Baluba
The Baluba or Luba are a Bantu ethnic group in Central Africa , mainly in the West and East Kasai and Katanga regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Their language is Tschiluba (Chiluba) in the west and Kiluba in the east. Their population is about one million.
history
The Baluba appear as a people from the 5th century in what is now the Katanga province , which is located in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Large-scale cooperation was necessary in order to build and maintain dikes and drainage canals in the marshland there. This type of collaborative collaboration also made it possible to build dams to fish in ponds during the dry season. In the 6th century, the Baluba worked iron and traded salt, palm oil and dried fish. They exchanged these goods for copper, charcoal (for iron smelting), glass beads, iron and cowries from the Indian Ocean .
Its history is difficult to grasp because its geographic extent spans several countries. The collective term Baluba denotes various ethnic groups: BaSonge, Bena-Luluwa, BaShilange, Kanyoka ", BaBindji, BaLozi, BaBemba, BaSanga, BaHemba, BaLuntu, Shankadi, Baluba-Lubilaschi etc. The mythical kingdom of the Baluba in Mukenge or Matamba in the now the province of Kasai developed parallel to the realm of Baluba in the province of Katanga (Lwalaba) or on Lake Tanganyika . When David Livingstone , Paul Pogge and Hermann Wissmann talk of Luba, this is all about Baluba in Mukenge, Mai-Munene or Matamba and not about Baluba beyond Lwalaba.
Kingdom of Luba
Around 1500, possibly earlier, the Baluba-Katanga began to form a unified state under the leadership of a king who ruled according to the will of the gods. The mulopwe (king) came from the balopwe , a clan that acted as an intermediary between the human world and the world of gods and ancestors. The power of the mulopwe was based on three pillars:
- He headed a secular hierarchy of governors and sub-governors that went down to the village chiefs.
- He drew tributes from the local rulers, which he then distributed as gifts to loyal followers. In practice, this tribute system became a state-controlled trade network.
- The mulopwe had a high spiritual reputation. He was the leader of the secret society of the bambudye or mbudye , to which all kings, rulers and officials belonged. The bambudye society, to which both men and women belonged, crossed the kinship lines and helped to hold the dominion together. The "men of memory" of the bambudye were the keepers of the oral tradition of the people.
The Baluba system of ceremonial kingship proved permanent enough to spread across central Africa. It was adopted by the Lozi and Lunda , for example, with adjustments .
From around 1585, the Baluba-Katanga quickly expanded their territory and secured control over copper mines, fishing and oil palm cultivation. At that time, Baluba-Kasayi were already allies of Bakongo and Ovibundu. It is believed that after around 1700 they took over corn and manioc from the Portuguese . These plants from the American continent produced higher yields than the previously known cultivated plants and thus enabled further population and economic growth. This in turn increased the ruler's power and prestige.
From around 1780 to 1870 the Baluba Empire reached the height of its power in Katanga under the rulers Ilunga Sunga (approx. 1780–1810), his son Kumwimbe Maniema Ngombe (approx. 1810–1840) and Ilunga Maniema Kabale (approx. 1840– 1874). Via intermediaries, the Baluba traded from the Indian Ocean to the Portuguese posts in Angola . Cross-shaped copper bars and raffia clothes served as currency in a trade in which poison arrows, drums, animal hiding places, ivory and dried fish were exchanged for cattle, cotton, glass beads, iron, tools and implements. During this time, the Baluba Kasayi Empire also achieved its world fame with King Mukenge.
Decline
From around 1870 the decline of the Baluba Kingdom began. Ultimately, the Baluba kingship had no clear guidelines for succession, which made it prone to succession disputes. The Baluba also came under pressure through the Nyamwezi , which from today's Tanzania pushed into their territory, and Swahili - Arabs , who advanced from the coast. Both the Nyamwezi and the Swahili Arabs had firearms, which proved crucial. The Baluba were not conquered, but the Swahili Arabs were able to prevent their trade access to the forest peoples in the north, while the Nyamwezi under Msidi (Msiri) competed with them in trade with areas further south. The decline of the Baluba Empire in Kasayi only began later after the traditional leadership was disempowered and the land was expropriated by the colonial powers.
Faced with the erosion of their economic situation and their urgent need for firearms, the Baluba began to engage in large-scale slave trading , selling to the Portuguese in Angola. However, the slave trade also experienced a gradual decline, and the prices that could be obtained for slaves continued to decline. The Baluba were also less and less able to attack other peoples, so that they began to hunt each other. This accelerated the collapse of the Baluba society and the disintegration of political unity. In 1874 Ilunga Kabale was killed, after which the line of rulers was split into various competing factions. In the 1880s, much of Eastern Congo fell under the control of the Arab slave and ivory trader Tippu-Tip , whose followers - inadvertently - brought in the smallpox .
Belgian rule
In 1885, Leopold II of Belgium secured control over what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He called it the Congo Free State and exploited it as a private colony. The Baluba put up resistance, namely in a major rebellion in 1895, after which many Baluba were used for forced labor in the copper mines of Katanga. Another Baluba rebellion was led by Kasongo Nyembo and was not brought under control until 1917. Like the other peoples of the Congo, the Baluba also suffered from the sometimes cruel Belgian colonial rule (" Congo horror "; see also Belgian colonial rule ).
After independence
In 1960, the Congo was given independence by Belgium. In the same year, the Katangas secession began under Moïse Tshombé . As a result, the Baluba were split into advocates of secession under Ndaye Emanuel and supporters of the central government under Kisula Ngoye . The latter became the dominant leader of the Baluba after the end of the secession in 1965.
Culture
Traditionally, the Baluba lived in small villages with rectangular houses arranged along a street. Agriculture was based on slash and burn in areas with good soil (along rivers), supplemented by hunting and fishing in the surrounding bushland. Patrilineally organized local village chiefs, the kilolo , ruled the villages under the protection of the king. The cultural life was concentrated in the kitenta , as the royal court was called, which later became the permanent capital. The kitenta attracted artists, poets, musicians and craftsmen, who received support from the king and his court.
The bambudya society had an important tool that helped them keep track of the complex history of the Baluba - the lukasa, or “memory board, ” in which colored glass beads and shells were set so that whoever understood them, the history of the People could read from it.
The Baluba were well-known wood carvers who made ceremonial masks and symbols of royalty such as ceremonial pipes, bracelets and axes.
Another peculiarity of the Baluba was kibuta - clairvoyance. The bilumbu were spiritual media that went into a trance and looked into the mboko - sacred containers, baskets, bowls - in order to interpret the will of the spirits and gods based on the ritual objects placed in them.
Today many Baluba are Christians. The Belgian missionary Placide Tempels published his work La philosophie bantoue ("Bantu Philosophy") in 1945 , which contains experiences that he had gained during his stay with the Baluba.
The Bena Riamba people in the Lubuka region, West Kasai province, cultivated a special hashish cult in the 19th century, which Hermann von Wissmann discovered on his expedition in 1884 and later made known in the West.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The prefix "ba-" means that there is a plurality of people, possibly the entirety of those who belong to the Luba ethnic group.