Middle Africa (1828–1971 CE): Abolition, Partition, Extraction, and Independence

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola.Anchors included the Congo–Kasai–Ubangi river system and ports (Matadi, Léopoldville/Kinshasa, Brazzaville), the Atlantic harbors of Luanda, Lobito, Pointe-Noire, Libreville, Douala, the Cameroon Highlands and forest massifs, the northern savanna and Lake Chad basin, and the Gulf of Guinea islands (São Tomé, Príncipe, Bioko). From equatorial rainforest to Sahelian margin, the region’s corridors were re-engineered by abolition’s aftermath, the Scramble for Africa, and 20th-century state formation.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

With the retreat of the Little Ice Age, rainfall belts oscillated. Congo basin forests stayed humid, but dry-season length varied by decade; high river years expanded floodplain farming yet raised erosion risk. The Lake Chad basin swung between flood and shrinkage pulses (notably late 1960s drought). Along the Atlantic, heavy rains alternated with stormy seasons that reshaped estuaries and mangroves. Logging, plantation clearance, and later oil extraction intensified local micro-climate and watershed stress.

Subsistence & Settlement

Abolition redirected labor from slave corridors to plantations, mines, and ports.

• Forest and riverine belts: Cassava (by now a staple famine reserve), plantain/banana, yam, taro, maize, oil palm, groundnuts, and beans anchored household nutrition; fishing and smoked/dried fish stores remained vital. Cocoa and coffee spread in Cameroon, Gabon, and on São Tomé and Príncipe, where plantation monoculture dominated.

• Savanna and Lake Chad: Millet, sorghum, rice, and cattle herding persisted, with recession farming along floodplains.

• Urbanization: Port and rail towns (Douala, Pointe-Noire, Libreville, Léopoldville/Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Luanda) expanded around docks, depots, and workshops; mining towns rose in Katanga (copper, cobalt), Kasai (diamonds), and the Angolan interior (iron, diamonds).

Technology & Material Culture

Colonial regimes laid railways that reoriented trade: the Congo–Ocean Railway (1921–1934) to Pointe-Noire; the Benguela Railway linking Katanga to Lobito; Douala–Nkongsamba and other lines in Cameroon. River steamers, dredged channels, and ports (Matadi, Boma) integrated the Congo corridor with the Atlantic. Concession companies built mills for palm oil, timber yards, and mining plants; mission presses, schools, and clinics proliferated. Forced-labor systems supplied roads, rails, and estates—prestations in French Equatorial Africa, contract labor and chibalo in Portuguese Angola, with coerced migration to São Tomé and Príncipe cocoa roças (sparking early 1900s boycotts). Household craft and market production—blacksmithing, weaving, pottery, canoe carpentry—adapted to cash economies; urban workshops forged a new artisanal landscape.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• River and rail grids funneled palm products, timber, copper/cobalt, diamonds, and cocoa to Atlantic ports.

• Atlantic lanes connected Luanda, Lobito, Pointe-Noire, Douala, Libreville, and São Tomé with Lisbon, Antwerp, Marseille, and later New York.

• Labor migrations moved workers from savannas to mines, plantations, and docks; seasonal and contract flows tied the Lake Chad fringe to forest and port towns.

• Mission and medical circuits (sleeping-sickness campaigns) penetrated deep inland. Late in the period, roads and airstrips extended state reach; large projects (e.g., Inga on the lower Congo, planned in the 1960s) heralded hydro-modernity at decade’s end.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Mission Christianity spread schooling, print, and new associational life; prophetic and African-initiated churches transformed religious landscapes—Kimbanguism (founded 1921) in the lower Congo became a mass church by mid-century; later Angolan movements (e.g., Tokoist strands) blended biblical and local idioms. Urban music and dance forged modern publics: Congolese rumba/soukous, Cameroonian makossa, Angolan semba, all carried ngoma drum lineages into amplified nightlife. Writers (e.g., Ferdinand Oyono, Mongo Beti) and painters chronicled colonial contradiction. Court and village arts endured—masks, nkisi figures, raffia and cotton textiles—now circulating through markets and museums alike.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Households hedged risk with multicropping (cassava as standing reserve), compound gardens, and fish smoking/drying. Forest communities rotated fields and protected sacred groves; savanna herders shifted grazing with the rains; floodplain cultivators followed river pulses. During epidemics and forced labor drives, kin networks rehomed dependents; mutual-aid societies, mission parishes, and later unions buffered shocks. Conservation began as colonial game reserves and national parks (e.g., Odzala 1930s) and post-colonial protected areas; fisheries and forest regulations emerged unevenly under pressure from urban markets.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict & Polity Dynamics)

