Editing Zambia (section)

=====Luba-Lunda states=====
[[File:Mwata.jpg|thumb|Drawing of the ruler of [[Lunda people|Lunda]], [[Kazembe|Mwata Kazembe]], receiving Portuguese in the royal courtyard in the 1800s]]
The Bemba, along with other related groups like the [[Lamba people (Zambia)|Lamba]], [[Lala-Bisa language|Bisa]], [[Senga people|Senga]], [[Kaonde language|Kaonde]], Swaka, Nkoya and [[Soli language|Soli]], formed integral parts of the [[Kingdom of Luba|Luba Kingdom]] in Upemba part of the Democratic Republic of Congo and have a strong relation to the [[Luba people|BaLuba people]]. The area which the Luba Kingdom occupied has been inhabited by early farmers and iron workers since the 300s C.E.

Over time, these communities learned to use nets and harpoons, make dugout canoes, clear canals through swamps and make dams as high as {{convert|2.5|meters}}. As a result, they grew a diverse economy trading fish, copper and iron items and salt for goods from other parts of Africa, like the Swahili coast and, later on, the Portuguese. From these communities arose the Luba Kingdom in the 14th century.<ref name="metmuseum.org">{{Cite web|last=Bortolot|first=Alexander Ives|title=Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Luba and Lunda Empires|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/luba/hd_luba.htm|access-date=7 November 2020|website=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|date=October 2003 |archive-date=6 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106232343/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/luba/hd_luba.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Luba Kingdom was a large kingdom with a centralised government and smaller independent [[chiefdom]]s. It had large trading networks that linked the forests in the [[Congo Basin]] and the mineral-rich plateaus of what is today [[Copperbelt Province]] and stretched from the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic coast]] to the Indian Ocean coast. The arts were also held in high esteem in the kingdom, and artisans were held in high regard.<ref name="metmuseum.org" />

Literature was well developed in the Luba Kingdom. One renowned [[Luba people|Luba]] genesis story that articulated the distinction between two types of Luba emperors goes as follows:

{{blockquote|[[Kongolo Mwamba|Nkongolo Mwamba]], the red king, and [[Ilunga Mbili|Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe]], a prince of legendary black complexion. Nkongolo Mwamba is the drunken and cruel despot, Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe the refined and gentle prince. Nkongolo the Red is a man without manners, a man who eats in public, gets drunk, and cannot control himself, whereas [Ilunga] Mbidi Kiluwe is a man of reservation, obsessed with good manners; he does not eat in public, controls his language and his behaviour, and keeps a distance from the vices and modus vivendi of ordinary people. Nkongolo Mwamba symbolises the embodiment of tyranny, whereas Mbidi Kiluwe remains the admired caring and compassionate kin.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Luba {{!}} people|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Luba-people|access-date=7 November 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=26 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026134446/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Luba-people|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

[[File:Lunda houses-1854.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A drawing of [[Lunda people|Lunda]] houses by a Portuguese visitor. The size of the doorways relative to the building emphasizes the scale of the buildings]]

In the same region of Southern Congo, the [[Lunda people]] were made into a satellite of the Luba empire and adopted forms of Luba culture and governance, thus becoming the Lunda Empire to the south. According to Lunda genesis myths, a Luba hunter named [[Tshibinda Ilunga|Chibinda Ilunga]], son of [[Ilunga Mbili|Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe]], introduced the Luba model of statecraft to the Lunda sometime around 1600 when he married a local Lunda princess named Lueji and was granted control of her kingdom. Most rulers who claimed descent from Luba ancestors were integrated into the Luba empire. The Lunda kings, however, remained separate and actively expanded their political and economic dominance over the region.<ref name="metmuseum.org" />

The Lunda, like its parent state Luba, also traded with both coasts, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. While ruler [[List of rulers of the Lunda Empire|Mwaant Yaav Naweej]] had established trade routes to the Atlantic coast and initiated direct contact with European traders eager for slaves and forest products and controlling the regional Copper trade, and settlements around [[Lake Mweru]] regulated commerce with the East African coast.<ref name="metmuseum.org" />

The Luba-Lunda states eventually declined as a result of both [[Atlantic slave trade]] in the west and [[Indian Ocean slave trade]] in the east and wars with breakaway factions of the kingdoms. The [[Chokwe people|Chokwe]], a group that is closely related to the [[Luvale people|Luvale]] and formed a Lunda satellite state, initially suffered from the European demand for slaves, but once they broke away from the Lunda state, they themselves became notorious slave traders, exporting slaves to both coasts.

The Chokwe eventually were defeated by the other ethnic groups and the Portuguese.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Azuonye|first=Chukwuma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ejao3vG6nfsC&pg=PA11|title=Chokwe: (Angola, Zambia)|date=15 December 1996|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc|isbn=978-0-8239-1990-1|language=en}}</ref> This instability caused the collapse of the Luba-Lunda states and a dispersal of people into various parts of Zambia from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The majority of Zambians trace their ancestry to the Luba-Lunda and surrounding Central African states.<ref>{{Cite web|date=8 August 2019|title=Luba|url=https://traditionalzambia.home.blog/tribes-of-zambia/second-bantu-invasion/luba/|access-date=30 November 2020|website=Zambia's Traditional History|language=en|archive-date=3 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103115702/https://traditionalzambia.home.blog/tribes-of-zambia/second-bantu-invasion/luba/|url-status=live}}</ref>