Ilambi is a community in the

Tshopo Tshopo is one of the 21 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. It is situated in the north central part of the country on the Tshopo River, for which it is named. Tshopo, Bas-Uele, Haut-Uele, ...

Province of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

, on the

Lomami River The Lomami River (, , ) is a major tributary of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The river is approximately long. It flows north, west of and parallel to the upper Congo. The Lomami rises in the south of the country, near ...

. It is to the south of the point where the Lomani enters the

Congo River The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...

. Most of the inhabitants are

Topoke people The Topoke (initially called ''Eso'') are an ethnic group that mainly live in the Isangi Territory south of the Congo River, downstream from Kisangani in the Tshopo Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They speak the Poke language (al ...

Colonial era

In the colonial era, the

Lomami Company The Lomani Company was a concession company of the Congo Free State. In the colonial era, the Lomami Company forced the people of the Lomami River region from Opala and Lokilo down to Ilambi to collect large amounts of rubber. The Mbole people ...

forced the people of the Lomami River region from Opala and

Lokilo Lokilo is a community in the Opala Territory of the Tshopo Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the colonial era of the Belgian Congo, Lokilo was one of the areas from which the Lomami Company collected large amounts of rubber. The Mbo ...

down to Ilambi to collect large amounts of rubber. The

Mbole people The Mbole people are an ethnic group of about 150,000 people living in the Orientale Province, southwest of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Mbole were previously referred to as Bambole. Origins The Mbole language belongs ...

vividly described their view of the effect of this work with the phrase ''wando wo limolo'', meaning "tax-caused loss of weight". A 1903 account by a British traveler noted that the company was doing a large trade in rubber and ivory. It went on: "The natives are quite satisfied, work well and give very little trouble, although it is necessary to punish them sometimes, and as usual, the prisoners on the chain are given work to do outside the prison".

References

{{DRCongo-geo-stub Populated places in Tshopo