not necessarily the product of hard work. These grove is marked by the graves of the founders bibila also had roles in treating illness and healing but also one or several sculptures representing practices. The sanctuary of Bivanbilounangou Bikola them. Both are places for prayers and offerings or Vangi in Sesselo for instance was described to the libations. Offerings including kola nut, ginger, douce- authors by one informant as two metallic objects, one amer (also locally called milondo), wild pimento representing a woman and the other a man. Both and multiple other plant remains are presented at men and women suffering from infertility would go these sanctuaries at different times of the year but there for divination sessions to enquire about their particularly before fishing and harvesting seasons. chances for procreation. The women would try to lift Curiously, the same produces are used in very similar the metal object representing a woman and the men way in many of the evangelical churches including

38 Zéphirin as one informant in Tchiessa intimated. lineage and as such he had the prerogative to make At times of sanitary (e.g. epidemics) or economic that decision. Like most other lineages in the study difficulties (e.g. unyielding harvest and fishing), the area, the Bouvendji have not visited their sanctuaries dance of tchinkhani tchibakisi is performed in the to perform the required sacrifices for a long time. bibila sanctuaries According to an informant from the Bivabilouango lineage, 1960 was the last time in his recollections that Another important observation was that the he assisted to prayers at a Tchibila. As a result, most Bouvendji brothers were much more knowledgeable of the sanctuaries visited were, almost inaccessible/ about the location, history and nature of the lineage impenetrable and covered by thick bush preventing sanctuaries. Being a former village chief of Koutou, unprepared access with possible political connections, the president probably knew better how to navigate in the legal It may be suspected that the emergence of the young and political networks but was clearly nervous educated terrien elites, often with an urban culture, taking the team to the sanctuaries. Initially he even has resulted in less active care of the sanctuaries, opposed the prospect of visiting the sanctuaries with which are rarely visited today. According to our the team while other elders agreed to lead the team informant in Youbi, the last time the Youbi family there granting that the requirements which involved celebrated in family sanctuaries was in September providing milondo (Douce amère), micassou (kola 2002 at the request of the Mayordome family. In nut), red peanut, samba wine, biscuits and coins fact it was because the family mermaids (sirènes in were adhered to. One of the Bouvendji brothers French) began to complain about their neglect by the even proposed a revisit to one of the sanctuaries for family. The informant, who is member of the lineage a unique trance like cultural experience. Although board (he is also a teacher at the local school) did not the experiment failed, because something may have seem very knowledgeable about the history, location gone wrong according to him, the fact of taking and real nature of the lineage sanctuaries. Ultimately the team there was not a mere act of courage, but it was one of the eldest female members of the family instead a strong sense of belonging to this particular who lead the team visit to the Youbi sanctuaries. The

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes Figure 31 – Recording GPS coordinated at a sacred site in the Mayombe forest zone near Kola 39 team visited two of the three: one named Youbi, which elaborate multiple-cross cement or wrought-iron is also the name of the lake nearby, and the other, headstones/markers, or even larger more elaborate Matondo which is the ravine nearby and apparently a tiled box structures with elaborate cement or tributary of Lake Youbi. Another important sanctuary wrought-iron cruciform head-markers. of the lineage is located near Kaboune and is known as Mbilampassi. It is represented by a pregnant The majority of the cemeteries recorded are located women who violated a taboo and as a result of her along-side the existing road (RN5) through the study action remained pregnant her whole life. area. The road was created in the 1970s according to informants, and therefore the cemeteries date Cemeteries to the 1970s or more recently. The locations of earlier cemeteries are largely unknown, except Cemeteries, like bibila, are a geographically specific that informants maintained that in many instances heritage resource and are important for the ancestral village/archaeological sites also contain small connections between the communities and their family grave-plots. In the village of Nkola the dead dead ancestors, who are viewed – even by Christians were buried in the family house complexes – and this - as inhabiting the spirit world and are considered practise may well be current. In any case, the known as sources of advice and spiritual power. Most cemeteries are judged to be representative of the last cemeteries are relatively small, consisting of perhaps two generations of villagers, but earlier villages and 10-20 graves, many are simple pit-graves with a the deceased inhabitants are largely not included and minority covered by rectangular graves-kerbs with the locations of those cemeteries await discovery.

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani Figure 32. Cemetery sacred site 115 near Youbi

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes

40 Figure 33 – Cemetery sacred site SACR 17 near Kaboune

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes Figure 34. Learning local narratives about the cemetery sacred site 115 near Youbi

41 Figure 35. A grave marker typical of the dispersed burials in the coastal zone

42 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes Figure 36. A relatively modern burial in a well tended cemetery near Youbi

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Figure 37. Roadside cemetery in the Mayombe north of Sintou Kayes

43 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess-alamou Yanika Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi Kayes Figure 38. Iron grave marker in a cemetery near Goma Tchiloungo

Tchikombi and Mangoudi and other dances/ mangoudi was a dance to honour the mother of twins festivals which were (and are still) seen as a sign of prosperity, fertility and good luck for the family and the entire The Tchikoumbi is rarely practiced today. It was a community. Therefore, women giving birth to twins ceremony organized for young girls prior to marriage were of a higher status and earned the respect of the – a female coming-of-age or rite of passage. Girls of community. the age of being married ‘around 17/18 years old’ are Dances such as ganga (for fetish owners) or others secluded for a period of two to three months during organized during funerals of chiefs were common which they learn the secrets of wives, motherhood in the villages of the study area. However, like the and womanhood. The ceremony is organized at the Tchikoumbi most of these began progressively to be end of this seclusion period after which they come abandoned from the late 1970s and early 1980s at out adorned with jewellery Mbilang and wearing the same time that evangelical churches spread in beautiful make up (made of mixture of tchises and the region. According to a chief of Nkola, tchikanzi sand). Before coming out they wash with a tchises is a traditional ritual dance for twins and is however solution called toukoula and have brown new skin and still practiced. This ceremony is to give force, courage are according to informants ‘ready to be swallowed’ and health. Twins are considered as spirits that bring (prêtes à être avalées). Their future husbands come happiness and good luck to the families. to meet them during this ceremony to which the whole community was invited. Churches According to testimonies collected throughout the villages of the study area this practice was The number of evangelical churches in the villages progressively abandoned around the mid-1970s. of the project study area is striking. Most of these The last Tchikoumbi was celebrated in the village churches seem to have emerged as a result of the around 1978/1979. At that time virginity of girls was multiple crises in the 20th century, including the a requirement for the wedding. Infertile men were return of World War I veterans to their countries of disqualified. Successful nuptials were celebrated in origin and the subsequent economic crisis, World great pomp in celebration of the virginity of the girls. War II military and economic efforts, the growth of Many other traditional ceremonies were also nationalist movements by the 1940s, the construction organized in the villages of the study area. The of postcolonial nations and the Cold War, massive

44 rural exodus and urban growth, and from the 1980s adherents of the churches and of traditional religions. onward, structural adjustments, economic liberation However, it must be pointed out that these churches and civil wars (Dorier-Aprill 2006). This rapid use and manipulate both traditional and Universalist growth of religious movements was facilitated by (i.e. world-wide Christian) sets of symbols that are globalisation processes, greater mobility of people, combined in unique ways. freedom of speech and cultural expressions, but also the emergence of transnational media. An informant in KM4 (kept anonymous) intimated that ‘the best pastors are those who are on good According to informants in many villages of the study terms with the mermaids’. Another one from the area, traditional belief systems are concerned with village of Tchiessa who had the chance to enter bodily pleasure while the churches are concerned the healing room of the Zéphirin (a privilege that is with the spirit (choses de l’esprit). A constant feature not given to everyone) said that only witches had in most of the study area is the presence of different access to that room, but then added that there was churches/sects including Zéphirin (or sometimes a difference between good and bad witches (les Zéfurien), Chritianisme Evangélique en Afrique, Eglise bons sorciers as opposed to les mauvais sorciers). Evangélique du Congo, Néoapostolique, Pentecôtiste, However he said he was not a witch but could enter les Assemblées de Dieux, etc. Zéphirin seem to be the Zéphirin healing room because he played the one of the fastest growing churches in the villages drums to accompany the healing process. In that of the study area while others like Catholic Churches process, the pastor and/or convertisseur is assisted seem to be in decline. In some villages such as Nkola, by other people, in particular other bons sorciers. In the Catholic Church is abandoned and, according to the Zéphirin’s healing room, he said, in addition to Makondi Germain there is only one Catholic Church the Bible and coloured candles, the milondo (douce- between KM4 and Youbi located in the latter village. amer), micasso (cola nuts), ginger roots, etc. are Most of the members of the Catholic Church seem widely used. to be elderly as the Evangelical churches recruit heavily among youngsters and women. In almost all In addition to healing rituals, many of the churches the villages of the study area, women predominate were involved in economic activities including farming among church members. and charcoal production. They help organize labour in exchange for payment. They also provide blessing for The development of the churches was a major force economic activities to be more productive. In other for changes in the villages of the study area over the words their blessings of the means of production past few decades. According to Makondi Germain, it could lead to greater yields. One informant showed is the Zéphirin church that forbade the Tchikoumbi a wire string used to make traps for hunting that (traditional ritual and dance preceding the marriage had just been blessed by his pastor. In exchange of young virgin girls) in his village. Although a number the pastor or convertisseur will receive a share the of traditional practices are being abandoned, many harvest or hunting product, should it be successful. people continue to perform traditional beliefs in private for the sake of their own protection. For In addition to the organization of labour and instance, people continue to make incisions on their productive activities, most of the churches provide skin to place protection medicine. Many informants social assistance to needy people and are actively also indicated that many pastors of the churches involved in public services including support of appropriated traditional religious knowledge individuals or families in cases of illness, death, including witchcraft practices and use them for their health and education. own advancement. Zéphirin One informant in Tchiessa said that most of the churches in the different villages were located in Simon Zéphirin Lassy Mission or Zéphirin also known places initially associated with Table Ronde Nocturnes as CPA (Chritianisme Prophétique en Afrique) was (nightly round tables) where witches met as if to founded in 1948 in Loubomo Dolisie (Sinda 1981). appropriate the spiritual power of earlier practices. According to the convertisseur from the village of Another informant pointed out that the tensions Nkola, the Zéphirin church was founded by Zéphirin between the churches and the fetishers (makers of Lassi he is referred to as Bien Aimé Frère. The fetishes and amulets) are like the ones between light Zéphirin Mission was divided into two branches (church) and darkness (fetish). As Bernault (2006) following the death of its founder: the Lassist and the noticed, everywhere in Equatorial Africa today, there Louissist branches. Although both branches descend is a considerable development of syncretic churches from the same founder they seem deeply divided. and elitist cults at the expense of traditional African According to a leader from the Zéphirin Mission in religion. This clearly indicates tensions between Koutou, the Lassist use occult practices including

