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
Hema (Bahema)
Cattle keepers of the Ituri plateau, related in language and herding tradition to the Hima of Uganda, whose colonial preferment and land titles made them prosperous and then made them targets in the Ituri wars.
Identity
Population: Estimated 200,000 to 400,000
Location: Djugu and Irumu territories of Ituri province, DR Congo, on the plateau and lakeshore west of Lake Albert
Language: Kihema (a Runyoro-related Bantu language) in the north; many southern Hema speak Lendu-related Ngiti as a first language
Language family: Niger-Congo → Bantu (JE11, Nyoro-Tooro group)
Traditional governance: Chiefdoms recognised under Belgian and then Congolese administration; lineage and herd-owner authority; Ituri provincial structures.
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.
Hema Nord (Gegere)
Northern communities of Djugu, most closely tied to Bunyoro tradition.
Hema Sud (Banyoro of Irumu)
Southern communities, many speaking Ngiti.
Lakeshore Hema
Communities on Lake Albert combining herding with fishing and trade.
Culture
Clothing: Contemporary dress; the long-horned cattle and their care are the community's identity more than any garment; ceremonial dress at installations.
Food: Milk in quantity, fresh and soured, ghee, beef at ceremony, with maize, cassava and beans bought or grown; the pastoral diet marks the community out on a plateau of cultivators.
Ceremonies: Cattle naming and blessing; chiefly installations; marriage negotiations conducted around the herd; funerals.
Marriage customs: Patrilineal and clan-exogamous; bridewealth in cattle; intermarriage with Lendu neighbours has been common, which complicates the conflict's ethnic accounting.
Initiation rites: No circumcision traditionally; a young man's standing rests on his handling of cattle and on the transfer of a named animal.
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
Preferment and Its BillColonial and conflict history
Belgian administration treated the Hema as a natural governing class, on the pastoralist-aristocracy theory it applied across the Great Lakes, and gave them schooling, chiefships and, later, land titles under Mobutu's registration laws. The result was a prosperous minority holding legal title to land its neighbours held by custom. When the Ituri war broke out in 1999, that history was the fuel. Hema civilians were massacred at Nyankunde and elsewhere; Hema militias massacred at Bogoro and elsewhere; and both communities lost tens of thousands.
The Herds of the PlateauLivestock heritage
Hema cattle are Ankole-type Sanga with the long horns of the Great Lakes pastoral tradition, and before 1999 the Ituri plateau carried some of the largest herds in the Congo. The wars destroyed most of them: cattle were looted, eaten, driven across the border or died for want of care. Rebuilding has been partial and the herds remain a target. A pastoral economy can be destroyed far faster than it can be rebuilt.
Two Languages, One CommunityLinguistic history
Northern Hema speak a Bantu language close to Runyoro, reflecting their connection to the Bunyoro world across Lake Albert. Southern Hema, long settled among Ngiti-speaking neighbours, largely speak Ngiti, a Central Sudanic language. A community defined in the conflict as a single ethnic bloc therefore speaks two unrelated languages, which is among the clearest indications that the categories in play were political rather than descriptive.
Proverbs
“The cow does not read the title deed.”
On the gap between paper and practice on the plateau.
“A herd is built in twenty years and taken in a night.”
On what the wars cost.
“The one who was favoured is remembered by those who were not.”
On the consequences of colonial preferment.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Ruhanga as the creator in the interlacustrine pattern; the Bachwezi remembered as the earlier dynasty and as the founders of pastoral practice; ancestral spirits.
Beliefs: Bachwezi mandwa mediumship historically; ancestral remembrance through named herds; Catholic and Protestant Christianity now dominant, with the Nyankunde mission hospital a major regional institution before its destruction in 2002.
Ancestors: A herd's descent records a family's; the destruction of herds in the wars was therefore also the destruction of a genealogical record.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Ruhanga
The creator god of the interlacustrine peoples
Bachwezi spirits
The semi-divine earlier rulers, addressed through mediums
Ancestral spirits
Remembered in the descent of named cattle as much as in genealogy
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Homesteads with cattle enclosures on the plateau grassland; lakeshore settlements combining herding with fishing.
Building techniques: Pole and mud with grass thatch and iron sheet; thorn and pole cattle enclosures; wooden milk vessels and churns; the dairy equipment that is the household's real capital.
Village layout: Houses around a cattle enclosure with the grazing spread beyond, calves penned separately, and the milking ground kept swept.
Artifacts
Ankole-type long-horned cattle
Livestock heritage
Sanga herds of the Great Lakes pastoral tradition, largely destroyed in the Ituri wars.
Carved milk vessels
Craft
Wooden containers and churns smoked with aromatic wood before use.
Nyankunde mission site
Heritage site
Major hospital and mission destroyed in the 2002 massacre, later partly rebuilt.
Land title registers
Legal record
Mobutu-era registrations that converted customary plateau land into private concessions.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1800
Pastoral communities related to the Bunyoro world settle the Ituri plateau alongside Lendu farmers.
1900s–1960
Belgian administration favours the Hema in schooling, chiefship and land.
1973–1990s
Land registration converts customary land into concessions, mostly to Hema holders.
1999–2003
The Ituri war; massacres at Nyankunde, Bogoro and elsewhere; herds are destroyed.
2012–present
ICC convictions over Ituri; CODECO violence from 2017 displaces over a million people across the province.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Human Rights Watch — Ituri: Covered in BloodHuman Rights Watch
- International Criminal Court — Lubanga, Katanga and Ntaganda judgmentsInternational Criminal Court
Premium & scholarly sources
- Ethnologue: HemaSIL International