Mangbetu
Encyclopedia
The Mangbetu are a people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
, living in Orientale Province. The majority live in the villages of Rungu, Poko, Watsa
, Niangara
, and Wamba
.
, called Nemangbetu in their language and Kingbetu in the national language of Lingala. Mangbetu is a member of the Nilo-Saharan language group. The Mangbetu language is phonetically distinct from other languages in that it possesses both a voiced and a voiceless bilabial trill. The Labo
language of Vanuatu, also known as Mewun, is the only other language known to possess this phonetic feature. .
http://www.hamillgallery.com/DRUMS/Harps/MangbetuHarp03.html for images. One harp has sold for over $100,000.
Musicologists have also sought out the Mangbetu to make video and audio recordings of their music.
The Mangbetu stood out to European explorers because of their elongated heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s with the arrival of more Europeans and westernization. Because of this distinctive look, it is easy to recognize Mangbetu figures in African art
.
-speaking tribes among whom they lived interspersed. In the late 18th century a group of Mangbetu-speaking elites, mainly from the Mabiti clan, assumed control over other Mangbetu clans and many neighboring Bantu-speaking tribes. It is likely that their knowledge of iron and copper forgery, by which they made weapons and fine ornaments, gave them a military and economic advantage over their neighbors. .
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, living in Orientale Province. The majority live in the villages of Rungu, Poko, Watsa
Watsa
Watsa is a community in Province Orientale of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, administrative center of the Watsa Territory.Watsa was the location of the VI battalion of the Force Publique in the 1940s and 1950s....
, Niangara
Niangara
Niangara Territory is a town in the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lying on both sides of the Uele River. It is the headquarters of the Niangara Territory.The town has a hospital operated by Médecins sans Frontières....
, and Wamba
Wamba Territory
Wamba Territory is a part of the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The administrative center is the town of Wamba.-Mining:...
.
Language
The language is MangbetuMangbetu language
Mangbetu, or Nemangbetu, is one of the most populous of the Central Sudanic languages. It is spoken by the Mangbetu people of northeastern Congo. It, or its speakers, are also known as Amangbetu, Kingbetu, Mambetto. The most populous dialect, and the one most widely understood, is called Medje....
, called Nemangbetu in their language and Kingbetu in the national language of Lingala. Mangbetu is a member of the Nilo-Saharan language group. The Mangbetu language is phonetically distinct from other languages in that it possesses both a voiced and a voiceless bilabial trill. The Labo
Labo language
Labo may be:* Labo Phowa language* Labo languge...
language of Vanuatu, also known as Mewun, is the only other language known to possess this phonetic feature. .
Culture
The Mangbetu are known for their highly developed art and music. One instrument associated with and named after them is the Mangbetu harp or guitar. See and.http://www.hamillgallery.com/DRUMS/Harps/MangbetuHarp03.html for images. One harp has sold for over $100,000.
Musicologists have also sought out the Mangbetu to make video and audio recordings of their music.
The Mangbetu stood out to European explorers because of their elongated heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s with the arrival of more Europeans and westernization. Because of this distinctive look, it is easy to recognize Mangbetu figures in African art
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
.
History
Prof. Peter J. Bloom in his book entitled French colonial documentary: Mythologies of Humanitarianism stated, "However, it is part of an open text in which the lineage of the Mangbetu has been traced to Egypt, particularly to the ancient Egyptian iconography of Nefertiti." By the early 18th century they consisted of a number of small clans who, from southward migrations, had come in contact with a number of northward-migrating BantuBantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
-speaking tribes among whom they lived interspersed. In the late 18th century a group of Mangbetu-speaking elites, mainly from the Mabiti clan, assumed control over other Mangbetu clans and many neighboring Bantu-speaking tribes. It is likely that their knowledge of iron and copper forgery, by which they made weapons and fine ornaments, gave them a military and economic advantage over their neighbors. .
The question of cannibalism
Many recent studies feature the Mangbetu as a historically cannibalistic people. According to Mangbetu men interviewed in the documentary Spirits of Defiance: The Mangbetu People of Zaire it appears that many Mangbetu currently believe their ancestors to have practiced cannibalism. David Lewis asserts that a "wave of flesh-eating that spread from inveterate cannibals like Bakusa to Batetela, the Mangbetu, and much of the Zande" resulted from ongoing political disorder caused by Swahili raids in the 1880s. However, Keim contends that many of the accounts of cannibalism are not based on "careful fieldwork in Africa but on nineteenth-century European accounts that were deeply prejudiced by Dark Continent myths."Further reading
- Christopher Ehret, The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 (University of Virginia Press, 2002), 436–438.
- Curtis A. Keim, Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind (Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 42–43, 92–93.
- David Levering Lewis, The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987).