Difference between revisions of "Lunda Empire" - New World Encyclopedia
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==Governance== | ==Governance== | ||
The Mwaat Yaav and, together was advised by a council of royal dignitaries. Local chiefs exercised a considerable autonomy, provided they paid tribute to the Mwaat Yaav. Power may originally have been passed on down through male line. However, possibly due to contact with an increasingly large number of matrilineal systems, succession became matrilineal.<ref name=Iowa>[http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Lunda.html Lunda Information.] The University of Iowa. Retrieved October 18, 2008.</ref> | The Mwaat Yaav and, together was advised by a council of royal dignitaries. Local chiefs exercised a considerable autonomy, provided they paid tribute to the Mwaat Yaav. Power may originally have been passed on down through male line. However, possibly due to contact with an increasingly large number of matrilineal systems, succession became matrilineal.<ref name=Iowa>[http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Lunda.html Lunda Information.] The University of Iowa. Retrieved October 18, 2008.</ref> | ||
| + | The Empire "probably governed a million or more subjects."<ref>Clark, page 375.</ref> | ||
==Religion== | ==Religion== | ||
Revision as of 00:25, 19 October 2008
The Kingdom of Lunda (c. 1665-1887), also known as the Lunda Empire was a pre-colonial African confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia. Its central state was in Katanga. The Paramount Ruler, the Mwaant Yaav, is still recognized as the chief of a "traditional state."[1] The Lunda are a Bantu people.
Origin
Initially the core of what would become the Lunda Empire a simple village called a "gaand" in the KiLunda language. It was ruled over by a king called the Mwaanta Gaand or [[List of Rulers Mwaantaangaand. One of these rulers, Ilunga Tshibinda came from the kingdom of Luba where his brother ruled and married a princess from an area to the south. Their son became the first paramount ruler of the Luunda creating the title of Mwanta Yaav, which bears his name.
Governance
The Mwaat Yaav and, together was advised by a council of royal dignitaries. Local chiefs exercised a considerable autonomy, provided they paid tribute to the Mwaat Yaav. Power may originally have been passed on down through male line. However, possibly due to contact with an increasingly large number of matrilineal systems, succession became matrilineal.[2] The Empire "probably governed a million or more subjects."[3]
Religion
The chiefs may have combined a political and a spiritual role. The creator God was Nzambi (associated with the sky), the Bantu supreme deity, although supplication to him was made by invoking the help of ancestral spirits. Divination was practices to determine which ancestors needed to be appeased. Nzambi is said to have a particular concern for the welfare of the poor.[2][4]
Economy
The Empires economy was mixed, including agriculture and trade as well as hunting and fishing. Women undertook agricultural work, farming such crops as maize, yams, sorghum, squash, beans, sweet potatoes, palm oil trees, and tobacco. Trading commodities included slaves and ivory and salt. Trading partners included Arabs and from the fifteenth century the Portuguese. They received weapons and textiles in return.
Apex
The Lunda Kingdom controlled some 150,000 square kilometers by 1680. The state doubled in size to around 300,000 square kilometers at its height in the 19th century.[5] The Mwata Yamvos of Lunda became powerful militarily from their base of 175,000 inhabitants. Through marriage with descendants of the Luba kings, they gained political ties. The Lunda people were able to settle and colonialize other areas and tribes, thus extending their empire through southwest Katanga into Angola and north-western Zambia, and eastwards across Katanga into what is now the Luapula Province of Zambia.
The strength and prosperity of the kingdom enabled its military and ruling classes to conquer 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. Lunda leaders, however, continues to resist Belgium rule until they were finally defeated in 1909.
Rulers
Mwaantaangaand of Lunda Kingdom
- Nkonda Matit (ruled late 16th century)
- Cibind Yirung (ruled c. 1600-c. 1630)
- Yaav I a Yirung (ruled c. 1630-c. 1660)
- Yaav II a Nawej (ruled c. 1660-c. 1690)
Mwaant Yaav of Lunda Empire
- Mbala I Yaav (ruled c. 1690-c. 1720)
- Mukaz Munying Kabalond (ruled c. 1720)
- Muteba I Kat Kateng (ruled c. 1720-c. 1750)
- Mukaz Waranankong (ruled c. 1750-c. 1767)
- Nawej Mufa Muchimbunj (ruled c. 1767-c. 1775)
- Cikombe Yaava (ruled c. 1775-c. 1800)
- Nawej II Ditend (ruled c. 1800-1852)
- Mulaj a Namwan (ruled 1852-1857)
- Cakasekene Naweej (ruled 1857)
- Muteba II a Cikombe (ruled 1857-1873)
- Mbala II a Kamong Isot (ruled 1873-1874)
- Mbumb I Muteba Kat (ruled 1874-1883)
- Cimbindu a Kasang (ruled 1883-1884)
- Kangapu Nawej (ruled 1884-1885)
- Mudib (ruled 1885-1886)
- Mutand Mukaz (ruled 1886-1887)
- Mbala III a Kalong (ruled 1887)
Mwaant Yaav under the Congo Free State
- Mushidi I a Nambing (ruled 1887-1907)
- Muteba III a Kasang (ruled 1907-1908)
Mwaant Yaav under the Belgian Congo
- Muteba III a Kasang cont. (ruled 1908-1920)
- Kaumba (ruled 1920-1951)
- Yaav a Nawej III (ruled 1951-1960)
Mwaant Yaav under Katanga
- Yaav a Nawej III cont. (ruled 1960-1962)
Mwaant Yaav under Republic of Congo
- Yaav a Nawej III cont. (ruled 1962-1963)
- Mushidi II Kawel a Kamin (ruled 1963-1964)
- Mushidi II Kawel a Kamin (ruled 1964-1965 )
- Muteb II Mushidi cont. (ruled 1965-1971)
Mwaant Yaav under Zaire
- Muteb II Mushidi cont. (ruled 1971-1973)
- Mbumb II Muteb (ruled 1973-1997)
Mwaant Yaav under Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Mbumb II Muteb cont. (ruled 1997- current)
See also
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ Cahoon, Ben. 2000. Congo (Kinshasa) Traditional states. World Statesmen. Retrieved October 18, 2008.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lunda Information. The University of Iowa. Retrieved October 18, 2008.
- ↑ Clark, page 375.
- ↑ Nzambi. Answers.com. Retrieved October 18, 2008.
- ↑ Thornton, page 104
- Pogge, Im Reich des Muata Jamwo (Berl. 1880);
- Buchner, Das Reich des Muata Jamwo (in "Deutsche Geographische Blätter", Brem. 1883
Sources
- Thornton, John (1998). Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Second Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 340 Pages. ISBN 0-52162-724-9.
Further reading
- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1989f "Lunda and Chokwe Kingdoms" IN Country Study: Angola (October 2005) [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov
- Art and Life in Africa Project, The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History: "Lunda Information." http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart 03 Nov. 1998.
de:Lunda (Königreich) fr:Royaume Lunda sw:Ufalme wa Lunda yo:Lunda
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