THE USE OF ARABIC AS A WRITTEN LANGUAGE IN CENTRAL AFRICA

SudanicAfrica,15,2004,145-177

THEUSEOFARABICASAWRITTENLANGUAGEINCENTRALAFRICA

THECASEOFTHEUELEBASIN(NORTHERNCONGO)INTHELATENINETEENTHCENTURY

XAVIERLUFFIN

When the Europeans arrived in what would become theCongo Free State (Etat Indépendant du Congo, EIC), nowtheDemocraticRepublicofCongo,inthelastdecadesofthenineteenthcentury,theIslamicinfluencewaspresentintwodifferentareas: theeasternpart of Congo, and thenorthernpart.Somestudieshavealreadyunderlined the influenceofthe Arab and Swahili culture on the society of EasternCongo.Butfewstudiesareconcernedwith theinfluenceofArabcultureinNorthernCongo.Thisarticleintendstoshowthis impact through a phenomenon which is of particularimportance:theuseofArabicasawrittenlanguageinwhatwasthencalledthe‘AzandeSultanates’,intheUeleBasinatthe edge of the Congo Free State, between Sudan and theFrenchcolonialterritories.

The letters which are analysed here brings a new lighton this area at various levels: the nature of the relationsbetweentheEuropeanofficersandtheAzande1sultans,theirmeans of intercommunication, direct references to somehistorical facts—such as trade, slavery and the presence oftheArabs—andfinallythelinguisticsituationatthisperiod.2

1 AzandeisthepluralformofZande.2 IamgratefultoJessicaAlampay,whokindlyandcarefullycorrected

theEnglishversionof thistext,and toIsmaelTaha,whohelpedmetounderstandsomeSudanesecolloquialexpressions.

146 XAVIERLUFFIN

HistoricalBackground

TheAzandeland,especiallytheUele-BomuareaThe documents presented in this article are related to theHistoryof theAzandesultanates.mainly located inwhat isnowtheUeleprovince,inthenorth-eastoftheDRC,aswellas in parts of southern Sudan and the Central AfricanRepublic.The termAzande includes theAzandeproper,aswellasotherpopulations,suchastheAbandiya,theAmadi,the Avungara, all of whom became culturally andlinguisticallydominatedbytheAzande.

Most scholars who have written about Azande cultureandhistoryhavedescribedindetailtherelationsbetweentheAzandeandneighbouringpeoples,suchastheAvukaya,theAmadior theBaka.On theotherhand,thesescholarsoftenconsider the cultural relations between the Arabs and theMuslim Africans before the arrival of the Europeans asalmostirrelevant,duetotherelativelyrecentnatureofthesecontacts. Baxter and Butt, for instance, state that ‘ArabinfluenceonZandehasbeenonlyindirect’.3Ceulemans,too,considers that ‘[in the Northern Congo] the Sudanese andthe Mahdist influence was non-existent’.4 The generalreference works on the history of Congo often ignore theArab-Islamicpresenceinthearea.5

However,otherauthorshaveunderlinedtheexistenceofrelationships between Azande and Arabs. In the nineteenthcentury, Schweinfurth, Casati and Landeroin presentedmanyinterestingdetailsonthistopic.LotarandMuller,whodescribe the first contacts between the Azande sultans and

3 P.T.W. Baxter, & A. Butt, The Azande and Related Peoples of the

Anglo-EgyptianSudanandBelgianCongo,London1953,23.4 R.P.P. Ceulemans, ‘L’introduction de l’influence de l’Islam au

Congo’,inI.M.Lewis(ed.),IslaminTropicalAfrica,London1966,176.

5 R. Cornevin, Histoire du Congo-Léopoldville, Paris 1966, and I.NdaywelèNziem,HistoiregénéraleduCongo.Del’héritageancienàlaRépubliquedémocratique,Paris-Brussels1998,202f.

THEUSEOFARABICINCENTRALAFRICA 147

theCongoFreeState,oftenquote thepresenceofArabs inthe area, or the use of Arabic among the Azande.Unfortunately, their books concentrate on the historicalevents and not on the cultural background of the peoplelivinginNorthernCongo.Inthepostcolonialperiod,Evans-Pritchardoftengives informationabout this topic,asdodeDampierre as well as Thuriaux-Hennebert, who publisheddetailed research on the political relations between ZandeandArabs.6

Thearrivalofthe‘Arabs’inthearea

It seems that the Arabs had not established meaningfulcontactsintheAzandeterritorieslongbefore1860.7Atthistime, some traders came from the Sudan, mainly to buyslaves and ivory. It seems that many of these traders wereNubians—and the Western sources often use the termNubian or Nubian traders to describe them. The nature oftherelationshipbetweentheAzandechiefsandthosetradersvaried from one chief to another. Some of them, likeNgange,decidedtohaveopencommercialrelationswiththeSudanese traders.HisbrotherSurūr,whohadbeenbroughtupby‘Abdal-Ṣamad,aSudanese trader,workedunder theorders of this merchant.8 Bazingbi, a Zande chief, evenmarried his daughter to Idrīs, an Arab trader,9 and so didTikima,whomarriedoneofhisdaughterstoZubayr,aJaʿālīArab educated in Khartoum.10 But others like Ndoruma orWando fought them fiercely, so that the traders had to

6 E.E.Evans-Pritchard,TheAzande.HistoryandPoliticalInstitutions,

Oxford1971;E.deDampierre,UnancienroyaumeBandiaduHaut-Oubangui,Paris1967;andA.Thuriaux-Hennebert,LesZandedansl’HistoireduBahrelGhazaletdel’Equatoria,Brussels1964.

7 Evans-Pritchard,Azande,70.8 Thuriaux-Hennebert,Zande,34.9 Evans-Pritchard,Azande,1971,290f.10 R.Gray,AHistoryoftheSouthernSudan.1839-1889,Oxford1961,

69.

