Kololo competition
Kabompo
Livingstone describes the traders as “Mambari.” Eric Flint suggests that they were ethnically Ovimbundu who inhabited the Bihe plateau in what’s now central Angola.[1] Through their precise cultural background is unknown, references to their role as traders indicates that they were in close contact with Portuguese merchants on the Atlantic Coast. From the Bihe plain, the Mambari were able to ferry goods from Benguella to the Kwando river, reaching as far as Linyanti. The group of slavers at Kabompo also included two men of African and Portuguese descent. Because they were so fair-skinned, they were considered by the Lunda to be “white men.” Their skin served as a visible reminder of their connection to European merchants and goods. Their presence in Kabompo demonstrates the extent of Portuguese trade networks.Though cloth was in high demand in Kabompo, the slave traders were physically and socially on the periphery of the Ishinde’s court. They had made camp on the edges of the kotla, the parade ground that served as the site of the reception. Livingstone’s initial encounter with these traders appear in both his journal and in Missionary Travels. In other comparisons of manuscript and published material, I have highlighted editorial interventions to foreground discrepancies. The changes between Livingstone’s journal and Missionary Travels are so significant that such a granular analysis is not possible. Instead, the colors in the table below reflect the technology of mediation.[2] Below, I offer a summary of the commonalities before analyzing shifts in Livingstone’s tone.
Journal, 11 November 1853-26 May 1856 | Missionary Travels |
| A humpbacked bastard Portuguese came from the Mambari encampment opposite ours, but we could not understand each other. He was much alarmed apparently at my presence, and next morning we found that the white men of whom we had heard were Bastards only.[3] The name they give to the other Trader, of whom we heard as having been here and thence returned to Sinyama’s of the Lobale, is Shakatanganya, which sounds much more like a native than Portuguese name. When I went to visit them this morning I found a tall bastard Portuguese as the head of the establishment, and a gang of female slaves hoeing the ground in the encampment to clear it of weeds. They were in a chain, and seem to have been but lately purchased. The establishment seems to be conducted with order, for a drum was beat at sunset & about nine o’clock, & a trumpet sounded in military fashion.[4] | The two native Portuguese traders of whom we had heard had erected a little encampment opposite the place where ours was about to be made. One of them, whose spine had been injured in youth—a rare sight in this country—came and visited us. I returned the visit next morning. His tall companion had that sickly yellow hue which made him look fairer than myself, but his head was covered with a crop of unmistakable wool. They had a gang of young female slaves in a chain, hoeing the ground in front of their encampment to clear it of weeds and grass; these were purchased recently in Lobale, whence the traders had now come. There were many Mambari with them, and the establishment was conducted with that military order which pervades all the arrangements of the Portuguese colonists. A drum was beaten and trumpet sounded at certain hours, quite in military fashion. It was the first time most of my men had seen slaves in chains. "They are not men," they exclaimed (meaning they are beasts), "who treat their children so."[5] |
The trader’s camp was designed to visually and sonically advertise the potential prosperity that they could bring to the area. The most visible feature of this encampment was the row of young enslaved women who were clearing weeds. Because the Mambari were so mobile, this task does not seem to be done in preparation for cultivating crops. Instead, it registers as a performance of labor, busy work that demonstrates the potential benefits of owning slaves to the causal Lunda observers as well as potential buyers. The tidy landscape of the encampment is echoed by the military habits and dress of the traders. The sound of the trumpet represents a European mode of marking the passage time while also pervading the surrounding area with a sound produced by a foreign instrument.
