LUBA-LUNDA STATES

a complex of kingdoms that flourished in Central Africa from about 1500 until the late 19th century. The Luba were situated east of the Kasai River around the headwaters of the Lualaba River, while the Lunda were established east of the Kwango River around the headwaters of the Kasai River. Lunda traditions record no large or powerful states until the late 15th century, when a small group of ivory hunters founded a kingdom under rulers called Mwata Yamvo. Around this central state a number of Luba-Lunda satellites proliferated, which by the 17th century had spread into the southern Congo Basin, western Angola, and Zambia. From its beginnings the kingdom of the Mwata Yamvo was indirectly connected with the Portuguese in Angola, who supplied cloth and other goods in return for slaves and ivory. The last major expansion of the Luba-Lunda complex took place early in the 18th century when migrants from the Mwata Yamvo's kingdom moved southeastward to establish the Kazembe kingdom, the capital of which lay in the Luapula Valley to the south of Lake Mweru (in the present-day Republic of Zambia). The Kazembe Lunda, who established their state with the aid of Portuguese arms, were soon exchanging their ivory at the Portuguese trading stations on the Zambezi River. The kingdom continued to flourish until late in the 19th century, when it was colonized by the British. See also Kazembe.