EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

Van Haverbeke’s voyage which began in December 1847, resulted in the first
treaty specifically granting sovereignty rights to the king of Belgium that was
negotiated by a government representative. The treaty was signed on March 4, 1848. It
is helpful to look at the situation along the Rio Nunez in terms of both the native
inhabitants and the European traders, especially Abraham Cohen. 339
The area around Rio Nunez in West Africa in the middle of the
nineteenth century was under the control, at least in theory, of the Fula of Labé, the
largest administrative subdivision of the Futa-Djalon, a mountainous district west of the
Rio Nunez and the name of the theocratic federation or state of the Futa-Djalon 340 The
area had experienced almost fifty years of turmoil as a result of the fighting between the
Alfaya branch and the Soriya branch of the federation. During the Rio Nunez incident,
the Fula of Labé ruled over this area with a relatively free hand. They remained
important to the Belgian and other European traders by virtue of their ability to close
the river to trade and determine the succession of the chiefs of the Landuman and the
Nalu ethnic groups along the Rio Nunez River.
Under several charismatic leaders such as Usman dan Fodio and al-Hajj Umar, a
series of jihads created the Tukolor Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate in western and
central West Africa. The Fula-Djalon state, to the west and north of these empires, were
able to rule independently. They ruled by utilizing the native chiefs as surrogates as
339 A good overview of the political situation on the Rio Nunez and the adjacent Rio Pongo
Rivers can be found in Bruce L. Mouser, “Trade and Politics in the Nunez and Pongo Rivers, 1790-1865”
(Ph.D. diss, Indiana University, 1972).
340 The political makeup of this state up can be found in Jean Suret-Canale, The Fouta-Djalon
Chieftaincy: West African Chiefs: Their Changing Status under Colonial Rule and Independence (Ife,
Nigeria: University of Ife, Institute of African Studies, 1968).
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