History of Central Africa






Msiri's Kingdom



M'SIRI was born around 1830 as the son of Mazwiri-Kalasa, an Arabized Wanyanwezi chief, near Tabora in Unyamwezi country. Mazwiri-Kalasa was engaged in the East African caravan trade between the copper-producing stretches of what is presently referred to as Katanga and the East Coast. M'siri established the blood brotherhood with many chiefs necessary to enter the caravan trade and got control of a good share of the Katanga trade. Accumulated amounts of copper and ivory, as well as slaves, enabled him to obtain rifles and powder, and to purchase women (to be married to his men). His arsenal of rifles allowed him to undertake his own slave-raiding expeditions, and in the end M'siri founded his own Kingdom (c. 1856) based on the export of copper, ivory and slaves and the import of rifles and gunpowder; his wealth gave him the edge over competitors.
He stopped the southward expansion of the BALUBA; at c. 1868 Msiri was in control of what is Katanga to the east of the Lualaba. M'siri established his capital at BOUNKEYA, with a population of over 10,000. Copper was mainly traded on a caravan route leading west to Bihe (Angola), the other route M'siri's Kingdom depended upon lead eastward via Udjidji or Karema and his native Tabora toward Zanzibar.
Just before the arrival of the Belgian expeditions (April 1891 : Lemarinel, Oct. 1891 : Delcommune) the Basanga, inhabitants of the main copper producing areas, revolted. M'siri was killed on Dec. 20th by a member of the Stairs expedition; M'siri's Kingdom was replaced by the Bayeke kingdom of Garenganze which came to be called KATANGA; M'siri's capital Bounkeya reverted to a small village.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Review of Victorian Explorer: The African Diaries of Captain William G. Stairs, 1887-1892, edited by Janina M. Konczacki by William Denton
DOCUMENTS site
REFERENCE Le Royaume de M'siri, from Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Congo, Paris 1970, pp.55-59



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 6th 2004

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