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The Bemba language, ChiBemba, is a Bantu language spoken primarily in north-eastern Zambia by the Bemba people and as a lingua franca by about 18 related ethnic groups, including the Bisa people of Mpika and Lake Bangweulu, and to a lesser extent in Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Botswana. Including all its dialects, Bemba is the most spoken indigenous Bantu language and a lingua franca in Zambia where the Bemba form the largest ethnic group. The Lamba language is closely related and some people consider it a dialect of Bemba.
The music of Zambia has a rich heritage which falls roughly into categories of traditional, popular and Christian music.
Mbala is Zambia’s most northerly large town and seat of Mbala District, occupying a strategic location close to the border with Tanzania and controlling the southern approaches to Lake Tanganyika, 40 km by road to the north-west, where the port of Mpulungu is located. It had a population of about 20,000 in 2006. Under the name Abercorn, Mbala was a key outpost in British colonial control of this part of south-central Africa. It is headquarters of an administrative district of the Northern Province.
Northern Province is one of Zambia's ten provinces. It covers approximately one sixth of Zambia in land area. The provincial capital is Kasama. The province is made up of 12 districts, namely Kasama District, Chilubi District, Kaputa District, Luwingu District, Mbala District, Mporokoso District, Mpulungu District, Mungwi District, Nsama District, Lupososhi District, Lunte District and Senga Hill District. Currently, only Kasama and Mbala have attained municipal council status, while the rest are still district councils. It is widely considered to be the heartland of the Bemba, one of the largest tribes in Zambia.
Kasama is a city in the Northern Province of Zambia. It serves as the provincial capital and the headquarters of Kasama District.
The Great North Road is a major route in Zambia, running north from Lusaka through Kabwe, Kapiri Mposhi, Serenje, Mpika, Kasama, Mbala and Mpulungu. 82km North of Mpika is a signposted right turn onto a well maintained gravel road leading to Shiwa Ng'andu (12km) and Kapishya Hot Springs (32km). The road from Zambia's border with Zimbabwe at Chirundu to Lusaka is now regarded as being part of the Great North Road; but this is only since the opening of the Chirundu Bridge in 1939 - before that, the Great North Road ran through Bulawayo and Livingstone to Lusaka, as part of the original Cape to Cairo Red Line by Cecil John Rhodes. The portion from Mbala to Mpulungu could be regarded as a spur linking to the Lake Tanganyika steamer service which was popular with travellers up to the 1950s.
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.
Zambia has several major indigenous languages, all of them members of the Bantu family. English is the official language and the major language of business and education.
This article gives lists of the National Monuments and other historic sites of Zambia, with a one- or two-line description providing links to details given on other pages.
Joseph-Marie-Stanislas Dupont, nicknamed Moto Moto by the Bemba people was a French Catholic missionary bishop, who was a pioneer in Zambia's Northern Province from 1885 to 1911. He persuaded the Bemba, feared by the Europeans colonizers and by neighbouring tribes, to allow him to become the first missionary into their territory around Kasama. At the time the British South Africa Company (BSAC) chartered by Britain to administer North-Eastern Rhodesia was not in control of all the territory.
The Chitimukulu is the King of the Bemba, the largest ethnic group in Zambia. The King is named after Chiti Muluba, who changed his name to Chiti Mukulu who in the 18th century led the Bemba out from their original lands in the Luba Empire of Mukulumpe in DR Congo to eventually settle the country around Kasama in Zambia's Northern Province.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mpika is a Latin rite suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kasama, also in Zambia.
The Moto Moto Museum is a museum in Mbala, Zambia, housing a collection of artifacts related to Zambian culture, first collected by Canadian priest Jean Jacques Corbeil in the 1940s. The artifacts, collected for study and posterity by Father Cornbeil, were stored in the Mulilansolo Mission until 1964, when they were moved to Serenje, Zambia until 1969, then to Isoka. The current site, a former carpentry and bricklaying workshop, was donated by the Diocese of Mbala in 1972, to serve as a museum. When it opened in 1974, it was named the Moto Moto museum, after French Catholic Bishop Joseph Dupont, nicknamed Moto Moto, who began the White Fathers missionary in northern Zambia, where he worked from 1885 to 1911.
Mbala District is a district of Zambia, located in Northern Province. The capital lies at Mbala. As of the 2000 Zambian Census, the district had a population of 149,634 people.
Buyu, or Buyi, is a Bantu language of Lake Tanganyika that is closely related to Nyanga.
The River Lumi is located in east Zambia.Its source is at Kawimbe Mission near the United Church of Zambia.The river doesn't dry up in the dry season despite being considerably small, but the water level difference between wet season and dry season is big. The River Saisi-Lumi confluence occurs east of Mbala, Zambia.
Mbala Airport is an airport serving Mbala, Northern Province, Zambia. Runway 12 has a displaced threshold of 95 metres (312 ft) that can be used for takeoff.
Mulenga Mpundu Kapwepwe is a Zambian author, co-founder of the Zambian Women's History Museum and is the daughter to Simon Kapwepwe Zambia's former vice-president. She is also known for building libraries in Lusaka, Zambia's capital, to help young children educate themselves.
Senga District is a district of Northern Province, Zambia. It was separated from Mbala District in 2016.
Amanaz was a Zamrock band founded in 1973 in Kitwe, Zambia. The group released their only album, the acclaimed Africa, in 1975. Amanaz drew influences from American and British rock of the late 1960s–early 1970s, especially the music of Jimi Hendrix, and from traditional Zambian music, identifiable in Watson Lungu's drumming and Keith Kabwe's vocals.
References
- Corbeil, J. J. Mbusa: Sacred emblems of the Bemba. London/Mbala: Ethnographical Publishers/Moto Moto Museum, 1982.