45 witchcraft in their healing approaches. Unlike the a movement of Zéphirin. About 10m from the Lassist, our informant, who is Louissist, said they shoreline, it disappeared into the waters of the instead used only blessed/holy water and candles ocean. However Zéphirin kept his stick in a small to cure their patients. However, other testimonies in bag. Following the unloading of the ship, Zéphirin the different villages suggest that both branches use convened a big feast where he invited people “occult” sciences in their churches. Some informants from different regions including, people from even indicated that Zéphirin himself used fetishes Cabinda, Gabon, Tchad and other central and and travelled to Lékoumou to get powerful ones. He west African countries. After three generations, also supposedly went to India to learn magic. Many Zéphirin reincarnated as an apprentice carpenter. informants throughout the villages of the study area He encountered white men (or Moundelé = name said that even today Zéphirin churches (without for white people) who happened to like him and any distinction between the two branches) enter who appointed him as a chief carpenter. He was mystically into people’s home to take their fetishes. then sent to Matadi in RDC by his white ‘masters’ This is a mystical struggle that take place at night - a combat nocturne. who liked him. Unlike many other black people at that time, he ate with white people (which Some informants think Zephirin’s death may have may have been a privilege) who raised him. From been caused by treason by his wife and his nephew. apprentice, Zéphirin became a chief carpenter. They suggested that the wife supposedly convinced He will later return to Pointe Noire at age 16. Zéphirin’s nephew who kept his secret room with He walked often along the coast and was once fetishes to open it while Zéphirin was away. Both arrested following an unspecified incident with were allegedly killed for entering that room. So the white people. However, the white people was Zéphirin when he returned home. Following were unable to throw him into jail. At some point, his death, a division occurred between his sons and he become a champion boxer and travelled to his nephews upon succession matters. Tales of this America and Europe. From France, he was later division capture a deeper crisis in Congolese society sent back to Congo and will start preaching from marked by the split between tradition and modernity that time on until in death. over religion and inheritance rights among many other matters. In theory the Zéphirin Mission followed The story is extremely interesting and seems to the Bible in which inheritance is patriarchal. This was describe a certain perspective on global encounters in sharp of opposition to the likanda’s inheritance on the Congolese shores of the Atlantic. Although system that was matrilineal. at this point certainty is impossible, substantial aspects of the story may have been borrowed from The convertisseur from the village of Nkola’s narrative earlier periods and seem to have emanated from of the life of Zéphirin is quite fascinating and is early missionary work that accompanied the Atlantic summarized below: expansion in the region in the 15th century. For Zéphirin was lost for three long years. He later European colonial officials, school and missionaries made an appearance by the sea where he was, writing and world religion (Christianity in particular) spotted by fishermen, who saw him walking on and participation in the capitalist economy were the waters holding a Bible. At that time, black the appropriate means to integrate into the global world. This interpretation seems consistent with people in the region ignored the Bible. Zéphirin an informants’ appraisal of Simon Zéphirin Lassy himself was illiterate but thanks to his newly Mission. acquired mystical inspiration could read the Bible. The waves projected him to the coast In most of the villages the main representative of the where he landed. He was wearing a short, a belt Zéphirin church is the convertisseur although some and, holding a sword. But his torso was nude. villages like Tchizalamou have one or several pastors. With his sword, he cut a stick about 1m long Part of the responsibilities of the convertisseur that he threw to the ocean after saying prayers. consists of handling nightly things (choses nocturnes) The stick was transformed into a boat without a or binkoko (witchcraft). Malefic forces manifest motor. The boat has no conductor but the waves themselves in multiple ways and, one of the roles projected it toward the coast. When it landed, of the convertisseur and of the Zéphirin church is Zéphirin entered into it and found it was full with to tame those forces to protect and cure affected white people goodies including food, clothing, ordinary people. The convertisseur should also wine, and all sorts of drinks. It took three whole work at building new churches and converting new months to unload it. After unloading, the boat followers. He also works with the terrien for the started moving back into the ocean following Tchikanji danse to protect the community. For all

46 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess-alamou Yanika

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Figure 39. A Zéphirin church altar frontal from near Nkola Kouani Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes these activities, the village chief must be informed medical doctor. The exact date of foundation before any action is taken. is not known but the founder, Gustave Koukola The convertisseur of the village of Kotuku said he died in 2011. performed ceremonies on average two to three times • Mont Sinai Tabernacle, founded by an a month to help villagers get rid of choses nocturnes. American named William Marion Brahname. In almost all the Zéphirin churches visited informants • Assemblée Chrétienne, founded by Dr Tchikaya stated that they operate often as a hospital and even Serius and its general leadership (COSERCO) is intern seriously ill patients for spiritual treatments. located in Pointe Noire. According to its pastor Such patients are not required to pay but gifts are in the village of Koutou, Assemblée Chrétienne accepted. It emerged from the interviews that most is unlike many other churches in the villages of of the members of the Zéphirin church were former the study area as it does not cure or hospitalize patients who were cured. ill people. However, it can gather funds to help ill people to purchase medicines or send them The Other Churches to the hospital. He said that their church faces many problems including limited financial In addition to Zéphirin, many other evangelical churches are present in the villages of the study area. means, the importance of fetishism in the Their roles are in many regards similar to those of village and in the region. Zéphirin although sometimes there may be some • Eglise Evangélique du Congo, founded by differences. Most of these churches assist members Ndoudou Daniel. Like Zéphirin, this church in multiple occasions including child delivery, death, assists in the community in many things illness, weddings, purchase of medicines. They are including prayers for the ill. Traditional also involved in economic activities ranging from medicine (mainly herbal plants) is widely used farming to charcoal production, which in addition to cure ill people. to the collection of funds, are their main sources of revenues.

Some of these churches encountered include:

• Comminute Chrétien Evangélique (CCE) , founded by Gustave Koukola, who was a 47 Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou

Koutou-Konambi

Youbi

Dougou Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- Tchilounga

Bellelo

Tchboula Kanga Kouani

Tandas - Youmbi

Kayes Figure 40. The Zéphirin-Lassist church at KM4 village

Figure 41. The Zéphirin church in Nkola 48 Figure 42. Altar decorations in the Zéphirin church in Nkola

Figure 43. The Zéphirin church in KM4 village

49 Figure 44. The current Zéphirin church in Tchiesalamou

Figure 45. The Zéphirin church in Tchiesalamou under construction (view along Nave)