The Atlantic slave trade collapsed, but concessionary regimes (rubber, ivory) in the Congo Free State (1885–1908)produced catastrophic violence—amputation terror and demographic collapse—before annexation as the Belgian Congo. France consolidated French Equatorial Africa; Germany took Kamerun (later partitioned to France/Britain after World War I); Spain held Equatorial Guinea; Portugal deepened rule in Angola and on São Tomé and Príncipe. After 1945, anticolonial nationalism surged: strikes, student leagues, churches, and cultural clubs nurtured parties and fronts.
Key turning points:

• Congo–Léopoldville independence (1960): crisis—Patrice Lumumba, Katanga secession (1960–1963), UN intervention, and the 1965 coup by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; the country was renamed Zaire in 1971.

• Congo–Brazzaville, Gabon, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon: 1960 independence, followed by one-party consolidations and, in places, insurgencies (UPC in Cameroon; conflict in Chad from 1965).

• Equatorial Guinea: independence (1968), authoritarian turn under Francisco Macías Nguema.

• Angola: anticolonial war from 1961 (MPLA, FNLA, UNITA), still under Portuguese rule within our span.

• São Tomé and Príncipe: plantations persisted under Portugal; independence would follow after 1971.

Transition

By 1971 CE, Middle Africa had traversed coerced extraction, partition, and a turbulent decolonization. New states—Cameroon (federation of 1961), Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, and Zaire—stood astride river and rail grids built for export, now reimagined for nation-building. Angola fought a widening independence war; São Tomé and Príncipe remained under plantation rule; Gabon entered an oil economy; Kinshasa’s rumba and Brazzaville’s dance bands broadcast urban modernities from riverbanks to continents. Beneath the rush of copper and oil, timber and cocoa, household multicropping, river fisheries, and kin solidarities still sustained everyday life—resilient repertoires forged across forests and floodplains, now tasked with the work of sovereignty.

Middle Africa (1876–1887 CE): Portuguese Claims, European Partition, and Intensified Slave Trade

Between 1876 and 1887 CE, Middle Africa—covering modern Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Angola (including its Cabinda enclave)—experiences intensified European colonial ambitions, extensive disruptions from slave-trading activities, and the early stages of partitioning by European powers.

Portuguese Claims and the Berlin Conference

In 1883, aware of competing French and Belgian activities along the lower Congo River, Portugal occupies Cabinda and Massabi, asserting longstanding territorial claims north of the Congo River and annexing areas of the former Kongo Kingdom. Portugal seeks international recognition by negotiating a treaty with Britain in 1884, but this agreement is rejected by other European powers, especially France and Belgium.

Portugal's appeals for an international conference initially find little support. However, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck seizes upon this idea, aiming to diminish French and British colonial dominance. Consequently, the pivotal Berlin Conference (1884–1885) convenes, profoundly impacting Central African geopolitics. At the conference, Belgium’s King Leopold II gains recognition for his privately controlled International Association of the Congo, subsequently establishing the Congo Free State. This territory, officially neutral and open to free trade, is in reality subjected to Leopold’s brutal exploitation in the following decades.

German Establishment in Kamerun

Germany formalizes its presence in Central Africa during this era. In 1884, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, influenced by merchant Adolph Woermann, dispatches the gunboat SMS Möwe to protect German trading interests at Douala, laying foundations for the colony of Kamerun. Prominent German firms—including Woermann and Jantzen & Thormählen—establish expansive trading networks and plantations, notably cultivating bananas and other export crops. The administration supports commercial interests by suppressing local uprisings, as Germany aspires to link Kamerun to its East African territories through the Congo region.