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establish small fortified villages, the zarāʾib (the singular,zarībaisoftenusedinWesternsources).11

In the1870s, theEgyptiangovernmentdecided togainrealcontroloftheBaḥral-Ghazālandoftheactivitiesoftheslave and ivory traders. It sent its representatives to thisprovince. Some of the Azande chiefs, like Tikima, Sasa,Zemio, Wando, became the allies—or vassals—of thetraders. Around the year 1880, many Azande chiefs, likeNdoruma, Sasa, Zemio and Rafay, agreed to be at theservice of the Egyptian government—represented by Euro-peanofficerslikeLuptonBeyandGessi—partlyinordertofighttheslaveraiders.

In 1881, the Mahdi rose up against the EgyptiangovernmentinSudan.Thiseventhadasignificantimpactinthe area since the Sudan was divided into two camps: theMahdists and the Egyptian government. This oppositionoccurred in the Baḥr al-Ghazāl and in the Uele Basin aswell. The Arab presence did not cease but it did becomeweaker, so that most of the Azande sultans becameindependent of both the Egyptian government and theMahdists.

TherelationsbetweentheAzandechiefsandtherepresentativesoftheCongoFreeState

ItseemsthatKingLeopoldIIfirstthoughtofoccupyingtheUeleareain1886,fearingthatthepoliticalinstabilityintheBaḥr al-Ghazāl may have an influence on the Congo FreeState and that the Sudanese slave-traders, coming from thenorth, would go deeper into the country and join the Araband Swahili traders based at the Stanley Falls, nowKisangani.12 In January 1888, Vangèle explored the Bomuandapartof theUelerivers.Thesameyear,KingLeopold

11 Thuriaux-Hennebert,Zande,36.12 R.P.L.Lotar,Lagrandechroniquedel’Uele,Brussels1946,5.


IIdecided tocreate anewdistrict in theCongoFreeState:theAruwimi-Uele.InDecember1889,theBelgianofficerJ.BeckermettheSultanJabiratBasoko.HeproposedtoleadhimtotheUeleRiver,andinJanuary1890BeckerarrivedinJabir’s sultanate. In April 1890, the first Belgian post wasfounded at Jābir13 by Roget, Milz and Duvivier. Step bystep, the Azande sultans made contacts with the represen-tatives of the Congo Free State. Some of them, like Jabirhimself, as well as Rafay, Bangaso and Zemio, directlycooperatedwiththem;whileothers,likeMopoi,werehostiletothenewcomers.ZemioevenassistedtheBelgianofficersin their expeditions to Baḥr al-Ghazāl in 1892 and 1894.14After 1894, as the Belgian occupation became more andmoreeffective, thereactionsofsomeof theAzandesultanschanged.Amongthem,somesultanslikeEngwetrain1896,led a rebellion against the Congo Free State. In the sametime, the problem of the border with the French and theBritishterritoriesintheareamodifiedtheBelgianpresence.A treaty signed between Leopold II and France in 1894,gaveupBangasoandRafaysultanates,aswellasapartofZemio’s.15 Other Azande sultanates were occupied by theBritish.In1909,ZemiodecidedtosettledownintheFrenchterritories,andsodidMopoiin1911.16

TheArabIslamicinfluenceinthisareaatthearrivaloftheEuropeans.

It seems that most of the Azande kept their own culturalfeatures, like language, architecture or religion, etc. How-ever,accordingtothetestimoniesoftheWesternofficersinthe Uele area, the Sudanese influence on this region was

13 Manylocaltownsandvillagesarenamedaftertheirchief’snames.14 Lotar, Grande chronique de l’Uele, and M. Coosemans, Bibliogra-

phiecolonialebelge,I,Brussels1948,843.15 Thuriaux-Hennebert,Zande,253.16 Thuriaux-Hennebert,Zande,287.

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obvious:

— somelocalchiefsbecameMuslims.Therefore,someofthemadoptedaMuslimnameaswellassomecustomslikecircumcision,thewayofgreetingvisitors.Someofthose conversions were probably superficial (forinstance,thelocalalcoholwasstillpopularwithmostofthem)17thoughotherswereverysincere:delaKethulledescribes Zemio, Jabir and Rafay as sincere Muslimswho were, for instance, fasting during Ramaḍān andpraying,18andMopoi issaidbyanothersource tobea‘fanatic Muslim’ (actually, the expression is ‘pourrid’islamisme’,inFrench).19

— manychiefs—likeRafay,Zemio,Mopoi,EngwetraandJabir—and their subjects adopted the Arabic style ofdress.20

— some houses, like in Engwetra, were made of ‘pisé’,witharabesque-likedecorationsonthewalls.21

— some Arabic loanwords are found in the Zande langu-age.22

But the most striking influence was the use of Arabic as asortofbothoralandwritten‘diplomaticlanguage’.

17 P. Salmon, ‘Les carnets de campagne de G. Bricusse’, Cemubac –

LXXVI,Brussels1966,47f.18 Ch.delaKethulle,‘DeuxannéesderésidencechezlesultanRafaï’,

BulletindelaSociétéRoyaleBelgedeGéographie,xix,1895,407.19 Tombeur, in P. Salmon, La dernière insurrection de Mopoie

Bangezegino(1916),Brussels,16.20 Congoillustré,iii,116-21.21 Lotar,Grandechroniquedel’Uele,64.22 See Block &al, Vocabulaire français-azande et azande-français,

Brussels1912andC.R.Lagae,La languedesAzande,Ghent1921.An Italian missionary, A. Colombaroli, had already written a shortdescription of the Zande language as soon as 1895. The bookletseemstocontainmanyArabicloanwords,butithadbeendoneonin-formationcollectedinCairo,withthehelpofAzandewhohadbeenbroughtthereasslavesorsoldiers;Lagae,LanguedesAzande,5.