According to Livingstone, the Kololo expedition set up their camp opposite the Mambari, using the road to the kotla as a physical barrier. Such spatial tactics would create a visual juxtaposition between the two forms of trade. Because the expedition took such few supplies, it would have appeared quite spartan by comparison, but the exhibition of the lantern counterbalanced the poverty of their camp site. The visual juxtaposition between free men and enslaved women, between Livingstone’s hair and Afro-Portuguese coiffure, produced equal measures of alarm and competition between the Kololo party and the traders.[6]
This spirit of one-upmanship would become especially apparent in the reception ceremony. The Mambari trumpet fanfare and musket salute bookend the formal proceedings of the reception, but they neither demonstrate fealty to the Ishinde, nor do they interface with the other Lunda vassals. By contrast, the Kololo expedition demonstrated their respect for the Ishinde by mirroring Lunda customs. In these efforts, Livingstone becomes a central figure, particularly when he decided to sit under one of the kotla’s two trees. In Missionary Travels, he describes this tactic as merely a practical choice enabling he and the members of the Kololo party to enjoy the shade, but the seating arrangement as represented in the illustration echoes the position of the Ishinde under the opposite tree. Livingstone’s shaded seat signaled his status as a Kololo nduna without seeming disrespectful of the Ishinde. Since the Mambari and Afro-Portuguese traders were present at the reception, it is likely that they also attended the lantern show. The complete darkness of the performance space would have erased their presence, placing the sole focus on the Kololo’s demonstration of technological sophistication.
Sansawe
In Kabompo, tensions between the Kololo and their competition did not have significant ramifications for the lantern show. As they traveled north, this dynamic would change. Chiefs with more authority than the Mambari limited opportunities to discuss the new trade route by refusing to give the Kololo expedition the opportunity to exhibit the lantern. One particularly brusque encounter with a Bashinje chief named Sansawe demonstrates the extent to which the lantern functioned as a catalyst for conversations about trade. Like the Mambari, the Basinje had strong ties to Portuguese slave trade networks on the coast. As middlemen for contact with the to the interior, the new route proposed by the Kololo threatened the profits they made by duping the Lunda into selling ivory for much less than what it was worth. By refusing to see the lantern show and demanding trade goods as toll instead, Sansawe reinserts himself into this trade network and reasserts his value as a member of this pan-African trade system.Livingstone diary and published account of this meeting adopt two very different narrative strategies. Whereas Missionary Travels situates Sansawe’s refusal in superstition, Livingstone’s initial mediation foregrounds the physical danger that the party faced if they could not negotiate an alternate toll.
Journal, 11 November 1853-26 May 1856 | Missionary Travels |
| A formal demand [was] made at midday for a man, an ox, or a tusk, and in the event of refusal we must return whence we have come. We said little to this unreasonable demand, they had most of the speaking to themselves, and at last they rose up and went off to prepare for fighting. In God is our defence. He is our shield of defence. The chief [Sansawe] came in the evening and wished to see me, as he had never seen one of my sort before. I shewed him my hair, he burst into a laugh; then my white skin, the difference between the exposed and unexposed parts struck him with awe; then my watch, and was about to shew him my pocket compass when he desired me not [to], he was afraid of such things. I told him if he knew me as I hoped he would yet, I would have shew him the pictures of the magic lantern. He then desired to leave, as it was getting dark. I left him, and then called our chief spokesman and told him if we did not add a red jacket & a man to our gift we must return by the way we came. I sent a reply to this that tomorrow we should proceed forward, and if he commenced hostilities the guilt would be his before God. My man added of his own accord, ‘How many white men have you killed in his path?’ He left pooh-poohing at my message. The Lord look upon it and defend us.