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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.[2] The majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in Katanga, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Kasaï-Central, Lomami and Maniema. The Baluba consist of many sub-groups or clans.

Luba people
Total population
c. 28.8 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Languages
Luba languages (Kiluba and Tshiluba); Swahili; French
Religion
Christianity, Islam, African Traditional Religion, Bantu Mythology
Related ethnic groups
other Bantu peoples
PersonMulubà
PeopleBalubà
LanguageKiluba

The Baluba developed a society and culture by about the 400s CE, later developing a well-organised community in the Upemba Depression known as the Baluba in Katanga confederation.[3][4] Luba society consisted of miners, smiths, woodworkers, potters, crafters, and people of various other professions.[5][6] They found relative success over time, but this eventually caused their gradual decline with the Portuguese and Omani empires led or influenced invasions.

History edit

 
Geographical distribution of the Luba people (approx).

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Baluba had settlements around the lakes and marshes of the Upemba Depression by the 5th century CE.[4] The evidence suggesting an advanced Iron Age society came from multiple sites. The Kamilambian, Kisalian and Kabambian series of evidence has been dated to be from 5th to 14th-century, suggesting a settled stable Luba culture over many centuries.[4][7] Of these, the Kisalian period (8th to 11th century) pottery and utensils found. [7] The finds dated to pre-8th century by modern dating methods are iron objects or pottery, thereafter copper objects appear.[7]

The archaeological studies suggest that the Luba people lived in villages, in homes made of reeds and wattle, around the shores of numerous streams and lakes found in the Upemba Depression of Central Africa.[7] This Depression has been historically flooded from the water runoff from southern Shaba highlands for parts of the year, its water bodies filled with papyrus islands and floating vegetation, the region drying out after rains ended. As a community, the Luba people constructed dams and dikes as high as 6 to 8 feet using mud, papyrus and other vegetation, to improve the marshy soil conditions for agriculture and stock fish during the long dry season.[4]

The metal working techniques in use by the early Luba people included drawing out thin wires, twisting them, laminating them, and plaiting them into items such as necklaces, bracelets and hooks for fishing, needles for sewing and such.[8]

These products attracted interest and demand from far off ethnic groups, creating trade opportunities and traders amongst the Luba people. This trade and all economic activity in the villages of Luba people had a tribute system, where a portion of the hunt, fish or produce was given to the lineage head or the people guarding the borders. These were natural borders, such as that created by waters of Lake Upemba, where passage across required channels and bridges. The movement into and out of the Luba people lands was thus controlled and taxed.[8]

Luba Empire edit

Around 1500, possibly earlier, the Luba people began to coalesce into a single, unified state which historians now call the Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire.[3] The kingdom grew and became more sophisticated over time, reaching its peak between 18th to 19th-century.[3][9] "...[I]ntegration into the forward edges of the expanding frontiers of international trade tore the Empire apart" in tandem with the advances of the 19th-century slave and ivory trade from Belgium and the Arab-Swahili chiefs such as Tippu Tip and Msiri, states Thomas Reefe.[9][10]

A prominent sociopolitical system of the Luba Empire was the adoption of two layers of power, one of Balopwe (hereditary kingship) and another a council of royals or elders. These provided governmental stability through mutual balancing, when there were disputes of succession from death or other causes. This idea was adopted by the neighboring Lunda people and other ethnic groups.[6]

The development and evolution of the Luba Empire, and the life of Luba people therein, has been unclear.[10][11] This is in part because the Luba people were an entirely oral tradition culture where knowledge and records were held verbally without the use of a script. The orthography for the Luba language, called kiLuba, was invented in the 19th century; thus, early information about the Luba Empire has been derived from foreign documents. [11] The later written texts suggest that the Luba people had developed sophisticated literary traditions around their concepts of good and evil, and integrated these concepts and their religious ideas into their legends about morality and people with power.[12] For example, one legend relates to two kings, one called the red king Nkongolo Mwamba and other called the black king Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe. According to the Luba people's oral history,

There are two kings, the Nkongolo Mwamba or red king, and Mbidi Kiluwe or black king. Nkongolo Mwamba is the violent, cruel and drunken despot; Mbidi Kiluwe is the gentle, just and refined one. Nkongolo is one who gets drunk, is ruthless, mocking, raping, robbing other, seen without manners. Mbidi Kiluwe is the opposite, one obsessed with good manners, thoughtful, who speaks carefully, is compassionate, keeps his distance, one with self control. Mbidi marries the sister of Nkongolo, and they have a son named Kalala. Nkongolo gets jealous and fearful of Kalala, and schemes to murder him. The guardian spirits, knowing the scheme, protect Kalala by (...)

