StapleDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Fufu
Cassava and maize flour beaten into a firm dough, the daily food of most of the Congo. Rolled in the fingers, dented with the thumb, and used to scoop.
Serves 6 · 30 minutes
Ababua (Boa)
Forest farmers of the Uele basin whose war masks — flat, white-and-black, with enormous projecting ears — are among the most immediately recognisable objects in Congolese art, and whose country lay directly under the Free State's rubber regime.
Identity
Population: Estimated 200,000 to 300,000
Location: Bas-Uélé province, DR Congo, in the forest between the Itimbiri and the Uele rivers around Buta and Bondo
Language: Boa (Ababua)
Language family: Niger-Congo → Bantu (C44)
Traditional governance: Village and lineage authority historically, with war leaders rather than kings; Congolese territorial administration today.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups (clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes), each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Boa of Buta
Communities around the provincial town on the Rubi.
Boa of Bondo
Northern communities toward the Uele.
Boa of the Itimbiri
Riverine communities on the route to the Congo.
Culture
Clothing: Contemporary dress; barkcloth in the older tradition; the warrior's feather headdress and the masks themselves as the community's defining ceremonial appearance.
Food: Cassava and plantain, rice, forest game, river fish, palm oil, caterpillars and mushrooms, and palm wine.
Ceremonies: War dances with the pongdudu masks, historically before and after fighting; funerals; hunting rites; ancestral offerings.
Marriage customs: Patrilineal and clan-exogamous; bridewealth in iron, goods and, formerly, in throwing knives.
Initiation rites: Boys' circumcision with instruction in seclusion; entry into the warrior grouping was the passage that mattered in the older order.
Food & Recipes
Every dish the Atlas publishes for Democratic Republic of the Congo, at national rather than community level — 12 in all: the staple a household eats daily, the dish the country names as its own, street food, what is cooked for a wedding or Eid, regional specialities and a drink. Quantities and method are given for every one, so these are recipes rather than descriptions, and each has a photograph from Wikimedia Commons. The Food page carries the whole continent, searchable by country and by ingredient.
StapleDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Madesu
also Congolese beans, Haricots
Red beans stewed with onion, tomato and palm oil until thick, the cheapest and most eaten dish in Kinshasa. Served with fufu or rice and a spoon of chilli.
Serves 6 · 2 hours, plus overnight soaking
National dishDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Poulet à la Moambé
also Moambe chicken, Nsusu na mwambe
Chicken cooked in palm nut pulp with chilli and garlic, the national dish of both Congos. The palm oil rising orange to the surface is the sign it is ready.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes
National dishDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Ntaba
also Grilled goat, Chèvre braisée
Goat marinated in mustard, garlic and lemon then grilled slowly over charcoal, the Kinshasa nganda dish, eaten late with plantain and beer.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 4 hours marinating
Street foodDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Mikate
also Beignets
Fried dough balls sold from basins by women at every Kinshasa junction, eaten hot at breakfast or as a snack with sweet coffee.
Serves Makes 24 · 2 hours 15 minutes
Street foodDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Makemba
also Grilled plantain, Banane braisée
Plantain grilled over charcoal until blistered and served with a fierce pili-pili, sold outside every Kinshasa bar and bus stop.
Serves 4 · 25 minutes
Festival & feastDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Liboke ya Mbisi
Fish steamed in a banana leaf parcel with onion, chilli and lime, the Congo river's signature method. Opened at the table so the steam and smell arrive together.
Serves 4 · 1 hour
Festival & feastDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Mbika
also Egusi in leaves, Pumpkin seed parcels
Ground melon seed mixed with fish or meat, wrapped in leaves and steamed until it sets into a savoury cake. A Congolese celebration dish and a market food.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes
Regional specialityDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Pondu
also Saka saka
Pounded cassava leaves cooked long with palm oil, smoked fish and aubergine. Eaten across the Congo basin and cooked for hours, since cassava leaves demand it.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes
Regional specialityDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Sombe ya Kivu
also Kivu cassava leaves, Sombe
Cassava leaves pounded and cooked long with palm oil and smoked fish, the daily dish of the Kivu hills. Bitter, dark and cooked until it no longer is.