[7] | After being wearied by talking all day to different parties sent by Sansawe, we were honoured by a visit from himself: he is quite a young man, and of rather a pleasing countenance. There cannot have been much intercourse between real Portuguese and these people even here, so close to the Quango, for Sansawe asked me to show him my hair, on the ground that, though he had heard of it, and some white men had even passed through his country, he had never seen straight hair before. This is quite possible, as most of the slave-traders are not Portuguese, but half-castes. The difference between their wool and our hair, caused him to burst into a laugh, and the contrast between the exposed and unexposed parts of my skin, when exhibited in evidence of our all being made of one stock originally, and the children of one Maker, seemed to strike him with wonder. I then showed him my watch, and wished to win my way into his confidence by conversation; but, when about to exhibit my pocket compass, he desired me to desist, as he was afraid of my wonderful things. I told him, if he knew my aims as the tribes in the interior did, and I hoped he would yet know them and me, he would be glad to stay, and see also the pictures of the magic lantern; but, as it was now getting dark, he had evidently got enough of my witchery, and began to use some charms to dispel any kindly feelings he might have found stealing round his heart. He asked leave to go, and when his party moved off a little way, he sent for my spokesman, and told him that, “if we did not add a red jacket and a man, to our gift of a few copper rings and a few pounds of meat, we must return by the way we had come.” I said in reply, “that we should certainly go forward next day, and if he commenced hostilities, the blame before God would be that of Sansawe;” and my man added of his own accord, “How many white men have you killed in this path?” which might be interpreted into, “You have never killed any white man, and you will find ours more difficult to manage than you imagine.” If expressed a determination, which we had often repeated to each other, to die rather than yield one of our party to be a slave.[8] |
Here, Livingstone’s body takes the place of the lantern as the novelty item. Adrian Wisnicki reads this moment as “the somatic means by which [Livingstone] establishes a common identity with Africans.”[9] For Livingstone, this identity was grounded in his theology. Engaging tactity reinforced the doctrine that all were “the children of one Maker” through a shared, embodied experience. However, emphasizing his humanity seems to have had the inadvertent effect of showing Sansawe that he was subject to the same weaknesses as any mere mortal. The passage as a whole, particularly in the diary, remediates the fear that the Kololo expedition would be attacked at any moment. The silliness of the pooh-pooh in the diary contrasts sharply with the multiple invocations of God’s protection. Sansawe's flexing of military prowess through perceived threat gave weight to his demands for more trade goods as the price of passage through his territory.
Though Missionary Travels contains remnants of Livingstone’s fear of being attacked, the comforts of writing at a temporal and geographic distance from these events shifts Livingstone’s focus from the imperilment of the expedition party to Sansawe’s threat to the new trade route. The heavily annotated manuscript page for this portion of Missionary Travels indicates that Livingstone saw Sansawe’s demand for a man and cloth as essential context for the chief’s refusal to see the lantern show.[10] This strategy presents Sansawe’s demonstrations of power as expressions of greed. In the published account, his moral degeneration is further foregrounded by his adherence to superstition. By downplaying the threat that Sansawe’s refusal posed the the Kololo mission, Livingstone emphasizes his own efforts to negotiate passage through his knowledge of African customs and the political savvy of the Kololo and Lozi members of the expedition who were translating on his behalf.
[1] Eric Flint, “Trade and Politics in Barotseland During the Kololo Period,” Journal for African History, vol. 10, no. 1, 1970, p. 73.
[2] The color scheme follows the visual vocabulary of the map seen here.
[3] Schapera notes that Livingstone used a bastardized version of the Afrikaans’ “baster” to refer to people of European and African descent.
[4] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, Isaac Scapera, ed., Chatto & Windus, 1963, p. 57.
[5] Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years’ Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; Thence across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean, John Murray, 1857, accessible via Google Books, p. 290.
[6] Livingstone likely tempered his remarks about the Afro-Portuguese traders after meeting Cypriano di Abreu on the eastern side of the Kwango River in what’s now Angola. Cypriano, an Afro-Portuguese commander of the local militia, gave the Kololo expedition badly needed supplies and a place to rest following their harrowing trek from Kabompo. In addition to an exhibition of the lantern, the meeting represented an exchange of information, particularly linguistic expertise. While at Cypriano’s, Livingstone consulted a Portuguese-Latin dictionary, portions of which he copied into his field notes. Field Notes, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Acc. 10472169. 19 May 2016.
[7] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, pp. 122-123.
[8] Missionary Travels, pp. 362-363.
[9] Adrian S. Wisnicki, “Interstitial Cartographer: David Livingstone and the Invention of South Central Africa.” Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 37, no. 1, 2009, pp. 255–271. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40347223. p. 260.
[10] See p. 21 of the manuscript.
