Bena Makima is a community in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. It is on the right bank of the Kasai River, a few kilometers downstream from the point where the

Lulua River Lulua River is a river in the Congo basin in Africa situated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a right tributary of the Kasai River The Kasai River ( ; called Cassai in Angola) is a tributary (left side) of the Congo River, located ...

enters the Kasai. It is at the highest navigable point on the Kasai in the dry season. Bena Makima was situated within the territory of the Kuba Kingdom. It was a post of the

Compagnie du Kasai The Compagnie du Kasai (Kasai Company) was a Belgian company established to exploit the resources of the Kasai River basin in the Congo Free State. At first it was mainly involved in harvesting wild rubber, but later moved into palm oil and mining ...

(CK). The post was a trading center, one of the locations to which the

Zappo Zap The Zappo Zap were a group of Songye people from the eastern Kasaï region in what today is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They acted as allies of the Congo Free State authorities, while trading in ivory, rubber and slaves. In 1899 they were ...

s brought their ivory and rubber. Early in the 1900s a residence of the Catholic Prefecture Apostolic of Upper Kassai was established at Bena Makima.Catholic Encyclopedia The Presbyterian missionaries led by William Morrison had asked to be allowed to establish a mission there, but were refused. The company began a rubber plantation at Bena Makima in October 1904. In a unique arrangement, four missionaries of the order of

Scheut fathers The CICM Missionaries officially named as the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( la, Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae) abbreviated C.I.C.M, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men established in ...

took charge of planting rubber and of gathering wild rubber in exchange for having their goods transported at no charge on the steamer from

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

Luebo Luebo or Lwebo is a town (officially a commune) of Kasai Province in south-central Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also the seat of the territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to ...

. The missionaries ran the plantation using bonded Luba laborers, former slaves from eastern and central Kasai who had recently been liberated. On 5 November 1904 the post was attacked by the Kuba. The Europeans managed to drive off the attackers with the help of their foreign workers, and were relieved on 9 November by soldiers of the

Force Publique The ''Force Publique'' (, "Public Force"; nl, Openbare Weermacht) was a gendarmerie and military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885 (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of ...

led by De Cock and Hubin, who arrived from the east. With construction of the railway Bena Makima lost its importance as a transshipment point in the dry season, and after 1928 became less and less important.

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* * * * * {{refend Populated places in Kasaï Province