Hemba people

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Hemba people
Regions with significant populations
Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo90,000 [1]
Languages
Hemba language

The Hemba people (or Eastern Luba) are a Bantu ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Contents

History

Hemba carved stool Hemba Stuhl Museum Rietberg RAC 126.jpg
Hemba carved stool

The Hemba language belongs to a group of related languages spoken by people in a belt that runs from southern Kasai to northeastern Zambia. Other peoples speaking related languages include the Luba of Kasai and Shaba, the Kanyok, Songye, Kaonde, Sanga, Bemba and the people of Kazembe. [2] Today the Hemba people live in the north of Zambia, and their language is understood throughout Zambia. Some also live in Tanzania. They live west of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru in the DRC, and their villages are found several hundred miles up the Lualaba River. [3]

The Hemba people migrated eastward to the Lualaba valley from the Luba empire, probably some time after 1600. [4] They traded salt for iron hoes made in the Luba heartland, and wore raphia cloth that came by way of the Luba from the Songye people further to the west. [5] At the time of the eastward expansion of the Luba Kingdom under King Ilunga Sungu around 1800, Hemba people were living in a territory bounded by the Lukuga River in the north, the Luvua River in the south and the Lualaba River to the west. [6] The lower Lukuga and the Lualaba provided natural lines of communication, and the river valleys were densely populated. [7]

During Ilunga Sungu's rule the southern Hemba became tributaries to the Luba. They were headed by a "fire king", who symbolically represented the Luba king. [8] The Hemba fire kingdom cut its links to the Luba empire after Ilunga Sungu died. His successor, Kumwimbe Ngombe, had to fight several campaigns to recover the eastern territories. [9] Kumwimbe created a client state that united the Hemba villages of the Lukushi River valley, and that played an important role in preserving Luba dominance over other small states in the region. [10] Later the Hemba regained their independence, but were subject to attacks by Arab slave traders in the later part of the nineteenth century, and then to colonization by the Belgians. [1]

Culture

The Hemba people live in villages, recognizing chiefs as their political leaders. A chief will be the head of an extended family of landowners, inheriting his title through the maternal line. [1] Hemba people may also belong to secret societies such as the Bukazanzi for men and Bukibilo for women. [11] The So'o secret society is guarded by the beautifully carved mask of a chimpanzee, which is used in rituals that relate to the ancestral spirits. [12] These societies serve to offset the power of the chief. [11]

Although the Luba people failed to keep the southern Hemba in their kingdom they did have considerable cultural influence. Art forms, including wooden sculptures representing ancestors, are similar in style to Luba sculptures. The Hemba religion recognizes a creator god and a separate supreme being. The Hemba make sacrifices and present offerings at the shrines of ancestors. When social harmony has been upset, religious leaders may demand offerings to the specific ancestors that have become displeased and are causing the trouble. [1] Each clan owns a kabeja, a statuette with one body and two faces, male and female, on one neck. Sacrifices are made to the kabeja, which will convey them to the spirits. A receptacle on the top of the kabeja is used to receive magic ingredients. A kabeja is dangerous to handle. [11]

Economy

The villagers live by subsistence agriculture, growing manioc, maize, peanuts, and yams. They also hunt and fish to a small extent to supplement their diet. Cash is obtained through panning alluvial copper from the streams. [1] Many Hemba men are also employed as miners in the copperbelt. [13]

The Hemba artistic tradition is well known. Subjects include ancestral figures, spirits, human faces and ceremonial masks. [14] The Hemba had very talented sculptors and the art of the tribe is mainly known for the ancestors figures, the Singiti, symbols of power who exude astonishing serenity and natural authority The Kabeja is a rare Janiform sculpture which represents the couple of founding ancestors of each clan. The statue was unique and owned by the chief, while each group had several Singiti figures. It was used in all Hemba ceremonies, as well as in court decisions [15]

Related Research Articles

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Lukuga River

The Lukuga River is a tributary of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that drains Lake Tanganyika. It is unusual in that its flow varies not just seasonally but also due to longer term climate fluctuations.

Luba people

The Luba people or Baluba are an ethno-linguistic group indigenous to the south-central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in its Katanga, Kasai, and Maniema provinces. The Baluba consist of many sub-groups who speak various dialects of Luba or other languages, such as Swahili.

