Msiri (c. 1830 – December 20, 1891) founded and ruled the Yeke Kingdom (also called the Garanganze or Garenganze kingdom) in south-east Katanga (now in DR Congo) from about 1856 to 1891. His name is sometimes spelled 'M'Siri' in articles in French. Other variants are "Mziri", "Msidi", and "Mushidi"; and his full name was Mwenda Msiri Ngelengwa Shitambi.Mwami Msiri, King of Garanganze. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
Msiri's origins and rise to power
From Tabora to Katanga Msiri was a Nyamwezi from Tabora in modern-day Tanzania and a trader, like his father Kalasa, involved in the copper, ivory and East African slave trade controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar and his Arab and Swahili agents. The main trade route went to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika and then to Lake Mweru and Katanga.Moloney, Joseph Augustus (1893). With Captain Stairs to Katanga, pp. 172−3, London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company ().
Military power Msiri realised access to guns was the key to power, and in Katanga, he had copper and ivory resources to trade for them. He formed a militia and started to conquer his neighbours. He also married into the Luba royal family, starting his practice of using wives as spies.The Story of Africa: The East African Slave Trade. British Broadcasting Corporation (World Service). Retrieved 8 February 2007.Arnot, R. S. "F S Arnot and Msidi", Northern Rhodesia Journal, III (5) (1958), 428−434. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
He depended on the east coast trade for his guns and gunpowder, which passed through the territory of his rivals, making supplies expensive and unreliable. Instead he turned to the west coast, sending his nephew Molenga to the Ovimbundu and Portuguese traders around Benguela in Angola, and a trader there called Coimbra became his supplier. The Luba people to his north-west had controlled the west coast trade, but Msiri took it over and halted their southwards expansion.
Msiri now had the power and influence to form alliances as more of an equal with warlords such as Tippu Tip, who controlled the eastern Congo from Lake Tanganyika up to what is now Uganda in the north-east, and the Nyamwezi leader Mirambo who controlled the land route between Lake Tanganyika and the coast, and he sought to emulate them. Msiri achieved what other tribes and the Portuguese had tried without as much success, which was to trade across the continent, with both coasts.
By the time of David Livingstone's visit to Mwata Kazembe VIII in 1867, Msiri had taken control of most of the Mwata's territory and trade on the west bank of the Luapula River. Tippu Tip wanted revenge on Kazembe for killing six of his men, and he formed an alliance with Msiri to attack and kill Mwata Kazembe in 1870,Livingstone, David and Waller, Horace (ed.). The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his Death. Two Volumes. London: John Murray. and Msiri subsequently influenced the appointment of his successors. Msiri's control of south-east Katanga and its copper resources was consolidated.Gordon, David (2000). "Decentralized Despots or Contingent Chiefs: Comparing Colonial Chiefs in Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo". KwaZulu-Natal History and African Studies Seminar. Durban: University of Natal.
Msiri's strategy
In a region and age dominated by armed traders, Msiri was very successful. His control of the trade routes between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans took ruthlessness and arms (and over his neighbours, Msiri had what would be called in the west ‘superior military technology’). But it also took a strategic eye, and the guile and persuasion required to form alliances with hundreds of other tribes, rulers and traders. He did this through his wives, who numbered more than 500. He took a wife from the village of each subordinate chief, making the chief think this gave him an advocate at Msiri's court, but the wife was used to spy on the chief instead and to obtain information about his dealings and loyalty. The wife could also be used as a hostage in case of any rebellion by that chief.
Msiri also cemented alliances with other powerful trading partners through marriage. His favourite wife was said to be Maria de Fonseca, sister of his Portuguese-Angolan trading partner Coimbra.Moloney 1893, pp. 174−5. Msiri married one of his own daughters to Tippu Tip.
In 1884, wishing to gain some advice on how to deal with the approaching European colonial powers, he invited a Scottish missionary, Frederick Stanley Arnot, who he had heard was in Angola, to come to his capital at Bunkeya, 180 km west of the Luapula River. In 1886 Arnot arrived and was the first white person to settle in Katanga. After three years he went back to Britain to recruit more missionaries, including Charles Swan and Dan Crawford.Keir Howard, J: "Arnot, Frederick Stanley", in Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 9 February 2007.
Thus, the first missionaries in Katanga did not decide to go there at their own initiative. Msiri's strategy worked: the missionaries' advice prevented him being taken in by the first British and Belgian expeditions (see below). It is also possible that Msiri had the idea to hold the missionaries hostage in case of any war with the Europeans, in the same way that he held hostage the women of subject tribes.Moloney 1893, p. 180.Stairs thought the missionaries were hostages, and said Msiri referred to them as his 'white slaves'. See letter of William Stairs Letter to Frederick Arnot, 29 December 1891, reproduced in: Arnot, R. S. (1958). "F S Arnot and Msidi", Northern Rhodesia Journal, III (5), 428−434. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
The scramble for Katanga and killing of Msiri
British Expeditions (Sharpe and Thomson), 1890 Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSAC) and Belgian King Leopold II’s Congo Free State (CFS) both wanted to sign treaties with Msiri to fulfil their colonial ambitions and competed to do so. Some of Msiri's subordinate chiefs and trading competitors took the opportunity of the arrival of new powers in the region to start rebellions against his authority. In November 1890 Alfred Sharpe arrived in Bunkeya from Nyasaland on behalf of the BSAC and the British Commissioner in Central Africa/Nyasaland, Sir Harry Johnston, with a mineral rights concession and a British protectorate treaty for signature. The explorer Joseph Thomson was sent by the BSAC to meet up with and reinforce Sharpe's mission in Bunkeya, but its route was blocked by a smallpox epidemic and it could not continue.Moloney 1893, Chapter I.