— The rainbow legend, Luba people[13][14]

The Luba people were a part of a large state in the 16th and 17th centuries, ruled by a Balopwe through delegation to regional chiefs.[13] According to the oral tradition by inabanza Kataba, the empire expanded over time, with a major consolidation in the 18th century, partly triggered by the desire by rivals to control the salt and iron mines in the south.[15] The Luba Empire was shielded from Portuguese and other colonial interests by the Lunda Empire, which lay to their southeast. This shielding was noted by David Livingstone in his travel memoirs, and likely blocked the Angolan traders from regular contact with the Luba people.[16] Around the start of the 19th-century, the oral traditions of both the Luba and Kanyok people suggest a major conflict, led by mutual raids.[16] This conflict helped the Luba Empire grow, as its king Ilunga Sungu entered into new territories and formed marriage alliances.[16] By 1810 when he died, his fame and reverence among the Luba people had peaked and the site of his royal court had become Kitenta (royal sacred village) where his spirit was venerated.[17]

 
The Luba Empire (up left) in relationship to others and major trade routes, in the 19th century

After the death of Ilunga Sungu, Kumwimbe Ngombe came to power leading his warriors to expand southeast with contacts with traders from East Africa. After his victory, in accordance with Luba traditions, the conquered chiefs and rulers had to marry sisters or daughters from the Luba ruling family in order to tie them into a relationship and loyalty with the Luba Empire capital.[18]

The ivory and slave trade had grown to the east of the Luba Empire by the mid 19th-century; the natural supplies of ivory were exhausted whilst the international demand was increasing. The region under the Luba people had preserved herds of elephants. For example, the Kanyembo region had no ivory to sell.[19] In 1840, after Kumwimbe Ngombe died of old age, king Ilunga Kabale succeeded to rule the Luba people until his death in 1870. By then, the region of Luba people and their empire covered much of what is now the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, extending for hundreds of kilometers from their early 19th-century heartland.[19]

Guns, trade, and the colonial era edit

The success and wealth of Luba people grew in relative isolation because they were far from the eastern and western coasts of Africa, living in comparatively inaccessible terrain.[20] The forests and mountains provided a natural border; additionally, their neighbors blocked direct and regular contact with distant international traders in order to monopolize the profits.[20] This originally shielded the Luba from the effects of the slave trade. Later, however, the Luba people became victims of the slave demand and trading, in some cases selling people from their own lands as slaves.[21] By the 1850s, slavers began intruding into the Luba people lands. Despite a ban on slave trading in the Western world, the eastern and northern parts of Africa, led by Arab-Swahili slave and ivory traders entered into the eastern and northeastern regions of the Luba Empire.[20][22] These intruders came with guns, experience of running caravans, and other tools of war. Although the weapons of the Luba people were not primitive (with implements such as blades and bows), the opposing forces had more advanced weapons. David Livingstone, in his memoir, wrote how amazed the Luba people were with the guns, as they thought they were tobacco pipes; the firearm was the primary tool used against large populations of the Luba. Slave and ivory trader,[22] Tippu Tip for example wrote, "Luba had no guns, their weapons were bows and arrows; guns they did not know. The guns we have with us, they asked us, 'Are they pestles?' The conquest of the Luba people was swift."[23][24]

Msiri, a Tanzanian operator supplying ivory and slaves to the Sultan of Zanzibar, raided and took over the southeastern Shaba region of Luba people.[20] Its other side, the southwestern borders were breached by the Ovimbundu ivory and slave hunters operating with the Portuguese. While slaves could no longer be exported to the Americas, they were used for work and caravan operations within Africa. Breaches from all sides, by better equipped armies, weakened the Luba Empire rapidly between 1860 and 1880s, and accelerated its demise.[20] In parallel, the news of disarray and confusion from many corners of the Luba Empire, led to internal disputes on succession and strategy when the Luba king Ilunga Kabale died in 1870.[20]

By 1868, Said bin Habib el-Afifi had raided Luba operations and with force taken 10,500 pounds of copper.[25] By 1874, another Arab-Swahili trader Juma bin Salum wad Rakad, and a friend of Tippu Tip, had entered into an agreement with one of the Ilunga Kabale's son and established the base of his elephant hunting and ivory trade operations in the heart of the Luba people's lands.[26] The Arab-Swahili raids, such as those by Tippu Tip, into Luba people's lands were organized with Nyamwezi subordinates and slave armies.[27][28] These raids and attacks by the outsiders also introduced smallpox into the Luba population.[1]

 
Baluba leaders, c. 1905

In 1885 Leopold II, king of Belgium, secured European recognition of his right over the territories that became what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first Belgian expedition into the Luba people's region arrived in 1891.[20] The king of Belgium, impressed with the accomplishments of Tippu Tip in getting resources from central Africa, appointed him the governor of the region that included the Luba people's territory.[29]

The Luba people were forced to work in the copper and gemstone mines of the Katanga province during the Belgian rule, causing numerous mining-related deaths. They rebelled in 1895, then again from 1905 to 1917, and these insurrections were subdued through military intervention.[1]

Post-colonial era edit

In 1960 the Belgians, faced with rising demand for independence and an end to colonial rule, granted independence to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That same year Katanga Province, which was home to a considerable number of Luba, attempted to secede under Moise Tshombe as the State of Katanga.[30] The Luba were divided, with one faction under Ndaye Emanuel supporting the secession, and another under Kisula Ngoye supporting the central government.