50 Figure 46. The Zéphirin church in Tchiesalamou under construction (view towards the altar)

Figure 47. The church in the village of Nkoutou

51 Christian Churches and Traditional Witchcraft Most of the churches in the villages of the project and Sorcery study area are largely engaged in witch-hunting and one of their goals is to eradicate traditional African Witchcraft that is linked to traditional beliefs is also a religion. However many of them use methods that major structuring force in all the villages of the study are very similar to those very practices they combat area. Most informants claimed that there is a general (as described above). Some churches are even seen sentiment of suspicion and fear in the villages, which as robbing fetishes to augment their mystical capital. explains the dispersal of the settlement. Informants There are customary law tribunals in Pointe Noire said that witches are present everywhere and they that are designated to help tackle witchcraft-related are dangerous as they used ‘gunshots’ or ‘tree problems when they occur. For a village chief of KM4, shots’ (forms of spiritual attack) to reach people unemployment in the villages is a major cause of they target. Witchcraft accusations are common and rural exodus but witchcraft plays also a significant everyone is a potential target. According to the Nkola role in that exodus and affects mainly the youth as informant, recently a man accused of witchcraft from they seek to escape the threat of witchcraft. the village of Mbena was refused refuge and was wandering around in the forest, to ultimately die Terriens, Village Chiefs, Christian Churches alone in the Mayombé. Another informant of Nkola describes the general suspicion of witchcraft both There is a triangular relationship between the three within and between families as the major cause of primary socio-religious structures and a number abandonment of traditional beliefs and way of life. of separate aspects to these tightly interwoven For instance, Diboka, a traditional dance organized relationships and the following discussion serves as a by fetish holders, is not practiced anymore because useful conclusion to this part of the study. anything associated to fetishes is attacked by the First, the shared authority over land between the evangelical churches that see in it signs of witchcraft terriens and the village chiefs are subtle and not activity that is systematically stifled. Even chiefs and yet, in practice, entirely codified. In the past and still powerful personages can be targeted. The informant largely true in the present is the position of the terrien said that he himself has been accused of witchcraft as stewards of the land. The landlord-stewardship and taken to court. Moi Vanghoula, one of the most authority of the terrien is recognised in a quasi- famous chiefs of the area who ruled the village of juridical system, but this is in flux as the government Sintoukola, was also accused, which explained his is again introducing a change to a more Euro-centric long peregrinations from Tchiboula before ultimately system of land-ownership and registration of lands settling in Sintoukola. A former sous-préfet who now owned. The terriens are responding by having their lives in Nkokoloungou told the authors how in the traditional lands surveyed and registered, but this 1990s, he fled from his village of origin with his family has been done on an ad hoc basis, is in the early to avoid lynching after he was accused of killing his stages of implementation, and moreover cuts across wife by witchcraft. Today his is a member of the the traditional divisions. The differing roles of the Zéphirin church. terriens and chiefs are described above, but in Witchcraft is still common in the villages andthe simple terms the crucial point is that for the present chief relies on other witches or fetish-holders like the real authority lies with the terriens. The primary the terrien to handle the situation According to responsibility for the chiefs lies in a process of a convertisseur of the Zéphirin church in Koutou, mediation and negotiation of disputes over land, and witchcraft is somehow also the domain of the terrien if that fails, in transferring disputes to the civil law who do not want anyone more powerful than them. courts for adjudication. He said that others, including strangers, also engage Second, as an adjunct to this, an important point in witchcraft. He said jealousy and wealth are the to be made is that essentially land has not, and major causes why people engage in witchcraft. For continues, to have little intrinsic value. In a social the convertisseur, everyone in the community may sense it would seem that there is perceived to be need to protect themselves (fermer son corps) from sufficient productive land that disputes have been occult forces. The convertisseur told us a story that resolvable by first, terrien themselves, then by took place in Koutou not long ago. An old man was negotiated decisions taken by a committee of local mystically sleeping with other men’s wives while terrien. However, this process of conflict resolution the husbands were sleeping. He said this old witch is strained when outside agencies such as resource was denounced by people who had visions and was exploration companies establish interests in an area – beaten and forced to leave the village. their interest in use of specific parcels of land confers upon those parcels an intrinsic and immediate value that would not have been possible under the 52 traditional patterns of ownership. In effect, it is the charges of witchcraft, and heightening the stresses interest of an exploration company in gaining access between the various churches and local individuals to, or taking total and irrevocable use rights of land reputed to be witches. parcels that gives those parcels a very real intrinsic and monetary value. At present this is occurring Distribution of Sacred sites just when the traditional concepts of ownership/ stewardship are being changed by the government, placing a very real stress on the capacity of the current There is a high correlation between the location and system to resolve disputes without dangerous social numbers of sacred sites and the physical landscape. tensions. During the reconnaissance study a potential correlation was observed between discrete copses Third, the contested relationships between terrien of forest and tchibila. The subsequent research tends and the various Christian churches for social authority to bear this out across the coastal plain and the in most of the villages. The various Christian churches savannah-forest mosaic areas – all discrete forests in the Congo are to some degree syncretistic, all are not necessarily tchibila but such forest areas do having adopted elements of traditional belief and seem to have an increased likelihood of containing practice into an ostensibly Christian organisation. a tchibila. Areas that have higher potential to be The views expressed by informants are consistent in tchibila are identified on Figure 26. suggesting that some churches have in some manner internalised the witchcraft elements of the traditional The relationship between the ARCH and ISO sites and African religions. All explicitly acknowledge the the sacred sites is not strong perhaps reflecting a lack reality of witchcraft and the potentially dangerous of continuity and migration of settlement, however effectiveness of witchcraft at causing harm toa our informants were quite clear that many if not most villager’s enemies or rivals. Other elements of bibila that take the form of wooded copses on ridges, traditional belief/practice are considered in the local especially in the mosaic savannah zone, are located orthodoxy as being either neutral or beneficial and upon ancestral settlements (which in our terms are are thus less likely to be set in opposition to witchcraft archaeological sites). – the most obvious and widespread example being the relationship between the terrien, their tchibila sacred sites, and the prosperity and fecundity of the Conclusions land. Outside this particular example witchcraft and the Churches are widely considered to be in fierce Clearly, there are limitations to this project, largely opposition. The advantage on the witchcraft side the result of the design in response to the tight is that, being ‘underground’ they are considered requirements of the project brief from the mining to be omnipresent, and their powers are openly company and the development of the potash mine. acknowledged by the Churches. On the other hand However, there has been so little research undertaken the churches enjoy a degree of status/authority by in west Central Africa that any new information association with the international and universalising is important. More specifically, the venture prestige of Christianity. On a practical level the demonstrated how the work of Denbow and can success of any individual or group – and likewise the be applied to a random cross section of sites across lack of success for an individual or group’s actions – a landscape with varied physical and vegetation will be interpreted not as a consequence of hard and characteristics. This indicates the importance of effective work, but rather as a result of the efforts future, more consolidated archaeological research, by either the protagonist or their rivals in using not just for academic reasons, but also to ensure that witchcraft to achieve or thwart success. the peoples of the area can claim a positive identify based on a complex, and significant heritage. Fourth, the omnipresence of witchcraft and its consequences for discerning villager’s motivations and actions in response to exploration or mining works is thus of paramount importance. If success or failure is equally seen as the results of an effective use of witchcraft by one interested party or another, then it follows that whatever the outcome (success or failure) every venture will give rise to real or imagined use of witchcraft. This applies to both individuals and to groups – including mineral exploration companies. This will in turn give rise to social stresses, more

53 N

Kola

Sintou Kekoloungou LO Koutou- Konambi

Youbi

Dougou MEDIM Tchiessa

Tchiess- Yanika alamou

Goma- HIGH Tchilounga

Bellelo

Kouani Kanga Tchboula

Tandas - Youmbi Sintoukola Project Permit Area Development New Sintoukola Potash Permit Area Sacred Sites / tchibila Kayes Potential tchibila Zones of relative archaeological potential Location of Villages Mentioned in text

0 15km

Figure 48. Areas that have higher potential to be tchibila 54 Bibliography and Sources Consulted

Bassani, E. and Monzino, C. 1987. Un Cappuccino Nell’Africa nera del Seicento: I Disegni dei Manoscritti Araldi del Padre Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo. Milan: Associazione degli Amici dell’Arte Extraeuropea. Bernault, F. 2006. Body, Power and Sacrifice in Equatorial Africa. Journal of African History 47 : 207–39. Blench, R. 2011. Explorations in early Bantu maritime history on the West Coast of Africa. Paper presented at Thinking Across the African Past: archaeological, linguistic and genetic research on precolonial African history, Rice University, Houston, 11-12 March 2011. Bostoen, K. 2007. Pots, words and the Bantu problem: on lexical reconstruction and early African history. Journal of African History 48: 173-99. Brncic, T., Willis, K., Harris D. and Washington, R. 2007. Culture or climate? The relative influences of past processes on the composition of the lowland Congo rainforest.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362(1478): 229-242. Dapper, O. 1989. Description de l’Afrique. In Objets Interdits. Paris: Fondation Dapper. Delegue, M., Fuhr M., Schwartz, D., and Mariotti Nasi, A. 2001. Recent origin of a large part of the forest cover in the Gabon coastal area based on stable isotope data. Oecologia 129(1): 106-113. Denbow, J. 1990. Congo to Kalahari: data and hypotheses about the political economy of the Western Stream of the Early Iron Age. African Archaeological Review 8:139-176. Denbow, J. 1999. Heart and soul: glimpses of ideology and cosmology in the iconography of tombstones from the Loango coast of central Africa. Journal of American Folklore 112: 404-423. Denbow, J. 2011. Excavations at Divuyu, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Botswana Notes and Records 43: 76-94. Denbow, J. 2012. Pride, Prejudice, Plunder, and Preservation: Archaeology and the Re-envisioning of Ethnogenesis on the Loango coast of the Republic of Congo. Antiquity 86: 383-408 Denbow, J. 2014 The Archaeology and Ethnography of Central Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dorier-Apprill, E. 2006. Les échelles du pluralisme religieux en Afrique subsaharienne. L’Information Géographique 70 (4): 46-65. Droux, G. and Kelley, H. 1939. Recherches Préhistoriques dans la Région de Boko-songho et a Pointe-Noire. Journal de la Société des Africanistes 9:71-84. Kahlheber, S., Bostoen, K. and Neumann K. 2009. Early plant cultivation in the central African rain forest: first millennium BC Pearl Millet from South Cameroon. Journal of African Archaeology 7(2): 253-272. Lombard J. 1931. Matériaux préhistoriques du Congo Français. Journal de la Société des Africanistes 1:49-60. Martin, P. 1986. Power, cloth and currency on the Loango coast. African Economic History 15: 1-12. MacGaffey, W. 1983. Modern Kongo Prophets: religion in a plural society. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. Ngomanda, A., Neumann, K., Schweizer, A. and Maley, J. 2009. Seasonality change and the third millennium BP rainforest crisis in southern Cameroon (Central Africa). Quaternary Research 71: 307-318. Proyart, A. 1814. History of Loango, Kakongo and N’Goyo, in J. Pinkerton (ed.) A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages and travels in all parts of the world: many of which are now first translated into English; digested on a new plan. Vol. 16 : 548-597. London: Longman: Hurst, Rees & Orme. Rice, P.M. 1987. Pottery Analysis. A Sourcebook. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. Schwartz, D., De Foresta, H., Dechamps, R. and Lanfranchi., R. 1990. Découverte d’un premier site de l’Age du Fer ancien (2110 B.P.) dans le Mayombe congolaise: implications paléobotaniques et pédologiques. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences Paris T. 310 Série II:1293-1298. Schwartz, D., De Foresta, H., Mariotti, A., Balesdent J., Massimba J. P. and Girardin, C. 1996. Present dynamics of the savanna-forest boundary in the Congolese Mayombe: a pedological, botanical and isotopic (13C and 14C) study. Oecologia 116: 516-524. Shepard, O.A. 1974. Ceramics for the Archaeologists. Washington DC: Carnegie Institute of Washington. Sinda, M. 1981 ‘L’Etat Africain postcolonial : les forces sociales, les communautés religieuses dans l’Etat postcolonial en Afrique’. Colloquium organised by UNESCO on Problématique de l’Etat en Afrique Noire. Dakar November 30 – December 06, 1981. Sowunmi, M.A. 1999. The significance of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) in the late Holocene environments

