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Drawing on three case studies, this article delves into the use of “ethnographic” techniques in the day-to-day exercise of power in the Belgian Congo during the 1930s. In the Kwango-Kwilu area, local officials tried to retrace clan genealogies in order to provide a basis for forced population displacements. The enquiry following the murder of a field agent sheds light on the administration’s lack of knowledge regarding local cosmogonies and power dynamics. Finally, the repression of the millenarian movement Lukusu reveals the anxiety that stemmed from this ignorance among colonial public servants. Each case study also highlights the ability of Congolese communities to counter and circumvent the hegemonic ambitions of imperial actors.