From 1885 to 1908, DR Congo was transformed into a massive forced labor camp. This territory, then known as the Congo Free State, was unlike any other colony in Africa. It wasn’t controlled by a government or a European empire. Instead, it was the personal property of one man, King Leopold II of Belgium. And to maintain control over such a vast land and its millions of people, Leopold didn’t rely only on European soldiers, he turned to the Zappo Zaps. These warriors became some of the most feared agents of terror in the Congo, helping enforce a brutal system built on greed, fear, and violence.
By the late 19th century, European countries were engaged in what became known as the Scramble for Africa, a mad dash to grab land and resources across the continent. To avoid open conflict between rival powers, European leaders met at the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, where they divided Africa among themselves like slices of a pie.
Among those at the table was King Leopold II, a monarch obsessed with acquiring an overseas empire. Belgium itself had little interest in colonization, so Leopold acted alone. He disguised his ambitions behind a front called the International African Association, claiming it was a humanitarian organization meant to bring civilization and end slavery in Central Africa. His pitch worked. The European powers gave him control over a vast territory around the Congo River.
In 1885, the Congo Free State was born, a state in name only. In reality, it was Leopold’s private kingdom, and he ran it like a business, focused entirely on extracting ivory, and later, rubber, for profit.
Leopold’s business model relied on forced labor and brutal punishment. Every village had quotas to meet, mostly rubber and ivory, and failure to deliver meant death, mutilation, or destruction. But the Congo was enormous, and European officers were few. Leopold needed local enforcers: Africans who would help control and terrorize their fellow Africans. That’s where the Zappo Zaps came in.
The Congo Free State was divided into districts, each managed by European officers who lacked the manpower to enforce quotas directly. Local African groups were often co-opted to police their fellow Congolese, and the Zappo Zaps stood out for their efficiency and brutality.
Who Were the Zappo Zaps?
The Zappo Zaps were originally a warrior clan from the Songye ethnic group in the Kasai region of Central Congo. Though their origins were rooted in local power dynamics, they became one of the most feared militia forces of the Congo Free State. Many Zappo Zaps were former slaves, war captives, or soldiers from other regions recruited for their ruthlessness and loyalty. For their services, they were rewarded with privileges, land, and impunity.
The Zappo Zaps operated out of a settlement near Luluabourg (present-day Kananga), which grew wealthy and powerful under their control. They ran plantations, often worked by enslaved labor, and participated in the ivory and rubber trade.
They weren’t just brutal. They were encouraged to be brutal, and colonial officers often turned a blind eye to their atrocities. In exchange, they were allowed to loot and enslave as they pleased, so long as the quotas were met.
They were sent on missions to collect rubber, ivory, slaves, and livestock in the name of taxation. They were also used to punish villages that resisted or failed to meet quotas.
One of the most horrifying examples of their methods occurred in the Kuba Massacre of 1899.
The Kuba Massacre of 1899
In 1899, Commander Dufour of Luluabourg ordered the Kuba Kingdom in the Pyang region to pay a rubber tax, 2,500 balls of rubber, sixty slaves, goats, and food. He called on the Zappo Zaps to enforce this demand. Their leader, Zappo Zap, delegated the job to his lieutenant, Mulumba Nkusu, who assembled 500 warriors, all armed.
Upon arrival, the Zappo Zaps built a stockade and summoned the local chiefs. When the chiefs refused the outrageous demands, the Zappo Zaps closed the gates and massacred them. They then swept through the region, burning fourteen villages, killing indiscriminately, looting, and causing thousands to flee into the jungle.
The carnage was not only physical, it was psychological. The mutilation of bodies, including the severing and drying of right hands, was used as both punishment and proof of performance. These trophies were usually presented to colonial officers to demonstrate that orders had been carried out.
An African-American missionary, Reverend William Henry Sheppard, investigated the massacre. Disguising his intent, Sheppard gained the confidence of Mulumba Nkusu and was shown the aftermath. He documented seeing over 40 corpses, some hanging from trees, and 81 severed right hands being dried. He also found 60 women held as hostages and sex slaves.
Sheppard and other like minded missionaries raised their voices against the atrocities, directing their protests to the Free State authorities. To their surprise, the colonial administration responded by ordering the release of the imprisoned women and placing Mulumba Nkusu under arrest. Confused by the turn of events, Mulumba reportedly expressed disbelief, insisting he had simply carried out the orders given to him.
Sheppard’s journals and reports helped bring global attention to the horrors happening in the Congo. When the church found out he was preparing to document the atrocities, they warned him to be cautious about speaking out against the Congo Free State. At the time, the church maintained close ties with King Leopold’s regime and was reluctant to challenge his authority. But Sheppard pressed on, determined to expose the truth, even if it meant defying the church.
Despite institutional pressure, Sheppard’s reports reached American newspapers. In January 1900, The New York Times published his findings, directly implicating the Zappo Zaps and the Congo Free State in a system of forced tribute, murder, rape, and pillage.
The revelations about the Zappo Zaps, and broader abuses in the Congo, sparked global outrage. Figures like Mark Twain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used their platforms to highlight the crimes of Leopold’s regime. Twain referenced Sheppard in King Leopold’s Soliloquy (1905), while Conan Doyle wrote about the Zappo Zaps in The Crime of the Congo (1909), stating that even these mercenaries were victims of a system that threatened them with punishment if they failed to deliver results.
International condemnation mounted, and by 1908, Leopold was forced to hand over control of the Congo Free State to the Belgian government.
When the Belgian government annexed the Congo in 1908, it began to dismantle some of the worst excesses of the Free State. The Zappo Zaps were stripped of their privileged status and no longer used as state auxiliaries. Though they did not disappear entirely, their era of impunity ended. The settlement near Luluabourg faded in prominence, and their legacy became inseparable from the horrors of Leopold’s regime.
Today, the memory of the Zappo Zaps and their role in the Congo Free State remains a chilling lesson in how systems of exploitation are often enforced not only by foreign powers but by those coerced or co-opted into serving them.
Sources:
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/01/05/102576010.pdf
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6866B3C28FD876201CAFBCE9B6E573B6/S0361541300004472a.pdf/from_hampton_into_the_heart_of_africa_how_faith_in_god_and_folklore_turned_congo_missionary_william_sheppard_into_a_pioneering_ethnologist.pdf
King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule by Mark Twain
