Several hundred catfish species (order: Siluriformes) belonging to 11 families inhabitAfrica, of which at least six families are endemic to the continent. Although four ofthose families are well-known to belong to the Big-Africa clade , no previous studyhas addressed the phylogenetic placement of the endemic African catfish familyAustroglanididae in a comprehensive framework with molecular data. Furthermore,interrelationships within the Big-Africa clade , including the most diverse familyMochokidae, remain unclear. This study was therefore designed to help reconstructinter- and intrarelationships of all currently valid mochokid genera, to infer their posi-tion within the Big Africa clade and to establish a first molecular phylogenetichypothesis of the relationships of the enigmatic Austroglanididae within theSiluriformes. We assembled a comprehensive mitogenomic dataset comprising allprotein coding genes and representing almost all recognized catfish families (N=33of 39) with carefully selected species (N=239). We recovered the monophyly of thepreviously identified multifamily clades Big Asia and Big Africa and determinedAustroglanididae to be closely related to Pangasiidae, Ictaluroidea and Ariidae.Mochokidae was recovered as the sister group to a clade encompassingAuchenoglanididae, Claroteidae, Malapteruridae and the African Schilbeidae, albeitwith low statistical support. The two mochokid subfamilies Mochokinae andChiloglanidinae as well as the chiloglanid tribe Atopochilini were recovered as recip-rocally monophyletic. The genusAcanthocleithronforms the sister group of allremaining Mochokinae, although with low support. The genusAtopodontusis the sis-ter group of all remaining Atopochilini. In contrast to morphological reconstructions,the monophyly of the genusChiloglaniswas strongly supported in our analysis, withChiloglanis macropterusnested within aChiloglanissublineage encompassing onlyother taxa from the Congo drainage. This is an important result because the phyloge-netic relationships ofC. macropterushave been controversial in the past, and becausewe and other researchers assumed that this species would be resolved as sister tomost or all other members ofChiloglanis. The apparent paraphyly ofSynodontis with respect toMicrosynodontisprovided an additional surprise, withSynodontis punuturn-ing out to be the sister group of the latter genus. KEYWORDS Acanthocleithron,Atopodontus,Austroglanis, Big Africa clade, Siluriformes