The Bemba belong to a large group of Bantu peoples mainly in the Northern, Luapula, Muchinga, the Northern part of Central Province. The Bantu also belong to the Copperbelt Provinces of Zambia who trace their origins to the Luba and Lunda states of the upper Congo basin called Kola, in what became Katanga Province in southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Bemba entered modern-day Zambia through crossing the Luapula River at Chipya in the Senior Chief Matanda's Chiefdom in Mansa _Luapula Province and that Chief Matanda and his Ushi people were the first to come into Zambia by the year 1328 from Kola. The collection of ethnicities known as Bemba have a ruling class called Abena Ng'andu. This clan traces its ancestry to Mbemba Nshinga who ruled Kongo from 1509-1543. Mbemba was called King Afonso l by the Portuguese whom he hosted in his kingdom for many years. They are one of the larger ethnic groups in Zambia. (A few other ethnic groups in the Northern, Luapula, and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia speak languages that are similar to Bemba but are not necessarily the same. For example, although the Lamba have the same roots as the Bemba, they never relied on the Bemba aristocracy for leadership. Indeed the Bemba people are not strictly indigenous to the Copperbelt Province, having rejoined the Lamba in that province in the 1930s when they went their in large numbers in search of employment opportunities brought about by the opening of large scale copper mines. In contrast members of the Bisa royal family are almost all descendants of Chitimukulu, as are many members of the Swaka and Lala aristocracies. Bemba history is a major historical phenomenon in the development of chieftainship in a large and culturally homogeneous region of central Africa.

Kazembe

Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, Southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom or chieftainship of the Kiluba-Chibemba, speaking the Swahili language or the language of the Eastern Luba-Lunda people of south-central Africa. Its position on trade routes in a well-watered, relatively fertile and well-populated area of forestry, fishery and agricultural resources drew expeditions by traders and explorers who called it variously Kasembe, Cazembe and Casembe.

Kingdom of Lunda

The Nation of Lunda was a confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola, and north-western Zambia, its central state was in Katanga.

Lunda people

The Lunda are a Bantu ethnic group that originated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the Kalanyi River and formed the Kingdom of Lunda in the 17th century under their ruler, Mwata Yamvo or Mwaant Yav, with their capital at Musumba. From there they spread widely through Katanga and into Eastern Angola, north-western Zambia and the Luapula valley of Zambia.

Ilunga Mbidi was a soldier and cultural hero of the Luba and Lunda people.

Tshibinda Ilunga was a Luba Prince and Emperor of the Lunda and their civilizing hero.

The Bangubangu are a Bantu people from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, primarily in the Kabambare Territory; they speak the Bangubangu language.

The Songye people, sometimes written Songe, are a Bantu ethnic group from the central Democratic Republic of the Congo. They inhabit a vast territory between the Sankuru and Lubilash rivers west and the Lualaba River in the east, a vast group of villages can be found in present-day East Kasai province, parts of Katanga and Kivu Province. The people of Songye are divided into thirty-four conglomerate societies, each society is led by a single chief with Judiciary Council of elders and nobles (bilolo). Smaller kingdoms east of the Lomami River refer to themselves as Songye, other kingdoms in the west, refer to themselves as Kalebwe, Eki, Ilande, Bala, Chofwe, Sanga and Tempa. As a society, the people of Songye are mainly known as a farming community, they do, however, take part in hunting and trading with other neighboring communities.

Kingdom of Luba

The Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire (1585–1889) was a pre-colonial Central African state that arose in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in what is now southern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Holoholo people are an ethnic group that live around Kalemie city on Lake Tanganyika in the present-day Tanganyika Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the opposite shore of the lake in Tanzania.

Katende, or Sungu-Katende, was a royal sacred village of the Kingdom of Luba. It was adjacent to the village of Kabondo. Katende is on the upper Lomami in the Lualaba region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ilunga Sungu was a ruler (Mulopwe) of the Kingdom of Luba in what is now the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Based on oral records, he ruled from some time around 1780 to around 1810.

The Tumbwe people are an ethnic group living mostly in Tanganyika District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Luba art

Luba art refers to the visual and material culture of the Luba people. Most objects were created by people living along the Lualaba River and around the lakes of the Upemba Depression, or among related peoples to the east in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The people who currently identify themselves as Basimba or BaShimba for many and Musimba or MuShimba for singular are a Bantu speaking community that exists in Uganda. Before the 13th century they maintained a shared identity as Basimba, also defined in Swahili as "big lion," associated with either these people or the place which they came from.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hemba Information.
  2. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 74.
  3. ↑ Olson 1996, pp. 223-224.
  4. ↑ Mukenge 2002, p. 16.
  5. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 98.
  6. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 124.
  7. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 131.
  8. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 127.
  9. ↑ Macola 2002, p. 108.
  10. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 137.
  11. 1 2 3 Tribal African Art.
  12. ↑ Alesha 2004, p. 52.
  13. ↑ Olson 1996, p. 224.
  14. ↑ Mukenge 2002, p. 76.
  15. ↑ La grande statuaire Hemba du Zaire, François Neyt, Institut superieur d'archeologie et d'histoire de l'art, UCL, Louvain-La-Neuve, 1977

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