TheuseofArabicintheareaSeveral European observers mention that some chiefscommunicated in Arabic when they met foreigners.SchweinfurthsaysthatwhenhemetthekingoftheAzande,an interpreter translated what the king said from Zande toArabic.23 Later, from around 1890, Belgian and Frenchtravellers and officers, like De Bauw or Landeroin, reportthattheymetAzandechiefswhowereabletospeakArabic.Some of them, like Yapati, had a basic knowledge of thelanguage, others like Zemio or Rafay were fluent, whileTamburaorKanahad interpreterswhoknewArabic.24Themostinterestingtestimony isthatofCharlesdelaKethulle.ThisBelgianofficerspenttwoyearsinRafay,aZandetown.Hereportsthatthesultan,thechiefs,thesoldiersandalmostalltheinhabitantsofRafaycouldspeakArabic.25

HowdidtheAzandelearnArabic?Ofcourse,theywereincontactwithvariousArabicspeakersintheareaforsomedecades, these included: representatives of the Egyptiangovernment, traders,soldiers,‘faqīhs’…SomeAzandealsobecamebazingar,Africanswhowerevictimsof therazziasandwhowerebroughtupinArabicinthezarība,becomingthen soldiers or interpreters for the Sudanese merchants.26But some of them even went to Sudan. According to DeBauw,whenJabirwas14yearsold,hewantedtotravelandhe asked an Arab caravan if he could follow them. Theyaccepted and he accompanied them and even stayed threemonthsinKhartoum.27SchweinfurthsaysthatsomeAzandewho had been sold as slaves in Khartoum or elsewhere inSudan then came back to their villages after being freed.28

23 G.Schweinfurth,TheHeartofAfrica,London1873,II,8.24 M. Landeroin, Mission Congo-Nil (Mission Marchand. Carnets de

route),Paris1996,58,62,68,70&74.25 Ch. de la Kethulle, ‘Le sultanat de Rafaï’, Le Congo illustré, iv,

1895,149.26 W.Junker,ReiseninAfrika1875-1886,Vienna1889,459.27 DeBauw,Notebook,4.28 Schweinfurth,inA.Ricard(ed.),VoyagesdedécouvertesenAfrique.

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We also know that many Azande voluntarily joined thetroopsoftheSudanesetradersbasedintheBaḥral-Ghazāl.29We can imagine that all those men had at least learntcolloquial Arabic and were then able to communicate withArabs.

ButsomeAzandewerenotonlyabletospeakinArabic,theywerealsoabletoreadand towriteit:Accordingtodela Kethulle and others, Qurʾānic verses were used to makeamulets.30 Rafay possessed a Qur’ān, and when he sworefaithfulnesstotheCongoFreeState,heplacedhisrighthandontheHolyBook.31

But the most interesting use of Arabic is correspon-dence.ManysourcessaythattheEuropeanofficersvisitingtheareaoftenreceivedmessagesinArabic,sentbyAzandesultans,andthattheyreplied to theminthesamelanguage,sincetheywereaccompaniedbyinterpreters.32

In fact, some of these documents written by Azandechiefsorby theirsecretarieshavebeenbrought toBelgiumbyofficersof the CongoFreeState. In1954, theProfessorArmand Abel published the translation of eleven of thoseletters,belonging to theHistoricalArchivesof the ‘Acadé-mie Royale des Sciences coloniales’. Unfortunately, wehavenotbeenable to locatewhere thissetofdocuments istoday.Recently,wehavefoundeightotherletterswhicharenow in the Library of the Museum of Tervuren, Historicalsection,andwhicharetranslatedandanalysedbelow.33

Anthologie1790-1890,Paris2000,833&845.

29 P.M.Holt&M.W.Daly,AHistoryoftheSudan,London1988,71.30 de la Kethulle, ‘Deux années de résidence’, 417, and Chaltin, in

Salmon,Dernièreinsurrection,12.31 Thuriaux-Hennebert,Zande,224.32 Landeroin,MissionCongo-Nil,77-8.33 It seems thatotherdocumentsof thiskindare tobe found inother

setsofarchives:D.H.JohnsonkindlyinformedmethatsomeBritishIntelligenceReportscontainthetranslationofotherletterswrittenbyZemioorsenttohimintheyears1890IntelligenceReport,Egypt,8,November1892;50,August-December1896).D.D.Cordellquotesa


Thesituationafter1912Though the influence of Arabic culture in the Azandesultanates in the late nineteenth century was obvious, wehardlyfindanyinformationconcerningIslamandArabicinthis area after 1905: Roome, who visited Congo in 1916comingfromtheAnglo-EgyptianSudan,statesthatfromtheSudanese-Congolese border up to Stanleyville, he did notseeanytraceofMusliminfluence.34Noneoftheotherbooksor documents dealing with the Uele area after this periodmention anything concerning Muslim communities.35Anciaux simply quotes that some Muslim predicators wereenteringNorth-EasternCongoillegallyfromSudan,withoutgivinganydetailsaboutthenatureoftheiractivities.36

Concerning the language itself,vanBulck leda lingui-sticsurveyintheNorthernandtheEasternpartsofCongointheyears1949-1951,producingadetailed listof thelangu-

letterwritten inArabicandsentbySultanAl-Sanusi toBangaso inMay1902,whichiskepttodayintheArchivesnationalesdeFrance–Sectiond’Outre-Mer,Aix-en-Provence;D.D.Cordell,Daral-KutiandtheLastYearsoftheTrans-SaharanSlaveTrade,Madison1985,238,n.64.

34 W.J.W. Roome, ‘Islam on the Congo’, The Moslem World, 1916,283.

35 See for instance A. Scohy, L’Uele secret, Brussels 1955 and J.C.Willame,‘Provincedel’Uele’,inCollectiond’EtudesPolitiques, II,Leopoldville 1964. However, the position of the Belgian historiansand academics toward Islam during the colonial times must beunderlined here: though the scientific literature concerning Congowas extremely prolific during this period – from linguistics,‘ethnography’ and history to botanic and mineralogy – only sixmonographies were written about Islam in Congo – and most ofthosebookspresentedanopenlynegative imageofIslaminAfrica;X.Luffin,‘Historiographiecoloniale.Laprésencearabo-musulmaneauCongo’,LaRevueNouvelle,December2002,70f.So,theabsenceof any information concerning Islam in Northern Congo does notmean that it totally disappeared. Perhaps an enquiry in NorthernCongocouldclarifythispoint.

