African Kingdoms

Bangassou (Islamic Sultanate) (Africa)
c.AD 1880 - 1917

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The pre-history of Africa covers a long and uncertain stretch of unrecorded history. Much of this involves a great deal of uncertainty which can only be understood through archaeology. Even the 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. A collection of sultanates emerged in the eighteenth century, across the area which today is partially covered by Central African Republic (or CAR) and Chad to its north. The sultans here ruled large conquered populations in the north and east of CAR, usually as dependencies of larger sultanates to the north.

The title of sultan was later confirmed by colonial 'Congo Free State' agents for local rulers in Bangassou, Rafaï, and Zémio, in the early 1890s. These sultanates included the famous slave-trader, Muhammad al-Sanusi of Dar al-Kuti, along with the sultans Labasso of Bangassou, Hetman of Rafaï, and Zémio of the state of the same name, all heads of conquering minor dynasties.

Bangassou was descended from a Bandia clan state which was set up along the River Ubangi in the late seventeenth century. The region was only recently being settled by various groups which were arriving from all directions, usually due to pressures in their former homelands. They fell under the domination of the Vou-Kpata until a Bandia chief by the name of Ndounga defeated them and founded an Nzakara state to the south of the River Ubangi.

The conquered populations were mainly Adamawa-Ubangi-speaking peoples such as the Banda (or Bandia) and the Zande-Nzakara in eastern CAR. They had previously lived in stateless societies without hereditary or paramount chiefs. The Gbaya (including the Mandjia) in the centre and west, and the riverine peoples along the Ubangi (or Oubangui) and Mbomou in the south had no hereditary chiefs either.

(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).)

c.1878/90 - 1907

Son of Mbali of Nzakara. Created the sultanate. Died 8 June.

c.1878 - 1890

Mbali-Gbandi of the Nzakara of the Ubangi clan state is father to Bangassou. He, though, is not the rightful successor. Instead he has to use trickery or force to gradually eliminate all members of his family who still hold territories in order to unify the country and hold sole power.

This photo postcard of 1910 shows a Banziri village on the banks of the Ubangi (Oubangui), part of the riverine Banziri territory along a two hundred kilometre-long coastline between the Mokwangay rapids and the mouth of the Ouaka (or Kouango) on both sides of the Ubangi, a very different life from that of their High Nile origins, with settlement taking place in Kouango in the sixteenth century

He also has to defend the Nzakara against the slave-trading Rabah 'the Conquerer' who is building a small Zobier empire in Ouaddal, to the west, starting in 1879 before he turns his attention towards the fading Bornu empire in the north.

1889

In the work of Anne Retel-Laurentin which is devoted to the Nzakara (see Jean-Noël Biraben's examination in the sources), one of the last blank spots is examined on the map of Africa. Nzakara territory amounts to about forty-five thousand square kilometres at this time, all of which is ruled by Bangassou.

Since about 1860 it has largely been circumvented by travellers and explorers, or crossed only at one of its extremities. No European has purposefully visited it until now, when Belgians arrive from the south, from the 'Congo Free State'.

1890 - 1892

Sultan Bangassou appears at Yakoma on 14 June 1890. This outpost belongs to the Belgian king, Leopold II, and his holdings in Belgian Congo. Bangassou signs a treaty with Captain Alphonse Vangèle which places his kingdom under the protection of the 'Congo Free State'.

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)

Bangassou facilitates the expansion of King Leopold's empire and delivers enormous quantities of ivory to his company agents. The sultan is therefore able to acquire fifteen hundred guns with which he is able to reinforce his army.

1892 - 1895

French explorers progress up the River Ubangi to arrive in Bangassou in 1892 and occupy its western areas as part of what will become 'French Equatorial Africa'. An 1894 agreement between the Belgians and the French confirm the Ubangi as the limit of their zones of influence.

Between 20 January-5 February 1895 the Belgians withdraw in favour of the French, and Bangassou becomes subject to French controls from their colony of 'Upper Ubangi'.

1900 - 1907

With the arrival of concessionary societies in 1900, Sultan Bangassou rapidly loses power. Then he is fatally injured during an elephant hunt, passing away in the presence of France's Captain Jules Jacquier, the true source of authority in the region.

Spahis formed light cavalry regiments for the French armed forces during the Great War, being recruited from as far afield as Algeria, Tunisia, and Turkey, with a regiment of them surviving in today's French armed forces (albeit with horses swapped for tanks)

1902 - 1904

Son and heir. Died 1904.

1907

With Bangassou's designated heir, Mbali, already dead in 1904, the council of chiefs designates as Bangassou's successor Labasso, a half-blind leper. He is opposed until 1909 by Bangassou-Kété.

1907 - 1917

Elected successor. Ruled until 18 February.

1909

Governor Merwart signs a new protectorate treaty with Sultan Labasso on 23 February 1909, and signs a similar agreement with Rafaï in the following month. In the summer of 1909, Governor Merwart fixes a definitive frontier between the two sultanates, no doubt to avoid conflict between the two.

1917

Elected successor. Arrested and not allowed to rule.

1917

Upon the death of its last formal ruler and the imprisonment under house arrest of his successor, Bozanga, the sultanate of Bangassou is suppressed by the French. The title is still claimed by the royal family and this family retains a very limited, informal degree of authority.

By 1919, with the conclusion of the First World War, the African colonies found themselves being exploited for their resources more intensely than ever before

The sultanate comes under direct French administration within 'French Equatorial Africa' as part of their protectorate, although post-incorporation details appear to be thin on the ground.

1917 - 1932

Weak successor. Died without having produced an heir.

1932 - 1936

Jailed and deposed by the French.

1936

Elected sultan in a restoration project which was abandoned.

1936 - 1966

Légion d'honneur. Territorial councillor 1952-1957.

1958 - 1960

'French Equatorial Africa' is dissolved as the republics become autonomous. Full independence from France is achieved in 1960. Dar al-Kuti's former ruling family remain prominent, holding positions of authority by 1974, but that of Bangassou seemingly fades into the background.

After becoming newly-independent Central African Republic's first elected president, David Dacko (here seated, left, alongside President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi of Israel) took the country towards a dictatorship before being deposed, only to return to head a democratic government in 1979

Ubangi-Shari, which had been a colonial creation and which consists of territory between the Ubangi and Chari rivers, forms the core of a new state which also absorbs the former territory of Bangassou, Dar al-Kuti, Rafaï, and Zémio. The new state is to be known as Central African Republic.