The United Nations peacekeepers in Congo, as part of the ONUC force came into conflict with the Luba. On the 8th of November, 1960 a patrol of Irish soldiers were ambushed outside Niemba. In the fighting, the Irish soldiers reportedly killed dozens of Baluba with their firearms, and 9 of the 11 Irish were beaten or stabbed to death. Following these events, stories were exported of tribesmen mutilating and cannibalizing the soldiers. As a result, the word "Baluba" is derogatively used to describe someone not in control of themselves (chiefly Irish).

When Tshombe's breakaway regime collapsed in 1965, Kisula Ngoye became the liaison between the Luba people and the central government.[1]

Religion edit

Traditional edit

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The artwork of Luba people

The traditional religious beliefs of the Luba people included the concept of a Shakapanga or a Universal Creator, a Leza or the Supreme Being, a natural world and a supernatural world.[13][31] The supernatural world was where Bankambo (ancestral spirits) and Bavidye (other spirits) lived, and what one joined the afterlife if one lived an Mwikadilo Muyampe (ethical life).[31] The Luba religions accepts the possibility of communion between the living and the dead.[31]

The religious life included prayers, community singing, dances, offerings, rites of passage rituals and invocations.[31] These rituals and services had intermediaries for rites such as Nsengha or Kitobo (priests). In addition, for anxiety and ailments, a Nganga or Mfwintshi (healer) were in service who would perform Lubuko (divination).[31] The religious thought did not limit itself to rituals, but included ideas of a good personhood, good heart, dignity for others and self-respect. The religious code of civil life and goodness affected the Luba social life.[31]

Christianity edit

Christianity was introduced to the Luba people by colonizers who came with the Belgium colonial rule. Some of these missionaries, such as William Burton, performed ethnographic research, starting with an aggressive projective research and teaching the Luba people.[32]

Luba Catholics would later produce the famed Missa Luba, a form of the Latin Mass inculturated in the Luba arts and expression. This would lay the groundwork for the Zaire Use, a full-on rite of the Mass based on (and used primarily in) the Congo.

Islam edit

According to a 2011 source, an estimated 12% of Luba are adherents of Islam. Islam spread among the Luba during the 19th and 20th century due to increasing contact with the Swahili.[33]

Culture edit

The Luba people tended to cluster in single street villages, with homes with rectangular thatched roofs on both sides of the street whose lineage is usually related.[13] The homes were in the savanna and forests. They hunted, fished in abundant waters near them, gathered food such as fruits from the wild and had mastered agriculture. In contemporary era, they grow cassava, corn, raise livestock. Some Luba carve wood and produce artist handicrafts.[13]

Art edit

Art was well-developed in the Luba culture. Pottery, articles crafted from iron (such as axes, bows and spears), wooden staff and carvings and parts clad in sheets of copper were routinely produced. A notable artform of the Luba people was the Mwadi, where the male ancestors were represent in their female incarnations of the ancestral kings.[34][35]

According to scholars such as Daniel Kabozi, some of the intricate art works of the Luba people were mnemonic devices, a form of symbolic coded script to aid preserving information and recalling the history and knowledge of the Luba.[21][36]

The Luba people, states Mary Roberts, developed "one [of] the most complex and brilliant mnemonic systems in Africa for recording royal history, king lists, migrations, initiation esoterica and family genealogies", such as the Lukasa memory board.[37][38] These artworks are now found in numerous museums of the world.[21]