French Expansion in Gabon and the Congo

French explorers, notably Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, significantly expand French influence during this period. Brazza, guided by Gabonese bearers, explores the upper reaches of the Congo River, securing treaties and establishing strategic posts. In 1880, Brazza negotiates a treaty with King Makoko of the Bateke, formally establishing the French Congo colony in 1882, with Franceville founded as an important regional center. By 1885, France officially occupies Gabon, though full administrative control will be delayed until the early twentieth century.

Devastating Slave Trade in the Central African Interior

The late nineteenth century witnesses intensified slave-raiding activities in the present-day Central African Republic and surrounding regions. Slave traders from the Sahara, the Nile Basin, and Arab-led expeditions disrupt local societies severely. The Bobangi people, controlling slave trade along the upper Congo and Ubangi rivers, dominate commerce, selling captives primarily to the Americas. The widespread use of the Bangi language emerges to facilitate interethnic commerce throughout the Congo Basin.

Slave raiders from the Sudanese states of Wadai and Darfur, along with Khartoum-based armies under leaders like Rabih al-Zubayr, decimate populations such as the Banda people. Raids, warfare, and forced migrations profoundly disrupt indigenous societies, with extensive population losses caused directly by slavery and related conflicts.

Azande Expansion and Fragmentation

The Azande people, emerging from the merging of the Bandia and Vungara peoples, continue their territorial expansion across the southeastern savannas of present-day Central African Republic and neighboring regions. Succession struggles among Azande rulers drive defeated contenders to establish new kingdoms, facilitating their spread northward and eastward. By the late nineteenth century, Azande territories become fragmented by slave raids from the north, and soon thereafter, colonial boundaries established by Belgium, France, and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan permanently divide Azande society.

Luba Instability and Chokwe Expansion

By the late nineteenth century, the Luba Kingdom experiences severe internal instability due to continual dynastic conflicts. The absence of stable succession mechanisms weakens the Luba monarchy significantly, facilitating invasions by the aggressive and militarily superior Chokwe people. Armed with firearms and driven by the lucrative trade in slaves, ivory, wax, and later rubber, Chokwe warriors conquer and occupy extensive Luba territories, spreading turmoil across the central savannas.

The Chokwe quickly absorb conquered populations, integrating them into their existing social structure, thereby rapidly expanding their influence. However, by the end of the century, the Chokwe will be pushed back by resilient Lunda forces.

Multicultural Development in Fernando Pó

On Spanish-controlled Fernando Pó (now Bioko), significant administrative and social changes take place. Following recommendations to move settlements to higher elevations to reduce tropical disease exposure, by 1884 major plantations and administrative functions have relocated to Basile, several hundred meters above sea level. This move greatly improves survival rates for Europeans and other settlers. The island continues to host a vibrant, multicultural community of Creoles, Africans, and exiled Europeans, enhancing its distinctive cultural landscape.

Lasting Consequences of the Era

Between 1876 and 1887, the foundations of European colonial empires in Central Africa are decisively laid, accompanied by severe disruptions from intensified slave raiding and interethnic warfare. European competition and the outcomes of the Berlin Conference reshape the geopolitical landscape profoundly, setting the stage for the colonial era that will dominate the region well into the twentieth century.

The area north of the Congo River comes under French sovereignty in 1880 as a result of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza's treaty with King Makoko of the Bateke.

This Congo Colony, offiically formed in 1882, becomes known as French Congo.

Recruiting Stanley to help him from 1878, Belgium's King Leopold II founds the International Association of the Congo, financed by an international consortium of bankers.

Under the auspices of this association, Stanley arrives at the mouth of the Congo in 1879 and begins the journey upriver.

He founds Vivi, the first capital, across the river from present-day Matadi, then moves farther upriver, reaching a widening he named Stanley Pool (now Pool de Malebo) in mid-1881.

There he founds a trading station and the settlement of Lèopoldville (now Kinshasa) on the south bank.

