ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at water transportation and whites' perceptions of 'tribal' differences. The lower Ubangi people were therefore passed by for the most part. In the history of the colonization of central Africa some people were simply enslaved; others were exploited by using modified forms of traditional labor; and others became veritable allies of the whites. The first allies the whites had on the Upper Ubangi river were the Gbanziri. They welcomed the whites, cooperated with them, lent them canoes, and served as their canoemen. The population upriver of the Gbanziri proved to be equally important for the occupation of the Ubangi basin. They were numerous, and they were strategically located for white exploration northward into what is the eastern part of the Central African Republic and the Sudan. If the people of the Lower Congo provided whites with porters and the people of the Upper Congo provided soldier-workers, something has to be said of the Ubangian peoples.
