| Firearms—Social aspects—Africa, Central—History.
Classification: LCC U897.A352 M33 2016 | DDC 683.400967—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046077
ISBN 9780821445556 (e-book)
FOR DAVINA
“We don’t follow no crowd / They follow us”
Contents
Introduction. Firearms and the History of Technology in Africa
Chapter 1. Power and International Trade in the Savanna
PART II. GUNS AND SOCIETY ON THE UPPER ZAMBEZI AND IN KATANGA
Chapter 2. The Domestication of the Musket on the Upper Zambezi
Chapter 3. The Warlord’s Muskets: The Political Economy of Garenganze
Chapter 4. Gun Societies Undone?: The Effects of British and Belgian Rule
PART III. RESISTING GUNS IN EASTERN ZAMBIA AND MALAWI
Chapter 5. “They Disdain Firearms”: The Relationship between Guns and the Ngoni
Chapter 6. Of “Martial Races” and Guns: The Politics of Honor to the Early Twentieth Century
Conclusion. Gun Domestication in Historical Perspective
Illustrations
FIGURES
0.1. Homemade poupous, Bunkeya, DR Congo
2.1. Lazarina, Musée Royal de l’Armée, Brussels, Belgium
2.2. Lazarina, Musée Royal de l’Armée, Brussels, Belgium (detail)
2.3. Firearms, Livingstone Museum, Livingstone, Zambia
4.1. Ovimbundu trading caravan, c. 1890
4.2. Two homemade poupous, Bunkeya, DR Congo
5.1. Members of a youthful Ngoni regiment
6.1. “Barotse Native Policeman outside hut, with kit laid out for inspection. Kalomo. 1905.”
MAPS
1.1. The central savanna, c. 1800
1.2. Main nineteenth-century trade routes
2.1. The Upper Zambezi in the nineteenth century
3.1. Southern Katanga in the late nineteenth century
5.1. Eastern Zambia and Malawi in the late nineteenth century
Acknowledgments
Considering the increasingly marginal status of precolonial African historiography in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the curiosity sparked by this book came as a pleasant surprise. I am indebted to the following Africanists for taking the trouble to comment on sections of the manuscript: David Birmingham, Paul la Hausse de Lalouvière, John Iliffe, Dirk Jaeger, Bill Nasson, Andrew Roberts, Ken Vickery, and, especially, Jean-Luc Vellut. Not only did I learn a great deal from Jean-Luc’s own work on the subject of firearms in central Africa, but he was also generous enough to put me in touch with Paul Dubrunfaut, the supremely knowledgeable keeper of firearms at the Musée Royal de l’Armée, Brussels. Needless to say, none of these scholars ought to be held responsible for any errors and/or misconceptions that remain in the book despite their much appreciated cooperation.
Other colleagues contributed in less direct but still invaluable ways. Bill Storey kindly participated in a conference I co-organized in Canterbury in May 2011. Although our approaches to the history of firearms in Africa are far from identical, I readily admit to having been initially much influenced by his Guns, Race and Power in Colonial South Africa. Achim von Oppen, the author of an important and original study of the upper Zambezi and Kasai region, Terms of Trade and Terms of Trust, graciously allowed me to use one of his splendid photographs for the cover of this book. Ray Abrahams, Jeff Hoover, Martin Walsh, Judith Weik, and Samba Yonga helped me with their linguistic expertise. Hugh Macmillan, John McCracken, and Kings Phiri pointed me in the direction of fundamental sources in Scotland, where I also benefited from the hospitality of, and discussions with, Tom Molony. In Lubumbashi, Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu and Léon Verbeek showed a keen interest in my project and, alongside Pierre Kalenga and Liévain Mwangal, went out of their way to facilitate it. Doing research in my adoptive country, Zambia, is a rather easier proposition than in the Congo. Not its least attractive feature is the extensive support network on which I am able to rely. Marja Hinfelaar, Bizeck J. Phiri, and Mauro Sanna have always been the most dependable of friends. Institutionally, both the National Archives of Zambia and the Livingstone Museum have invariably done their best to accommodate all of my research requirements. In Livingstone, special thanks must go to the then keeper of history, Friday Mufuzi,
