In the 1860s, on an extension of the Congo River called the Lubala, around Nyangwe and Kasongo, a trading power with guns, was a federation ruled by Hamed bin Muhammed, commonly known as Tippu Tip, a man of mixed Arab and black African descent. The federation engaged in a variety of activities, including hunting in the forest and raiding surrounding villages. They captured women for concubines and men and women to work their plantations of sugar cane, rice and maize. And they used captives as porters in their trade eastward, through Ujiji and Tabora, to Zanzibar. In spite of this, we still see beautiful artwork of drumming musicians in what used to be called the 'Belgian Congo,' but is now named 'Zaire.'