Mbunda people

Mbunda Mbúùnda
PersonKambunda
PeopleVambunda
LanguageChimbúùnda
CountryAngola, Zambia

The Mbunda or Vambunda (singular Kambunda, adjective and language Mbunda, Mbúùnda or Chimbúùnda) are a Bantu people who, during the Bantu migrations, came from the north to south-eastern Angola and finally Barotseland, now part of Zambia. Their core is at present found in the south-east of Angola from the Lunguevungu river in Moxico to the Cuando Cubango Province.

The Vambunda comprise a number of subgroups, each of which speaks its own dialect: Mbunda Mathzi (Katavola), Yauma,[1] Nkangala,[2] Mbalango, Sango, Shamuka (Chiyengele) and Ndundu, all of them alive in southeast Angola.[3]

  1. ^ Ethnologue lists Yauma as "unclassified", an apparent error, as it also notes that it is "part of the Ngangela subgroup" of the Chokwe–Luchazi (K.10) Bantu languages.
  2. ^ Not to be confused with the Nganguela language
  3. ^ Bantu-Languages.com, citing Maniacky 1997