Lunda Empire

Lunda Empire
Lunda
Lunda Empire Lunda
16th century–1887
	Map of the Lunda Empire and Luba kingdoms in the Congo River Basin around 1850.
Official languages	Chilunda
Ethnic groups	Balunda
Government	Monarchy
Mwaantayaav
• 16th century	Mwata Yamvo
History
• Established	16th century
• Disestablished	1887
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Lunda culture
Chokwe Kingdom
Today part of	Angola ; Democratic Republic of the Congo ; Zambia

Last updated September 20, 2024

The Lunda Empire or Kingdom 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.

Origin

Initially, the core of what would become the Lunda confederation was a commune called a N'Gaange in the kiLunda (kiyaka-kipunu) language. It was ruled over by a monarch called the Mwane-a- n'Gaange. One of these rulers, Ilunga Tshibinda, came from the nation of Luba where his brother ruled and married a royal woman from a nation to their south. Their son became the first paramount ruler of the Lunda, creating the title of Mwane-a-Yamvu (c. 1665).

Other sources state the first well-attested historical ruler of Lunda was Nawej, who begin his rule about 1695. His father was said to have come from Kalundwe, a Luba language-speaking state. It is unclear, though, how much of the traditions of the kingdom before Nawej are historically accurate.^[1]

Nawej is said by tradition to have created the office of queen mother, called Rukonkesh. A key part of this role was to help determine succession. He also created the office of Swan Mulond, which he gave to his mother Ruwej, and Swan Mulop, a title for the heir apparent. However these offices are only directly attested to by sources from the early 19th century.^[2]

Expansion

Lunda started in an area where traditional farming and thus settled existence was only generally done in river valleys. Just to the north is an area where the areas between rivers can also be inhabited. In its early history Lundu struggled primarily with the Luba-speaking people who lived downriver, and thus north of it. These people are sometimes referred to with names such as Sala Mpusa or Kete, which make it appear they were organized single states. However in reality they were loose confederations of shifting alliances.^[3]

It also early on faced off with Kanyok Kingdom, located to its north-west, also a Luba-speaking kingdom, but much larger than the various populations that existed in Kete and Sala Mpusa.^[4]

The first major military campaign by Nawej was against Sala Mpasu. He is said to have built a major fortress in Sala Mpasu territory, but was not at this stage able to exert control over them.^[5] Nawej removed his troops from Sala Mpasu in response to an invasion of his territory by forces from the Kingdom of Kanyok.

The Kanyok forces killed Nawej and established a fortress in Lunda territory.

The next ruler, Muland, elected by the leaders of the state, was eventually able to drive out the Kanyok forces.^[6]

Apex

Lunda shown in the lower middle of the map in pink. African-civilizations-map-pre-colonial.svg — Lunda shown in the lower middle of the map in pink.

The Lunda Kingdom controlled some 150,000 km² by 1680. The state doubled in size to around 300,000 km² at its height in the 19th century.^[7] The Mwane-a Yamvo of Lunda became powerful militarily from their base of 175,000 inhabitants. Along with this military strength through sheer numbers, the Lunda Kingdom also received Muslim military advisors and some dated weapons from the cities of Nyangwe and Kabambare. Through marriage with descendants of the Luba kings, they gained political ties.

The Lunda people were able to settle and colonize other areas and tribes, thus extending their kingdom through southwest Katanga into Angola and north-western Zambia, and eastwards across Katanga into what is now the Luapula Province of Zambia. The kingdom became a confederation of a number of chieftainships that enjoyed a degree of local autonomy (as long as tributes were paid), with Mwata Yamvo as paramount ruler and a ruling council (following the Luba model) to assist with administration.

The strength of the kingdom enabled it to conquer the territory of other tribes, especially to the east. In the 18th century, a number of migrations took place as far as the region to the south of Lake Tanganyika. The Bemba people of Northern Zambia descended from Luba migrants who arrived in Zambia throughout the 17th century. At the same time, a Lunda chief and warrior called Mwata Kazembe set up an Eastern Lunda kingdom in the valley of the Luapula River.

