Between marriage and slavery: women, social mobility, and the making of Ngwana power in late-nineteenth-century Central Africa

This article reconstructs women’s lives within the caravan networks that linked Central Africa to the Indian Ocean in the late nineteenth century, focusing on Kisangani (Stanley Falls) and its hinterland (today DRCongo) – a profoundly understudied region in research about the history of slavery. Combining oral history interviews with archival sources, the article offers micro-histories that illuminate how women – enslaved and free – anchored Ngwana and Arab trading groups locally. Drawing on Emily Lynn Osborn’s ‘household as statecraft’ concept, the article shows how female reproductive and domestic labour, family ties, and marital alliances produced outsiders’ authority in a context of blurred boundaries between slavery and kinship. It traces two main pathways of female mobility: internal, through advantageous marriages and household promotion; and external, through flight. The analysis also highlights the role of shoka (metal spearheads) as a currency for both ivory and bridewealth, tying commercial circuits to household politics. By foregrounding women’s strategies and constraints, the article revises male-centred narratives about the early colonial period and confirms existing findings on the porous nature of slavery in East and Central Africa.