Kingdom of Lunda
The Lunda Empire was a large empire in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Angola, and Zambia .
geography
It extended between 6 and 13 ° south and between 18 and 29 ° east L. v. Size over an area of 345,000 km², but is said to have had only two million inhabitants. It consisted of the areas under the Lunda rulers and the tributary state of the Cazembe . The area is crossed by the Kassai and Lubilasch and their tributaries and is mostly flat and covered with dense bushes. The inhabitants are mostly Kalunda .
origin
Initially the core of what would later become the Lunda Empire consisted of a simple village called "Gaand" in the Kilunda language. The ruler of this village was called Mwaata Gaand or Mwaataangaand.
One of these rulers was Ilunga Tshibinda. He came from the Luba Kingdom, which was ruled by his brother. The first great king of the Lunda, who was called Muata Jamvo (Mwaata Yaav), comes from the connection with a princess from southern areas .
Form of government
The Lunda Empire was a feudal state under the Muata Jamvo (Mwaata Yaav), to whom the feudal lords sent salt and copper , ivory , wickerwork , slaves and animal skins , stuff and powder, and to whom they served as military service. Next to the Muata Jamvo stood the Lukokescha , an unmarried woman , as the highest dignitary . Both had to be children of one of the main wives of the previous Muata Jamvo and were elected by the four highest councils of the state; they had to mutually confirm, so they represented a formal integration of two states and state powers in one country.
Local politics were carried out by chiefs, who had mainly religious power, as well as administrators appointed by the court. In essence, the kingdom of Lunda was ruled indirectly by traditional leaders in certain regions who were left to manage their affairs as long as they paid the due tribute to the king. It is assumed that the Lunda initially lived patrilinearly, but then became matrilineal through the integration of other ethnic groups and that this line was also adopted in their political system.
Court and history
The capital and residence city was Mussumba ( residence ) in a plain east of the Luisa, a tributary of the Lulua , with 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. After the death of each Muata Jamvo, it was always rebuilt in a different place; Most of the space is taken up by the apartments of the two rulers and their first dignitaries , built in a wide fence ( kipanga ).
From the early 17th to the late 19th centuries, the Kingdom of Lunda was the dominant political and military power in the region. The political union with the neighboring Luba people goes back to the marriage of Lweji, the daughter of a Lunda chief, and Cibanda Ilunga, the son of the first Luba king, Kalala Ilunga. At that time, many bypassed tribes separated from the centralized Kingdom of Lunda and colonized new areas, which expanded the Lunda Empire enormously as the relationships remained. At the time of its greatest expansion, its influence reached from Lake Tanganyika almost to the Atlantic Ocean. Then the Chokwe took power and shortly afterwards the European colonial powers.
economy
The Lunda's economic basis was very dependent on the area in which they lived. On the rivers they were fishermen and the women grew corn, finger millet, yams, millet, beans, sweet potatoes, oil palms and tobacco. From the 17th century trade between Lunda and Shaba in the east can be proven. The traders played a major role in the slave and ivory trade. Hunting played an important social and ritual role.
religion
In the Lunda religion, Nzambi is the supreme creator god, but the Lunda do not turn to him directly. Instead, the ancestral spirits are responsible for the good and bad that happen to each individual and require the attention of the whole group. Divination plays an important role in maintaining balance in the group. In the case of royal succession, trees are planted as part of the rites to symbolize the ancestors of the new king.
Web links
literature
- Paul Pogge : In the realm of Muata Jamwo , Berlin 1880 ( digitized )
- Max Buchner : The realm of the Muata Jamwo . In: "Deutsche Geographische Blätter", Bremen 1883