36 L.Anciaux,Leproblèmemusulmandansl’Afriquebelge,Paris1949,53.

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ages inuse in thoseareas, including theUeleprovince,buthedoesnotmentionArabicatall.37

Various factors must be analysed to understand thissituation. First of all, the stabilisation of the presence ofthree colonial powers, France, Great Britain and Belgium,createdrealboundariesin thearea—althoughweknowthatthoseboundarieswerenotcompletelyfirm—anditdidreallybreak the movement of populations between Sudan andCongo Free State. Some of the Azande sultans now livedoutside the Congo Free State: Rafay was in the Frenchterritorysince1894, Zemiosince1909… Inside the Congoitself, one of the first aims of the colonial presence in theUele and Aruwimi areas was to hinder the ‘junction’betweentheSwahilitradersintheEastandtheSudaneseintheNorth.38

Inadditiontothis,afterthe‘Arabcampaign’(1892-94)which opposed the Belgians to the Muslim traders in theEastern part of Congo Free State, everything was done tounderminethepresenceofIslamin thecountry.During theentire colonial period, this religion was tolerated, but therelations with the other Muslim communities abroad weremadedifficult,aswastheintroductionofbooksinArabicorthebuildingofnewschoolsandsoon.39Thispolicywasofcourse reinforced, if not guided, by the monopoly of theChristian missionaries on the educational system. ThepresenceofIslaminNorthernCongobeingveryrecentandinmanycasesquitesuperficial,obscuringitwaseasierthanintheeasternpartofthecolony.

Concerning the use of Arabic itself, it was above all akind of diplomatic lingua franca in the region. Now, ifduring the first years of the Belgian presence in Northern

37 S.J.vanBulck,Missionlinguistique1949-1951,Brussels1954.38 Lotar,Grandechroniquedel’Uele,10.39 A. Abel, ‘Documents concernant le Bahr al Ghazal (1893/4)’, in

B.A.R.S.C., Brussels 1959, 32, n. 2, and C. Young, ‘L’Islam auCongo’,Etudescongolaises,5,1967,22.


Congo, the local sultans kept their power, the colonialadministrationtooktheirfunctionsstepbystep,andreplacedthe sultans. In 1912, the last important Zande sultan, Sasa,was captured and deported to Boma, in the Bas-Congoprovince.40At this time, theuseofArabicasa ‘diplomaticlanguage’hadbecomecompletelyuseless.

Thedocuments

Most of the documents have no date, but all of them wereprobably written between October 1897 and November1899,sincetheywereallbroughtbacktoBelgiumbyGuill-aumeDeBauw,41whowas responsible for theUere-Bomuarea(Uele)atthesameperiod.Theydealmainlywithlocalpoliticsandtrade.

TheauthorsofthoseletterswereAzandechiefsor,morelikely, their Arab secretaries—Zemio, for instance, had akātib42orfaqīh43—andtheinterpretersoftheBelgianrepre-sentativesofKingLeopold,whowereNearEasternArabs,likeDoctorSabbāgh,theEgyptianYaʿqūbSulaymānortheIraqi Izikiāl Maʿtūq.44 The letters were put in an envelope

40 Thuriaux-Hennebert,Zande,287f.41 GuillaumeDeBauw (1865-1914)wasa Belgianofficer.He started

hismilitaryformationattheageoftwelve.HehasbeenattheserviceoftheCongoFreeState,intheUeleareafrom1897to1900–wherehebecamecaptainand thencaptain-commandant,2ndand then1stclass–andintheprovinceofEquatoriafrom1901to1904,whereheledseveralexplorationsMomboyo,SalongaandLomelarivers)andcreatedstationsItoko,Mondombe).Then,hecameback toBelgiumwherehecontinuedhiscareerinthearmy,wherehebecamecaptain-commandant and then major. De Bauw has written three articlesabout his African experience in La Belgique coloniale; Engels,Bibliographiecolonialebelge,II,Bruxelles1951,46-7.

42 Lotar, Grande chronique de l’Uele, and Coosemans, Bibliographiecolonialebelge,844.

43 Landeroin,MissionCongo-Nil,63.44 Coosemans,Bibliographiecolonialebelge,I,857,andLotar,Grande

chroniquedel’Uele,319&327.

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andsentto theaddresseewithamursal—oraborowaragainZande45—amessenger.

Thestructureofthedocuments

Thelettersfollowmoreorlessthesamestructure,thoughallthefollowingelementsdonotalwaysappear:— aformalreligioussentence(likewa-bi-hial-ʿawnwa’l-

tawfīq),— thenameofthesenderandthenameoftheaddressee,— formal salutations (like al-salām ʿalayka wa’l-raḥma

wa’l-bārakaminAllāhtaʿāla),— themessageitself,— a final formal salutation (like wa-dumtum sālimīn fī

khayrwa-ʿāfiya),— an expression indicating that the letter ended (like

khitām),— thedate,— thesignature.

Thetranslationofthedocuments

Herefollowsthetranslationofthoseletters,withcomments.The words between brackets are added by us in order toclarifythesentence,thedotsbetweenbrackets[…]standforillegible words, due to the bad conservation of the docu-mentsortothewriting,whichis,inmanycases,awkward.

Letter1:IntheNameofGod,MostGracious,MostMerciful,

To the dear Sir, peace on you, the mercy and theblessingofGodonyou.

Don’tyouwant tobuymy ivory tusksnow?Atfirst, Imade itforbidden to tradewithyou.[…].Ihave thousands

45 Block,Vocabulairefrançais-azande,176.


ofivory[tusks],don’tdestroyourcommercialrelations,myfriend.Ionlywantgoodthingsforyou.Ifyoudonotwanttobuymy[tusks],justletmeknow.Ihavesomanyofthemtosell.

Sasa.[…]IfourLord letsyoucome tomycountry,youwill

seethemwithyourowneyes.Thousandgreetings.SāsaZābīr.

Comment:This document is accompanied with a letter in FrenchwrittenbyDoctorSabbāgh—theEICtranslator—toCaptainDe Bauw, on 26 November 1897. We did not find anyinformation about Dr Sabbāgh, but he was most probablyoneofthetranslator-interpretersworkingfortheCongoFreeState.HislettercontainsthetranslationofSasa’sletter,andashortcommentarywherehestatesthatthetranslationtookhimaverylongtimesincehehadtodecipherSasa’s‘hiero-glyphic characters’. Here is the translation made by DrSabbāgh,whichisactuallyafreeabstractoftheletter:

In the name of God, Powerful and Good. Greetings and blessingsuponourfriend.

