What if Eastern African Muslims DID make a serious effort to spread Islam into Central Africa?

I asked on reddit/askhistorians if there was a serious effort by Muslims in East Africa to promote Islam in Central Africa, besides the historically known fact of making raids into Central Africa for slaves, up into the 19th Century. I am assuming that the answer will be "there was no effort to spread Islam into Central Africa from the East."

So I will ask the what if aspect of my question. What if Eastern African Muslims DID make a serious effort to spread Islam into Central Africa? For one thing, it would have delegitimized King Leopold II's claims of fighting slavery in Congo to help establish his genocidal corporation regime known as the Congo Free State.

I would argue that with a unifying, and possibly militant ideology such as Islam, uniting the Congolese and Central African tribes, they would have been more inclined to resist, and resist more effectively, European expansionism. Additionally, they could have received support from what Islamic kingdoms existed in Africa during the mid to late 19th Century if European expansionism was more aggressive in the face of stiffened Congolese resistance. Given the extreme climate of the region, I do not think the Europeans would have pressed further in the region if the Congolese tribes did put up a serious fight.

The Islamic nations that existed in Africa during the 19th Century may have also seen more profit potential in trading rubber instead of slaves. The question is, would Islamic traders treat the Congolese as basically slaves, using Leopold II tactics, or would they have traded with the Congolese tribal people as business equals? In the later case, we could have seen a very different economic development in Congo. I would also think that the East African Muslims, though perhaps more adaptable to the climate extremes of Central Africa, would have thought it was not worth it to subjugate the Congolese if they really did put up resistance, due to climate conditions.

Brian Ghilliotti
 
I forgot to consider the scenario whereby those Central African tribes who may have converted to Islam may resort to enslaving other tribes that resist Islamic conversion. In this case, those tribes that do to resist Islamic conversion efforts may end up finding themselves becoming slaves, working for the Central African tribes that have converted to Islam and have chosen to produce and supply rubber to the East African Muslims. European interests may try to penetrate the remaining rubber markets not under the control of the Central African Muslim tribes under the guise of fighting a "war against slavery". But in this scenario, they would have to provide a real alternative that is better than the prior condition of the Muslim enslaved Central African tribes.

Brian Ghilliotti
 
This is interesting. I'm not an expert on Arab/Persian-Swahili penetration into Central Africa...nor am I learned in Egyptian-Sudanese penetration into Central Africa. I hope we hear insights into this thought.
 
But, I will suggest that Islam probably wouldn't unify ethnic groups in the eastern Congo basin. Even if relatively large kingdoms like Burundi or Rwanda had adopted Islam as their faith.
 
I mean Swahili people couldn't even get Zimbabwe to convert to Islam and they've been in contact with one another for hundreds of years.

Swahili were very much a coastal people, their reach was only furthered by the Ivory and slave trades and even then only a creolized Swahili "Copperbelt Swahili" with european support spread to how it is now and it remains completely decoupled from Islam and Arabic identity.

Swahili made inroads to Madagascar, Antemoro and other descend from them along with many Sakalava religiously.
 
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