Notable Luba people edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Elizabeth Heath (2010). Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (eds.). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9.
  2. ^ Elizabeth Heath (2010). Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (eds.). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 88–89, 14–15. ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9.
  3. ^ a b c Toyin Falola; Daniel Jean-Jacques (2015). Africa: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Society. ABC-CLIO. pp. 285–286. ISBN 978-1-59884-666-9.
  4. ^ a b c d Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 67–72. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  5. ^ Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 88–89, 106, 130–131, 309–310. ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9.
  6. ^ a b Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Luba and Lunda Empires, Alexander Ives Bortolot (2003), Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, Publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  7. ^ a b c d Pierre de Maret (1979), Luba Roots: The First Complete Iron Age Sequence in Zaire, Current Anthropology, University of Chicago Press, volume 20, number 1 (Mar., 1979), pages 233–235
  8. ^ a b Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 70–73. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  9. ^ a b Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. xiv, 3–4, 120, 118–194. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  10. ^ a b Wilson, Ann (1972). "Long Distance Trade and the Luba Lomami Empire". The Journal of African History. Cambridge University Press. 13 (4): 575–589. doi:10.1017/s0021853700011944. S2CID 162826940.
  11. ^ a b Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 10–11, 14–19. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  12. ^ Newell S. Booth, Jr. (1976), Civil Religion in Traditional Africa, Africa Today, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1976), pages 59–66
  13. ^ a b c d e Luba people, Encyclopædia Britannica
  14. ^ Mary Nooter Roberts; Allen F. Roberts (1997). Luba. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 19–24, 33–38. ISBN 978-0-8239-2002-0.
  15. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 116–121. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  16. ^ a b c Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 120–127. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  17. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 127–128. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  18. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 132–137. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  19. ^ a b Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 140–141, 148–152. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 159–168, 172–175, 183–190. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  21. ^ a b c Daniel Kabozi (2015). Steven L. Danver (ed.). Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues. Routledge. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-1-317-46400-6.
  22. ^ a b Giacomo Macola (2015). Luba–Lunda states, in The Encyclopedia of Empire. John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe060. ISBN 978-1118455074. S2CID 155144291.
  23. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 161–162, 165–167. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  24. ^ Francois Renault (1988), "The structures of the Slave trade in Central Africa in the 19th century." Slavery and Abolition, volume 9, number 3, pages 146–165
  25. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  26. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  27. ^ Thomas Q. Reefe (1981). The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891. University of California Press. pp. 167–169. ISBN 978-0-520-04140-0.
  28. ^ Wilson, Ann (1972). "Long Distance Trade and the Luba Lomami Empire". The Journal of African History. Cambridge University Press (CUP). 13 (4): 575–587. doi:10.1017/s0021853700011944. S2CID 162826940.
  29. ^ Matthew G. Stanard (2015), Belgium Empire, in The Encyclopedia of Empire, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1118455074, DOI 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe074
  30. ^ Melvin Page (2003). Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-57607-335-3.
  31. ^ a b c d e f Molefi Kete Asante; Ama Mazama (2009). Encyclopedia of African Religion. SAGE Publications. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-1-4129-3636-1.
  32. ^ Maxwell, David (2008). "The Soul of the Luba: W.F.P. Burton, Missionary Ethnography and Belgian Colonial Science". History and Anthropology. 19 (4): 325–351. doi:10.1080/02757200802517216. S2CID 143498006.
  33. ^ Shoup, John A. (2011). Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-59884-362-0.
  34. ^ Alexander Ives Bortolot (2003), Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Luba and Lunda Empires The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  35. ^ François G Richard; Kevin C MacDonald (2016). Ethnic Ambiguity and the African Past: Materiality, History, and the Shaping of Cultural Identities. Routledge. pp. 200–205. ISBN 978-1-315-42900-7.
  36. ^ Roberts, Mary Nooter; Roberts, Allen F. (1996). "Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History". African Arts. 29 (1): 22. doi:10.2307/3337444. JSTOR 3337444.
  37. ^ Roberts, Mary Nooter (1998). "The Naming Game: Ideologies of Luba Artistic Identity". African Arts. 31 (4): 56–92. doi:10.2307/3337649. JSTOR 3337649.
  38. ^ Lynne Kelly (2015). Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies: Orality, Memory, and the Transmission of Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 78–80. ISBN 978-1-107-05937-5.

Further reading edit

  • Jewsiewicki, Bogumil (1989). "The Formation of the Political Culture of Ethnicity in the Belgian Congo, 1920–1959". In Vail, Leroy (ed.). The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Davidson, Basil: Africa in History: Themes and Outlines, Revised & Expanded Edition. Simon & Schuster, NY (1991).
  • Fage, J.D. and Oliver, Roland, general editors: The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol V and VI., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (1976).
  • Kabongo, Kanundowi and Bilolo, Mubabinge, Conception Bantu de l'Autorité. Suivie de Baluba: Bumfumu ne Bulongolodi, African University Studies, Munich - Kinshasa (1994).

External links edit

  • Omotola Akindipe, Veronica Tshiama & Francisco Yamba, Largest online resource to learn Tshiluba (Mofeko)
  • Professor James Giblin, Department of History, The University of Iowa. in Arts & Life at Africa Online.
  • Lucian Young. at Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • The Maurer Collection, Amherst University. Slit gongs & Musical Oracles 2006-02-25 at the Wayback Machine