Asyouwantagoodrelationbetweenus,youarewelcome.Untilnow,Ihadforbiddentobringyouivory.Butnowmyivoryisatyourdisposalandnothingwillbeabletodisrupttheharmonyofourtrade.Especially that I have a treasury of ivory. Anyway, you will noticethat on your own, if Gods allows you to stay in my territory. SasaJabir.

SasawasthebrotherofTikima,andtheuncleofZemio.Itissaid that he submitted to the EIC in 1893. But this sub-mission does not seem to be complete, since this letter,written in 1897, shows that he had forbidden, for a shortperiodof time, tradewith theBelgians.SasawasdeportedtoeasternCongobytheBelgiansin1911.46

46 Coosemans,Bibliographiecolonialebelge,I,835f.

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Letter2ToPrinceZemio.

Before we leave the Uere [river] bank and go back toourcountry,Iwanttosendyoumysinceresalutations.

Until now, our correspondence has always been verysincere, but Bashir Mopoi created many difficulties. I askyou to transfer Bashir Mopoi to the right bank of Bomu[river], your nephew Afulu has a residence there. Therelationship between you and the government of Congoremains thatof goodneighbours. Iwouldalso like tomeetyour nephew Afulu before I leave. If you want, you cancomepersonallytotheUerepost.


Comment:Neitherthesenderoftheletter,nor thedate,arementioned,buttheauthormustbeDeBauw’ssecretary.Ifso,theletterwasprobablywritten in1899, the lastyearofDe Bauw inthe area,sincehesays ‘beforewegoback toourcountry’.Thewritingisclear,thelanguageandthestyleareclosertoClassical Arabic. It must have been written by one of DeBauw’stranslators.

Zemio, son of Tikima, was one of the best allies theBelgianshadinNorthernCongo.HesubmittedtotheEICin1890,andhehelpedandevenparticipatedintheexpeditionsof 1892 and 1894 in Southern Sudan.47 Mopoi, chief of aterritory north of the Bomu river, had had trade relationswith the Arabs since the 1860s, and was a rival to Tikimaand his son Zemio. It seems that his relations with thecolonial authorities have always been conflictual.48 How-ever,wedidnotfindanytraceofhiscaptureinthisperiod,so the planexplained in this letter hadeither failed,orhadbeenrenounced.

Letter3Godistheonewhogiveshelpandsuccess.

From the Sultan Zemio Tikima to the estimated andimportantchiefwho rules thezarībaofAngo.Peacebeonyou,maytheMercyandtheBlessingofGodMostHighbeonyou.

Weinformyouthatoneof themerchants—hisname isal-ḥājjIbrāhīm—arrivedtotheSultanSasawithcowsandalotofmerchandise,accompaniedbyhisbrothers.Theywantto go back to their country. His brother al-ḥājj Ṭāhir willcome toyouand inform youabout his case.AskSasa thatthis man come to you with his merchandise, and after hisvisittoyou,hewilltradethesamewayhisbrothersdo.He

47 Lotar,Grandechroniquedel’Uele,346,andCoosemans,Bibliogra-

phiecolonialebelge,843.48 Salmon,Dernièreinsurrection,10f.

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will come with his brothers, then they will travel back totheircountry.IfSasasellshimwhathehasatagoodprice,hewillcometoyouwithtrust,butiftheydon’tsellanythingtoSasa,he[the trader]willcome toyouwithhisgoods.Ifthe things Ihaveordered toyou forcommercialpurpose—the arms and all that things for us—reached [you], sendthemtousasquicklyaspossible.Greetings.End.


Comment:Wehavenotbeenable to identifyal-ḥājjṬāhirandal-ḥājjIbrāhīm, but they certainly were Sudanese traders. Ango(Camp Uere) was the main camp of the EIC, on the Ueleriver.

Letter4:Twocows,Remingtoncartridges,twenty […] to sell, alcohol, black fabric, plates, hat, and

stew-pansivorytobuygunpowderandcapsules,fortyrungiyya(unit)ofricetosell,niceclothestwenty[measures]ofcoffeetosell,clothesandsaltthreadandbuttonsandneedlefifteen[measures]ofoniontoselllikecoffeeandagun.

Sendthistousbecausethefiredestroyed[whatIhad].Idonothavesandals,either.[Ineed]fourpairslikethe

oneofthecommandant[…].GreetingsofZemio,sonofTikima,andRamaḍān.End.

andontheverso:

‘Sendusbackthe[…]quickly.Ramaḍān.End.’

Comment:This document was written by Zemio, son of Tikima, andRamaḍān,whoisprobablyamerchant.ThesearethegoodsthatwereneededatZemio’ssultanate.WemayimaginethatthislistwassenttoDeBauworanotherrepresentativeoftheCongo Free State, in the context of their commercialexchanges.

Letter5:Ontheenvelope:ThishasbeensenttotheCommandantwhorulesthezarība

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of Ango, may [this letter] find him in good health, if Godwishes. Amen. End. 13 Jumāda Awwal 1316 [which isAugust28,1898].

Theletter:Godisthemasterofhelpandsuccess.

FromthedearandgenerousSultanZemioTikimatothedear and generous commandant who rules the zarība ofAngo—wedonotknowyourname—Peaceonyou,maytheMercyandtheBlessingofGodtheVeryHighbeonyou.

I inform you about what we did concerning the childthat you have sent us, accompanied by Johnny and Baker:they brought him to us. I bless you and I thank you, mayGodblessyouathousandtimes.Really,youareamongthebest rulers, the rulers who know the good way to govern,without changes. Thank to God, I saw this and I was veryhappy. I have also done what you asked. Concerning theaffair of Bangir people, how can they talk so rudely aboutyou?Ifsomebodywants to talkaboutchiefs,hehas tosaythetruthsincethebeginning.