Serves 6 · 2 hours
Drink & sweetDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Malafu ya Ngasi
also Palm wine
Palm wine tapped from the oil palm and drunk the same day, sweet in the morning and sharp by evening. Poured for the ancestors before anyone else drinks.
Serves Varies · Tapped daily
Drink & sweetDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Lotoko
also Congolese maize spirit
Distilled maize or cassava spirit, made in the villages and drunk everywhere. Clear, strong and entirely unregulated — this is a description of a tradition rather than a recommendation.
Serves Varies · 5 to 7 days fermenting, plus distilling
Stories & Oral Literature
The Masks With EarsArt history
Boa masks are flat wooden faces painted in bold white and black bands with large round eyes and enormous projecting ears, worn by warriors in dances before and after fighting. They are visually unlike almost anything else in the region and have been reproduced in every survey of African art since the 1930s. Their production for use ended early in the colonial period; the objects in collections mostly date from the last decades in which the dances were held.
Under the Rubber RegimeColonial history
The Uele basin was inside the Free State's rubber concession zone, and the exactions there — quotas enforced by hostage-taking, mutilation and the burning of villages — were among the worst in a system that reduced the Congo's population catastrophically between 1885 and 1908. The Boa resisted, were punished, and were then administered as a labour reserve. The historical record of the region in this period is largely a record of what was done to it.
The Forgotten UeleContemporary condition
Bas-Uélé is among the least accessible provinces of the Congo: the roads have gone, the Uele is navigable only in stretches, and Buta is reached by air or by many days of track. The Lord's Resistance Army operated in the province after 2008, and the state's presence is minimal. The province's cotton and coffee economies collapsed in the 1990s and have not returned; it is a part of Africa that has moved backwards in living memory.
Proverbs
“The mask hears what the man cannot say.”
On the masks' great ears.
“The forest closes over the road in one season.”
On what happens when infrastructure is not maintained.
“They came for rubber and left the trees.”
A Uele saying about the Free State period.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: A remote creator; ancestral spirits at lineage sites; forest powers with prohibitions; war medicine addressed before fighting.
Beliefs: Ancestral offerings; divination and healing; war medicine traditions associated with the masks; Catholic and Protestant Christianity now dominant.
Ancestors: The dead are buried near the village and addressed at lineage sites; the disruptions of the Free State period broke many genealogies.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
The creator
The remote high god
Ancestral spirits
Addressed at lineage sites for health and hunting
War medicine
The substances and rites that made a warrior fit to fight
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Forest villages of rectangular houses along a cleared street, with gardens behind and the forest immediately beyond.
Building techniques: Pole and mud or raffia walling with leaf and thatch roofing; mask carving and painting; slit-drum making; dugout canoes on the Rubi and Itimbiri.
Village layout: Two lines of houses along a swept street with the dance ground at one end and cassava gardens behind.
Artifacts
Pongdudu war masks
Masquerade
Flat black-and-white masks with projecting ears, worn in warriors' dances.
Uele throwing knives
Metalwork
Multi-bladed iron weapons circulating across the Uele basin.
Slit drums
Instrument
Large signal drums of the Uele forest, audible across many kilometres.
Free State-era administrative posts
Historical site
Remains of the stations from which the rubber regime was enforced.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1800
Bantu-speaking communities settle the Uele basin forest as farmers, hunters and ironworkers.
1885–1908
The Congo Free State's rubber regime devastates the Uele; resistance is suppressed with extreme violence.
1910s–1950s
Belgian administration; cotton and coffee are imposed as cash crops; the war dances end.
1960s–1990s
Independence; the cash-crop economy collapses; roads deteriorate past use.
2008–present
Lord's Resistance Army activity in Bas-Uélé; the province remains among the least accessible in Africa.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale — Boa collectionsRoyal Museum for Central Africa
- Hochschild, King Leopold's GhostWorldCat
Premium & scholarly sources
- Ethnologue: Bwa (Boa)SIL International