Kasongo, also known as Piani Kasongo, is a town and

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

in the

Maniema Maniema Province (''Jimbo la Maniema'', in Swahili) is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Kindu. The 2020 population was estimated to be 2,856,300. Toponymy Henry Morton Stanley explored the area ...

Province in the east 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 ...

Geography

Kasongo lies east of the

Lualaba River The Lualaba River (, , ) flows entirely within the eastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the River source, source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi River, Chambeshi ...

, northwest of where it meets the

Luama River The Luama River () is a tributary of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Location The Luama rises in the mountains to the west of Lake Tanganyika, in the Kalemie Territory of Tanganyika District. It flows north and ...

, at an altitude of . Its population is approximately 63,000. The town is served by Kasongo Airport. Kasongo is connected to the provincial capital

Kindu Kindu is a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the capital of Maniema province. It has a population of about 200,000 and is situated on the Lualaba River at an altitude of about 500 metres, and is about 400 km west of Bukavu. Kindu is ...

by the Kasongo Road (a section of National Road 31 (N31)), but the journey takes two days due to the road's poor state. The City also lies on National Road 2 (N2) and Regional Road 629 (R629).. Kasongo is part of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Kasongo The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kasongo () is a diocese located in the cities of Kasongo in the ecclesiastical province of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bukavu, Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. History * 10 January 1952: Establish ...

History

The town was founded around 1850 to 1860. A few years later it became the capital of the newly founded and short-lived

Sultanate of Utetera The Sultanate of Utetera (1860–1887), also referred as Tippu Tip's state, was one of the Arab sultanates established in eastern Africa. It was a 19th-century short-lived state ruled by the infamous Swahili slave trader Tippu Tip (Hamad al Murje ...

, established and initially ruled by the

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

–

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

slave and ivory trader

Tippu Tip Tippu Tip, or Tippu Tib (– June 14, 1905), real name Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī (), was an Afro-Omani ivory and slave owner and trader, explorer, governor and plantation owner. He ...

. His small sultanate was a key trading partner and ally of the

Sultanate of Zanzibar The Sultanate of Zanzibar (, ), also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, was an East African Muslim state controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in place between 1856 and 1964. The Sultanate's territories varied over time, and after a period of de ...

in the east. The area was visited by

Henry Morton Stanley Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author, and politician famous for his exploration of Central Africa and search for missi ...

in the early 1880s, on his third expedition. The territory was at the centre of the

Congo Arab war The Congo Arab war was a colonial war between the Congo Free State and Arab-Swahili warlords associated with the Indian Ocean slave trade in the eastern regions of the Congo Basin between 1892 and 1894. The war was caused by the Free State and ...

and the

Batetela rebellion The Batetela rebellion () was a series of three military mutinies and a subsequent low-level insurgency which was attributed to members of the Tetela ethnic group in the Congo Free State between 1895 and 1908. Beginning in a mutiny among Tetela ...

in the 1890s. A century later, Kasongo and its inhabitants were severely affected by the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted ...

(1998–2003).

References

External links

WorldStatesmen.org: Congo (Kinshasa) Traditional States
(including details on states from the Kasongo area and their rulers) {{Authority control Populated places in Maniema

Geography

History

See also

References

External links