luba, people, baluba, ethno, linguistic, group, indigenous, south, central, region, democratic, republic, congo, majority, them, live, this, country, residing, mainly, katanga, kasaï, kasaï, oriental, kasaï, central, lomami, maniema, baluba, consist, many, gro. The Luba people or Baluba are an ethno linguistic group indigenous to the south central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2 The majority of them live in this country residing mainly in Katanga Kasai Kasai Oriental Kasai Central Lomami and Maniema The Baluba consist of many sub groups or clans Luba peopleTotal populationc 28 8 million 1 Regions with significant populationsDemocratic Republic of the CongoLanguagesLuba languages Kiluba and Tshiluba Swahili FrenchReligionChristianity Islam African Traditional Religion Bantu MythologyRelated ethnic groupsother Bantu peoplesPersonMulubaPeopleBalubaLanguageKilubaThe Baluba developed a society and culture by about the 400s CE later developing a well organised community in the Upemba Depression known as the Baluba in Katanga confederation 3 4 Luba society consisted of miners smiths woodworkers potters crafters and people of various other professions 5 6 They found relative success over time but this eventually caused their gradual decline with the Portuguese and Omani empires led or influenced invasions Contents 1 History 1 1 Luba Empire 1 2 Guns trade and the colonial era 1 3 Post colonial era 2 Religion 2 1 Traditional 2 2 Christianity 2 3 Islam 3 Culture 3 1 Art 4 Notable Luba people 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksHistory edit nbsp Geographical distribution of the Luba people approx Archaeological evidence suggests that the Baluba had settlements around the lakes and marshes of the Upemba Depression by the 5th century CE 4 The evidence suggesting an advanced Iron Age society came from multiple sites The Kamilambian Kisalian and Kabambian series of evidence has been dated to be from 5th to 14th century suggesting a settled stable Luba culture over many centuries 4 7 Of these the Kisalian period 8th to 11th century pottery and utensils found 7 The finds dated to pre 8th century by modern dating methods are iron objects or pottery thereafter copper objects appear 7 The archaeological studies suggest that the Luba people lived in villages in homes made of reeds and wattle around the shores of numerous streams and lakes found in the Upemba Depression of Central Africa 7 This Depression has been historically flooded from the water runoff from southern Shaba highlands for parts of the year its water bodies filled with papyrus islands and floating vegetation the region drying out after rains ended As a community the Luba people constructed dams and dikes as high as 6 to 8 feet using mud papyrus and other vegetation to improve the marshy soil conditions for agriculture and stock fish during the long dry season 4 The metal working techniques in use by the early Luba people included drawing out thin wires twisting them laminating them and plaiting them into items such as necklaces bracelets and hooks for fishing needles for sewing and such 8 These products attracted interest and demand from far off ethnic groups creating trade opportunities and traders amongst the Luba people This trade and all economic activity in the villages of Luba people had a tribute system where a portion of the hunt fish or produce was given to the lineage head or the people guarding the borders These were natural borders such as that created by waters of Lake Upemba where passage across required channels and bridges The movement into and out of the Luba people lands was thus controlled and taxed 8 Luba Empire edit Main article Kingdom of Luba Around 1500 possibly earlier the Luba people began to coalesce into a single unified state which historians now call the Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire 3 The kingdom grew and became more sophisticated over time reaching its peak between 18th to 19th century 3 9 I ntegration into the forward edges of the expanding frontiers of international trade tore the Empire apart in tandem with the advances of the 19th century slave and ivory trade from Belgium and the Arab Swahili chiefs such as Tippu Tip and Msiri states Thomas Reefe 9 10 A prominent sociopolitical system of the Luba Empire was the adoption of two layers of power one of Balopwe hereditary kingship and another a council of royals or elders These provided governmental stability through mutual balancing when there were disputes of succession from death or other causes This idea was adopted by the neighboring Lunda people and other ethnic groups 6 The development and evolution of the Luba Empire and the life of Luba people therein has been unclear 10 11 This is in part because the Luba people were an entirely oral tradition culture where knowledge and records were held verbally without the use of a script The orthography for the Luba language called kiLuba was invented in the 19th century thus early information about the Luba Empire has been derived from foreign documents 11 The later written texts suggest that the Luba people had developed sophisticated literary traditions around their concepts of good and evil and integrated these concepts and their religious ideas into their legends about morality and people with power 12 For example one legend relates to two kings one called the red king Nkongolo Mwamba and other called the black king Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe According to the Luba people s oral history There are two kings the Nkongolo Mwamba or red king and Mbidi Kiluwe or black king Nkongolo Mwamba is the violent cruel and drunken despot Mbidi Kiluwe is the gentle just and refined one Nkongolo is one who gets drunk is ruthless mocking raping robbing other seen without manners Mbidi Kiluwe is the opposite one obsessed with good manners thoughtful