First,oneoftheslavesofAmbataraleftfromthereandwenttoZay.FromZayhewenttothesultansandeventuallycametomeandtoldmelies:hewasnotsentbyAmbatara,he told me lies. After this, another of Ambatara’s slaves,who’snameisFakarafatuh,wasreallysentbyAmbataraandhearrived at Zay,whoadvisedhim in this matter.Concer-ning thesultansofBangir,allof themacceptedhis requesttocome tome,so thatwestay together.TheytoldhimOKandhecametome.After this,cameanotherofAmbatara’sslaves, called Zemio, who was one of Ambatara’s messen-gersaswell.

The Bangir people, who told you that I travelled toAmbatara,toldyoulies.First,oneofmymen,whosenameis Kabas, has travelled because of the Bangir matter. Theysaid:afterthatAmbatara’smessengercametoyou,sendhimwithoneofyourmen.So,ItoldKabastoaccompanythem.


AfterKabas’s journey toAmbatara, theycamewithoneofAmbatara’s sons, called Wuza and with [the slave called]Zemio. You can ask the people of Bangir. Ambatara’s soncrossedtheMakwi[river]withaboat,andthenhearrivedatZay.

Iallowyou[thecontrolof]thewholeBangirarea,fromMakwitoZayandfromZaytoourcountry.He[Ambatara’sson?] travelled in theircountryuntil he arrived to us. Whydid they accept that he travels there? If they were notbetrayers,theyshouldneverhaveacceptedthis.

The Bangir falsely complain to you. They caughtKarakara because of the war against him. First, one of mybrothersdiedthere,actuallyhewasdrowned.Somyuncleswentthere,andbecausethey[theBangir]didn’tcatchoneofthem, they caught Karakara. They are betrayers. WhenAmbatara fought against you, his son came to them. Whydid not they catch him and bring him to you? […]. Andwhen the childofAmbatara arrived to me, the Bangirsaidthat […]and that Igathered my men.Theysaid itwasnottrue, it is not Zemio who travels, but this child, I meanKarakara,travelswithhimbecauseof[…].

Ihavemanyproblemswiththem,ifyouaskmetosendoneofmymentoAngo,hewilltellyoumanythings.IftheBangir respect you and accept your authority, why don’ttheyactthewayIdoit?Really,Idon’tknow.WhenIknewthat you were going to Ndoruma’s camp to fight him,Ndoruma asked that I sent him a Remington and a pistol.When I heard this, I refused to send the weapons toNdorumabecauseheisyourenemy.

IftheBangirtellyouthetruth,thattheycaughtthechildof Ambatara, let them first inform you about how is he.Don’t listen to their lies.Myself, Iam notwith themor intheir country, and Ndoruma’s weapon is in my hands untilnow.Anyway, it isuselesstohide things.Ihave talked toomuch. If the commandantandsomeonewhoknowsArabicare at the zarība of Ango, maybe that my people and

164 XAVIERLUFFIN

Bangir’speoplecouldmeetthere,sothattheaffaircouldbejudgedatyourcamp.Stayinpeaceandgoodhealth,

12Jumādaal-Awwal1316(or1319).

Comment:Sincemostofthefacts,placesandpersonswhicharemen-tionedinthisletter—Ambatara,Karakara,Zay,Bangir—areunknown, themeaningofmanysentencesremainsobscure.However,wenotice thatZemio tries toconvinceDeBauwthat,unlessothersultans,heishisfaithfulallyandthatotherchiefs like Ndoruma and Bangir try to compromise theirgood relations. He also asks the Belgian officer to judge alocaldisputebetweenhimselfandanothersultan,Bangir.

Letter6:Address:CommandantofAngo(CampUere)

Text:Thereisnowar toexpect.TheSultanZemio,thebigZande chief, informs the Commandant ofAngo (CampUere)thatwhenamandoessomethingbad,itisallowedtopunishhimortokillhim.Itisalsoallowedtokillhimifhesteals.

Youwill findus likeyouhave leftusandnobodywilldo something bad during your absence. You have alwaysbeengoodtous.Wedonotknowifyoursuccessorwilldothesame.Wedonotnowforhowlongyouwillbegone.Ifyoustayalivewewillhavethehappiness toseeyouagain.Wewillperhapsmeetagain in thefuture(whenourbeardswillbesolongthatthey’lltouchtheground).

WhenyouwillgotoEurope,pleasetelluswhowillbeyoursuccessor.Weknowyouwellnowandweregretyourdeparture, because we do not know the intentions of yoursuccessors. We hope thatyouwill notbeabsent for longerthantwomonths.

A messenger of the Dervishes, who had an argumentwiththem,isinmyplacesinceacoupleofdays.HisnameisTaïboHamed.Ifyouwantit,hewillcomeandseeyou,just


send him a message if you want it. He has no goods withhim,he justcame toseeyou.Hehashearda lotaboutyouandhewouldliketomeetyou.Hewouldliketocomewithhispeopleandtosettledownintheterritoriesofthe[CongoFree]State.

Ifyouleave,writetomealetterinArabicinordertoletmeknowforhowlongyouwillbegone.Pleasebringmeagame gun and a revolver, it will be the nicest present youcould offer to me. Furthermore, I will buy, with my ivory,perfume(marash),jackets,music-boxandalltheotheritemsthatyouwillbekindtosendtome.

You are an important chief, so come back with manygoods,ourpeoplewillbepleasedtoexchangeitwithivory.Iwouldlikeaclock,too.

Ifyou talkwithyourbigchief inEurope, tellhim thatthereis,here,oneofhisslaveswhowouldliketoreceiveapresent from him. You are leaving us, we are all in goodhealth,men,womenandchildren.Nobodyisatwarnow,weare well, we speak the same language, we have the samefeelingsaboutyou.

Read my letter carefully and do not think that thesewordsarevain.Pleaseanswerme.

Mysondiedjustafterhewasborn.Allmypeople,men,women,children,andministersofAllāh(Muslims)knowofourrelationship,Ihopethatyouwillgiveapositiveanswertoallmyrequests.

Myheartisgood;ifawhitemanbehavesinabadwaywithme,itmeansthathedoesnotknowme.In thiscase,Idon’t move. You will understand this when you will comeback,Iwilltellyouthen.

Greetings.

Comment:ThisdocumentisfromtheFrenchtranslationofaletterthatZemio sent to the Belgian officer, De Bauw. The originalletter,supposedlyinArabic,islost.

