The People
MOST OF THE NINE MILLION
inhabitants of Zambia are African, Bantu in origin,
with Asians and Europeans comprising the minor communities. The African population
contains a large diversity of tribes, speaking 73 dialects in all, with the Tonga, Lozi,
Bemba and Ngoni being the four most prominent language groups. The European population live
and work mostly in the urban areas, or on the farmlands close to the railway line, while a high
percentage of the Asian community is to be found on the Copperbelt and other urban centers.
Each tribe is rich in history and culture, possessing their own unique characteristics that has kept the tribes
individualistic throughout the centuries of time. Tribal "cousin-ship"--harmless steriotypical intertribal rivalry
makes up a good portion of the Zambian humor... The Zambian people are very
gentle and extremely hospitable, and they would be content to remain the way they are for generations,
without technology and "progress" indefinitely. At times, the introduction of technology to this culture seems somehow to just complicate matters.
Recent tribal history of the Livingstone area
When David Livingstone arrived at the Zambezi River he met the Kololo people. The Kololo had run away from the Zulus in South Africa during the wars in the early 1800s. They had arrived in this area and conquered all the tribes in Western and Southern Zambia. It was the Chief of the Kololo, Sekeletu, who brought David Livingstone to the Victoria Falls.
The Kololo did not last much longer as rulers of this area. Chief Sekeletu suffered from leprosy and spent his time trying to find out who had bewitched him - he killed many people. The Kololo also did not have the same resistance to malaria as the local tribes and their numbers were dwindling. The original tribe of Western Zambia, the Lozi, came back into power in the 1860s.
The Lozi took the language of the Kololo which is the reason why the Lozi language which is spoken today is similar to Sotho - Lesotho being the original home of the Kololo people.
The Lozi continued to rule most of Western and Southern Zambia. The king of the Lozi, the Litunga, was a very powerful man. When the first missionaries and settlers came to the region they had to gain permission from the Litunga. And when the British South African Company, Cecil Rhodes’ company, wanted mineral rights for the area, it was the Litunga who agreed.
Over the years, the Litunga’s power has been eroded but he still remains a powerful man in Western Province.
Chief Mukuni
The tribe of Chief Mukuni are called the Leya. They occupy land by the Victoria Falls and along the gorges. The Leya people came from the Rozwi tribe in Zimbabwe. They had been sent to the Falls area by their chief and were conquered by the Mukuni people. The tribe of Chief Mukuni, it is believed, was one of the groups which came down from the Congo in the 17th or 18th century.
It is said that the tribe brought with them a stone - Kechejo - from Kabwe. This stone was put at the site of the Mukuni village. The story of Kechejo is that it will disappear under the ground in times of severe drought; it will also raise itself higher out of the ground in times of good harvest.
Leya Traditions
Chief Mukuni chooses one of his female relatives to be the Priestess of the tribe - usually a sister or aunt. The Chief, along with his counsellors, arbitrates cases involving local politics and other problems. The Priestess, called Bedyango, is responsible for religious affairs, and receives reports of births and deaths.
The Leya worship their dead ancestors, Chief Mukuni being their representative on earth. There are several ceremonies which can be performed at the village at certain times of the year and in cases of disease or drought.
The Lwiindi Ceremony is performed every year just before the rains. This ceremony is conducted from a sacred hut about 100 metres from the village by the graveyard. In the hut are kept the sacred drums. Before the ceremony the village people will brew plenty of beer, and visitors from all over the region will visit the village. On the day of the ceremony everyone moves to the graveyard where prayers are said and hymns are sung to the dead chiefs.
After the ceremony is completed the people return to the village to feast, dance and sing.
Chief Sekute
Chief Sekute rules over another group of Leya but the ruling clan were originally thought to be of Subiya descent.
The Leya people of Chief Sekute live to the west of Livingstone towards Kazungula. A story is told that the first Chief Sekute came to the area to hunt
hippopotamus and stayed. This group were originally living on the islands in the river. When they wanted to move onto the mainland, Chief Mukuni refused permission.