55 of west and west central Africa: a Further Consideration.Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 8:199- 210. SRK Consulting. 2011. Sintoukola Potash Project Terms of Reference for Baseline Studies. Unpublished report, No. UK 4457 September 2011. Stahl, A.B. 1993. Concepts of time and Approaches to Analogical Reasoning in Historical Perspectives. American Antiquity 58 (2): 235-260. Vincens, A., Schwartz, D., Bertaux, J., Elenga, H. and. De Namur, C. 1998. Holocene climatic changes in western equatorial Africa inferred from pollen from Lake Sinda, Southern Congo. Quaternary Research 50: 34- 45. Wilmsen, E. 2011. Nqoma: an abridged review. Botswana Notes and Records 43: 95-114. Wilmsen, E. and Denbow, J. 2010. Early villages at Tsodilo: the introduction of livestock, crops and metalworking, in L. Robbins, A. Campbell & M. Taylor (eds.) Tsodilo Hills: Copper Bracelet of the Kalahari: 85-93. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. Wilmsen, E., Killick D., Rosenstein D., Thebe P. and Denbow J. 2009. The social geography of pottery in Botswana as reconstructed by optical petrography. Journal of African Archaeology 7: 3-39.

56 Finds Illustrations

0 100 mm

ARCH 2

0 200 mm

Figure 49. Ceramics - indigenous and imported - from Site ARCH 2

57 ARCH 2

0 50 mm

Figure 50. European blue-glass trade beads, circa 17th-18th centuries from Site ARCH2

58 ARCH 19

0 50 mm

Figure 51. Ceramics - indigenous and imported - from site ARCH 19

59 ARCH 20

0 100 mm

Figure 52. Ceramics – indigenous and imported from Site ARCH 20

ARCH 21

0 100 mm

Figure 53. Ceramics – indigenous – from site ARCH 21

60 ARCH 22

0 200 mm

Figure 54. Ceramics – indigenous and imported – from site ARCH 22

61 ARCH 22

0 100 mm

Figure 55. Indigenous Ceramics, iron-working slag worked stone objects and a characteristic rim-sherd from site ARCH 22

ARCH 22

0 100 mm

Figure 56. Ceramics – indigenous and imported – from site ARCH 22 continued

62 ARCH 2224 0 100 mm

Figure 57. Ceramics – indigenous and imported – from site ARCH 24

63 ARCH 2224 0 100 mm

Figure 58. Indigenous ceramics and imported bottle-glass from site ARCH 24

ARCH 2227

0 100 mm

Figure 59. Chipped quartz: waste flakes and some with retouch for use as tools

64 ARCH 2228 ARCH 2228

0 100 mm 0 100 mm

Figure 60. European green-glass bottle neck fragment Figure 61. Chipped quartz: waste flakes with retouch for use as tools

65 0 100 mm ARCH 2229

Figure 62. Indigenous ceramics and worked stone from site ARCH 29

66 ARCH 2229

0 100 mm

Figure 63. Indigenous ceramics from site ARCH 29

0 100 mm ARCH 2229

ARCH 2231

0 100 mm

Figure 64. Indigenous ceramics and imported glass from site ARCH 31

67 ARCH 2232

0 100 mm

Figure 65. Indigenous ceramics and worked quartz flakes from siteARCH 32 (Denbow’s site BP113)

68 ARCH 33 (Lamba)

0 100 mm

Figure 66. Indigenous ceramics from site ARCH 33 (Denbow’s site Lamba)

ISO 1

0 100 mm

Figure 67. Site ISO 1

69 ISO 2 0 100 mm

Figure 68. Site ISO 2

ISO 3 0 100 mm

Figure 69. Site ISO 3

ISO 7 0 100 mm

Figure 70. Site ISO 7

70 ISO 20

0 100 mm

Figure 71. Site ISO 20

ISO 2024

0 100 mm

Figure 72. Site ISO 24

71 Appendix 1: Gazetteer of Archaeological Sites and Site Descriptions

ARCH Nearest Topography and Vegetation Artefacts Tentative No. Village Interpretation 1 Lemba On flat plateau 1.5km NE of Lac Single large shed incised ware Luandy. 2 Yamba On hill-top/slope above Lac Collection smaller fragments Luandy (possibly same as ARCH incised grey-brown ware 6) 3 Hill top S of Hill top, with regenerated Glass, Euro stonewares (C19), Lemba forest, east of ARCH 4 glass, incised grey-brown and reddish wares 4 Hill top S of Hill top, with regenerated lots glass, ceramics, Lemba forest, 200 m to west of site stonewares, also a aluminium number ARCH 3, bow 5 Shelf- Hill-side plateau, partially Sparse glass, grey-brown plateau regenerated forest cover incised wares 6 Same as On hill-top/slope above Lac Dense, grey-brown incised No. 2 Luandy (same as ARCH 2?) wares, Euro C19 blue trade beads, Euro C19 stonewares 7 lower slopes Hill top/slope, some Ceramics - grey-brown red regeneration, along side Eucalypt plantation. 8 Tchiessza Hill top regenerated forest Ceramics Ancestral Tchiessza 9 Tchiessza Small copse hill top regenerated Ancestral forest Tchiessza ceramics - 10 Tchiessza- Large linear band regenerated Glass and ceramics , Doungou forest 11 Youbi Ridge, regenerating forest, Ceramics Ancestral adjacent to village bloc 12 Koutou Ridge, regenerating forest, Ceramics Ancestral 13 Doungou Lower ridge, dense regenerated Some ceramics visible. Ancestral forest Tchiessza, Same as sacred site SACR 6 14 Tchiessza Beside road but hill top, Ceramics grey-brown incised regenerated forest ware 15 Tchiessza Hill top, regenerated forest Dense ceramics grey-brown incised wares 16 Tchiessz- Beside road but hill top, Ceramics grey-brown incised alamou regenerated forest wares 17 Sintounkola In forest zone N of camp, in MaVongele’s clearing in forest settlement, ancestral to Sintoukola 18 Tchiboula Hill top/slope, ridge overlooking Indigenous and imported Probably 19-20th coast, in open savannah ceramics century, near radio mast 19 Tchiboula Hill top/slope, ridge overlooking Large quantity decorated coast, in open savanna indigenous sherds

20 Lemba On hill-top/slope, N shore of Lac Indigenous ceramics Luandy, near ‘villa’ building 72 ARCH Nearest Topography and Vegetation Artefacts Tentative No. Village Interpretation 21 Lemba On hill-top/slope, N shore of Lac Indigenous ceramics Luandy

West of ‘villa’ building 22 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal Indigenous coarse red zone to ESE of Tchiboula, in ceramics open savannah 23 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal Buried pot and glass possible burial zone to ESE of Tchiboula

In open savannah 24 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal Indigenous and imported zone to ESE of Tchiboula ceramic

In open savannah 25 Lemba On low hill-top overlooking Indigenous ceramics west shore of Lac Ndembo near logging buildings 26 Koutou Hill top regenerated forest, in Complete inverted pot? Not Probably related the savannah-forest mosaic NW collected. to burials of Lac Youbi 27 Belelo On SW facing slopes to south of Scattered by ISO 17, Lac Luandy, in open savannah indigenous ceramic + 3 lithic tools/flakes 28 Belelo On SW facing slopes to south of Scattered indigenous ceramics Lac Luandy, in open savannah