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Letter7This is De Bauw’s answer to Zemio’s letter above. Thedocument isaccompaniedbyatranslation inFrench,whichreads:

Answer: from the Commandant De Bauw, Uere Camp, toSultanZemio.

Text:Ihavereceivedyourletter,Iwilltrytoprovidethethings you ask: game gun, revolver, music box, costumes,perfumesandsoon.

IwillpresentyourgreetingstomyKinginEurope.MysuccessoristhelieutenantdeIra.Aftertwomonths

you will have a new commandant who will be very goodwithyou.

TheonecalledTaïbo-Hamedcanaskmysuccessorforhisdwelling.

I will not be back very soon, because I have things toaccomplish elsewhere. However, I will not forget you oryourpeople.Ihope thatoneday,Iwillcomeback toyourterritories,andIhopetoseeyouagainingoodhealth.

I will never forget the good relations we have hadduringtwoyears.

Manygreetings.DeBauw.’

Comment:Eitherthisletterhasneverbeensenttotheaddressee,oritisa copy which was kept as a kind of archive by De Bauw.Anyway, the language used in it is very strange, since itmixescolloquialArabicandSwahili.Wemay imagine thattheBelgianofficer,inurgentneedofatranslator,askedoneof his Zanzibari soldiers to write the letter, and that thisperson, who had a very basic knowledge of Arabic, mixedthelanguages.


Analysisofthedocuments

ThehistoricalimportanceofthedocumentsThese letters are related to specific events which oftenremainobscuretous,sincewewerenotable to identifyalltheplacesandpersonsquoted,especiallyinletter6.Theydonot deal with important events related to the Belgianconquest of the area. However, they provide us usefulgeneralinformationaboutthenatureofthecontactsbetweentheAzandesultans,especiallyZemio,andtheEICattheendofthenineteenthcentury.Firstofall,theformaltermsusedby both sides seem to show that, at this period, theyconsidered each other as equal partners. It also shows thewaytheEICwas trying touseitsgoodrelationswithsomechiefs in order to submit the others, asking for instanceZemio’shelptotransferMopoitoAfulu’sterritory.Inletter6, Zemio also asked the EIC to decide upon a disputebetween him and another local chief.But the moststrikingpointisthatSasaandZemioseeintheBelgianpresenceanimportant commercial opportunity: they propose to buymany goods—guns, but also fabrics, clothes, food—withtheir ivory tusks, which was their primary mean ofexchange. Beside this, we also see that the commercialexchanges with the Arabs, like al-ḥājj Ibrāhīm, did notcease.

Alinguisticanalysisofthedocuments

Thelinguisticinformationprovidedbythesedocumentsareasimportantas—ifnotmoreimportantthan—thehistoricalelements, because it brings a new light not only about theuse of Arabic in the area but also about the nature of thislanguage.

Normally, Arabic has—at least—two levels: colloquialor dialectal Arabic is used in everyday conversation, whileclassicalArabicisreservedforformalsituationsandwriting.

168 XAVIERLUFFIN

This diglossic situation makes it difficult to identify theoriginofawriter ifnoother informationthanthetextitselfisgiven.However,inmanycasesthewriterisinfluencedbycolloquial Arabic, especially in the correspondence. In ourdocuments,theuseof theSudaneseDialectalArabic(SDA)isobvious.SomedocumentsshowonlyaslightinfluenceofdialectalArabic,butmostof themareveryclosetotheoralstyle,asiftheauthorhadwrittendownsentencesthewayhewouldhavespokenthem.

Let us now summarize some of the dialectal featuresobservedintheseletters:

a.PhonologyAt least twoproblemsoccurwhenwe lookfor informationaboutthephonologyintheseletters:

— Since the Arabic alphabet does not mark the shortvowels,mostof thevowelchangescannotbeobservedintherelevantdocuments.

— SincewritersareinfluencedbySDAbuttry towriteinclassical Arabic, we cannot determine the way somephonemeswereintendedtobepronounced.

However, with respect to the consonants, some ‘errors’ inthe letters give us information about the way certain pho-nemeswerepronounced.Forinstance:

— [q] > [g]: we can infer this transformation when theArabic letter qāf is used to render the [g] of someAfricannamesorsomecolloquialwords,like‘Ango’,

— [dh]>[z]:idhakān>izakān,‘if’,— [th]>[t]:kathīr>katīr,‘very’,— [th]>[s]:ḥaddathūnī>haddasūnī,‘tellme’,— [ʾ]>[ʿ]:al-shirāʾ>al-shirāʿ,‘selling’,— [m]>[b]:makān>bakān,‘place’.


b.Morphology:— Thepronounhum‘they’becomeshumā,— thelossof thesuffix–anof theadjective,asmarkerof

the accusative or the adverbial form: khāfū kathīr(insteadofkathīran),‘theywereveryafraid’,

— the suffix -īn tends to replace -ūn at the nominative:naḥnuṭayyibīnwaʿāfiyīn(insteadofnaḥnuṭayyibūnwaʿāfiyūn),‘wearewell’,

— theanalyticalgenitiveissometimesused:al-bunduqiyyamtāʿ al-ṭīr (instead of bunduqiyyat al-ṭīr), ‘gameweapon’,

— the final –na of the plural forms of the verb oftendisappear: ikhwānuhu yusāfirū ilā bilādihim (and notyusāfirūna),‘hisbrothersgobacktotheircountry’,

— the imperfect verb at the first person singular beginswith n-: nʿallimuka wāḥid min at-tujjār waṣal (insteadof uʿallimuka), ‘I inform you that one of the tradersarrived’,

— the verbal suffix -tum which marks the 2nd personpluralfortheperfectbecomes–tū:katabtūlanā(insteadofkatabtumlanā),‘youwrotetous’,

— the normal use of the verbal form is often replaced bythe structure: subject + present participle: humā rāḍīnsafarahu,‘theyacceptthathegoes’,

— besidetheuseoftheclassicalalladhī,thedefinitearticleal is often used as a relative pronoun: kumundān al-ḥākimzarībatAngo,‘thecommandantwhoisinchargeofAngoCamp’,

— theuseofmā,‘not’insteadoflāwithanimperfectverb:ānamānfʿaluhuabadan,‘Iwillneverdothis’,

— theuseoflisaasanegationwiththesenseof‘notyet’:walakinismuhu lisaʿarafnāhu,‘butwedon’tknowhisnameyet’.

c.Syntax— The sentence order is often SVO instead of VSO:

170 XAVIERLUFFIN

ikhwānuhuyusāfirūilābilādihim,‘hisbrothersgobacktotheircountry’.

