page_title: Émile Storms
section_title: Mpala
hierarchical_section_title: Émile Storms / Expedition to Equatorial Africa / Mpala
caption_attribution_description: English: The main street and the fortress built by Captain Émile Storms at Lubanda-Mpala
context_page_description: Émile Pierre Joseph Storms was a Belgian soldier, explorer, and official for the Congo Free State.
  He is known for his work between 1882 and 1885 in establishing a European presence in the regions around Lake Tanganyika, during which he supported the White Fathers missionaries and attempted to suppress the East African slave trade.
context_section_description: Storms had been charged with establishing a second post on Lake Tanganyika. He left Böhm in charge of Karema.
  Storms embarked on 27 April 1883 with Böhm's companion Paul Reichard and 24 askaris and sailed to Mompara on the west shore of the lake.
  There he found a peaceful and friendly population who offered food. 
  Looking for a good place to establish a post, he made contact with the chief Mpala, who gave permission to build the post in his territory.
  On 4 May 1883 the foundations of the station of Mpala were laid.  Chief Mpala became a blood-brother in a ceremony on 25 June 1883.
  Storms left Reichart to supervise the work while he went to Ujiji to buy a boat and obtain some trade goods. 
  Storms was back at Mpala on 15 August 1883. Both of his boats were wrecked in a storm shortly after his arrival, 
  and he had to build another before he could return to Karema.
  The alliance with the chief Mpala proved valuable. The chief caught smallpox, but before dying ordered the village elders to respect Storms. 
  Storms gained authority during the two and a half years he spent at Mpala.  The local chiefs came to rely on him for a monthly salary and for protection.
  Storms had his people build a great square stockade 30 metres (98 ft) on each side, using five thousand trees. The walls were made of mudbrick and were 60 centimetres (24 in) thick. The interior had seventeen rooms around a covered courtyard.
  However, on 19 May 1885 the stockade burned to the ground.  
  Once the dried thatch had caught fire, little could be saved apart from the gunpowder.
  On 6 September 1884 Storms was visited by White Fathers missionaries led by R. P. Moinet, whom he helped to settle in Tchanza, one day south of Mpala.  
  On 30 November 1884 Reichart arrived at Mpala, returning from an exploration of Katanga, and told him that Böhm had died on the journey.
  Storms found himself in a violent confrontation with Lusinga Iwa Ngombe, a powerful slaver whom the explorer Joseph Thomson called a "sanguinary potentate".
  In November, while in Karema, Storms heard that Lusinga was preparing to make war on Mpala.
  Storms hired 150 Rouga Rouga, crossed the lake and attacked Lusinga, who was defeated.
  Lusinga was beheaded.
  Another leader, Kansawara, who had previously submitted to Storms, decided to move into the vacancy left by Lusinga. 
  He was defeated on 15 December 1884 and soon afterwards again submitted to Storms.
caption: The main street and the great stockade built by Storms at Mpala
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