who speaks carefully is compassionate keeps his distance one with self control Mbidi marries the sister of Nkongolo and they have a son named Kalala Nkongolo gets jealous and fearful of Kalala and schemes to murder him The guardian spirits knowing the scheme protect Kalala by The rainbow legend Luba people 13 14 The Luba people were a part of a large state in the 16th and 17th centuries ruled by a Balopwe through delegation to regional chiefs 13 According to the oral tradition by inabanza Kataba the empire expanded over time with a major consolidation in the 18th century partly triggered by the desire by rivals to control the salt and iron mines in the south 15 The Luba Empire was shielded from Portuguese and other colonial interests by the Lunda Empire which lay to their southeast This shielding was noted by David Livingstone in his travel memoirs and likely blocked the Angolan traders from regular contact with the Luba people 16 Around the start of the 19th century the oral traditions of both the Luba and Kanyok people suggest a major conflict led by mutual raids 16 This conflict helped the Luba Empire grow as its king Ilunga Sungu entered into new territories and formed marriage alliances 16 By 1810 when he died his fame and reverence among the Luba people had peaked and the site of his royal court had become Kitenta royal sacred village where his spirit was venerated 17 nbsp The Luba Empire up left in relationship to others and major trade routes in the 19th centuryAfter the death of Ilunga Sungu Kumwimbe Ngombe came to power leading his warriors to expand southeast with contacts with traders from East Africa After his victory in accordance with Luba traditions the conquered chiefs and rulers had to marry sisters or daughters from the Luba ruling family in order to tie them into a relationship and loyalty with the Luba Empire capital 18 The ivory and slave trade had grown to the east of the Luba Empire by the mid 19th century the natural supplies of ivory were exhausted whilst the international demand was increasing The region under the Luba people had preserved herds of elephants For example the Kanyembo region had no ivory to sell 19 In 1840 after Kumwimbe Ngombe died of old age king Ilunga Kabale succeeded to rule the Luba people until his death in 1870 By then the region of Luba people and their empire covered much of what is now the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo extending for hundreds of kilometers from their early 19th century heartland 19 Guns trade and the colonial era edit The success and wealth of Luba people grew in relative isolation because they were far from the eastern and western coasts of Africa living in comparatively inaccessible terrain 20 The forests and mountains provided a natural border additionally their neighbors blocked direct and regular contact with distant international traders in order to monopolize the profits 20 This originally shielded the Luba from the effects of the slave trade Later however the Luba people became victims of the slave demand and trading in some cases selling people from their own lands as slaves 21 By the 1850s slavers began intruding into the Luba people lands Despite a ban on slave trading in the Western world the eastern and northern parts of Africa led by Arab Swahili slave and ivory traders entered into the eastern and northeastern regions of the Luba Empire 20 22 These intruders came with guns experience of running caravans and other tools of war Although the weapons of the Luba people were not primitive with implements such as blades and bows the opposing forces had more advanced weapons David Livingstone in his memoir wrote how amazed the Luba people were with the guns as they thought they were tobacco pipes the firearm was the primary tool used against large populations of the Luba Slave and ivory trader 22 Tippu Tip for example wrote Luba had no guns their weapons were bows and arrows guns they did not know The guns we have with us they asked us Are they pestles The conquest of the Luba people was swift 23 24 Msiri a Tanzanian operator supplying ivory and slaves to the Sultan of Zanzibar raided and took over the southeastern Shaba region of Luba people 20 Its other side the southwestern borders were breached by the Ovimbundu ivory and slave hunters operating with the Portuguese While slaves could no longer be exported to the Americas they were used for work and caravan operations within Africa Breaches from all sides by better equipped armies weakened the Luba Empire rapidly between 1860 and 1880s and accelerated its demise 20 In parallel the news of disarray and confusion from many corners of the Luba Empire led to internal disputes on succession and strategy when the Luba king Ilunga Kabale died in 1870 20 By 1868 Said bin Habib el Afifi had raided Luba operations and with force taken 10 500 pounds of copper 25 By 1874 another Arab Swahili trader Juma bin Salum wad Rakad and a friend of Tippu Tip had entered into an agreement with one of the Ilunga Kabale s son and established the base of his elephant hunting and ivory trade operations in the heart of the Luba people s lands 26 The Arab Swahili raids such as those by Tippu Tip into Luba people s lands were organized with Nyamwezi subordinates and slave armies 27 28 These raids and attacks by the outsiders also introduced smallpox into the Luba population 1 nbsp Baluba leaders c 1905In 1885 Leopold II king of Belgium secured European recognition of his right over the territories that became what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo The first Belgian expedition into the Luba people s region arrived in 1891 20 The king of Belgium impressed with the accomplishments of Tippu Tip in getting resources from central Africa appointed him the governor of the region that included the Luba people s territory 29 The Luba people were forced to work