Thanks to Dr. Loffman and to you, this looks like a fascinating topic! Looking forward to listening.

A general question for Dr. Loffman, feel free to ignore if it comes up in the episode: Just the other day a statue of Leopold II was taken down in Antwerpen. Could you comment on the changing relationship in Belgium to its colonial past?

I know it's a big topic; and that there's a major difference between Leopold's holdings and the territories of the White Fathers/Spiritans. So anything on either of the two would be very interesting.

One more question for Dr. Loffman:

In the book you mention that in Kongolo territory, the White Fathers and Spiritans were able to mobilize more resources locally than the Belgian colonial state.

Where did these missionary groups get these resources from, and what form did the resources take?

Was this in the form of monetary donations from Europe? Voluntary labor from missionaries? Were local Hemba, Banga Banga and Songye communities providing money and labor in support of the mission schools?

I'm happy to note that Dr. Loffman is able to be with us for a little while to answer questions today, so if you have questions please ask them here!

One question that I wanted to comment on was the reason why Leopold II allowed missionaries into the Congo in the first place. In the first instance, he wanted Catholic missionaries, who were answerable to a clear hierarchy, to domesticate Belgian rule. He wanted Belgian missionaries in particular since he feared that missionaries from other nations would be fifth columnists for imperial rivals. This was why he exiled the Spiritans from the Congo in 1886. The Scheut Fathers were among his favourite missionaries because they were headquartered in Belgium. But they did not have the staff to cover out-stations stretching across the Congo so Leopold allowed other missionaries into the Congo not least the Spiritans after he signed a Concordat with the Church in 1906. Leopold feared Anglophone Protestants because he did fear that they were fifth columnists for US/UK interests (Maxwell: 2008). Leopold had a very turbulent relationship with the American Presbyterians in the Congo who were on the vanguard of the campaigns against the Free State's rubber atrocities. But given the political weight of the US, Leopold never felt he could expel them but the administration made life very difficult for them.

Another question for Dr. Loffman:

Late in the episode, you briefly mention the antagonistic relationship between Zairian leader Mobutu Sese Seko and the Congolese Catholic church in the early 1970s.

There is a document that purports to be King Leopold's letter to Missionaries to Africa, written in 1883. However, the historian Kalala Ngalamune wrote in Politique Africain that the letter is a forgery which appeared in 1970.

Can you talk about Mobutu Sese Seko's conflict with the Catholic church? Is a forged letter of-a-piece with Mobutist efforts?

Circa 40 minutes in, when talking about Rasaci Katore and Kilamba Sindano, you allude to "various meanings of Kibangile".

Can you talk about that? How do the different meanings of Kibangile help us understand the witch-hunting phenomenon?

A Note: in this episode we mentioned many different authors and book that are relevant scholarship. Here is a brief bibliography.

Edit: Dr. Loffman's book Church, State and Colonialism in Southeastern Congo is available through Palgrave MacMillan.

9m- I mention Thomas Q. Reefe's book The Rainbow and the Kings; a history of the Luba Empire to 1891 from University of California Press, 1981.

13 m- Dr. Loffman mentions John Illiffe's concept of "horizontal ties of honor" and authoritarian vs consultative models of chieftanship. This is a reference to Honour in African History published by Cambridge University Press, 2004

14 m 30 s- Dr. Loffman mentions Jan Vansina's book Paths in the Rainforest from University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. This was in reference to pre-colonial political and social organization.

17 m - I mention Adam Hochschild's book King Leopold's Ghost published by Mariner Books, 1998. However, the context was "the situation in Kongolo was not like the red rubber atrocities in western Congo described in King Leopold's Ghost

25m- We talk about the geography of Kongolo. This is a map from Church, State and Colonialism which illustrates the places mentioned in this episode.

42 m Dr Loffman mentions V.Y. Mundimbe's book The Idea of Africa (Indiana University Press, 1994) in the context of the idea of close co-operation between Church and State in colonial Congo.

Dr. Loffman also mentions Crawford Young at 42 m. I think this is a reference to Politics in Congo; decolonization and independence by Princeton University Press, 1965.

44 m- mentions Marvin Markovitz Cross and Sword; the political role of christian missionaries in Congo published by Hoover Institution Press, 1973.

51 m 30s Dr Loffman mentions A Nervous State by Nancy Rose Hunt, Duke University Press, 2016. This was in the context of nervous relations between colonial state and the African population. This was in the context of colonial paranoia about kitawala movement, and how colonial efforts to suppress the movement actually spread it to new provinces.

54 m- Dr Loffman mentions Terrence Ranger's Dance and Society in Eastern Africa 1890-1970; the Beni Ngomba University of California press, 1975.

56 m- Eric Hobsbawm Primitive Rebels Norton Library 1965.

59 m- Dr Loffman urges listeners to read Osuma Likaka's Rural Society of Cotton in Colonial Zaire (University of Wisconsin press, 1997) for more information about colonial era cotton planting schemes and labor relations.

1h 19 m- another reference to Nancy Rose Hunt, this time A Colonial Lexicon; of birth ritual, medicalization, and mobility in the Congo Duke University Press, 1999. In reference to local medical knowledge and the colonial states' hospital/medical efforts.

1h 27 m- Didier Gondola's book Tropical Cowboys; Westerns, Cowboys and Masculinity in Colonial Kinshasa Indiana University Press, 2016. In context of talking about Leopoldville riots in 1959.

1h 30 m- Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja Patrice Lumumba from the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series. Ohio University Press, 2014.

1h 32 m- Miles Larmer and Erik Kennes The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa Indiana University Press, 2016.

1h 46 m- Dr. Loffman says "Lualaba province covers most of modern Tanganyika province" talking about the Luba Katanga separatist province.

Edit- I am listening through and providing notes for works mentioned. This post will change repeatedly. I'm not going to note specific edits anymore.