N of 27 29 Lemba On S facing hill-slopes on west Scattered indigenous ceramics shore of Lac Ndembo, adjacent plus stoneware to regenerated forest 30 Tchiessa In a circular hollow/earthwork Local and imported sherds Local and beside road imported sherds, 31 On hill-top / slope, in savannah, Larger collection more modern Part of Denbow’s along side of valley of River material along with indigenous site BP113. Date Luandy ceramics circa Early Iron Age, circa 100BC – AD800 32 On hill-top / slope, in savannah, Indigenous ceramics Same site as alongside valley of River Luandy Denbow BP113, GPS is the concrete base and steel post. Date circa Early Iron Age, circa 100BC – AD800 33 On hill-top / slope, in savannah, Indigenous ceramics Same as Denbow alongside valley of River Luandy site Lamba. Date circa Ceramic Later Stone Age, approximately 1000BC to 150BC 34 On low hill-top protruding into Indigenous ceramics Same as Denbow Lac Ndembo, in savannah site Lac Ndembo, date circa AD650 - 800 73 ISO Nearest Village Topography and Vegetation Artefacts Tentative No. Interpretation 1 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal Small coarse red pot sherds zone to ESE of Tchiboula and one finer ware fragment In open savannah Near site 22 2 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal Imported European ceramic zone to ESE of Tchiboula sherds In open savannah Near site ARCH 22 3 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal South of site ARCH 23 zone to ESE of Tchiboula Imported European glass In open savannah 4 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal European glass bottle drop zone to ESE of Tchiboula In open savannah 5 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal European glass bottle drop zone to E of Tchiboula In open savannah 6 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal European glass bottle drop zone to E of Tchiboula In open savannah 7 Tchiboula On slopes, overlooking coastal 3 sherds ceramics zone to E of Tchiboula In open savanna 8 Tchiboula On slopes, to E of Tchiboula European glass bottle drop In open savannah 9 Tchiboula On slopes, to E of Tchiboula Indigenous coarse ceramics In open savannah

10 Lemba On slopes, to E of Tchiboula European bottle drop near site In open savannah ARCH 4

11 Lemba Mixed savannah and Ceramics – indigenous and regenerated forest euro-imports, on slopes near logging buildings west of Lac Ndembo 12 Tchiessalamou Open savannah, on hill-slope Single isolated indigenous pottery sherd 13 Tchiessalamou Open savannah, on hill-slope Small cluster indigenous pot sherds 14 Tchiessalamou Open savannah, on hill-slope 3 pottery sherds, indigenous 15 Doungou Open savannah, on hill-slope, in European bottle glass, bottle mixed savannah-forest mosaic drop? 16 Belelo On savannah hill-slope to S of 2 indigenous pottery sherds Lac Luandy 17 Belelo On savannah hill-slope to S of 2 indigenous pottery sherds Lac Luandy 18 Belelo On savannah hill-slope to S of 3 indigenous pottery sherds Lac Luandy 19 Bellelo On savannah hill-slope to S of Indigenous pottery sherds Lac Luandy 20 Belelo On savannah hill-slope to S of Indigenous and imported Lac Luandy European pottery sherds 21 Belelo On savannah hill-slope to S of Indigenous pottery sherds Lac Luandy

74 ISO Nearest Village Topography and Vegetation Artefacts Tentative No. Interpretation 22 Belelo On savannah hill-slope to S of Indigenous pottery sherds Lac Luandy 23 Lemba In savannah adjacent to Indigenous pottery sherds eucalyptus to N of Lac Ndembo 24 Lemba In small peanut field, in Indigenous ceramic sherds savannah but adjacent to regenerated forest area. 25 Lemba In savannah but adjacent to Indigenous ceramic sherds regenerated forest area. 26 Lemba In savannah but adjacent to Indigenous ceramic sherds regenerated forest area. 27 Doungou Beside regenerated forested Large unabraded indigenous One of two (with hill-top pottery sherd 28 below) ISO beside a wooded hill-top –suspect the hilltop to be an ARCH site 28 Doungou Beside regenerated forested Indigenous pottery sherds in hill-top up cast of charcoal pit

Gazetteer of Isolated Archaeological material sites (geographic information removed)

75 Appendix 2: Summary of indigenous LOANGO COAST ceramic styles after James Denbow

Ware Descriptor Physical Description Photo Ceramic Later Distinguished from those of Stone Age the later phase by the presence (Phase 1 – of lower body decoration that 1000-500BC) included rocker-stamping or comb-wrapped stick impressions Found at extending from the shoulder to Tchissanga West the base of the vessel. Rims can Lamba be decorated along the top with an incised channel. Pots were generally small and globular in shape with flat bases. Tempering was very coarse and composed of angular fragments of smashed quartzite or volcanic scoria 2-4mm in size. Decoration was usually done with a rounded stick to produce broadly grooved crosshatching or pendant arcades

Ceramic Later Flat-based pots with less coarse Stone Age sand temper, more sharply (Phase 2 – 400- everted rims, and more finely 200BC) incised panels of crosshatching or other incised motifs in the neck. Found at Only rarely did they have rocker Tchissanga West stamping or cord-wrapped stick Lamba impressions on the shoulder or Mvindou lower body.

76 Herringbone Distinguished from earlier wares Ware (Early Iron by a pronounced neck, thickened Age – 150BC – and bevelled rims and the AD500) predominance of comb-stamping. The vessels were characterized by Found at: jars decorated with comb-stamped Grey Sand herringbone motifs on the neck; Tandou-Youmbi no decoration was observed below BP 113 the neck-shoulder junction. Bowl Madingo-Kayes forms were not found at any Meningue of these sites during Denbow’s Kayes work, and there were also rare in excavated contexts.

Carinated Jars of this type have unique, very Broadly sharp carinations on the shoulder. Grooved Ware They are decorated with horizontal (300-600AD) bands of broad grooves just below the rim and below the carination. Found at: Curvilinear designs also occur BP 113 below the carinated shoulder on Lac Ndembo some jars. Two bowl shapes have been found: tall, barrel-shaped vessels, sometimes with applied lugs, and shallower hemispherical bowls usually decorated with bands of grooving below the rim; these also have button-like lugs applied just below the rim. At some sites north of the Kouilou these wares are also distinguished by the use of talc as a temper. Spaced Distinguishing characteristics that Curvilinear identify this ware include everted- Ware neck vessels decorated with Components spaced horizontal bands of oblique (650-800AD) incision and comb-stamping. In some cases, the spaces Found at: between the bands are either Madingo-Kayes empty, or filled with curvilinear Lac Ndembo or interwoven motifs in a wide variety of guilloche, triangular and undulating forms

77 Pre-contact Late These sites contained everted- Iron Age (1100- neck jars – a shape also common 1500AD) to the Early Iron Age. These vessels are decorated on the neck Found at: with lozenge or diamond-shaped Condé “woven” patterns of roulette and Loubanzi incision

Historic Period Indigenous ceramics of this period (1500-1900AD) betray the impact of the Atlantic trade in changes in ceramics shapes and designs. After the 15th century, flared-rim “chamber-pot” shapes replaced the necked jars that were the principal vessel shape during the EIA and first phase of the LIA. Incised, woven patterns were still a favored motif on some vessels, but because they had no necks, these were placed lower down on the shoulder. Indigenous potters did not attempt to reproduce the naturalistic scenes and painted flowers found on most European wares, a variety of new motifs occur on indigenous pottery. These included shell- impressed motifs made using the edge of a cockle shell. Other potters began to experiment with a wide variety of designs, including copies of cowry shells molded onto the decorative borders of some woven designs.

78 1 des tessons de la 1 des tessons a importée céramique est et allongée la forme à de la craie identique (pipe). de 1 anse (moyen préhension). de collecte Pas Faible quantité du quantité Faible matériel Faible quantité du quantité Faible matériel A part les 3 fragments de A part les 3 fragments tout importée, céramique de ce collecté le matériel de la céramique s’agit site locale. Les perles sont de couleur de couleur Les perles sont ronde de forme bleue et (1) allongée (3), forme de collecte Pas COMMENTAIRES 1 0 0 0 0 . FRAG PIPE 0 0 0 0 4 PERLES 0 0 0 0 0 . FRAG FER 0 0 0 0 0 . FRAG SCORIE 7 0 0 0 0 LITHIQUE 6 0 0 0 3 TESSOSVERRE 7 0 0 3 9 CERAM IMP TESSON PAROI 8 0 1 0 2 CERAM IMP TESSON BORD 15 0 1 3 11 TOTAL FRAG FRAG TOTAL CERAM IMPORTE Appendix 2: Tabulated records of artefacts records Appendix 2: Tabulated 52 5 6 21 90 POT LOC POT TESSON PAROI 8 0 1 2 5 POT LOC POT TESSON BORD 60 5 7 23 95 TOTAL FRAG FRAG TOTAL POT . LOCAL Long : 0790944 : 9514516 Lat Long : 0791439 : 9519026 Lat Long: 0791599 : 9518941 Lat Long: 0789657 9515581 Lat: Long : 0792893 : 9518752 Lat LOCATION . ARCH 23 ARCH ARCH 22 ARCH ARCH 21 ARCH ARCH 20 ARCH ARCH 3 ARCH 4 ARCH 5 ARCH 6 ARCH 7 ARCH 8 ARCH 9 ARCH 10 ARCH 11 ARCH 12 ARCH 13 ARCH 14 ARCH 15 ARCH 16 ARCH 17 ARCH 18 ARCH 19 ARCH ARCH 1 ARCH 2 ARCH LE DOSSIER DES ARTEFACTS SINTOUKOLA PROJECT REFERENCE: 3099 PROJECT SINTOUKOLA ARTEFACTS LE DOSSIER DES SITE NO

