Bemba people

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Bemba

AbaBemba
Flag of the Bemba people
Total population
4,100,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Zambia (Northern and Luapula Tshopo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Languages
Bemba language
Religion
Christianity, traditional African religions
Related ethnic groups
Lungu and other Bantu peoples

The Bemba belong to a large group of Bantu peoples, primarily in the Northern, Luapula, Muchinga and the northern Central Province of Zambia. The Bemba entered Zambia before 1740 by crossing the Luapula River from Kola. Several other ethnic groups in the northern and Luapula regions of Zambia speak languages which are similar to Bemba, but have different origins. The Bemba people are not indigenous to Copperbelt Province; they arrived there during the 1930s due to employment opportunities in copper mining.

Living in villages of 100 to 200 people, they numbered 250,000 in 1963. The ethnicities known today as the Bemba have a ruling clan known as Abena Ng'andu. This clan traces its ancestry to Mbemba Nshinga who ruled the Kingdom of Kongo from 1509 to 1543.^{[citation needed]} The traditional ruler of ethnic Bemba is Chitimukulu. The Bemba are one of the larger ethnic groups in Zambia, and their history illustrates the development of chieftainship in a large and culturally-homogeneous region of Central Africa. The word Bemba originally meant a great expanse, like the sea.

A distinction exists between Bemba-speaking peoples and ethnic Bemba. There are 18 Bemba clans. These clans stopped the northward march of the Nguni and Sotho-Tswana-descended Ngoni people through Chief Chileshe Chitapankwa Muluba.

Bemba history is more aligned with that of East African tribes than the other tribes of Zambia. The reported Bemba arrival from Kola was misinterpreted by the Europeans to mean Angola. Oral Bemba folklore says that the Bemba originated from Mumbi Mukasa, a long-eared woman who fell from heaven. The Kikuyu of Kenya have the same folklore and similar traditions, including the way traditional huts were built. Bemba vocabulary includes deserts and camels, about which they would not have known if they were from Angola.