The north bank of the river has been claimed by France, leading ultimately to the creation of the colony of French Congo.

The road from the coast to Vivi is completed by the end of 1881, and Stanley returns to Europe.

He is back in Africa by December 1882 and sails up the Congo to Stanleyville (now Kisangani), signing more than four hundred and fifty treaties on behalf of Leopold II with persons described as local chieftains who have agreed to cede their rights of sovereignty over much of the Congo Basin.

In 1884 Stanley returns to Europe.

Leopold II's International Association of the Congo, which has already adopted its own flag, gains the separate recognition as an independent entity by thirteen powers, following the example set by the United States, at the Conference of Berlin, held in 1884-85 to settle disputes among the European nations and in essence to partition Africa among them.

Shortly afterward the association becomes the Congo Free State.

By the General Act of Berlin, signed at the conclusion of the conference in 1885, the powers also agree that activities in the Congo Basin should be governed by certain principles, including freedom of trade and navigation, neutrality in the event of war, suppression of the slave traffic, and improvement of the condition of the indigenous population.

The conference recognizes Leopold II as sovereign of the new state.

Leopold II soon proceeds to transform the Congo Free State into an effective instrument of colonial hegemony in order to meet the conference's legal requirement of "effective occupation."

Indigenous conscripts are promptly recruited into his nascent army, the Force Publique, manned by European officers.

A corps of European administrators is hastily assembled, which by 1906 will number fifteen hundred people; and a skeletal transportation grid will eventually be assembled to provide the necessary links between the coast and the interior.

The cost of the enterprise will prove far higher than had been anticipated, however, as the penetration of the vast hinterland cannot be achieved except at the price of numerous military campaigns.

Some of these campaigns will result in the suppression or expulsion of the previously powerful Afro-Arab slave traders and ivory merchants.

Only through the ruthless and massive suppression of opposition and exploitation of African labor can Leopold II hold and exploit his personal fiefdom.

The Third Republic greatly expands the French colonial empire under the leadership of expansionist Premier Jules Ferry.

France acquires Indochina, Madagascar, vast territories in West Africa and Central Africa, and much of Polynesia.

Middle Africa (1888–1899 CE): Colonial Consolidation, Economic Exploitation, and Indigenous Resistance

Between 1888 and 1899 CE, Middle Africa—including the modern territories of Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Angola (with its Cabinda enclave)—experiences intensified European colonial consolidation, ruthless economic exploitation, and significant indigenous resistance.

Portuguese Consolidation in Angola and Cabinda

Portugal solidifies its territorial claims in Angola and Cabinda through treaties with neighboring colonial powers. Borders with the French Congo and the Belgian Congo are established through agreements in 1886 and 1894, respectively. By the century’s end, Portugal’s territorial ambitions are largely recognized internationally, though genuine administrative control over interior regions remains weak.

Despite increased Portuguese presence, indigenous groups such as the Ovimbundu, Chokwe, and Imbangala continue to dominate regional trade networks, especially along the profitable southern trade route connecting the Bié Plateau to Benguela. The economic strength and political autonomy of these groups, however, diminish significantly under increasing colonial pressure.

Efforts to encourage Portuguese immigration largely fail due to Angola’s harsh climate and lack of economic incentives. By 1900, Angola’s white population is still under ten thousand, concentrated mainly in coastal cities such as Luanda and Benguela, where they engage primarily in commerce and trade. African peoples remain over ninety-nine percent of the population despite suffering severe demographic disruption due to decades of warfare and exploitation.

French Occupation of Ubangi-Shari

France establishes firm colonial control over the territory of Ubangi-Shari (present-day Central African Republic). French expeditions, beginning with the founding of the Bangi outpost in 1889, intensify in the early 1890s, culminating in the creation of the Upper Ubangi colony in 1894. Disputes with Leopold II’s Congo Free State over territorial boundaries—particularly around the Ubangi-Bomu region—lead to tensions that are only resolved by the end of the decade when the Upper Ubangi colony is reintegrated into French Congo in 1899.