Arnot was still in Britain but Charles Swan and Dan Crawford were present. Msiri and his officials could not read English and Sharpe described the agreement favourably, but Arnot had advised Msiri to have any treaties translated, and Swan now gave the same advice. For this the missionaries were later the subject of resentment and anger on behalf of the BSAC, because when the treaty's real contents were revealed to Msiri, enraged, he sent Sharpe away empty-handed. Sharpe was sure Msiri would not sign away his sovereignty to any other power, and he advised Johnston to wait until he was 'out of the way'.
Belgian Expeditions (Le Marinel and Delcommune), 1891 On 18 April 1891 Leopold sent an expedition of about 350 men led by Paul Le Marinel. He obtained a brief letter signed by Msiri and witnessed by Swan (and probably drafted by him), that Msiri would accept CFS agents in his territory."Le Capitaine Paul le Marinel & Alexandre Delcomune." Les Expatries Lubumbashi. Retrieved 28 March 2007. This is an extract from a history of the Belgian mining company Union Minière du Haut Katanga, 1906−1956. It did not mention agreeing to the CFS flag being hoisted nor to recognising Leopold's sovereignty, and its lack of precision was probably designed to keep Leopold at bay, so a few months later the Delcommune Expedition followed up to try to achieve those objectives, but again Msiri refused. Expecting that the BSAC would try again with Thomson, Leopold resolved to take stronger action with his third expedition of 1891.Moloney 1893, pp. 6−9.
The Stairs Expedition and the killing of Msiri
On December 14, 1891 the armed Stairs Expedition of the CFS arrived in Bunkeya with 400 troops and porters, led by Canadian mercenary, Captain W. G. Stairs, ordered by Leopold to raise the CFS flag and claim Katanga by force if necessary.Moloney 1893, pp. 9−12. Negotiations commenced and Msiri indicated he might agree to a treaty if supplied with gunpowder.
According to the Stairs Expedition's doctor Joseph Moloney and third officer Christian de Bonchamps, with negotiations at stalemate, Msiri reacted to an ultimatum and to Stairs flying the CFS flag without his consent, by departing in the night to a fortified village at Munema on the outskirts of Bunkeya. The next day, 20 December 1891, Stairs sent his second-in-command, Belgian Lieutenant Omer Bodson with de Bonchamps and 100 askaris to arrest Msiri. Despite de Bonchamps' concerns about the danger, Bodson went into Munema with a dozen men and confronted Msiri in front of about 300 of his warriors. Msiri said nothing but in anger started to draw the sword which had been a gift from Stairs. Bodson drew his revolver and shot Msiri three times, killing him. A fight erupted, and Bodson was shot and mortally wounded by one of Msiri's men, dying later.Moloney 1893, Chapter XI pp. 182−194.De Pont-Jest, René (1892). "L'Expédition du Katanga, d'après les notes de voyage du marquis Christian de Bonchamps" . (The Katanga Expedition, According to the Travel Notes of the Marquess Christian de Bonchamps), Le Tour du Monde. Retrieved 5 May 2007. This was a 19th-century travel magazine published and edited by Edouard Charton in Paris. The article includes extracts from the journal of de Bonchamps.
The oral history of the Garanganze people contains some contradictions about the incident. In one story, Msiri speared Bodson to death and was shot by other members of the expedition.Fabian 1998. However, Dr Moloney confirmed that Bodson was killed by a musket ball not a spear, and de Bonchamps wrote that Bodson told him before he died that he had shot Msiri, and had then been shot.
The fate of Msiri's head In an article published in Paris in 1892, de Bonchamps revealed that having carried Msiri's body back to their camp, the expedition cut off his head and hoisted it on a pole as a 'barbaric lesson' to the Garanganze. Moloney's book is silent on the subject. Dan Crawford was at a Belgian outpost 40 km away and, relying on a Garanganze report, he wrote that after shooting Msiri, 'Bodson' cut off his head and shouted "I have killed a tiger! Vive le Roi!".Tilsley, G. E. (1929). Dan Crawford: Missionary and Pioneer in Central Africa. London: Oliphants. Bodson had been shot in the abdomen and spine immediately after killing Msiri, so it was not he who decapitated Mziri. The Garanganze oral history mixes up the European officers in other places, sometimes confusing Stairs and Bodson for example.