79 = DENBOW/LAMBA NDEMBO = DENBOW/LAC de collecte Pas : épaisse couche Décor d’engobe récent Matériel récent. Matériel bien noire Pâte motif avec consolidée, incisions. de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas = DENBOW/BP113 Matériel ancien et érodé ancien et Matériel Le lithique est en calcaire. Le lithique est verre. et locale Céramique de collecte Pas La céramique est tés tés est La céramique n’y aucun décor et érodée visible. Le dégraissant est apparent très est quartzite des tessons sur le corps La céramique est très très est La céramique Les dégraissantes érodée. quartz sont et latérites visibles sur le corps En effet, des tessons. très le lithique y est il y Cependant, important. a un bloc de pierre Le matériel est très érodé. érodé. très est Le matériel constitué Le lithique est de 3 blocs pierre. du le matériel Cependant, varié très est site de collecte Pas de collecte Pas COMMENTAIRES 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . FRAG PIPE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 PERLES 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 . FRAG FER 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 . FRAG SCORIE 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 1 3 26 3 LITHIQUE 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 0 1 0 8 TESSOSVERRE 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 CERAM IMP TESSON PAROI 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 CERAM IMP TESSON BORD 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 8 TOTAL FRAG FRAG TOTAL CERAM IMPORTE 18 1 0 0 3 24 18 23 46 26 100 POT LOC POT TESSON PAROI 0 0 0 0 3 8 1 3 8 1 5 POT LOC POT TESSON BORD 1 0 0 3 21 32 19 26 54 27 105 TOTAL FRAG FRAG TOTAL POT . LOCAL Long: 0787224 9517675 Lat: Long: 0787079 9517651 Lat: Long : 0786981 : 9517583 Lat Long: 0794992 9519566 Lat: Long : 0790991 : 9517734 Lat Long: 0791612 9517439 Lat: Long : 0791042 9515527 Lat: LOCATION . ARCH 34 ARCH ISO 1 ISO 2 ISO 3 ISO 7 ISO 8 ISO 9 ISO 10 ARCH 33 ARCH ARCH 32 ARCH ARCH 30 ARCH 31 ARCH ARCH 29 ARCH ARCH 28 ARCH ARCH 25 ARCH 26 ARCH 27 ARCH ARCH 24 ARCH LE DOSSIER DES ARTEFACTS SINTOUKOLA PROJECT REFERENCE: 3099 PROJECT SINTOUKOLA ARTEFACTS LE DOSSIER DES SITE NO

80 COMMENTAIRES de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas de collecte Pas locale Céramique érodée. ancienne très : beau décor Décor sur le d’incision engobe et de bord. tesson gros . FRAG PIPE 0 0 1 PERLES 0 0 4 . FRAG FER 0 0 5 . FRAG SCORIE 0 0 1 LITHIQUE 0 0 45 0 0 23 TESSOSVERRE 1 0 31 CERAM IMP TESSON PAROI 0 0 14 CERAM IMP TESSON BORD 1 0 45 TOTAL FRAG FRAG TOTAL CERAM IMPORTE 10 1 444 POT LOC POT TESSON PAROI 0 1 46 POT LOC POT TESSON BORD 10 2 490 TOTAL FRAG FRAG TOTAL POT . LOCAL LOCATION . ISO 11 ISO 12 ISO 13 ISO 14 ISO 15 ISO 16 ISO 17 ISO 18 ISO 19 ISO 20 ISO 21 TOTALS LE DOSSIER DES ARTEFACTS SINTOUKOLA PROJECT REFERENCE: 3099 PROJECT SINTOUKOLA ARTEFACTS LE DOSSIER DES SITE NO

81 Les tessons de bords non-dessinés

Au total 9 tessons de bords n’ont pas été dessinés à cause de leur petitesse. Cependant, toutes les autres informations ont été prises pour ces tessons :

Arch. 20 (1tesson) Arch. 19 (2 tessons)

Tesson 1 Tessons 1 Tessons : 2 Diamètre : 12 Diamètre : 22 Diamètre : 18 Epaisseur : 8 Epaisseur : 14 Epaisseur : 6 Décor : engobe Décor : incision+engobe Décor : engobe Dégraissant : latérite+ quartz Dégraissant : latérite+quartz Dégraissant : lat+quart Ouverture : évasé 1 Ouverture : évasé 6 Ouverture : S O Longueur : 1,8 cm Longueur : 3,8 cm Longueur :1,8 cm

Arch. 24 (2 tessons) Iso. 21 (1 tesson) Tesson : 1 Tesson : 2 Tesson : 1 Diamètre : 8 Diamètre : 13 Diamètre : 14 Epaisseur : 6 Epaisseur : 9 Epaisseur : 9 Décor : incision Décor : tw6 Décor : incision Dégraissant : latérite+ quartz Dégraissant : lat+quartz Dégraissant : lat+quartz Ouverture : SO Ouverture : SO Ouverture : SO Longueur : 3,8 cm Longueur : 3,2 cm Longueur : 2,8 cm Arch. 02 (2 tessons) Arch. 22 (1 tesson) Tesson 1 Tesson : 2 Tesson : 1 Diamètre : 20 Diamètre : 14 Diamètre : 12 Epaisseur : 20 Epaisseur : 21 Epaisseur : 8 Décor : engobe Décor : poinçonnage Décor : érodé Dégraissant : latérite+ quartz Dégraissant : latérite+quartz Dégraissant : lat+quartz Ouverture : SO Ouverture : indéterminée Ouverture : SF Longueur : 3,1 cm Longueur : 3,4 cm Longueur : 4,5 cm

82 Fiche de Parois

Site Niveau Nbr Tessons Non Décoré Engobe Multiple Décors Erodés Peigne Peinture TW4 TW5 TW6 Incisions TWe érodée Corde CWS CWC Poinçonnage Poisson Vertébre Tympanotonus Cannelures types de Autres décors Moins de 4 cm Observation La plupart des tessons sont érodés

Arch 24 0 34 0 0 0 24 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 L’engobe est le principal décor de ce Arch 27 0 26 0 14 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 matériel 2 tessons de décor multiple: 1 (poinçonnage + incision) et 1 engobe + Arch 22 0 52 0 8 2 25 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 14 incision + décor érodé) 8 tessons de décor multiple. Tous peigne, Arch 02 0 90 2 25 8 34 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 incision et engobe. L’ensemble du matériel est presque Arch 28 0 46 2 2 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 érodé. 1 seul tesson porte un double motif: Arch 29 0 23 3 8 1 6 1 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 poinçonnage + incision. Les 7 tessons multiples sont: incisions + Arch 19 0 21 0 6 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 peigne. Arch 21 0 5 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Peu de matériel a été récolté. Arch 20 0 6 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Peu de matériel a été récolté. Iso 20 0 10 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Matériel homogène et peu diversifié. Arch 31 0 18 0 1 0 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Matériel érodé en petite quantité. Arch 32 (BP 113) 0 24 0 0 0 19 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Le matériel est presque érodé en totalité. Arch 33 (Lamba) 0 18 0 5 0 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 L’essentiel du matériel est érodé.

83 Appendix 3: Ceramics drawings

84 85 86 87 88 Appendix 4: fiche de prospection: card-index records for newly discovered sites

Sintoukola 2011

Fiche de Prospection Card-index Survey

N° DU SITE : Arch 02 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 02

DATE : 10-12-2011 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0792893 LATITUDE : 9518752

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Lamba position : sud km à 2,5 km

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Herbacé, manguier, igname, eucalyptus alba, fonion

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Naturelle, erosion hydrographique. Presence d’un habitat au centre du site. Le site est mis en valeur( implantation de manguier)

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/geographical Situation-/TOPOGRAPHIE/topography

A l’est du Lac Ndembo sur une pente E/W

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Le matériel decouvert est : perles, céramique locale et importée, du verre également

ELEVATION ESTIMEE

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S 70m E-W 50m TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

Le site se trouve juste à l’est du Lac Ndembo. Il s’étend sur une longueur d’à peu prés de 75 m environ N/S. Le site est plus long que large sur l’axe N/S. Le matériel est ancien et plus ou moins érodés.

NB : Du coté de l’ouest du site on rencontre de trous profonds, probablement creusés par les rats palmistes. En effet, l’habitation rustique construit sur le site peut attirer l’attention des touristiques. Ce phénomène entrainerait une disparition imminente du site.

89 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 20 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 20

DATE : 10-12-2011 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher Team

LONGITUDE : 0791599 LATITUDE : 9518941 Altitude : 39 m

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Lamba position : S/N km à 2,5km

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Manguiers, herbes, palmiers

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Bâtiment blanc au sein du site, implantation de manguier et manioc

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/geographical Situation-/TOPOGRAPHIE/topography

Le site se trouve sur une dune situant à l’ouest du lac et du site Arch 02. Le site s’étend sur à peine d’un rayon de 50 m.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

La céramique locale a été ramassée plus de la faïence

ELEVATION ESTIMEE

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S 40 m E-W 60 m TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description Le centre du site est désherbé (clair). Un bâtiment blanc est construit au centre ouest du site. Le matériel récolté est la céramique locale, importée. Le site est victime d’une érosion hydrographique

NB : le matériel récolté est très ancien

Remarque :

Le site est un bel emplacement pour agriculteurs et pêcheurs grâce son réseau hydrographique dense. Toutefois, cette position peut entrainer son véritable désastre, car ce sont souvent des lieux privilégiés pour abriter des stations balnéaires pour développer le tourisme. D’ailleurs, le bâtiment qui s’y trouve est construit par un blanc qui habite à Pointe Noire. Ce dernier, selon le gardien des lieux, y passe ces week end en compagnie de ses amis blancs venus d’ailleurs.