in the copper and gemstone mines of the Katanga province during the Belgian rule causing numerous mining related deaths They rebelled in 1895 then again from 1905 to 1917 and these insurrections were subdued through military intervention 1 Post colonial era edit In 1960 the Belgians faced with rising demand for independence and an end to colonial rule granted independence to the Democratic Republic of the Congo That same year Katanga Province which was home to a considerable number of Luba attempted to secede under Moise Tshombe as the State of Katanga 30 The Luba were divided with one faction under Ndaye Emanuel supporting the secession and another under Kisula Ngoye supporting the central government The United Nations peacekeepers in Congo as part of the ONUC force came into conflict with the Luba On the 8th of November 1960 a patrol of Irish soldiers were ambushed outside Niemba In the fighting the Irish soldiers reportedly killed dozens of Baluba with their firearms and 9 of the 11 Irish were beaten or stabbed to death Following these events stories were exported of tribesmen mutilating and cannibalizing the soldiers As a result the word Baluba is derogatively used to describe someone not in control of themselves chiefly Irish When Tshombe s breakaway regime collapsed in 1965 Kisula Ngoye became the liaison between the Luba people and the central government 1 Religion editTraditional edit nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp The artwork of Luba people Main article Baluba mythology The traditional religious beliefs of the Luba people included the concept of a Shakapanga or a Universal Creator a Leza or the Supreme Being a natural world and a supernatural world 13 31 The supernatural world was where Bankambo ancestral spirits and Bavidye other spirits lived and what one joined the afterlife if one lived an Mwikadilo Muyampe ethical life 31 The Luba religions accepts the possibility of communion between the living and the dead 31 The religious life included prayers community singing dances offerings rites of passage rituals and invocations 31 These rituals and services had intermediaries for rites such as Nsengha or Kitobo priests In addition for anxiety and ailments a Nganga or Mfwintshi healer were in service who would perform Lubuko divination 31 The religious thought did not limit itself to rituals but included ideas of a good personhood good heart dignity for others and self respect The religious code of civil life and goodness affected the Luba social life 31 Christianity edit Main article Christianity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Christianity was introduced to the Luba people by colonizers who came with the Belgium colonial rule Some of these missionaries such as William Burton performed ethnographic research starting with an aggressive projective research and teaching the Luba people 32 Luba Catholics would later produce the famed Missa Luba a form of the Latin Mass inculturated in the Luba arts and expression This would lay the groundwork for the Zaire Use a full on rite of the Mass based on and used primarily in the Congo Islam edit According to a 2011 source an estimated 12 of Luba are adherents of Islam Islam spread among the Luba during the 19th and 20th century due to increasing contact with the Swahili 33 Culture editThe Luba people tended to cluster in single street villages with homes with rectangular thatched roofs on both sides of the street whose lineage is usually related 13 The homes were in the savanna and forests They hunted fished in abundant waters near them gathered food such as fruits from the wild and had mastered agriculture In contemporary era they grow cassava corn raise livestock Some Luba carve wood and produce artist handicrafts 13 Art edit Main article Luba art Art was well developed in the Luba culture Pottery articles crafted from iron such as axes bows and spears wooden staff and carvings and parts clad in sheets of copper were routinely produced A notable artform of the Luba people was the Mwadi where the male ancestors were represent in their female incarnations of the ancestral kings 34 35 According to scholars such as Daniel Kabozi some of the intricate art works of the Luba people were mnemonic devices a form of symbolic coded script to aid preserving information and recalling the history and knowledge of the Luba 21 36 The Luba people states Mary Roberts developed one of the most complex and brilliant mnemonic systems in Africa for recording royal history king lists migrations initiation esoterica and family genealogies such as the Lukasa memory board 37 38 These artworks are now found in numerous museums of the world 21 Notable Luba people editAlbert Kalonji Laurent Desire Kabila 3rd president of DRC Bill Clinton Kalonji musician Dieudonne Kayembe Mbandakulu Etienne Tshisekedi Evariste Kimba Felix Tshisekedi 5th president of DRC Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza Grand Kalle musician Herita Ilunga Joseph Kabila Kabange 4th president of DRC Jason Sendwe Jean Kalala N Tumba football player John Numbi Kalala Ilunga Ndaye Mulamba football player Nico Kasanda musician Oscar Kashala politician Pepe Kalle musician Tshala Muana musicianReferences edit a b c d Elizabeth Heath 2010 Anthony Appiah Henry Louis Gates eds Encyclopedia of Africa Oxford University Press pp 88 89 ISBN 978 0 19 533770 9 Elizabeth Heath 2010 Anthony Appiah Henry Louis Gates eds Encyclopedia of Africa Oxford University Press pp 88 89 14 15 ISBN 978 0 19 533770 9 a b c Toyin Falola Daniel Jean Jacques 2015 Africa An Encyclopedia of Culture and Society ABC CLIO pp 285 286 ISBN 978 1 59884 666 9 a b c d Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 67 72 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Anthony Appiah Henry Louis Gates 2010 Encyclopedia of Africa Oxford University Press pp 88 89 106 130 131 309 310 ISBN 