Lunda kingdom

The kingdom Lunda or empire Lunda (16th century? - 19th century) is a African empire occupying current the Katanga, the Angola Eastern and the north of the Zambia, appeared in European historiography at the 17th century and become usual kingdom in 1909. It was about a confederation ( lunda ) people of Langue bantoue whose majority were regarded as related, directed by an emperor (Mwata Yav, Mwant Yav or Mwant Yamvo) appointed by a council. The empire played the part of commercial turntable between the neighbouring areas, the Portuguese and the Arab S; it exported mainly Ivoire, Cuivre and slaves, and imported firearms and fabrics. The Swahili was the language of noble and the tradesmen, who knew probably also the Arabic alphabet. After a short takeover by the people Chokwe towards 1880, the territory was divided by the colonial powers starting from 1884 and last resistances are destroyed in 1909. Lunda nationalism continued nevertheless to appear, jointly and in competition with that of the Luba S, through attempts at local autonomy like the secession of Katanga to the beginning of the year 1960. The Peuple Lunda resides on the territory of the old empire. One distinguishes among them Lundas de Kazembe, called Lundas of the east, which speak a different language.

Other transcriptions of Lunda (alliance, friendship): Ruund, Uruund, Aruund, Ruwuund, Uruwuund.

Foundation

According to the tradition, the empire was born at the 16th century when a group of population resulting from the Empire Luba directed by Ilunga Tshibinda, brother or nephew (and thus rival) of the emperor Ilunga Kalala, emigrated towards the west and arrived on the ground of the Lunda confederation or Ba Lunda, located in the Kasaï higher than south-west from the Katanga. It married there the queen Lueji (Rwej), girl of king Konde of Bungu, chief of the confederation, which gave the bracelet crowned to him rukan , badge of royalty. Their son Yao Nawedji (R. 1660 with 1675) took the name of Mwant Yav (worthy Yav), which will remain the title of the Lunda sovereigns thereafter. Lueji, sterile says one, is the mother symbolic system of the empire and it is a named woman Kamonga which was the génitrice of the heir. First Mwant Yav extended the kingdom and named governors of the chiefs of other branches lunda, of which that of Kazembe (Luapula, south-east of the Lac Moero), group promised with a great prosperity because of its contacts privileged with the business partners of the empire. The oral tradition reports that the évincés brothers of the Lueji queen were at the origin of other groups of the confederation. Shinguli would have based the kingdom Imbangala on the Kwango, affluent of Kasaï, and Chiniama would be at the origin of the Luena and Chokwe. Its last claim to have had also Nakabamba, sister of Lueji, like Mère of the kingdom; the Mpimin assert Muadi Kapuk, relationship of Lueji, like Mère of the kingdom.

Expansion and trade

The empire developed quickly, helped by the trade and of military forwardings. It was always about a confederation in which the emperor délégait his capacity with the political leaders of the various groups, called ayilol ; peripheral, subjected during the expansion, brought a tribute. The emperor, who chaired since the capital Musumba (camp), was chosen by a council of wise; the function was thus not biologically hereditary, but the new emperor took again the name, the personality and the parentèle of the preceding emperor, which were those of first Mwant Yav, ensuring a continuity symbolic system. This practice, associated with the flexibility in the choice of the effective heir, would have ensured the Lunda empire a stability which missed in Luba. Lunda extended towards current Angola, then towards the east to the lake Meore to obtain copper, the ivory and salt. The trade with the Portuguese began in 1650. At the end of the XVIIe century, its counters controlled the distribution of copper in the east of Angola and the group of the lake Meore and the valley of Luapula, Mwata Kazembe, provided salt of the marshes of the Lufira and controlled the ivory and the trade with the east coast and the Arab peninsula. In the middle of the 18th century, the empire dominated the extent between the Lac Tanganyka and the Kwongo river. The control of the foreign trade had then become an essential royal function. The slaves were sold with Luanda (towards the Brésil) and in the surroundings of Bangwelo (towards the Mozambique and Zanzibar, then the Arab peninsula). The principal imports were the fabric and arm. The prosperity of the empire reaches its apogee about the middle of the 19th century.

In 1789, the Portuguese explorer Francisco Maria Cerdas had visited the Lunda empire and had brought back in Europe the news of the mining richnesses of the area.

End of XIXe and XXe century

About 1880, Chokwe took for a time the control of the empire, but soon the foreign powers intervened. The Portuguese troops entered from Angola in 1884. At the time of the Conference of Berlin (1884-1885), the area pre-was divided between Portuguese Angola (Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul and Moxico), the Belgian Congo (Katanga) and Zambia (Kazembe- Zambezi). The area of Katanga was really subjected only in 1909, after the capture and the execution of the rebellious chiefs. Its attempt at independence to beginning of the year 60 was impelled by a brother of Mwant Yav Mushid III, Moïse Tshombe; at that time, the party conakat recruited primarily at Lundas. Since, the Lunda empire became a usual kingdom, whose current sovereign is the 28e Mwant Yav, Mwant Yamvo Kaumb II, in the civilian Benjamin Kaumb Diur Tshombe Sashilemb, lawyer Lundas always live in the area of Katanga, Eastern Angola and north-Zaire. The descendants of the group fixed at Kazembe are named Lundas Eastern.

The emperor

The capacity is known as monarchical with democratic obedience. The emperor is chosen by the imperial Council composed of notable (tubung has) answering criteria spiritual, intellectual, physics and moral, and representatives of the Courses of all the other tribes members of the empire. This council is itself under the authority of the Large Council of the empress Rwej, mother of the empire. The emperor must give an account of any action to the imperial Council; the decisions are always collective, catches after long debates, then subjected to the Worship of the empress “N-a-Rwej” for approval and blessing. The persons in charge of the Worship transmit the decision to the emperor who announces it publicly and makes it apply. This last is thus only one executant, but nevertheless a being crowned which carries from there the badges, whose main thing is the copper bracelet rukan (or lukano) that it will carry during all his reign, i.e. during the remainder of its life because “One dies in the capacity, for the capacity and by the capacity within the dynasty of Mwant-Yav of the Lunda empire. ”. If the emperor violates the crowned oath or the laws which make the harmony and the force of the empire, or is inefficient, it can be put at dead because it cannot resign. The rukan can be withdrawn of its wrist only to its death, by the Ruej empress who only has the right to touch it; it is indeed it which transmits the capacity by the means of the guards of the crowned Temple. The transmission of being able takes place in the sanctuary of the worship of the Empress in the middle of the crowned island of Kwi' N Kalany. Some of these traditions relating to the royalty would go back to the 1st millenium before JC.

In spite of the patrilineal influence luba, the royal mode lunda always kept a component matrilinéaire, as the role testifies some to the empress in the transfer of power. The king traditionally had two mothers, Swan Murund (mother of the right-sided), mother symbolic system of the company perpetuating the role of Ruej, sterile, and the Rukonkesh (mother of the left side), queen-mother charged to raise the children and perpetuating the role of Kamonga. With the first and the second wives, named respectively Muadi and Temena, they constituted the four dignitaries the most important women of the Court.

Religion

Lundas believed in a creative single god of all things, residing at the sky, called Nzambi, auprès whose rests the late ones; they did not communicate directly with him but via the ancestors. After a death, they carried out dances imitating the movements of a water bird so that the heart of the person flies away with the sky because for them water was symbol of life.

References

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