Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, and southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom of the Kiluba-Chibemba, speaking the language of the Eastern Luba-Lunda people of south-central Africa[1] (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[1] drew expeditions by traders and explorers (such as Scottish missionary David Livingstone[2]) who called it variously Kasembe, Cazembe and Casembe.
Known by the title Mwata Yav now equivalent to 'Paramount Chief'or King, the monarchy with its annual Mutomboko festival stands out in the Luapula Valley and Lake Mweru in present-day Zambia, though its history in colonial times is an example of how Europeans divided traditional kingdoms and tribes without regard to the consequences.
- ^ a b David M. Gordon (2006). "History on the Luapula Retold: Landscape, Memory and Identity in the Kazembe Kingdom". The Journal of African History. 47: 21. doi:10.1017/S0021853705001283.
- ^ David Livingstone and Horace Waller (ed.) (1874) The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his Death. Two volumes, John Murray.