They fought on several occasions but Mukuni won each time. The last time, Chief Mukuni gave one of his sisters to Chief Sekute as a wife, and this settled their quarrel.
Interestingly, when David Livingstone arrived at the Falls, he landed on Kalai Island. Here he found the graves of past Chiefs Sekute. These graves were surrounded by elephant tusks - 70 in all.
It was the Leya of Chief Sekute who lived near the Old Drift when the first white settlers came to the area.
Chief Musokotwane
The people under Chief Musokotwane are called Toka - this is the name given them by the Kololo,
but they were probably Tonga. Their home is Senkobo, north of Livingstone.This is the largest group in the area and they are culturally and linguistically similar to the Leya.
The ruling clan, however, is different again from Mukuni and Sekute. They came from Kabanga under their Chief Sianalumba.
THE TONGA
are among the most numerous of the Zambian people and archaeological evidence has been unearthed to prove
their existence for at least 900 years. They and the Ila group constitute the main tribes of the Southern Province.
The past century has been rough on the Tonga-Ila. They were the butt of so many cattle raids by the Matebele (now mostly in Zimbabwe),
the Makololo and later the Lozi. These days the Tonga-Ila have recovered sufficiently for the Southern Province to be one of the major
cattle areas of Zambia.
Some 500 to 600 years ago, one of the areas where the Tonga now live, the middle Zambezi Valley, was a flourishing trade center.
At a site known as Ing'ombe Illede, fragments of pots and other goods have been excavated that show there was a fairly brisk trade between the
valley people and Arabs on the east coast of Africa, as well as India and China. One form of currency used then was a copper ingot cast in the form
of a cross about 30 centimeters long. The copper for these crosses came from mines further south.
THE LOZI.
It is believed that the Lozi dynasty migrated into the western area of Zambia from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from the Luba-Lunda Kingdom of Mwata Yamvwa,
which was one of the greatest central African chieftainships in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They had been settled in their new home for perhaps two
centuries when invaders from what is now the Republic of South Africa swept in and conquered them about 1830. These invaders, the Makololo, were part of a mass migration
of people fleeing from the great Zulu conqueror, Shaka.
The Makololo changed the whole face of the then Barotseland. Although they ruled only some of the people for about 35 years, they left their language, Sikololo, as the
lingua franca of the Barotse plains, and imposed much of their cultural tradition on the area. The Lozi rose against them in 1864 and all but annihilated them. People who visit Western
Province will probably stay in modern hotels in Mongu, the Provincial administrative capital. The Lozi craftsmen are famous for their hand woven products such as trays, baskets and mats.
THE KUOMBOKA PAGEANT
takes place at Lealui and Limulunga
near Mongu in the Western Province. Just to the west of the province capital, the high ground gives way
to the flood plains of the Zambezi River. It is here that for centuries past, the tribal chief, the Litunga,
established his headquarters at Lealui. Since the headquarters' site was in the centre of land that becomes
completely submerged by the swollen river, an annual evacuation to higher ground became necessary. This was
done ceremoniously and the custom exists to this day.
When the Litunga decides to leave, usually in early March, or February if the rains are heavy, the drums
send out the signal for the move and the people pack all their household goods in canoes ready for
departure. The flotilla of canoes is headed by the Litunga'a royal barge, the "Nalikwanda", with its thirty paddlers
in colorful array. The Litunga's wife, the Moyo, has her own barge. The procession takes about five or six hours to
reach the new capital, Limulunga, where a huge crowd celebrates with traditional dancing and singing well into the night.
THE BEMBA.
