Chiengi or is a historic

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

boma of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

and today is a settlement in the

Luapula Province Luapula Province is one of Zambia's ten provinces located in the northern part of the country. Luapula Province is named after the Luapula River and its capital is Mansa. As per the 2010 Zambian census, the Province had a population of 991,92 ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

, and headquarters of

Chiengi District Chiengi District with headquarters at Chiengi is the smallest and most northerly district in the Luapula Province of Zambia and was carved out of Nchelenge District after Zambia's independence. As of the 2010 Zambian Census, the district had a popu ...

. Chiengi is in the north-east corner of

Lake Mweru Lake Mweru (also spelled ''Mwelu'', ''Mwero'') is a freshwater lake on the longest arm of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. Located on the border between Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, it makes up of the total length of th ...

, and at the foot of wooded hills dividing that lake from

Lake Mweru Wantipa Lake Mweru Wantipa or Mweru-wa-Ntipa meaning "muddy lake" (also called 'Mweru Marsh') is a lake and swamp system in the Northern Province of Zambia. It has been regarded in the past as something of mystery, displaying fluctuations in water level ...

, and overlooking a

dambo A dambo is a class of complex shallow wetlands in central, southern and eastern Africa, particularly in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. They are generally found in higher rainfall flat plateau areas and have river-like branching forms which in themsel ...

(marshy plain) stretching northwards from the lake, where the Chiengi rivulet (the origin of the name) flows down from the hills.Mr Justice J B Thomson
"Memories of Abandoned Bomas No. 8: Chiengi"
''

Northern Rhodesia Journal The ''Northern Rhodesia Journal'', often referred to simply as "NRJ", was produced between 1950 and 1965, by the Northern Rhodesian Government Printer, to record some of the early history of Northern Rhodesia. It is one of the most important sourc ...

'', Vol II, No. 6, pp67−77 (1954).

History

Pre-colonial history

Chiengi and the area just to its north were ravaged by the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and related

ivory trade The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, African and Asian elephants. Ivory has been traded for hundreds of years by people in Africa and Asia, ...

in the 18th Century. Numerous Arab and Swahili slave traders such as

Tippu Tib Tippu Tip, or Tippu Tib (1832 – June 14, 1905), real name Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī ( ar, حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي), ...

operated around the north end of Lake Mweru, around Lake Mweru Wantipa and over to

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...

Colonial history

Chiengi boma was established during the race between Belgian King Leopold II's

Congo Free State ''(Work and Progress) , national_anthem = Vers l'avenir , capital = Vivi Boma , currency = Congo Free State franc , religion = Catholicism (''de facto'') , leader1 = Leopo ...

and the

British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expecte ...

(BSAC) of

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

to seize Katanga from its king,

Msiri Msiri (c. 1830 – December 20, 1891) founded and ruled the Yeke Kingdom (also called the Garanganze or Garenganze kingdom) in south-east Katanga (now in DR Congo) from about 1856 to 1891. His name is sometimes spelled 'M'Siri' in articles in Fr ...

, in 1890-91.

Alfred Sharpe Sir Alfred Sharpe (19 May 1853 – 10 December 1935) was Commissioner and Consul-General for the British Central Africa Protectorate and first Governor of Nyasaland. He trained as a solicitor but was in turn a planter and a professional hunte ...

was sent to obtain a treaty from Msiri by the BSAC from the British Commissioner's office at Zomba in

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasala ...

in 1890, but he failed. On his way back to Nyasaland in early 1891 he passed the Chiengi rivulet and, since Chief Puta Chipalabwe who reigned as a Chief of the Bwile people between 1879-1909.

Bwile people The Bwile people are an ethnic group that live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia around the northern part of Lake Mweru. The Bwile language was spoken by 12,400 in Luapula Province of Zambia according to the 1969 census, an ...