— The subordinate is not introduced by a grammaticalelement: nʿallimuka wāḥid min al-tujjār waṣal, ‘Iinform you that one of the traders arrived’ (instead ofuʿallimukabi-annawāḥidminal-tujjārwaṣala).

d.Lexicon:— Manywordswouldnotbeusedinwrittenlanguageand

are typically colloquial: ḥattēt ‘I placed’, tashūfū ‘yousee’,mush‘not’,fīshān‘for’,‘āwiz‘want’.

— Sometimes, they are even typically Sudanese: azōl,‘man’,kalāmal-ʿarab,‘Arabic’,literally‘thespeechoftheArabs’, lisānat-turk, ‘Arabic’, literally ‘thespeechoftheTurks’.

— Other words belong to the vocabulary of classical, butareespeciallyusedinSDA:zarība,‘station,camp’,bāʿ,yabīʿ,withthesenseof‘tobuy’insteadof‘tosell’.

As demonstrated, the analysis of the documents shows astrong influenceofcolloquialArabic.Thispointisrelevantbecause it gives us information about the kind of dialectswhich were spoken in the area, but also about thecharacteristicsofthecolloquialArabicofSudaninuseinthelate nineteenth century. In fact, several Arabic dialects arespoken in Sudan, which can roughly be divided in fourgroups:49— NorthernDialect,— CentralDialect(UmmDurmān,Jazīra,EastoftheBlue

Nile),— WesternDialect(WhiteNile,Kordofan,Darfur,Chad),— JubaArabic,aCreolespokenintheSouthernpartofthe

country.It is quite difficult to determine which of the first three

49 A.S. Kaye, ‘Bilād al-Sūdān: Les langues dans l’ensemble géogra-

phiqueduSudan’,inEI(2),IX,793b


groupsthedialectalformsusedintheselettersbelong,foratleasttworeasons:

— The letters are not really written in SDA, but areinfluencedbySDA.Sowedonothaveacompletequotationincolloquial.

— Most of the features we have described above arecommon to all those groups, and the difference betweenthem has not yet been fully studied. For instance, the verbshāf, ishūf ‘to see’ or the structure pronoun + participle iscommon to all these dialects, and even to many otherdialectsoutsideoftheSudanesearea.

However, some features seem to be more specificallyrelatedtoparticularareas.For instance,‘awiz‘towant’andzol‘man’arewordsusedinthecentralandnorthernpartsofSudan. But most of the regional features belong to thewesternSudanesedialects:

— /ʾ/and/ʿ/areinterchangeable,— theuseofn-fortheverbatthefirstpersonsingular— the use of humā instead of hum as the pronoun of the

thirdpersonplural— the words and expressions like, fi shān ‘because’, dār

with the meaning of ‘country’ (like in Dār Kūti, DārFūr,DārFartīt),kalāmal-ʿarab‘Arabic’.

Some historical sources point in the same direction: theAzande sultans had contacts with Arabs coming fromvariouspartsofSudan,aswellasfromotherArabcountries.Forinstance,until1911SultanMopoiehadtwocounsellors,the one coming from Aswān, Egypt and the other fromBerber, north of Khartoum.50 We also stated before thatsomeAzandestayed inKhartoum,asfreemenorasslaves.But it seems that they had more relations with Arabs orArab-speakers coming from Western Sudan—especiallyDarfur—and Chad. The Belgian officer of the Congo Free

50 Salmon,Dernièreinsurrection,25.

172 XAVIERLUFFIN

State, Charles de la Kethulle, considers that the ArabicspokeninnorthernCongowasclearlythesamedialectasinWadayandDarfur,buthedoesnotgiveanyclueorexamplewhich could confirm this assertion. He also mentions thatMuslimscomingfromWaday,DarfurandKordofanwereatRafay’sCourt,and thatsomeof themcould readandwriteArabic. He also mentions that Zemio, Jabir and Rafay hadrelations with Arab traders from Waday, Dar Runga andBornu.51 Landeroin says that he met several merchantscoming fromWadaywhenhewas atBangaso, and he alsostatesthatTambura’ssecretaryoriginatedfromWaday.52

Conclusion

Arabic has been used as a commercial and diplomaticlanguageoralinguafrancaamongtheAzandesultanatesofnorthern Congo from the 1890s until the beginning of thetwentieth century. Though very few documents havesurvived,theiranalysis,completedbythehistoricalsources,can lead to some interesting observations. First, the use ofthecorrespondencewasnotanisolatedphenomenonamongthe Azande sultans, but rather a well-organized system:somechiefshad theirownsecretaries—kātib—and most ofthelettersfollowaspecificcanvas.Thecorrespondencewasused between the sultans themselves, between the sultansand the Sudanese, whether traders, Mahdists, or other, butalso between the sultans and the European newcomers.Some of the camps established by the Belgians had theirown Arab translators, who were translating the sultan’sletterstotheBelgianofficersaswellasreplyingtothem.

The few letters that survived show a very polite style,betweenpersonstreatingeachotherasequals,whichdonotreallycorrespondwith the toneusedbymost—notall—the

51 delaKethulle,‘Deuxannéesderésidence’,406-7.52 Landeroin,MissionCongo-Nil,56&74.


Europeans describing the African populations at this time.Thisillustrateswellthemeaningoftheword‘diplomacy’.

Finally,theselettersareveryinformativeinalinguisticpoint of view, because the language is strongly influencedby the colloquial Arabic, more precisely the westernSudanesedialect.ItisimportantbecauseitconfirmsthattheAzande were especially in contact with the provinces likeDarfur, Kordofan and Waday, but also because it gives anideaofwhatthecolloquialArabicofthisareawasmorethanhundredyearsago.

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