Lunda people

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Lunda
Group of Ka-Lundas in 1909
Regions with significant populations
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zambia
Languages
Lunda
Related ethnic groups
Luba people

The Lunda (Balunda, Luunda, Ruund) are a

Republic of Congo)[2] and the Luapula valley of Zambia (the Eastern Lunda or Kazembe-Lunda
).

History

The members of the Lunda delimitation commission; also Mme. Sarmento and Mrs. Grenfell


The Lunda were allied to the Luba, and their migrations and conquests spawned a number of tribes such as the Luvale of the upper Zambezi and the Kasanje on the upper Kwango River of Angola.[1]

The Lunda people's heartland was rich in the natural resources of rivers, lakes, forests and savannah. Its people were fishermen and farmers, and they prospered. They grew

Arab and Swahili traders of East Africa. They played a large role in the slave and ivory trade that moved goods and people from central Africa to the coasts for export.[1]

The people of the Lunda Kingdom believed in

Nzambi or Nzamb Katang as a Supreme Creator of the world who created everything of existence on earth. Their religion did not address Nzambi directly, but through the spirits of their ancestors.[1]
Their kings had twenty to thirty wives. The Lunda captured adolescents from the peoples they defeated. These teenagers were turned into slaves and wore an iron necklace to symbolise their status. The slaves would only shed the collar when they had shown the king the severed head of one of the kingdom's enemies. After this, these former slaves were to be incorporated into Lunda society.

After 1608 Lunda people launched several attacks against the

Ndongo and Lunda. After the defeat of the Ndongo, Lunda people based their diet on the cows and pigs they had stolen from kingdom of Ndongo, while their income was based on the sale of Mbundu prisoners to Portuguese merchants. They subsequently became sedentary, migrated to other regions, developed a family system typical of most societies (they married and had children) and became a powerful empire that based part of its income on the sale of slaves, both on a small and large scale. The slave trade was abandoned in the 19th century when the European slave trade ceased.[3]

Demography

Today the Lunda people comprise hundreds of subgroups such as the Akosa, Imbangala and Ndembu, and number approximately 800,000 in Angola, 1.1milion in the Congo, and 600,000 in Zambia. Most speak the Lunda language, Chilunda, except for the Kazembe-Lunda who have adopted the Bemba language of their neighbours.[1]

Notable members

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Pritchett, James Anthony: "Lunda". World Culture Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
  2. ^ Allafrica.com, Mwati Yamv Preaches Peace At Lunda Lubanza Ceremony, 3 September 2009
  3. ^ a b THOMAS, Hugh (1997). La trata de Esclavos: Historia de la trata de seres humanos desde 1440 a 1870. Planeta, p.165.

References

General references

Some of the information is based on the German Wikipedia article on the Lunda (Königreich), which gives two sources:

  • Pogge (1880). Im Reich des Muata Jamwo. Berlin.
  • Buchner (1883). "Das Reich des Muata Jamwo". Deutsche Geographische Blätter. Bremen.

Further reading

  • Pritchett, James Anthony (2001). The Lunda-Ndembu : style, change, and social transformation in South Central Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin.
  • Pritchett, James Anthony (2007). Friends for Life, Friends for Death: cohorts and consciousness among the Lunda-Ndembu. Charlottesville: University of Virginia.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lunda people.
  • "Lunda" .
    New International Encyclopedia
    . 1905.
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