Yanzi people
The Bayanzi (or Yan, Yanzi, Yansi people) are an ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who live in the southwest of the country and number about seven million.
[2] The Jesuits recorded local traditions of the Bayansi, which seem to show that they originated from a mix of mainly the North (present Sudan) or Northwest (present Gabon) by mix marriages of tribal chiefs, in a region they called "Kimput" which means "Europa" and seems to refer to Egypt (Hut-Ka-Ptah) or Ethiopia "Punt".
[10] On 30 October 1882 Edmond Hanssens reached Bolobo on the Congo River, where he negotiated for ten days with Kuka, King of the Bayanzi, who then signed a treaty that placed his lands and people under the protection of the International African Association.
Hanssens made treaties with the Congolese people at the mouth of the Kasai and acquired land for the Kwamouth post.
[11] At the end of August 1883 Charles Liebrechts visited Kwamouth on the way up the Congo River to help Êmile Brunfaut in Bolobo station in Bayanzi country, which had been burned down.
[11] Attilio Pécile, who was associated for three years with Giacomo di Brazzà in his exploration of the region north of the Congo, wrote in 1887 that the Bakales, Fans, and Bayanzi were all still pagans, and mostly cannibals.
He said, "The Bayanzi, who have acquired the ascendency along the right bank of the Lower Congo, seem to have come originally from the same regions as the Fans, whom they resemble in physical appearance, character, language, and usages.
He wrote, We see some canoes pass of the Bayanzi, who have a passion for trading and are the big ivory traffickers in this part of the state.
Spaces are kept between the lots for the rowers of both sexes who, numbering fifteen to twenty, paddled with ardor, to the rhythm of a monotonous song of a team leader, standing with a rooster between his feet, on a small platform at the back.
[15] The Catholic missionary August Schynse used the Bayanzi for protection against the local people, traveling with five canoes and men armed with 25 guns.
[17] Reports by Rene Mouchet and Victor Daco show that some limited improvements were made to the condition of the HCB's workers by 1928 and 1929.
[19] At the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in 1960 in Brussels on the future of the Belgian Congo and its institutional reforms the Alliance des Bayanzi was represented by Gaston Midu and his deputy Wenceslas Mbueny.
[20] In the 1960 Belgian Congo general election the Alliance des Bayanzi won 21,024 votes, or 0.95% of the total, and gained one seat in the chamber of deputies.
