Osumaka Likaka introduces his study by arguing that the names given to colonial officials, far from throwaway labels, are valid windows into villagers' perceptions of Belgian imperialism. The names emerged from diverse and well-established pre-colonial naming conventions in Central Africa. In shaping these characterisations to their colonial experiences, rural Congolese people ‘recorded their concerns … and transformed the names of Europeans into sources of their colonial experiences’ (p. 157).

The profound intrusion of Belgian colonialism into the village world is detailed in the second chapter, which focuses largely on the Congo Free State (CFS) (1885–1908). The names given by Congolese villagers to Europeans during this time, Likaka argues, ‘conveyed substantial information about colonial material conditions’ (p. 53). One of the most striking cases comes in the form of Bosoni, a prison guard, who was known by Congolese villagers as Yamba-Yamba (‘defecate, defecate’) (p. 54). This name reflected the unhygienic state of colonial prisons. The focus then turns to the rubber collection economy during the tenure of the CFS, which was itself given the nominal syntagm Ipanga Ngunda or ‘he who destroys my country’ (p. 85). Likaka argues that the names given to company agents by Africans mirrored their collective memory of imperial violence. This view is then extrapolated for the colonial period (1909–60). Bwana Nzige (‘Mister Locust’), a name that signified the extractionary nature of the state, was, we are told, one of the most popular names for colonial officials during this period (p. 104). In the final section, the author outlines how colonial officials appropriated local names for their own purposes. The case of Charles van de Lanoitte is used to illustrate this point. He took full advantage of the terror that his name Tshoma-Tshoma (‘he who burns people’) inspired in the minds of villagers so as to coerce them (p. 149).

This study is grounded in the author's extensive fieldwork experience and painstaking archival research. It is valuable not merely for historians of the Belgian Congo, for which it should become a staple text, but for any historian attempting to uncover how villagers made sense of their social universe during colonialism. Nevertheless, using names to uncover African responses to Belgian rule has a considerable pedigree that is not fully acknowledged in this study. Whilst the theme of naming has not been vigorously pursued in Congo, historians working in other colonial contexts have been aware of its uses for some time. References in the work of Patrick Harris, David Maxwell and Charles Van Onselen spring to mind, but there are other examples. Moreover, the voices of colonial officials appear only through the archival records. None were interviewed despite the fact that there are many still alive. One wonders what they would say about the names they received and deployed. Lastly, the influence of a good many missionaries, such as Dan Crawford and William Burton, extended beyond their out-stations in the 1930s (p. 152). Indeed, church sources remain an underused avenue into the lives of Congolese villagers.