90 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 21 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 21

DATE : 10-12-2011 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0791439 LATITUDE : 9519026

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Lamba position : S/W km à 3 km

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Herbes et arbustes

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Traces de tracteurs.

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/geographical Situation-/TOPOGRAPHIE/topography

Nord/ouest du lac, sur une pente d’une terrasse de type III

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Céramique locale de couleur rougeâtre. Le matériel est ancien.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 36 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description C’EST UN PETIT SITE D’ENVIRON 30 M DE RAYON. LE MATÉRIEL ARCHÉOLOGIQUE EST TESSONS DE POTERIE QUI AFFLEURE GRÂCE À L’ACTION ANTHROPIQUE (ACTIONS DES TRACTEURS).

NB :

Les sondages réalisés sur le site peuvent à la longue entrainer des perturbations pouvant aboutir à la destruction oula disparition du site.

91 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 22 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 22

DATE : 10-12-2011 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0790944 LATITUDE : 9514516

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Tchiboula position : Sud km à 2km

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Herbes et arbustes

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Routes à l’intérieur du site, ruissellement des eaux entrainant le déplacement des vestiges

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/geographical Situation-/TOPOGRAPHIE/topography

Le site est localisé sur une pente, l’est de l’océan atlantique, environ 1,5 km.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

L e site révèle un matériel ancien. Le matériel est la céramique locale très érodée, de la faïence et du verre.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 44 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

92 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 23 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 23

DATE : 10-12-2011 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0791089 LATITUDE : 9515098

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Tchiboula position : 0,8 km à l’est du précédent

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Manguier, d’autres especes d’arbres. Beaucoup d’herbes

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

-Route

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/geographical situation- /Topographie/topography :

-Sur un plateau

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

L e site est apparemment étendu. Il est entouré d’arbres, surtout des manguiers

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 69 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

Le site se focalise uniquement au centre du plateau ; partie sur laquelle on note une concentration de tessons de poterie (vase cassé). Prés du vase on a trouvé une bouteille de couleur noirâtre.

93 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 24 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 24

DATE : 10-12-2011 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0791042 LATITUDE : 95155226 Altitude : 86 m

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Tchiboula position : 0,5 km à l’est du précèdent

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Manguiers et rôniers constituent la végétation essentielle.

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

-Route passe au milieu du site.

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/geographical Situation-/TOPOGRAPHIE/topography

Le site se trouve sur une colline de 86 m d’élévation. Il est entouré de manguier à l’est et à l’ouest.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Le matériel est ancien et érodé. La distribution est éparse. La céramique locale et verre ont été ramassés.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 86 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

La distribution du site est faite globalement de manière éparse. Cependant, nous notons de faibles concentrations dans la partie centrale du site.

Le site est couvert d’un tapis herbacé avec une visibilité très mauvaise du matériel. NB : La route qui passe sur le site constitue une sérieuse menace pour l’intégrité du site. Les ruissellements sont importants entrainant ainsi le déplacement des vestiges vers le bas. Les matériaux diagnostiquent collectés sont souvent déplacés par des eaux de ruissellement.

94 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 26 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 26

DATE : 12-12-11 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : GW, IT, JS, MWD, TS

LONGITUDE : 0796887 LATITUDE : 9540435 ALTITUDE : 53 m

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: Koutou position : 2, 5 km à l’ouest

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Le site est parsemé d’herbes denses, et limité de part et d’autres par une forêt d’arbres et d’arbustes.

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Faibles degrés de perturbations naturelles. Seules des traces de feu de brousse ont été constatées.

Aucune activité humaine ne fut remarquée.

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/Geographical situation- TOPOGRAPHIE/Topography

Le site se trouve dans une zone d’élévation (53 m), à environs 2, 5 km à l’ouest du village de Koutou. C’est un petit site d’environ 10 m de rayon.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Deux objets archéologiques ont été récoltés. Il s’agit d’une poterie en moitié cassée et un pot en faïence. Les deux objets sont distants d’environs deux mètres, d’orientation Nord/Sud

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 53 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

Le site est limité à l’Est et à l’Ouest par une forêt dense. La visibilité n’est pas bonne du fait de la couverture végétale dense. Aucun cours d’eau n’est observé à proximité.

95 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 27 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 27

DATE : 13-12-11 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher GW, IT, Antony JS, MWD, TS

LONGITUDE : 0791072 LATITUDE : 9517439

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: position : km à

Aucun village n’est proche au site.

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

La végétation est essentiellement composée d’arbustes et d’herbes.

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

L’érosion hydrographique constitue les seules perturbations naturelles. Aucune trace d’activités humaines.

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/Geographical situation- TOPOGRAPHIE/Topography

Le site se localise sur la pente NW/E d’une colline de 75 m d’altitude au pied de laquelle se trouve un petit lac nommé LWANDE à l’ouest du site.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Du lithique et de la céramique locale très ancienne y sont ramassés. La poterie est de couleur rougeâtre ou cendrée. Elle très érodée et fragmentée. Le lithique (micro) est débitée à partir du quartz. Vue de son matériel révélateur, nous supposons que le site est Néo.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 75 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

La visibilité du matériel est assez bonne due à l’érosion hydrographique. La distribution du matériel céramique et lithique est faite de manière éparse.

96 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 28 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 28

DATE : 13-12-11 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : GW, IT, Antony JS, MWD, TS

LONGITUDE : 0790991 LATITUDE : 9517734

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: position : km à

Aucun village n’est proche au site.

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

La végétation est composée d’herbes et d’arbustes.

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Erosion hydrographique.

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/Geographical situation- TOPOGRAPHIE/Topography

Le site se localise à environ 200 m au nord d’Arch 27. Il se trouve sur la pente S/SW d’une colline. Il fait face à Arch et à une forêt jouxtant le lac LWANDE.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Le matériel (céramique locale) est très érodé et fragmentée. Elle est identique au matériel récoltée à l’Arch précédent.

Nous notons plusieurs zones de concentration de céramiques surtout à la partie centrale et au pied sud/W du site.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 63 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description VUE LE MATÉRIEL RÉCOLTÉ EN SURFACE, NOUS ADMETTONS UNE ANCIENNETÉ DU SITE. LA VISIBILITÉ DU MATÉRIEL EST RELATIVEMENT BONNE GRÂCE À L’ÉROSION PROVOQUÉE PAR LES COURS D’EAU.

97 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 29 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 29

DATE : 13-12-11 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : GW, IT, Antony JS, MWD, TS

LONGITUDE : 0794992 LATITUDE : 9519566

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: LAMBA position : 2, 5 km au sud

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Beaucoup d’herbes et une forêt dense située à l’est du site.

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Aucune perturbation naturelle notée. Les routes constituent les seules traces d’activités de l’homme. Elles traversent le site et le coupent en parties.

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/Geographical situation- TOPOGRAPHIE/Topography

Le site est situé au sud ouest par un grand lac, à l’est par une forêt très épaisse. Il se trouve sur une zone plane, contrairement à la plupart des sites découverts qui se localisent sur la pente des collines et des plateaux.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

La distribution du matériel archéologique est faite de manière éparse et éparpillée. Le matériel récolté s’agit de la céramique locale et importée.

La visibilité du matériel archéologique est mauvaise du fait de la densité du couvert végétal.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 65 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

Le site est plus ou moins étendu, avec un diamètre ne dépassant difficilement 150 m. Le matériel ramassé affleure près des routes où on a une bonne visibilité comparée au reste du site.

98 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 30 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 30

DATE : 16-12-11 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0796310 LATITUDE : 9532820

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: THIESSA position : 0, 8 km au nord

THIESSA

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Herbes et arbustes

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Perturbation naturelle : Ruissellement

Perturbation anthropique : Traces de tracteurs

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/Geographical situation- TOPOGRAPHIE/Topography

Le site se trouve à environ 800 m au nord des concessions du village de Thiéssa. Il se localise à un jet de pierre à l’est d’une petite forêt, sur une zone plus ou moins accidentée, présentant de légères élévations.

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Des tessons de céramique locale (poterie), importée et du matériel très récent (bol en métal) a été trouvé sur place. Pas de collecte de surface.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 54 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

LE MATÉRIEL EST RÉCENT ET HÉTÉROGÈNE. CE QUI PEUT JUSTIFIER QUE LE SITE EST RÉCENT OU, DU MOINS, A ÉTÉ RÉOCCUPÉ.

99 Sintoukola 2011

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N° DU SITE : Arch 30 NOM/Name DU SITE : Arch 30

DATE : 16-12-11 CHERCHEUR:/Researcher : Team

LONGITUDE : 0796310 LATITUDE : 9532820

VILLAGE LE PLUS PROCHE / Nearest Village: THIESSA position : 0, 8 km au nord

THIESSA

VEGETATION NATURELLE : / natural vegetation:

Herbes et arbustes

DEGRE DE PERTURBATION NATURELLE / degree of natural disturbance?

ANTHROPIQUE ? / Anthopogenic MENACES IMMINENTES / Imminent threats?

