A Dance of Assassins: Performing Early Colonial Hegemony in the Congo

3. Histories Made by Bodies

76 3 · HistoriesMadebyBodies We must be prepared to experience the figure, severed and whole, in its severing and its dance: to inhabit it, rigid and fleeting, violent and happy, blood and spirit, horror and promise. —Julia Kristeva, The Severed Head Because of the strength of Lusinga’s forces, Storms felt obliged to wait until his troops could be bolstered by those of Paul Reichard before attacking the chief’s mountain fastness in early December 1884. He then added men from local chiefs who were loyal to him so that he could deploy over a hundred warriors for the expedition. Kizumina offered a different description of Bwana Boma’s force, saying that only eight “soldiers” (askari in Swahili, presumably wangwana and rugaruga) bearing carbines were joined by twenty men mustered by Sultani Mpala, including Kizumina’s own older brother. Kizuminaemphasizedwilesratherthannumbers,and,asweshallsee,arcana and spiritual agency seem to have been very much on the old man’s mind when hestressed the men’s singing,and—especially—thedance that accompanied the foray, as important technologies of warfare. As Kizumina had it, Lusinga and his people were pleased to receive Bwana Boma’s men, most obviously because the chief assumed they were bringing him the repeater rifles he had requested. Flintlocks are notoriously inaccurate, and as Storms put it scathingly and perhaps with racist sarcasm, Histories Made by Bodies · 77 such “firearms that possess terrible powers are soon discredited . . . for they are generally wielded by people who only manage to make noise with them.” Again in Kizumina’s reckoning, Lusinga would have seen the breakthrough ofcarbinesasapotential“meansof destruction”ashesoughttoestablishlocal hegemony while participating more fully in the growing industries of ivory hunting and slave trading.1 One only needs to recall Joseph Thomson’s vivid description of how Lusinga had laid waste to lakeside communities north of Lubanda to imagine the heinous adventures he might have entertained using Bwana Boma’s high-powered weapons. There was no resistance to the soldiers’ entry into Lusinga’s fortress, and indeed women hastened to offer warm hospitality of food and lodging for the heavily armed yet greatly outnumbered men. The plot as both Louis Mulilo and Kizumina told their tales hinges on this point: Lusinga was entertained, flattered, and distracted by the singing and dancing, and thereby lulled into lowering his guard. Yet the nature of the soldiers’ performance suggests that Lusinga was so easily tricked for other, more deeply esoteric reasons that Kizumina had in mind as he composed and presented his narrative concerning the chief’s reversal of fortune. Songs that “Rollick with Raw Humanity” Storms admired the varied and harmonious vocalizations of his rugaruga. TherewasnothingmelodiousaboutthemusicofKizumina’stelling,however, for the “roaring coarseness” of the soldiers’ song could not be a more obvious demonstration of machismo.2 Kizumina’s audience found its absurdity very funny,laughinguproariouslyeverytimehesangthewordsinhiscreakyvoice, clearly playing to his crowd. Peripatetic Penis has a life of its own in Kizumina ’s lyrics, recalling Nicolai Gogol’s surreal short story “The Nose,” in whichadisembodiedproboscisstrutsabout,hailshorse-drawncarriages,and haughtilyrefusestoobeythecommandsandentreatiesofthepersonoccupying the rest of its body.3 In Kizumina’s telling, Penis hungrily looks upon the starchy bwali polenta made from manioc, sorghum, or maize that is the basic dish of Tabwa meals. It sees women and “stands itself up.” Penis, Penis, Penis—the old man’s mirth was mesmerizing. Might these words have suggested another purpose to the men in Bwana Boma’s service? The relationship between praise singing and honor among brazenZuluwarriorsinthetimeofShakamayprovideananalogy,forinsatiable 78 · The “Emperor” Strikes Back sexualappetitewasamongthequalitiestheymostavidlyflaunted.Amongtheir songs was one with the following words, the more potent for their understated analogy of “eating” and forceful sexual conquest: “He who while devouring some devoured others / And as he devoured others he devoured some more.”4 Althoughlackinganysuchsubtlety,Kizumina’ssongwasmeanttoelicitlaughter and yet surely referred to the same sorts of harsh gender politics in times of direturmoilthatonecanassumemotivatedtheZululyrics.Theinsultingtreatment , physical brutality, and forced, long-term concubinage of Lusinga’s women—who had just been so warmly hospitable—say as much of Storms’s warriors. Ribaldry also has its place in contemporary Tabwa culture, as it long has from what little direct evidence one can find and as one can surmise from outragedmissionaryaccountsofearlyritualandrelatedcollectiveactivities.5 In particular, lascivious songs and dancing are the province of the parents of twins, whose fertility is deemed remarkable. Crude humor demonstrates the parents’ release from the niceties of ordinary etiquette, and lyrics often refer to genitalia of Pantagruelian extravagance. Furthermore, to Tabwa reckoning...