978 0 19 533770 9 a b Kingdoms of the Savanna The Luba and Lunda Empires Alexander Ives Bortolot 2003 Department of Art History and Archaeology Columbia University Publisher The Metropolitan Museum of Art a b c d Pierre de Maret 1979 Luba Roots The First Complete Iron Age Sequence in Zaire Current Anthropology University of Chicago Press volume 20 number 1 Mar 1979 pages 233 235 a b Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 70 73 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 a b Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp xiv 3 4 120 118 194 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 a b Wilson Ann 1972 Long Distance Trade and the Luba Lomami Empire The Journal of African History Cambridge University Press 13 4 575 589 doi 10 1017 s0021853700011944 S2CID 162826940 a b Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 10 11 14 19 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Newell S Booth Jr 1976 Civil Religion in Traditional Africa Africa Today Vol 23 No 4 Oct Dec 1976 pages 59 66 a b c d e Luba people Encyclopaedia Britannica Mary Nooter Roberts Allen F Roberts 1997 Luba The Rosen Publishing Group pp 19 24 33 38 ISBN 978 0 8239 2002 0 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 116 121 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 a b c Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 120 127 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 127 128 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 132 137 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 a b Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 140 141 148 152 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 a b c d e f g Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 159 168 172 175 183 190 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 a b c Daniel Kabozi 2015 Steven L Danver ed Native Peoples of the World An Encyclopedia of Groups Cultures and Contemporary Issues Routledge pp 52 53 ISBN 978 1 317 46400 6 a b Giacomo Macola 2015 Luba Lunda states inThe Encyclopedia of Empire John Wiley amp Sons doi 10 1002 9781118455074 wbeoe060 ISBN 978 1118455074 S2CID 155144291 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 161 162 165 167 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Francois Renault 1988 The structures of the Slave trade in Central Africa in the 19th century Slavery and Abolition volume 9 number 3 pages 146 165 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 173 174 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 164 165 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Thomas Q Reefe 1981 The Rainbow and the Kings A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 University of California Press pp 167 169 ISBN 978 0 520 04140 0 Wilson Ann 1972 Long Distance Trade and the Luba Lomami Empire The Journal of African History Cambridge University Press CUP 13 4 575 587 doi 10 1017 s0021853700011944 S2CID 162826940 Matthew G Stanard 2015 Belgium Empire in The Encyclopedia of Empire John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 978 1118455074 DOI 10 1002 9781118455074 wbeoe074 Melvin Page 2003 Colonialism An International Social Cultural and Political Encyclopedia ABC CLIO p 356 ISBN 978 1 57607 335 3 a b c d e f Molefi Kete Asante Ama Mazama 2009 Encyclopedia of African Religion SAGE Publications pp 98 99 ISBN 978 1 4129 3636 1 Maxwell David 2008 The Soul of the Luba W F P Burton Missionary Ethnography and Belgian Colonial Science History and Anthropology 19 4 325 351 doi 10 1080 02757200802517216 S2CID 143498006 Shoup John A 2011 Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East An Encyclopedia ABC CLIO p 169 ISBN 978 1 59884 362 0 Alexander Ives Bortolot 2003 Kingdoms of the Savanna The Luba and Lunda Empires The Metropolitan Museum of Art Francois G Richard Kevin C MacDonald 2016 Ethnic Ambiguity and the African Past Materiality History and the Shaping of Cultural Identities Routledge pp 200 205 ISBN 978 1 315 42900 7 Roberts Mary Nooter Roberts Allen F 1996 Memory Luba Art and the Making of History African Arts 29 1 22 doi 10 2307 3337444 JSTOR 3337444 Roberts Mary Nooter 1998 The Naming Game Ideologies of Luba Artistic Identity African Arts 31 4 56 92 doi 10 2307 3337649 JSTOR 3337649 Lynne Kelly 2015 Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies Orality Memory and the Transmission of Culture Cambridge University Press pp 78 80 ISBN 978 1 107 05937 5 Further reading editJewsiewicki Bogumil 1989 The Formation of the Political Culture of Ethnicity in the Belgian Congo 1920 1959 In Vail Leroy ed The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa Berkeley University of California Press Davidson Basil Africa in History Themes and Outlines Revised amp Expanded Edition Simon amp Schuster NY 1991 Fage J D and Oliver Roland general editors The Cambridge History of Africa Vol V and VI Cambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1976 Kabongo Kanundowi and Bilolo Mubabinge Conception Bantu de l Autorite Suivie de Baluba Bumfumu ne Bulongolodi African University Studies Munich Kinshasa 1994 External links edit nbsp Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Ba Luba nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luba people Omotola Akindipe Veronica Tshiama amp Francisco Yamba Largest online resource to learn Tshiluba Mofeko Professor James Giblin Department of History The University of Iowa Introduction Diffusion and other Problems in the History of African States in Arts amp Life at Africa Online Lucian Young The Luba at Minnesota State University Mankato The Maurer Collection Amherst University Slit gongs amp Musical Oracles Archived 2006 02 25 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Luba people amp oldid 1199842826, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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