Perturbation naturelle : Ruissellement

Perturbation anthropique : Traces de tracteurs

SITUATION GEOGRAPHIQUE/Geographical situation- TOPOGRAPHIE/Topography

CARACTERISTIQUES ARCHEOLOGIQUES / archaeological characteristics

Des tessons de céramique locale (poterie), importée et du matériel très récent (bol en métal) a été trouvé sur place. Pas de collecte de surface.

ELEVATION ESTIMEE : 54 m

SUPERFICIE / Area: N-S E-W TOTAL EN M2:

DESCRIPTION DU SITE / Site Description

LE MATÉRIEL EST RÉCENT ET HÉTÉROGÈNE. CE QUI PEUT JUSTIFIER QUE LE SITE EST RÉCENT OU, DU MOINS, A ÉTÉ RÉOCCUPÉ.

100 Appendix 5: Gazetteer of Heritage Sites

SACR Village Description No. 1 Youbi Cemetery, roadside, adjacent to village bloc 2 Koutou Cemetery, roadside, extends 50m + 3 Tchiessza Cemetery, roadside 4 Youbi Cemetery, roadside 5 Tchiessza Cemetery roadside Bloc 1 6 Doungou Cemetery in ancestral village ARCH 13, has euro style stone tombs, 3 in a small enclosure. This is a sanctuary for Tchiessza Terrien family. 7 Sacred site Viemba, a ravine to NE of Doungou 8 Tchiessz-alamou Cemetery roadside 9 Tchiessza Cemetery Koutou roadside 10 Tchiessza Cemetery Nkokoloungou roadside 11 Sintounkola Sacred bush/site (was also MaVongele’s settlement ARCH 17) 12 Sintounkola Cemetery; MaVongele’s family, and tomb/shrine to MaVongele 13 Kamqat Cemetery, roadside 14 Kamqat Cemetery, roadside 15 Nkola Family burial plots behind Chief’s house, in his house-complex 16 Nkola Cemetery, roadside 17 Kaboune Cemetery, roadside 18 Yanika Cemetery 1, photo 0004 19 Yanika Sacred site 1 photo 28-30 20 Yanika Cemetery 2 photo 39 21 Yanika Cemetery 3 photo 42 22 Yanika Sacred site 2 photo 66-67 23 Yanika Cemetery 4 photo 68 24 Koutou Sacred place for Mavoungou JeanMarc, close to mine camp details (natural resource use baseline survey team leader) 25 Two modern burials 26 Grave with heart and key 27 Possible terrien site in ravine 28 Cimetiere 29 Sacred site described by Georges & Christophe 30 Foret sacred? 31 Youbi End of long Youbi cemetery 32 Nr Doungou former oil xplr camp? SAME AR SACR 107 33 La reina de Potash

100 Sacred site near ARCH 40 101 Maboko terrien sacred site 102 Yanika Sesa nGoubi 103 Sintoukola Tchibila Sintoukola Nsinda nKola 104 Sintoukola Small cemetery 105 Probable site of sacred 106 Nkola Tchibila Sessaylo 107 Tchiesalamou same as SACR 32 108 Tchiesza Sirene Tchiesza

101 SACR Village Description No. 109 Sacred grove shown to us by guide’s wife – said to be inhabited by a spirit ‘d’bulao qui catta’ a handicapped female? spirit with no legs (second time I’ve come across a spirit without feet). Spirit venerated and familiar to the point of being a confident of the informants. When she is angry she expresses her displeasure in the sound of a strong wind. Gifts of kola, a few coins and red wine made. Said that the site was of national importance and people come from government to ask sprits about development 110 Sintou Access prevented by overgrown paths and displeased spirits. The sacred site is named N’TOUBOUNKOUAB were the symbol of the presence of a spirit was a Pyramid. The site was located about 2km after the first one; unfortunately we were not able to get close to the Pyramid which was near a water source (or a river) according to our guide 111 Koutou (but in Bibila of Koutou Terrien, large hollow with trees, visitors are prevented by Youbi) spirit from seeing anything except the sky 112 Koutou Burial of Moe Mani – founder of the Bouvanji family of Koutou 113 Koutou Bibila Tchijijik Tchikkutou – we stopped 1km to west due to dense forest, but this place described as being on the river and this point is near as we can locate it on the satellite image. 114 Sintou The third sacred site is named BOUMBAKOUAB and is located on a kind of island within NOUMBI river difficult to reach without boats. 115 Youbi Extended cemetery of the Youbi village – founders burial at 115b 116 KM4 Burial of Makoso Leopold, in village of Nkola 117 Youbi Sacred site of ‘Youbi’ female spirit 118 Youbi Sacred site of Matoundou, male spirit 119 Kaboune Church C.P.A 120 Kaboune Evangelical Church 121 Kaboune Sacred Forest 122 Kaboune Cemetery 123 Kaboune Cemetery 124 Kaboune Cemetery 125 Kaboune Cemetery 126 Kanga Church Zéphirin 127 Kanga Cemetery 128 Kanga Cemetery 129 Kanga Cemetery 130 Kanga Sacred Forest 131 Kanga Sacred Forest 132 Kanga Sacred Forest 133 Kanga Sacred Forest 134 KM4 Church 135 KM4 Cemetery 136 KM4 Cemetery 1`37 KM4 Cemetery 138 KM4 Church 139 KM4 Cemetery 140 Kouani and Church Tchiboula 141 Kouani and Cemetery Tchiboula 142 Kouani and Cemetery Tchiboula 143 Kouani and Cemetery Tchiboula 144 Kouani and Sacred Forest Tchiboula

102 SACR Village Description No. 145 Kouani and Sacred Place Tchiboula 146 Kouani and Sacred Forest Tchiboula 147 Kouani and Cemetery Tchiboula 148 Koutou Evangelical Church 149 Koutou Church 150 Koutou Church 151 Koutou Cemetery 152 Koutou Cemetery 153 Koutou Cemetery 154 Koutou Sacred Forest 155 Koutou Church 156 Lamba and Belelo Church 157 Lamba and Belelo Sacred Forest 158 Lamba and Belelo Sacred Forest 159 Lamba and Belelo Sacred Forest 160 Lamba and Belelo Cemetery 161 Lamba and Belelo Cemetery 162 Lamba and Belelo Cemetery 163 Lamba and Belelo Cemetery 164 Madingo-Kayes Catholic Church 165 Madingo-Kayes Evangelical Church 166 Madingo-Kayes Cemetery 167 Madingo-Kayes Cemetery 168 Madingo-Kayes Sacred Forest 169 Madingo-Kayes Sacred Forest 170 Madingo-Kayes Sacred Forest 171 Madingo-Kayes Cemetery 172 Ngomatchilounga Evangelical Church 173 Ngomatchilounga Church 174 Ngomatchilounga Cemetery 175 Ngomatchilounga Cemetery 176 Ngomatchilounga Sacred Forest 177 Ngomatchilounga Cemetery 178 Ngomatchilounga Cemetery 179 Ngomatchilounga Cemetery 180 Nkola Church 181 Nkola Church 182 Nkola Cemetery 183 Nkola cemetery 184 Nkola Cemetery 185 Nkola Cemetery 186 Nkola Cemetery 187 Nkola Church 188 Ntouyola Church (A.D.E.) 189 Ntouyola Church 190 Ntouyola Cemetery 191 Ntouyola Cemetery 192 Ntouyola Cemetery 193 Ntouyola Sacred Forest 194 Ntouyola Sacred Forest 195 Ntouyola Sacred Forest

103 SACR Village Description No. 196 Sintoukola / Evangelical Church Nkokoloungou 197 Sintoukola / Church Nkokoloungou 198 Sintoukola / Church Nkokoloungou 199 Sintoukola / Cemetery Nkokoloungou 200 Sintoukola / cemetery Nkokoloungou 201 Sintoukola / Cemetery Nkokoloungou 202 Sintoukola / Sacred Forest Nkokoloungou 203 Sintoukola / Cemetery Nkokoloungou 204 Tandou Youmbi Church 205 Tandou Youmbi Church 206 Tandou Youmbi Cemetery 207 Tandou Youmbi Cemetery 208 Tandou Youmbi Sacred Forest 209 Tandou Youmbi Sacred Forest 210 Tandou Youmbi Sacred Forest 211 Tandou Youmbi Cemetery 212 Tchiessa Church 213 Tchiessa Cemetery 214 Tchiessa Sacred Forest 215 Tchiessa Sacred Forest 216 Tchizalamou Evangelical Church 217 Tchizalamou Evangelical Church 218 Tchizalamou Cemetery 219 Tchizalamou Cemetery 220 Tchizalamou Cemetery 221 Tchizalamou Cemetery 222 Wollo Evangelical Church 223 Wollo Church 224 Wollo Church 225 Wollo Church 226 Wollo Cemetery 227 Wollo Cemetery 228 Wollo Sacred Forest 229 Wollo Sacred Forest 230 Yanga Centre of traditional therapy 231 Yanga Centre of traditional therapy 232 Yanga Cemetery 233 Yanga Cemetery 234 Yanga Cemetery 235 Yanga Sacred Forest 236 Yanga Sacred Forest 237 Yanga Cemetery 238 Youbi Cemetery 239 Youbi Cemetery 240 Youbi Cemetery

104 SACR Village Description No. 241 Youbi Cemetery 242 Youbi Cemetery 243 Youbi Church 244 Youbi Church

Sacred sites – accurate geographic location information has been removed.

105