Visuality and Colonialism in the Congo: From the ‘Arab War’ to Patrice Lumumba, 1880s to 1961 by Isabelle M. de Rezende A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Nancy Rose Hunt, Chair Professor Adam P. Ashforth Professor Geoff Eley Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape Acknowledgments This dissertation took some years and a few turns to come together. Some of it has always been in my mind. But for the most part, it is the result of an extraordinary learning process, which began at the University of Michigan in September 2004, and continued in Mozambique, in Belgium, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many people and institutions made this dissertation a possibility, and its completion a reality. First, to my dissertation committee: hearfelt thanks for the support and for helping me take those last steps. My thanks go in the first place to Nancy Rose Hunt, with whom I have worked since my arrival at Michigan, and who taught me such a great deal about African history, about the Congo, and about writing. I am grateful for her dedication and mentorship. I met Patricia Hayes in the fall of 2005 at the University of Michigan; since then I have been fortunate to benefit from her generosity, vast knowledge, and subtle mind. Geoff Eley has also been a great mentor and teacher. I have been fortunate to benefit and learn not only from the depth and breadth of his scholarship, but also from the ways he always seeks connections: across fields and across disciplines. Many thanks to Adam Ashforth for reading and agreeing to join my committee at the eleventh hour, and also for his ideas, and bringing forward intellectual possibilities and connections that I had not previously glimpsed. ii I would like to thank my professors in the University of Michigan’s department of history. Helmut Puff has been a precise, invaluable reader, pushing me always toward clarity and to think in new ways. Many thanks also to Gabrielle Hecht, David William Cohen, Derek Peterson, and Mamadou Diouf; as well as Sumathi Ramaswamy, Scott Spector, Valerie Kivelson, and Rudolf Mrázek. Zeynep Gürsel has been extraordinarily kind and generous with close readings of chapters, challenging comments and questions, and with always great, spot-on, advice in all matters of academic life. Many thanks to Bogumil Jewsiewicki; to Lynn Thomas for her thoughtful feedback; and to Lorena Rizzo. In the history department also: thanks must go to Kathleen King, Lorna Alstetter, and Diana Denney for their help and endless patience in all administrative matters. I received generous institutional support to carry out research in Europe, Africa, and in the United States. The Department of History at the University of Michigan, the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, the Center for African and African-American Studies at the University of Michigan (now the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies), and the Rackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan have funded research and travel at various times since 2004. My research in Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 was made possible by an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council (IDRF-SSRC), a student grant from the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright program, and by a fellowship from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF). In the Democratic Republic of Congo a great number of people were key to my success and well-being. I would like to thank Professor Jacob Sabakinu Kivilu of the University of Kinshasa’s history department for his help, support, great suggestions and iii knowledge of Congolese history and politics; to Professor Mutamba Makombo also at the University of Kinshasa, for sharing his knowledge of Congolese and Kasai history with me; to Charlotte Olela Ngombe for her invaluable assistance with research and translation, as well as to Claude-George Tshund’Olela. In Kinshasa, my friend, Emery Kalema Masua, whose dedication and fortitude I will always admire, looked after me in the tentacular city, getting me from points a to b and back again. I bear him a great debt of gratitude. Many thanks also to Mama Pauline Betu and all the staff at the University of Kinshasa’s guesthouse. Jean-Michel Kibushi was instrumental to the realization of my dissertation project, and I thank him for making fieldwork in Sankuru a reality. Huge thanks to the incredible Papa Rudolphe Lonyembo, aka l’Inspecteur, for teaching me so much about Sankuru history, traditions, and lore. Madame Agnès Dihandjo Lonyembo, helped make my travels more pleasant and comfortable. Catherine Lion became a good friend during my time in Sankuru, whose great questions pushed my thinking and revived my enthusiasm at difficult moments. Thanks also go to Papa Gaston Kepoke and Maman Hélène Sheka; Charles-Dieudonné Lobandji and Madame Nongo; Antoine Roger Dimandja; Michel Ngandu; Serge Songa Songa, and to