Giacomo Macola - The Gun in Central Africa: A History of Technology and Politics

The Gun in Central Africa

NEW AFRICAN HISTORIES

SERIES EDITORS: JEAN ALLMAN, ALLEN ISAACMAN, AND DEREK R. PETERSON

Books in this series are published with support from the Ohio University Center for International Studies.

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The Gun in Central Africa

A History of Technology and Politics

Giacomo Macola

OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

ATHENS, OHIO

Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

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2016 by Ohio University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Macola, Giacomo, author.

Title: The gun in central Africa : a history of technology and politics / Giacomo Macola.

Other titles: New African histories series.

Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2016. | Series: New African histories

Identifiers: LCCN 2015046077| ISBN 9780821422113 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821422120 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821445556 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: FirearmsAfrica, CentralHistory. | FirearmsSocial aspectsAfrica, CentralHistory.

Classification: LCC U897.A352 M33 2016 | DDC 683.400967dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046077

ISBN 9780821445556 (e-book)

FOR DAVINA

We dont follow no crowd / They follow us

Contents

Illustrations

FIGURES

MAPS

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 Lalouvire, 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-Lucs 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 Muse Royal de lArme, 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 Lon Verbeek showed a keen interest in my project and, alongside Pierre Kalenga and Livain 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, who, alongside Flexon Mizinga, the secretary of the Zambian National Museums Board, granted me permission to view and photograph some of the firearms held at the Livingstone Museum.