Episode 7: Swahili-Arab traders travel far inland

In this Episode we talk through the encounters between the Ivory traders who during the 19th Century traveled West of Lake Tanganyika to todays DRC. They were driven further inland as the Ivory supply diminished in the coastal regions.

Lands described as housing herds of Elephants in the 1840s had no such herds by the 1880s, and herds could only be found far inland.

The traders came to be led by Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi, better know as Tippu Tip after the sound of the sound of a firing musket rifle.

Episode 6: The Eastern Congo. Early history.

In this episode we look at the Indian Ocean coast and the journeys inland to teh Eastern Congo.

We see how cultural misunderstandings could lead to conflict, and just as worryingly we have first hand evidence of how the elephant population was impacted as the demand from ivory increased.

For this episode I show a modern satellite image of East Central Africa. It highlights the lakes as the topographical markers of the southern end of the great African Rift.

With modern borders superimposed you can see how far the Eastern Congo is from the coast, and in days of travel by foot the time taken for people to travel from the coast was significant.

Episode 5: Meanwhile in the East

In this Episode we leave the West, and we find ourselves in the land of Mountains, Lakes and Volcanoes!

Travelling back in time we see the origins of the Luba empires. We see how their system of governance was so effective as to attract new joiners enabling the Empire to spread throughout central Africa.

We also meet the powerful Lunda Empires, and see how they grew to conquer the lands to south and east of the Luba.

For Episode 5 we have an amazing photo of Mount Nyiragongo taken back in 2014 granted by a friend of the podcast. You can really see the bubbling lava here and have some visuals associated with the awe inspiring landscape I mention in the podcast.

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