SUMMARY
The Nande (also known as Banande, Kinandi, Ndande or Orundande) were a Bantu-speaking community residing around the Rwenzori mountains in eastern DR Congo (Zaire) and western Uganda. In Uganda they were commonly referred to as Bakonzo and were mainly found in the Bundibugyo, Kasese, Kabarole and Ntoroko districts, while in DR Congo (Zaire) they were concentrated in the Beni and Lubero territories of North Kivu and in parts of Ituri. Estimates put the Nande population in DR Congo (Zaire) at around two million. Researchers generally traced both Nande and Bakonzo back to the Bayira, a people who once lived in the ancient kingdom of Bunyoro in present-day Uganda. In the early nineteenth century, a segment of the Bayira reportedly crossed the Rwenzori mountains westwards in search of cultivable land and became known as the Banande, while those remaining on the eastern side came to be known as Bakonzo. Although these branches developed different forms of social and political organisation, they continued to speak closely related languages and shared many traditions.
The Nande were predominantly agriculturalists. In the Rwenzori region they cultivated crops such as cassava, yams, sweet potatoes, coffee and cotton, often on terraced hillsides, and combined farming with small-scale livestock keeping and trade. In North Kivu, Nande identified as one of the “indigenous/autochthonous” communities and emphasised long-standing customary claims to land in Beni, Lubero and parts of Walikale. In local politics they frequently aligned with other autochthonous groups such as Hunde, Tembo and Nyanga in opposition to Hutu and Tutsi Banyarwanda settlers, particularly in disputes over land, customary authority and representation in provincial structures.
Nande communal interests were articulated through customary chiefs, lineage elders and a strong network of traders, church figures and educated elites. As elsewhere in eastern DR Congo, they organised themselves into ethnically based associations (mutualités) during the democratisation period of the early 1990s. The main Nande association, Kyaghanda, became an important framework for political and social mobilisation. In 1993, the then governor of Goma, Jean-Pierre Kalumbo Mbogho, himself a Nande, publicly called on the security forces to assist the Nande, Hunde and Nyanga against the Banyarwanda. His statements, together with the activities of mutualités, helped to mobilise youth into ethnic militias and contributed to large-scale communal violence in Masisi, Rutshuru, Kalehe and Walikale. Although the worst of the 1993 fighting ended after Mobutu deployed his presidential guard, the episode served as a mobilisation ground and reference point for many subsequent armed groups in the region.
In the 2010s, communal tensions with Hutu communities in Beni and Lubero resurfaced alongside the activities of armed groups in the area. In 2016 and again around 2020, local disputes over land, security and political influence, combined with fears linked to the presence of Hutu-dominated or Hutu-backed armed actors, contributed to episodes of Hutu - Nande communal violence in which youth gangs on both sides attacked civilians and settlements.
Nande communities were also closely linked to more organised armed actors. Over time, Nande youth and elites supported or formed a range of Mayi Mayi and rebel organisations, including classic Nande Mayi Mayi such as Ngilima, as well as later groups like Mayi Mayi Mazembe also known as UPDI (Union des Patriotes pour la Défense des Innocents), Mayi Mayi Kyandenga, the Force d’Autodéfense Populaire (FAP) and RNL “Mille tours par seconde”. Many of these groups presented themselves as community self-defence forces for the “Grand Nord”, drawing heavily on Nande recruitment and operating mainly in Beni and Lubero. During the Second Congo War, Nande politicians and commanders played prominent roles within RCD-ML and RCD-K-ML, the Uganda-backed rebel movement based in Beni, which presented itself in part as a protector of Nande and allied communities against external threats. In the 2010s, Nande fighters and notables were also represented within wider coalitions such as NDC-R, which, although led by Nyanga figures, recruited among “autochthonous” communities including Nande.
