Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870–1960 (review)

What's in a name? According to Osumaka Likaka, history, memory, and poignant critiques of both. In Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, Likaka argues that Congolese villagers created names to identify Belgian colonial officials, and to record their own observations and interpretations of colonial policies. These names, "pithy verbal expressions [which were] easy to remember and transmit across localities, regions, and generations" (p. 4), were subversive forms of protest against the violence that Belgian officials implemented throughout the Congo from 1870 to 1960.

In nine chapters, Likaka, an associate professor of history at Wayne State University, identifies and analyzes the multiple meanings of these names, as well as their linguistic constructions. His most important primary sources in the analysis are the more than eighty Congolese whom he interviewed over ten years. These interviews, seamlessly woven into the text, reveal how different groups recorded and remembered their experiences. In Likaka's hands, naming becomes an effective methodology to track the creation of, responses to, and changes in colonial policies over ninety years. Moreover, his attention to how different language groups named colonial officials is important in helping us understand shifts and variations in patterns of control and relationship.

Likaka's introduction positions his work as an innovative approach in historical research, one that helps redefine the historical archive. Chapter 1, situating us in the "Congolese cultural universe" (p. 21), immediately informs us that the Congolese perspective will be the dominant lens through which colonialism will be viewed. As the book continues, we are drawn deeper into contexts for naming, naming patterns, critiques of colonialism, collaborations between Congolese and Belgians, and responses to naming by colonial officials. Throughout these chapters, Likaka insists that naming was a form of agency that Congolese used to fight and document colonialism. True, the names do not provide a complete history of the Belgian Congo; however, they provide something more: a multidimensional view of colonial practices through the daily experiences of the Congolese.

Likaka stresses that colonial relationships were complex and unstable. While rare, it was not unheard of for colonial officials and Congolese chiefs or individuals to develop respect for one another. To prove his point, in chapter 6 Likaka discusses the range of praise names given to officials. Some of the names may have contained hidden insults, but others expressed the appreciation of different Congolese groups for "friendship, learning, and new technical skills that improved the quality of their lives and conditions of work" (p. 127). The colonial official who recognized and understood the importance of harmonious relationships received the cooperation he sought without the use of excessive force; such officials were often rewarded with local wives, houses, or increased crop production. While Likaka does not dedicate a great deal of space to these interactions, he offers readers enough to challenge any ideas of linear, one-way control in a complicated, long-term system of oppression.

This book cannot be read quickly, as the chapters appear to be repetitive, and even now the horror of Belgian colonization is difficult to comprehend; however, it becomes evident that Likaka has reproduced the multileveled, cyclical, nonlinear way in which naming and colonization occurred. By moving from general to specific historical contexts, then returning to them within the social and cultural contexts of naming, he illustrates ways in which Congolese used names as part of a belief system that defined their relationships to each other and other groups, and their places in the world. Doing so powerfully acknowledges that Belgian colonization, as horrific as it was, did not silence the Congolese. Moreover, because naming was an initiatory process, which welcomed newcomers into Congolese society, it could be read as a public performance, which protected Congolese from the severe punishment or death they would have received if their protests had been more directly made.

Likaka provides many examples of how naming worked. For example, all colonial officials received a...