the zambian kingdoms series: a second reflection on twenty-eight kingdoms
twenty-eight kingdoms. zambia has seventy-three tribes. the series has now told more than a third of the stories that deserve to be told.
the ten kingdoms since the first reflection at part 19: the mambwe and lungu of mbala district. the tabwa of the mweru-wantipa plateau. the tumbuka and their nkhamanga kingdom conquered and rebuilt by the ngoni. the ushi — whose tribal god makumba is most likely a meteorite — whose chabuka ceremony re-enacts a river crossing from 1328. the shila — original people of the luapula valley, there before the kazembe kingdom arrived. the lungu of lake tanganyika — on whose kalambo river the oldest wooden structure on earth was found. the kunda — whose senior chief nsefu partnered with norman carr in 1950 to create the world's first community game reserve. the nsenga — ba nsenga — levy's own people from petauke village kachilonda under chief kalindawalo. the sala — among the oldest bantu in central zambia, one chief for the entire people, a language born from intermarriage.
what the full twenty-eight have taught us.
every kingdom began with a journey. not one of the twenty-eight peoples arrived in its present territory without a migration — some extraordinarily long, from the congo basin to the luapula, from the northeast african corridor to the zambia-tanzania borderland, from the luba-lunda heartland to the kafue hook. the migrations were purposeful movements — led by named founding figures, shaped by specific encounters, resulting in the specific settlement patterns the map of zambia's peoples still displays.
every kingdom built a relationship to a specific landscape. the lozi to the barotse floodplain. the kazembe to the luapula river and lake mweru. the ushi to lake bangweulu. the lungu to lake tanganyika's southern shore. the kunda to the luangwa valley floor. in every case, the landscape and the kingdom are inseparable — the people shaped by the land, the land shaped by the people.
every kingdom faced disruption and survived it. the tumbuka's chitumbuka language survived the ngoni conquest and became the administrative language of the ngoni conquerors. the shila's oral traditions survived kazembe absorption intact enough for father labrecque to compile in the 1940s. disruption is universal. survival is also universal.
every kingdom ceremony is an act of memory. chabuka re-enacts the river crossing from 1328. tuwimba re-enacts the prayer at the sacred tree. malaila remembers the man-eating lion. the ceremony is the living form in which the kingdom's history is preserved and transmitted. as long as the ceremony is performed, the memory cannot die.
what the series has not yet told: the aushi of samfya. the lala in full. the gwembe tonga and plateau tonga as distinct peoples. the leya and the toka. the soli. the chewa. forty-five stories still waiting.
zambia is not just copper. it is not just one people. it is not just one story.
it is twenty-eight kingdoms told. forty-five still waiting.
the zambian kingdoms series continues. 🇿🇲
l #zambia not just copper
