Early Congolese History - Yeke Kingdom

Yeke Kingdom

The Yeke Kingdom (or Garanganze Kingdom) in Katanga was short-lived, existing from about 1856 to 1891 under one king, Msiri, a Nyamwezi (also known as 'Yeke') from Tabora in Tanzania who got himself appointed as successor to a Wasanga chief west of the Luapula River by defeating the chief's Lunda enemies. Once installed he conquered the neighbouring tribes and expanded the chieftainship into a kingdom, taking over the western territory of Mwata Kazembe and subjugating tribes in the southwest, on the trading route to Angola. When King Leopold II of Belgium and the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes heard that the Yeke Kingdom controlled east-west trade and was rich in copper and possibly gold, they sent competing expeditions to try to obtain a treaty for the kingdom. The Stairs Expedition sent by Leopold under the flag of his Congo Free State was the winner of this scramble for Katanga when it killed Msiri (putting his head on a pole as a 'lesson' to his people), and installed a successor who would sign Katanga over to Leopold. The chieftainship continues to this day under the title Mwami Mwenda ('Mwenda' was one of Msiri's names).