Requiem for the "Jaga". (original) (raw)

JOSEPH MILLER University of Virginia Requiem for the Jaga* Few myths about Africa or Africans have achieved greater fame on the basis of less evidence than stories of the sixteenth and seventeenth century Jaga invasions of Kongo and Angola The standard author ities have consistently depicted the Jaga as skilled warriors who drove the Kongo ruler from his kingdom in 1568 until recently with the pejorative fillip that they were ferocious marauders and bloodthirsty cannibals) then assaulted the Mbundu populations living just to the south of Kongo in Angola and finally disappeared after 1650 or so except for hardy few leaders who founded such states as Kasanje and some of the Ovimbundu kingdoms.1 In contrast to the generally accepted view careful analysis of the sources for early Kongo and Angola history suggests that no such Jaga ever existed outside the imaginations of missionaries slave dealers and Government officials who created these mythical cannibals to justify or conceal their own activities in Africa The extant data fragmentary as they are suggest at least two other explanations for the 1568 attack on the mani Kongo both more plausible than the hypothesis of mysterious deus ex machina from the far interior Unrelated warrior bands called Imbangala account for all reported appearances of Jaga farther to the south.2

am indebted to Professors Alien Isaacman Paul Lovejoy and Jan Vansina for their searching criticisms of an earlier draft of this article any remaining faults are of course my own responsibility would also like to thank the Cartographic Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin for preparing the maps which accompany the text To cite only the most recent repetition of this version Robert COLLINS African History Text and Readings New York 1971 349 Erupting from the Kwango region to the south and east the Jaga destroyed the Congolese army and drove the king into exile on an island in the Congo river the Governor of Tomé Francesco de Gouveia rallied the Congolese and with his harquebuses drove the Jaga from the kingdom in 1571 The Jaga meanwhile established states to the east and south and from these continued to raid the Congo. David BIRMINGHAM Trade and Conflict in Angola London 1966 pp 64-65 has recognized the distinction between the Jaga and the Imbangala as has Jan VANSINA More on the Invasions of Kongo and Angola by the Jaga and the Lunda Journal of African History VII 1966 pp 421-429 My unpublished dissertation Kings and Kinsmen the Imbangala Impact on the Mbundu of Angola University of Wisconsin 1972 deals with the origins of the Imbangala at some length