Heading northeast almost to the opposite end of the country, one comes to the land of the Bemba-speaking people. Like the Lozi, the Bemba, and the Zambian Lunda tribe, almost
certainly migrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Kingdom of Mwati Yamvwa some centuries ago. The Bemba, who form the second largest grouping in Zambia, and the Lunda, reportedly recognize an almost legendary place
called Kola as their land of origin. The paramount chief of the Bemba-speaking people is known as Chitimukulu. There are several versions of the origin of Chiti, who was the first great Bemba chief in Zambia.
Some say he was the son of a liaison between the goddess-founder of the Lunda tribe and Mukulu, a mortal chief.. Whatever the case, Chiti led his people as far south as the country of the Lala, also a people of
Luba-Lunda descent, in what is now the Copperbelt. He then went east across the Luangwa River, into an area that is now the Luangwa Valley
When Chiti died he was given the name of his father Mukulu, the great one. Hence all the paramount chiefs are called Chitimukulu. Whenever a Chitimukulu dies the body lies in state for a year, suitably mummified,
before being interred in the Royal burial ground.
When copper mining began in earnest on the Copperbelt, the Bemba speaking people came down for jobs in force. Thus the language of the Copperbelt towns and cities is Bemba. At the turn of the century, about a
generation before large-scale copper excavation began, the Bemba made their last military stand against the encroachment of colonial rule, and it took some time before they were finally subdued.
THE NGONI.
like the Makololo who invaded the Barotse, were 'also a South African people fleeing the conquests of Shaka. While the Makololo went west, however, the Ngoni went east. Both these people adopted the revolutionary fighting tactics of Shaka, and defeated the tribes they encroached upon with relative ease.
The day the Ngoni arrived into what is now Zambia was marked by two historic events. A ceremonial beer drinking took place just before crossing the Zambezi-of such magnitude, that stories of the occasion are told to this day. The second was a total eclipse of the sun, which added considerably to the excitement. The date was 20th November 1835.
After subduing the Chewa and other people the Ngoni, led by their Chief Zwangendaba, settled down to a fairly complete pacification of the area. They kept up their martial system of periodically forming regiments of the male youths of the conquered people into their service. This guaranteed the ways of the Ngoni up to their defeat by the colonial government in 1897-98. After this the system slowly declined, and finally ceased after 1920, when the last aged regiment was formed.
The Paramount chief of the Ngoni is known as Mpezeni, after Chief Zwangendaba's eldest son, who ruled the tribe and its conquered people after his father's death.
With the breakup of the military system, the power of the Ngoni declined. The Chewa, Tumbuka and other tribes asserted themselves, and today in Eastern Province many of the traces of Ngoni ascendancy have disappeared.
Culturally the area excels in dancing. The performer, who always attracts most attention at such national celebrations as the Independence pageant every October, is the VIMBUZA dancer.
When he performs, all other dancers watch, and he is generally acknowledged as the Zambian favorite
Other favorites are the colorful masked dancers, the Nyau, however because they are a cult, entrance is difficult. Those who are accepted have to practice the intricate routines for years, and train themselves to a high peak of physical endurance.
THE LUVALE.
people are among the tribes in Zambia that came from the North of Lake Tanganyika and their first Chief was a woman named Kenga Naweji. After many years of settlement with many successions they immigrated to countries along Congo River now known as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Separate from Luunda Kingdom which had already established itself for many years in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by conquering many tribes along the Zambezi River and around Zambezi watershed, was Chinyama Chamukwamayi, the first born son of the Great Chief Kondi Mated. At that time Chinguli Cha Kondi, the younger brother to Chinyama Chamukwamayi, was heading westwards with his army and conquering many tribes as far as the Atlantic Ocean.
Valuvale, Valuchaze, Vambunda, Vachokwe and Vaviye tribes live in North-Western Provinces. They are the descendants of Chinyama Chamukwamayi and Chinguli Cha Kondi who were brothers to Chieftainess Luweki who remained on the throne in Luunda and was married to a hunter from the East named Chibinda Ilunga. Their first born child was a son and was called Mwata Yamvwa. Ever since the name Mwata Yamvwa has been kept alive.