Brutal Exploitation in the Congo Free State

In the Congo Free State, under King Leopold II of Belgium, ruthless exploitation becomes institutionalized. Leopold's agents and their African auxiliaries, the capitas, systematically employ coercive force to meet escalating quotas for rubber and ivory extraction. Indigenous resistance against these brutal practices provokes violent suppression and countless revolts. Leopold abandons the nominally “free-trade” principles initially proclaimed at the Berlin Conference by instituting monopolistic control over rubber and ivory resources, transforming the Congo Free State into a notorious zone of forced labor and human rights abuses.

Resistance and Conquest in Chad and Cameroon

In the region of modern Chad, the French encounter significant military resistance from the forces of Sudanese warlord Rabih Fadlallah (Rabih az-Zubayr), whose slave raids devastate local states, including Kanem-Borno, Bagirmi, and Wadai. After protracted conflicts throughout the 1890s, French military expeditions begin to close in on Rabih’s strongholds.

In Kamerun (Cameroon), the German Empire intensifies its colonial expansion, encountering staunch resistance from local African populations. German trading companies—such as Woermann—impose harsh forced labor practices to establish lucrative plantations growing bananas, cocoa, and rubber. The indigenous resistance provoked by these practices leads to continuous conflict, yet the Germans steadily entrench their colonial control.

Development and Exploitation in the Gulf of Guinea Islands

On the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, economic developments profoundly alter local conditions. On São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese plantation owners (roças) significantly expand the cultivation of coffee and cocoa, exploiting the islands' fertile volcanic soils. By the early 1900s, São Tomé emerges as the world’s largest cocoa producer. Despite Portugal’s official abolition of slavery in 1876, severe abuses continue under a coercive paid labor system, effectively perpetuating conditions akin to slavery.

On Fernando Pó (Bioko), harsh living conditions persist despite relocation of settlements to healthier, higher elevations. British explorer Mary Kingsley, visiting the island in 1893, describes Fernando Pó as “a more uncomfortable form of execution” for its appointed Spanish officials. Nonetheless, the island’s diverse population—including freed African slaves, Creoles, and exiled Europeans—continues to grow, supporting vibrant plantation economies dominated by elite African and mixed-race populations known as Fernandinos.

Lasting Impacts of Colonial Consolidation

This period sees European colonial powers strengthening their territorial and economic grip on Middle Africa, accompanied by severe exploitation of indigenous peoples and resources. The political fragmentation and human suffering resulting from European colonialism create long-term social and economic legacies, laying foundations for continued resistance, anti-colonial struggles, and enduring social divisions in the decades ahead.

France seizes and colonizes Ubangi-Shari territory in 1894.

French activity in the area had begun in 1889 with the establishment of the outpost Bangi at the head of navigation on the Ubangi.

The Upper Ubangi had been established as part of the French Congo on December 9, 1891.

Despite a France-Congo Free State convention establishing a border around the 4th parallel, the area is contested from 1892 to 1895 with the Congo Free State, which claimed the region as its territory of Ubangi-Bomu (Oubangui-Bomou).

The Upper Ubangi is a separate colony from July 13, 1894, until December 10, 1899, at which time it is folded back into the French Congo.

A perverse combination of rewards and penalties lies at the heart of the Congo's system.

Congo Free State agents and native auxiliaries (the so-called capitas) are given authority to use as much force as they deem appropriate to meet delivery norms, and because their profits are proportional to the amount of rubber and ivory collected, the inevitable consequence is the institutionalization of force on a huge scale.

Although native chiefs are expected to cooperate, the incessant and arbitrary demands made on their authority are self-defeating.

Many chiefs turn against the colonial state; others are quickly disposed of and replaced by state-appointed "straw chiefs."

Countless revolts ensue, which have an immediate effect on the scale and frequency of military expeditions.

As the cost of pacification soars, Leopold II declares a state monopoly on rubber and ivory.

The free-trade principle that had once been the cornerstone of the Congo Free State thus becomes a legal fiction, aptly summed up in this pithy commentary of the time: "Article one: trade is entirely free; article two: there is nothing to buy or sell."