many, many, people in the Congo, who generously took time to meet and talk with me. A day or two after I defended this dissertation, the inimitable Luc de Heusch, structuralist anthropologist, filmmaker, trouble-maker, wit, and art aficionado passed away. I was fortunate to have spoken with him in 2006; to him, posthumously, my many thanks. In Belgium, in the DRC, and elsewhere, I would like to thank Johan Lagae; Katrien Pype; Guido Convents; Daniel Tödt; Bram Cleys and Katrien Timmermann. At iv the Royal Museum for Central Africa, I would like to thank Philippe Marechal, Sabine Cornelis, Hein Vanhee, Jean Tshonda Omasombo, Maarten Couttenier, and Lucienne Di Mauro. Some of the most wonderful and smartest people I have known have been my colleagues and friends at the University of Michigan. A huge thanks to Pedro Monaville; I could not have asked for a better colleague and a better friend. To Anneeth Kaur Hundle, Dan Birchok and Lori Roddi for their great company, kindness and support in this last year; to the whole African history/anthropology crew: Stephen Sparks and Nafisa Essop Sheik, Shana Melnysyn, Tasha Rijke-Epstein, Monica Patterson, and Brady G’Sell. I miss you all! Thanks also to Lakisha Simmons and Tandiwe Aebi-Moyo; Laura Hilburn and Stephen Smith; Lenny Ureña, You-Sun Crystal Chung; Jeffrey Lloyd: all of your friendships mean a great deal. Many, many, thanks to the amazing and generous Sara McClean and Nicol Partida, who stepped in, the summer in of 2008, to take care of my family when it was needed and I was in the Congo. Many friends outside of my academic world made life easier and were critical to my sanity: Sarai Brachman Shoup for the great company, always interesting conversations, and the enormous practical and logistical help; Brent Stansfield, Stephanie Preston (and the little ladies of course) for their friendship and warm hospitality. Huge thanks to Elizabeth Westley for coming to my defense and making it feel more special and festive. In California, I would like to thank my friends, the way awesome Mariana Corzo and Carolyn Clark, for so much help, love and support. Alison Moncrieff also has my eternal gratitude, as does Cathy Deikman. v To my dear friend, Béatrice Hacquard (née Talmon), thank you for taking the time to translate large portions of nineteenth-century German gothic script, over skype, in the middle of the night. To Sophie Theven, Kelly McGowan, Lili Tan, Namrata Sharma, Kevin Kan, Jane Robinsen, Kimberley Urbano, Hariko and Ralph Hicken, Kazumi Tshuchiya, Yumi Ikeda, and especially to President Daisaku Ikeda, and huge thanks for the compassion and wisdom. To my family, thank you for the love and the immense support through many years. Carol Camlin has seen me through it all. I cannot thank her enough for the unconditional support and unwavering faith, not to mention all the logistical help I always seem to need. I am grateful for her love and for bringing Cecilia to this world. Their patience has been nothing short of saintly. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii List of Figures viii Introduction 1 Chapter One Part I: The Eyes of Ngongo Leteta 47 Part II: Violence and Visuality 75 Counterpoint 129 Memory, History and Visuality in 2008 Chapter Two 132 Visual Subjects of Tradition, ca. 1908-40 Chapter Three 214 Development, Biopolitics, and Everyday Life in Sankuru Mission Photographs Chapter Four 289 Colonialism’s Farewell Party: Luc de Heusch’s Fête chez les Hamba Counterpoint 333 “Lieux de Mémoire” Chapter Five 342 History as Spectacle: Patrice Lumumba, 1951-61 Conclusion 405 Bibliography 416 vii List of Figures Figure 1: "Slave Trade Map of Equatorial Africa,” Kiunangi: or, Story and History from Central Africa (London, UK: George Bell and Sons, 1887), NYPL. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / General Research and Reference Division. .. 3 Figure 2: “John George Bartholomew, “Slave Trade of Africa,” A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races, by Sir Harry H. Johnston ... With Eight Maps by the Author and J.G. Bartholomew. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1899), NYPL. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / General Research and Reference Division" ............................................................................. 4 Figure 3: J. Roland and E. Duchesne, “La Colonie Belge Du Congo”, 1914, Rutgers University Library, http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/africa/rolduch1914-2.jpg. 5 Figure 4: Map of Sankuru with Katako territory circled. Courtesy of Jean-Michel Kibushi. Studio Malembe Maa. © 2008. .................................................................... 7 Figure 5: “Democratic Republic of the Congo Proposed Provinces 2006.” http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Congo-Kinshasa.html .............................................. 8 Figure 6: “Historical Donkey” 1890s, Kadoc Documentation and Research centre for Religion, Culture and Society.