Pogge and Wissmann encounter the Bena Riamba movement

When Paul Pogge and Hermann von Wissmann encountered the Bena Riamba in 1881, they found cannabis gardens, shared pipes and a political movement already shaped by years of conflict. Their observations became the best-known account of the movement, but their interests also shaped what later readers inherited.

An encounter, not a beginning

Chris S. Duvall traces the movement’s roots to an encounter around 1864 between Chishimbi, a leader in the Lulua Valley, and Mukwajanga, a Cokwe trading intermediary from Angola. Shared cannabis smoking accompanied a relationship that opened access to firearms and other goods.

That reconstruction relies on later accounts. It does not establish the first arrival of cannabis in the Congo Basin. By the time the Germans arrived, Chishimbi had died and rival leaders had developed their own claims to authority.

A society of friendship and allegiance

Adherents linked smoking with membership in a new order. Large gardens supplied the communal calabash pipes. Gatherings included singing, dancing and shared meals, while smoking could affirm trust in dealings with outsiders.

“Bena Riamba” is often translated as “Sons of Hemp”. Duvall instead favours “people of the riamba”, preserving uncertainty about words European listeners did not reliably distinguish. He describes lubuku as a society of friendship, rather than simply a name for the country.

Religious authority included Sangula Meta, whose role complicates accounts focused exclusively on male rulers and explorers.

The explorers needed allies

Wissmann depended on local guards, porters and political protection. He favoured Mukenge, while Portuguese accounts favoured the rival Chingenge. Neither perspective supplies an impartial account of the whole movement.

The label “Bashilenge” likewise requires qualification. Duvall records that the people so designated disliked it and identified as Baluba. Treating the label as a timeless tribal identity conceals the political circumstances in which outsiders used it.

Beyond the peaceful brotherhood

Cannabis could express friendship while also enforcing obedience. Duvall describes compulsory smoking ordeals, coercion and warfare, alongside trade in captives and the acquisition of rifles. Rejecting older weapons did not mean rejecting armed power.

The Bena Riamba movement therefore offers evidence of cannabis within a particular political order, rather than proof that smoking produces peace. Its decline unfolded through regional conflict and colonial expansion. The Congo Free State’s 1903 prohibition came later; it cannot explain the meaning of every pipe the explorers had seen.^[1]