Collapse

The kingdom of Lunda came to an end in the 19th century, when it was invaded by the Chokwe, who were armed with guns. The Chokwe then established their own kingdom with their language and customs. Lunda chiefs and people continued to live in the Lunda heartland but were diminished in power.

At the start of the colonial era (1884), the Lunda heartland was divided between Portuguese Angola, King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State and the British in North-Western Rhodesia, which became Angola, DR Congo and Zambia, respectively. The Lunda groups in Northern Rhodesia were led by two prominent chiefs, Ishindi and Kazembe Kazembi, with Ishindi establishing his kingdom in the north-west of the country and Kazembe in the north-east. Of the two prominent chiefs, Ishindi was the first born of Mwanta Yamvo which Kazembe was made King as a result of reward for his loyalty to Mwanta Yamvo.

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Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, and southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom of the Kiluba-Chibemba, speaking 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.

Msiri founded and ruled the Yeke Kingdom in south-east Katanga from about 1856 to 1891. His name is sometimes spelled 'M'Siri' in articles in French. Other variants are "Mziri", "Msidi", and "Mushidi"; and his full name was Mwenda Msiri Ngelengwa Shitambi.

Kazembe is a name used for Mwata Kazembe's town in the Luapula Province of Zambia, especially on maps and in the Zambian postal service. The other name for the town is Mwansabombwe and this is the one used by its or Luba or Chibemba-speaking inhabitants. They may refer in English to "Kazembe's Village" or just "Kazembe", as traditionally a settlement is named after the chief or headman, rather than the location. The Luba-Lunda shared with many tribes the custom of moving to another village or a new site on the death of the chief. Historical references to a village or town may actually be to a different location. For instance when the explorer David Livingstone visited Mwata Kazembe in 1867 and 1868, "Casembe's town", as he wrote it, was further north at the town now called Kanyembo.

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.

The Lunda people of the Luapula River valley in Zambia and DR Congo are called by others the Eastern Lunda to distinguish them from the 'western' Lunda people who remained in the heartland of the former Lunda Kingdom, but they themselves would use Kazembe-Lunda or Luunda with an elongated 'u' to make that distinction..

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The Mofwe Lagoon is the largest of several lagoons in the Luapula River swamps south of Lake Mweru, in the Luapula Province of Zambia.

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

Tshibinda Ilunga or Chibinda Yirung was a Luba and founder of the Lunda Kingdom that covered large parts of modern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.

This is a history of Katanga Province and the former independent State of Katanga, as well as the history of the region prior to colonization.

The Luba Empire or Kingdom of Luba 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.

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, said to have reigned from about 1780 to his death.

The Yeke Kingdom of the Garanganze people in Katanga, DR Congo, was short-lived, existing from about 1856 to 1891 under one king, Msiri, but it became for a while the most powerful state in south-central Africa, controlling a territory of about half a million square kilometres. The Yeke Kingdom also controlled the only trade route across the continent from east to west, since the Kalahari Desert and Lozi Kingdom in the south and the Congo rainforest in the north blocked alternative routes. It achieved this control through natural resources and force of arms—Msiri traded Katanga's copper principally, but also slaves and ivory, for gunpowder and firearms—and by alliances through marriage. The most important alliances were with Portuguese–Angolans in the Benguela area, with Tippu Tip in the north and with Nyamwezi and Swahili traders in the east, and indirectly with the Sultan of Zanzibar who controlled the east coast traders.

The Ishindi-Lunda are an ethnic group living mainly in the North-Western Province of Zambia under Senior Chief Ishindi, around the provincial capital Zambezi. The Lunda people of North-Western Province consists of Kanongesha Lunda and Ishindi Lunda.

Kanyok was a kingdom of Luba speaking people that existed in Africa in the early 18th-century. It is somewhat related to the modern Kanyok language.

References

↑ John K. Thornton. History of West Central Africa. Cambridge University Press, 2020. p. 215
↑ Thornton. West Central Africa, p. 216
↑ Thornton, West Central Africa, p. 215
↑ Thornton. West Central Africa, p. 217
↑ Thornton. West Central Africa, p. 218
↑ Thornton. West Central Africa, p. 224
↑ Thornton. West Central Africa, p. 104

Sources

Thornton, John (1998). Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 340 Pages. ISBN 0-521-62724-9.