African Kingdoms

Bandia of the Chinko (Bandia Clan State) (Africa)

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The pre-history of Africa contains a far longer period of human habitation than any other area on Earth, thanks to it being the cradle of humankind's evolution. Much of this pre-history involves a great deal of uncertainty in which small windows of opportunity to view events can be gained through archaeology. Even more recent prehistory is shrouded in uncertainty, requiring analysis and archaeology to help define it.

Central Africa was poorly defined as a region until the creation of colonial-era territories in the eighteenth century. Before that at least parts of it appear to have been virgin territory, with no recent occupation. A collection of sultanates emerged across the area which today is partially covered by Central African Republic (or CAR) and to its north, but prior to that there was a period of almost two centuries of gradual, increasing movement into the area.

These people were generally Adamawa-Ubangi-speaking peoples such as the Banda (or Bandia) and the Zande-Nzakara (or Azande and Nzakara) in eastern CAR. They settled in largely stateless societies without hereditary or paramount chiefs. The Gbaya (including the Mandjia) in the centre and west of CAR, and the riverine peoples along the River Ubangi (or Oubangui) and River Mbomou in the south had no hereditary chiefs either.

They had leaders of different forms such as clan leaders, hamlet headmen, and temporary war chiefs to lead warriors in battle, but no titled rulers with hereditary authority. The Bandia were pushed westwards by Nilo-Hamitic Sudanese peoples, at least partially of the Funj sultanate which faced internal and external disruptions of its own.

Bantu peoples were also arriving from the west, with others approaching from the south. Others still, under pressure from the Ngombe, were arriving from the south-west. More Sudanese joined this melange a little later, driven out by the Shilluk and the Dinka of Bahr-el-Gazal. The initially-dominant Vou-Kpata were related to these two groups.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Richard A Bradshaw & Juan Fandos-Rius, by Doctor Jean Kokide (University of Bangui), from Monographie du Dar-Kouti-Oriental, Edmond A J Boucher (Typescript, 1934, copied and updated from the original by Pierre Claustre), from Dar al-Kuti and the Last Years of the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade, Denis D Cordell (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), from Un ancien royaume Bandia du Haut-Oubangui, Eric de Dampierre (Plon, Paris, 1967), from Central African Republic, Pierre Kalck (Praeger Publishers, 1971), from Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic, Pierre Kalck( Third Edition, Scarecrow Press, 2005), from Un explorateur du centre de l'Afrique, Paul Crampel (1864-1891), Pierre Kalck (L'Harmattan, Paris, 1993), from The New Atlas of African History, G S P Freeman-Grenville (Rex Collins, London, 1991), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Central African Republic (World Statesmen), and Anne Retel-Laurentin et les Nzakara, Jean-Noël Biraben (Cahiers d'Études Africaines, Vol 27, Notebook 105/106, Démographie Historique, 1987, pp 187-197, and available via JSTOR).)

by c.1800

Founder of a Bandia clan state along the River Chinko.

by c.1800

Northern areas of Central Africa have recently become increasingly drawn into larger states, mainly sultanates which are influenced by Sudan and the sub-Saharan Islamic holdings. The Bandia clan state of Nzakara is formed along the Ubangi between about 1780-1800 following a defeat of the former Nzakara overlords, the Vou-Kpata.

In the eighteenth century Central African Republic region the Azande were to be found in the Chinko or Singo valley and the Mbomou valley, which corresponds to the later sultanates of Rafaï and Zémio

Within no more than two decades of this, a clan leader by the name of Kassanga - possibly a local warlord or an exile, and ostensibly the brother of Ndounga of the Ubangi Nzakara - is forming his own state to the east of this. By about 1800 he is ruler of a clan state along the Chinko river valley which can be termed the Bandia of the Chinko.

Son.

c.1810 - ?

Son?

? - c.1875

Son?

c.1875 - 1886

Brother? Abandoned Chinko area to found Rafaï sultanate.

1886

Rafai abandons his domains between the Chinko and the Moï rivers due to the Mahdist advance. He and his people make their way south where they are able to conquer much of the Djabir state and establish a royal court not far from that of the former Djabir rulers. This forms the basis of the Rafaï sultanate.

Central Africa in 1897 was a land of uncertain, shifting borders, with small states expanding to incorporate previously stateless tribal societies (click or tap on map to view full sized)