7. Arab incursions into the Eastern Congo

thehistoryofthecongo

In this Episode we see Tippu Tip and the Arab traders, after exhausting the Elephant herds in today's Tanzania, journey West across Lake Tanganyika into the Eastern Congo. Ever in need of more ivory they were drawn all the way to the Lualaba River.

They met the the Tabwe, the Lunda, the Warua, the Bemba and perhaps documented the first ever written description of the Luba heartland. These peoples were connected by pan-continental trade routes at the end of the 19th Century.

Through trickery, alliances and ultimately firepower however they became subdued by Tip and his forces. The Arab traders became the rulers of vast swathes of land, with little interest beyond resources.

But still the odd European travelers kept coming ...