Bembe people
The Bembe people are an ethnic group based in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and western Kigoma Region of Tanzania. They live mainly in the territory of Fizi in South Kivu. The Bembe are also in the province of Tanganyika in the city of Kalemie. In 1991, the Bembe population of the DRC was estimated to number 252,000 and around 1.5 million in 2005.
They are representative of many ethnic traditions, including pre-Lega, Boyo-Kunda, Hemba and Bemba.
Cultural region
The Bembe cultural region, historically and ethnographically known as Ubembe, is situated to the west of Lake Tanganyika, encompassing the present-day Fizi Territory and the Itombwe Mountains. The term Ubembe literally denotes "land of the Bembe", and its historic motto, Esse, Ebalo. In the precolonial period, such territorial designations in the Great Lakes region typically began with the prefix U, as seen in names like Uvira, Urega, Ugoma, Ubwari, Ukaramba, Ujiji, and Urundi. In 1883, Captain Edward Coode Hore, a British explorer and the first collector of two of Lake Tanganyika's most notable endemic species, such as Chytra kirkii and Tiphobia horei, applied similar linguistic conventions when studying the "twelve tribes" of the lake. In his work On the Twelve Tribes of Tanganyika, Hore identified Ubembe on his ethnographic map as a territory bordering Umassanze, Uvira, Ukaramba, Ugoma, and Uzige. According to Hore's cartographic observations, Uzige corresponds to modern Bushi, while Uvira aligns with the contemporary Uvira Territory, extending from Ruvenga, Kavimba, and Ruhanga to Bemba. Ubemba stretched from Bemba through Mkabondo's, Ngofi, Kabogi, Mgawezi, and up to the Ruwewa River. Msamsi likely referred to the area extending from the Ruwewa River through Mgamazi to the Mutambara River. Ukaramba appears to correspond to Nemba, Ubwari to Kirira or Mizimu, and Ugoma to Mkanganja. Languages were linguistically classified by prefixing the noun class marker Ki to the root of the respective place names. Thus, Kikongo, Kibembe, Kivira, and Kirundi denoted the languages of the Kongo, Bembe, Vira, and Rundi peoples, respectively. For instance, the Bembe speak Kibembe, the Vira speak Kivira, and the Fuliiru speak Kifuliiru.Early inhabitants
Before the full consolidation of the Bembe settlement, Ubembe was already home to several distinct ethnic groups. The Belgian scholar of Central African art Daniel P. Biebuyck identified among its earliest inhabitants the Babuyu, Basanze, Babwari, Banyindu, Bazoba, Bagoma, Bakalangwa, Bakeci, and Basikamanya. These groups were established long before the arrival of the Bembe and were primarily concentrated along the shores of Lake Tanganyika and its surrounding hinterland. Gradually, as part of the southward Bantu migrations, the Bembe came to dominate the highland and mid-altitude regions of what became known as Ubembe. Scholarly debates arose concerning their origins; Alfred Moeller de Laddersous advanced the claim that Ubembe had originally belonged to the Masanze, alleging that the Babembe were immigrant invaders from Umassanze who had entered from the east. However, subsequent researchers have largely rejected this hypothesis as historically unfounded and ethnologically flawed. The Babembe are of Bantu stock, and both Umasanze and Ubembe were distinct polities, albeit neighbors. Evidence from the Bulletin No. 91 of the Missionaries of Africa supports this distinction, stating:"After having ravaged and depopulated Masanze, the Ubwari Peninsula, part of Ubembe, and Ubujue, the Wangwana of Rumaliza came to establish posts near the missionaries of Kibanga".Such testimony demonstrates that Umassanze and Ubembe were separate entities. The Belgian Society of Engineers and Industrialists also noted:
"On the western shore , there are two clearly distinct races: the Wabembe, southwest of Uvira, who are divided into two groups, the lake Wabembe and the mountain Wabembe, and, at the level and to the west of the Uvira post, the small industrious tribe of the Wavira. All of Bantu blood".
This also confirmed that Bembe migration followed the north–south Bantu route, not an east–west movement, and that their ancestry is shared with neighboring Lega and other Bantu-speaking peoples. Since the east of Fizi-Itombwe borders Lake Tanganyika, it would be illogical to view the Babembe as migrants "from the East", especially given their traditional mountain-dwelling, agricultural, and hunting-based way of life. Le Monde Colonial Illustré described the Wabembe as a people of the "mountains and high plateaus of eastern Congo, who have preserved a more independent and fierce character". Similarly, Father Moinet observed: "The Wayova , quickly became familiar with us, but the Wabembe still keep their distance. The latter form a formidable population living a little further west, in the mountains".
