Luba

Founded by the powerful warrior Nkongolo (Kongolo), the Luba Empire spanned territory in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia from the 14th century until the late 19th century.

The Luba peoples, one of the earliest iron-working peoples in central Africa from whom the later empire took its name, settled as farmers near the Lake Kisale region in the fourth century. During the 14th century small chief-doms arose among the Luba peoples, but by 1400 they were subsumed under the larger entity of the Nkongolo dynasty, established when the warrior Nkongolo invaded the southern part of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. Soon thereafter, according to oral tradition, the huntsman Ilunga Kalala overthrew the Nkongolo dynasty and established the Luba Empire. Ilunga Kalala expanded the kingdom greatly, conquering important trade routes between eastern and central Africa and gaining control over copper mines and fishing and palm oil industries. The Luba kingdom also participated in the slave TRADE in the region, increasing their wealth and power. By 1700 Luba spanned the Upemba Depression (in the southern parts of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) over the Congo River to Lake Tanganyika.

Further reading: Elizabeth Heath, “Luba,” in Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, eds. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 1,206; “Luba,” in African States and Rulers: An Encyclopedia of Native, Colonial, and Independent States and Rulers, Past and Present, John Stewart (London: McFarland & Co., 1989), 144-145.

—Lisa M. Brady