Ngongo Lutete (or Gongo Lutete or Ngongo Leteta) was a
Congolese leader and chieftain during the late 19th century.
Biography
As a boy Ngongo Lutete was enslaved by Arabs, but after winning his freedom he became a respected leader of the
Batetela and Bakussu tribes in the Congo.
Ngongo Lutete gained control of the region around
Ngandu on the upper
Lomani River.
In 1886, he joined forces with the Arab slave trader
Tippu Tip
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), ...
near
Stanley Falls, where Tip was organizing resistance to
Leopold II's
Congo Free State.
On his expedition to Katanga,
Alexandre Delcommune
Alexandre Delcommune (6 October 1855 – 7 August 1922) was a Belgian officer of the armed '' Force Publique'' of the Congo Free State who undertook extensive explorations of the country during the early colonial period of the Congo Free State. ...
was given a magnificent reception at Ngandu by Ngongo between 2 May and 18 May 1891.
When the
Congo Arab war began, Ngongo Lutete and his people fought for the Arabs initially, under the command of Tippu Tip's son
Sefu bin Hamid.
However, the Arabs failed to pay Lutete for his allegiance and also for some ivory which he had provided for them.
After losing a series of engagements with
Francis Dhanis, late in 1892 he changed sides and was accepted as an ally by the Belgians.
This infuriated Sefu, who sent the Free State a message demanding that they surrender Lutete to him and threatening to drive his forces all the way to
Stanleyville in the western Congo if they did not comply.
Ngongo Lutete fought for the Free State until September 1893, when he was accused of plotting to betray the Free State and executed.
Lutete was executed after a drumhead court-martial chaired by a young Belgian lieutenant at which no credible evidence was presented.
One story says that Ngongo had had his lieutenant, a
Songye, killed for some offense. Other Songyes complained to the whites, presumably convincing them of treachery.
The story went on to say that the whites tied Ngongo up and fired at him all day without injuring him. It was only when they removed his amulets and fired into his ear, as directed by a
Luba
Luba may refer to:
Geography
*Kingdom of Luba, a pre-colonial Central African empire
* Ľubá, a village and municipality in the Nitra region of south-west Slovakia
*Luba, Abra, a municipality in the Philippines
*Luba, Equatorial Guinea, a town ...
magician, that the spirits who had been protected him left and he died.
The soldiers he had brought over to the Belgians considered the trial to be a miscarriage of justice, and in 1895 they
mutinied
Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among members ...
at
Luluabourg and killed their Belgian commander.
References
Sources
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1863 births
1893 deaths
People from Sankuru
Tetela people
History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
People executed by the Congo Free State
People executed by Belgium by firing squad
Executed Democratic Republic of the Congo people
19th-century executions by Belgium
Arabian slaves and freedmen
19th-century slaves
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