Kazembe

Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern day Zambia.

For more than 250 years Kazembe has been an influential kingdom or chieftainship of the Kiluba-Chibemba speaking people or Eastern Luba-Lunda people of south-central Africa (also known as the ‘Luba’, ‘Luunda’, ‘Eastern Luba-Lunda’, and ‘Luba-Lunda-Kazembe’). Its position on trade routes in a well-watered, relatively fertile and well-populated area of forestry, fishery and agricultural resources drew expeditions by traders and explorers (such as Scottish missionary David Livingstone) who called it variously ‘Kasembe’, ‘Cazembe’ and ‘Casembe’.

Known by the title ‘Mwata’ or ‘Mulopwe’, now equivalent to ‘Paramount Chief’, the chieftainship with its annual Mutomboko festival still stands out in the Luapula Valley and Lake Mweru in present-day Zambia, though its history in colonial times is an example of how European powers divided up traditional kingdoms and tribes without regard to the consequences.