, to the south, was amenable to a treaty, Sharpe decided to set up a boma there to secure the territory east of Mweru for the BSAC, and to act as a forward base for another attempt to wring a treaty out of Msiri. He left his second-in-command, Captain Crayshaw, with some African troops to build and staff the boma. However, Leopold sent the

Stairs Expedition The Stairs Expedition to Katanga (1891−92), led by Captain William Stairs, was the winner in a race between two imperial powers, the British South Africa Company BSAC and the Congo Free State, to claim Katanga, a vast mineral-rich territory ...

to secure Katanga which they achieved in December 1891 after killing Msiri. On the way back to the east coast of Africa, the Stairs Expedition passed close to Chiengi and exchanged messages with Crayshaw regarding the position of the border dividing CFS and BSAC territory between Lake Mweru and Lake Tanganyika. Chiengi Boma was probably the first colonial post in what was to be called

North-Eastern Rhodesia North-Eastern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in south central Africa formed in 1900.North-Eastern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1900 The protectorate was administered under charter by the British South Africa Company. It was one of what were ...

(it was still referred to as part of ' Zambezia' at the time), and was one of the most remote outposts of the British Empire, a lonely posting which sent more than one colonial officer mad. For a number of years the boma was removed to the Kalungwishi River, and during this period the Belgian colonial authorities in

Pweto Pweto is a town in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the administrative center of Pweto Territory. The town was the scene of a decisive battle in December 2000 during the Second Congo War which resulted ...

, just across the border in DR Congo, controlled the northern end of the lake including the western extremity of Chiengi District, the so-called Lunchinda enclave west of the Lunchinda River. The British then re-established the boma at Chiengi but the eventual outcome of de facto Belgian control of the Lunchinda enclave led to it eventually being ceded to DR Congo by Zambia — see the article on the

Luapula Province border dispute This article deals with the disputed area on the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, in Luapula Province. Origins in the 1894 treaty Zambia's formal northern frontier boundary was legally signed in the Anglo-Belgian Treaty ...

. Chiengi Boma was finally closed in 1933 and superseded by

Kawambwa Kawambwa is a town in the Zambian province of Luapula located on thedge of the northern Zambian plateau above the Luapula valley at an altitude of 1300 m. It was chosen as an administrative district of the same name by the British colonial author ...

and then

Nchelenge Nchelenge is a town in the Luapula Province of northern Zambia, lying on the south eastern shore of Lake Mweru. It is contiguous with Kashikishi, and they are sometimes referred to as Nchelenge-Kashikishi. Nchelenge is the administrative centre ...

bomas. In addition to fishing in the lake, the chief trade of Chiengi in colonial times was in salt, which had been deposited in the dambo by streams running out of the hills, and there was a thriving trade.

History since

Chiengi was restored as a sub-administrative administrative centre under

Nchelenge District Nchelenge District is a district of Zambia, located in the Luapula Province. The capital lies at Nchelenge. As of the 2000 Zambian Census, the district had a population of 111,119 people. Nchelenge is one of the twelve districts of Luapula Prov ...

of independent Zambia in the 1970s and as a full administrative District in the 1990s. The area has been affected by conflict in the Congo several times, most recently in the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...

, when tens of thousands of

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s arrived and were settled in

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

camps in Kawambwa and

Mporokoso Mporokoso (also spelled and pronounced 'Mpolokoso' and 'Mumpolokoso') is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, lying at an elevation of nearly 1500 m on the flat plateau about 75 km south east of Lake Mweru Wantipa and 100 km south-west of ...

Districts. Most of these have been repatriated since the end of that war.Times of Zambia online.
Website accessed 22 April 2007. Reports have also been made of Congolese soldiers harassing Zambians at the border and inside Zambian territory.''The Times of Zambia'' online: "Chienge district still lagging behind" by Austin Kalumba
. Website accessed 22 April 2007. Quote: "The major hindrance has been the bad road which can only be likened to the notorious 1970’s Hell Run."

Roads

Chiengi is reached by a gravel road, frequently impassable in the rainy season, from Nchelenge and Kashikishi {{convert, 100, km south (the same journey can be done by boat). From Chiengi a dirt track runs along the flat northern lake shore to

in DR Congo. A new gravel road has been constructed north-east to the border, around the Chipani Swamp and east to Kasongola from where (in the dry season) tracks connect to Kaputa in Zambia's Northern Province.Google Earth
/ref>

References