Claims that the Babembe were refugees displaced by the "Babingas", a group with no verified existence in Congolese ethnography, or that Fizi-Itombwe was uninhabited until the seventeenth century, are unfounded. Such theories, advanced by Willemart and later echoed by Moeller, were contradicted by earlier missionary and explorer reports. Father Henri Delaunay, one of the founders of the Catholic Mission of Lweba, described Ubembe as "a very populous and very fertile land". Likewise, J. B. Eyriès and Malte-Brun enumerated Ubembe's neighboring populations: the Wawira, the Wasenze, the Wagoma to the south, and further on, the Waguhha, Wat'hembye, and Wukatete or Wakadete. Missionary correspondence from 25 November 1880, five years before the Berlin Conference, records that the fathers traveling from Urundi reached Massanze, separated from Ubembe by a chain of hills. A report in La Croix placed Ubembe "to the west, from Kuyala up to the heights of Ouzighé ", describing the region as stretching "over a length of at least one hundred and fifty kilometers, running along the lake with a chain of high mountains". Other additional details on Ubembe's boundaries, stated that Ubembe was situated between "the coal basin of the Lukuga " and the "crystalline zone of Kivu-Tanganyika".
Social structure, colonial partition, and cultural geography
According to Father Isaac Moinet, the Babembe were a "formidable, energetic, and tenacious population". Their unity and strength, however, became a source of anxiety for colonial authorities. Ubembe persisted until 1899, when the Congo Free State established what would later be known as the Kalembelembe post. In 1900, an administrator named Foebel officially founded the Kalembelembe post in the Ngandja Sector, which became the first permanent administrative station in the region. Oral traditions recount that the name Kalembelembe originated from a distortion of a term in the Bembe language. The Belgians are said to have attributed this name to the village of Elekya. At the time, Kilicha was under the rule of Mlela Ebu'ela, known by his title Changuvu, a prominent ally of the Dhanis Column revolts. After killing two Belgian envoys sent to negotiate peace, Mlela refused to attend the meeting convened by the Force Publique. Unbeknownst to him, his brother M'banduci, known as Sawasawa, chose to attend in his place, seeking reconciliation since the Babembe had endured wars and near-extinction since 1820. During the encounter, Sawasawa surrendered the weapons abandoned by the mutineers and declared, "Tunapenda Kalembe". From this declaration, the term Kalembelembe, signifying "abundant peace", was born.By 1908, the colonial administration formally recognized and appointed several local chiefs: Kalembelembe, Ngalula and Ilinda, Yambayamba, Kasangala, Penge, and Yahonda. In 1909, additional chiefs were appointed, including Mukuku, Sibacwa, Mboko, Mwezi, Lisasi, and 'Abonga. The Eloco chiefdom was also transferred from the Kalembelembe Sector to Baraka. According to Congolese historian Philbert Bilombele Asukulu, on 5 October 1910, Kalembelembe was subdivided into twenty-one chiefdoms: Babuyu, Kabalaka, Kabonga, Kilenge, Kilozo, Kisaoko, Lisase, Lukandamiza, Mwenelubanda, Mangilwa, Milingita, Mulamba, Mshingelwa, Mkuku, Mvano, Mwezi, Nundu, Pole, Shibatchwa, Sumahili, and Tembele. Around this period, monetary circulation was introduced in the region. Chief Esale and the Basi'm'mindje community subsequently migrated from the Mutambala Valley, where they had resided since the Bingya wars, to the interior highlands of Itombwe.
On 15 April 1926, a decree was issued stipulating that territorial entities of the Belgian Congo were to bear the names of their predominant ethnic groups. Consequently, the Kalembelembe Territory, literally meaning "Abundant Peace", was redesignated as the Territory of the Babembe on 1 October 1926. The administrative center retained the name Kalembelembe until the decree of 5 February 1935 officially renamed it Fizi Territory. In 1937, Fizi Territory was subdivided into five sectors: Itombwe, Lulenge, Mutambala, Ngandja, and Tanganyika. Present-day Ubembe encompasses two administrative entities: the Fizi Territory and the Itombwe Sector, the latter having been incorporated into Mwenga Territory on 31 December 1947. The annexation of Itombwe to Mwenga Territory occurred without the consent of the Babembe population, who sought to preserve their unity. Instead, they were divided; some aligned administratively with the Lega in Mwenga Territory, and others with Zoba in Fizi Territory. This division engendered irredentist sentiments among the Babembe, whose aspiration for reunification persisted long after colonial restructuring.
Ubembe's mountainous landscapes, interspersed with fertile valleys, allowed for a mixed economy of agriculture, hunting, and trade. The Babembe developed a reputation as proud mountaineers, fiercely protective of their autonomy.