The Mbunda Kingdom (Mbunda:
Chuundi ca Mbunda or Vumwene vwa Mbunda or
Portuguese: Reino dos Bundas) was an African kingdom
located in west central Africa, what is now southeast
Angola, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo.[2]
At its greatest extent, it reached from Mithimoyi, the
second river southwards after crossing Luena River, Angola
from Luena, Moxico Province[3].
Others call it Sakasaji river after a Chokwe village around
that area, and now called Mishimoyi River, Angola, in the
central Moxico to the Cuando Cubango Province in the
southeast, bordering with Namibia. The kingdom was ruled by
Mwene wa Ngoma (King), and its sphere of influence extended
to neighbouring countries, such as Zambia and Namibia.[4]
History
Oral narratives about the early
history of the Mbunda Kingdom and it's people as given by
their forefathers had more detailed research in modern oral
traditions, initially conducted in the 20th and 21st
centuries by Cheke Cultural Writers Association (edited by
Dr. Robert Papstein); Muḥammad Zuhdī Yakan and Emizet
Francois Kisangani/Scott F. Bobb.
The Mbunda Kingdom dates back from well before the
Mwantiyavwa Dynasty was established in Kola. According to
the Mbunda tradition, the kingdom's origin lay in KOLA
interacting with the Luba and Lunda Kingdoms, in the now
Democratic Republic of Congo.[5]
A dynasty of rulers from this small polity re-established
their rule at the confluence of Kwilu River and Kasai river
in the 15th Century.
Foundation of the Kingdom
The first king of the Mbunda
Kingdom was King Mwene Nkuungu in the early 1400s. The name
Nkuungu appeared in later oral traditions and is still being
eulogized during Mukanda circumcision rituals.
After the death of King Mwene Nkuungu his daughter Queen
Vamwene Naama became the second Monarch to reign over the
Mbunda at the Palace of Namampongwe. During the reign of
Queen Vamwene Naama, the following obligatory regulations
for royalty were proclaimed:
- A King or Chief should marry a granddaughter of the
royal line.
- The reigning Monarch and Chiefs should come from the
sisters of previous Monarchs and Chiefs.
- When a reigning Queen or Chieftainess went into
seclusion during their menstrual periods, the husband (Mukwetunga)
of the Queen should avail himself of the royal regalia
and act on her behalf.
- If the reigning Queen or Chieftainess were
unmarried, then one of the brothers of the reigning
Queen would take the insignia of royalty and act on her
behalf.
Queen Vamwene Naama wore a large cowrie shell (mande)
which hung from a ring around her neck, and also a copper
bracelet (Lukano or Mushele wa vunengu) as well as ivory
bracelets (mishele) around her arms. All of these were the
insignia of her royal position. She was by tradition
attended to by a retinue of skilled royal drummers who
played an assortment of royal drums, the most important of
which was the double ended drum (mukupele).
It was in the Palace headquarters of Namampongwe that all
important state rituals, ceremonies or festivals were held.
As the centre and focal point of the burgeoning Mbunda
ethnic group and state, Namampongwe had the state armoury
where, surplus weapons of war (vitwa vya ndthzita) were
kept.
After the death of Queen Vamwene Naama, it was resolved
that another woman should take over from the late Queen
Vamwene Naama. This was in recognition of the ordeal women
experience during the time of giving birth. It was further
decreed that if a female Monarch was crowned, she should not
get married. If she did get married then she should
surrender her royal bracelet to her immediate brother.
Following the death of Queen Vamwene Naama, her son,
Prince Munamwene Nkonde, married his two sisters, Queen
Vamwene Yamvu and Princesses Vamunamwene Lukokesha Mema Kafu
Mbwita.
Queen Vamwene Yamvu was enthroned to succeed her mother,
the late Queen Vamwene Naama, as the third Monarch of the
emerging Mbunda ethnic group and state. She later shifted
the base within the Kola area and settled in a place more
favorable than their previous habitation, Namampongwe. They
found Luba people already settled in this area.[6]
Later on Queen Vamwene Yamvu married a Luban hunter. At the
time Queen Vamwene Yamvu went into seclusion during her
menstrual period, the Luban hunter Consort (Mukwetunga),
husband of the Queen availed himself of the Royal Regalia,
not to act on her behalf but declared himself King and
ordered everyone to pay him the royal salute. The Queen’s
brother Prince Munamwene Nkonde was so incensed with her
conduct that he left the area in frustration anger.
According to the Royal decrees of the time Yamvu should
not have married. In the case where she did marry she should
have surrendered the Royal Throne to her brother Prince
Munamwene Nkonde. Instead she surrendered the Royal Throne
to her Luban husband. It is from this split that the Ruund (Luunda)
chieftainship developed in the 15th century;[7]
the children of Prince Nkonde with Queen Yamvu descended to
form the Ruund (Luunda) chieftainship of Mwantiyavwa. In
1690 the Ruund (Luunda) ruler adopted the style Mwaant Yaav
[Mwaanta Yaava] from Naweji. From Prince Nkonde and his
children with Princess Lukokesha was the continuation of the
Mbunda Monarch (Chuundi).
Re-Establishment of The Kingdom at The Confluence of Kwilu
and Kasai Rivers
Prince Munamwene Nkonde led the majority
of the disenchanted populace away from Namampongwe and later
settled near the confluence of the Kwilu and Kasai rivers.
The Mbunda people settlement area, where The
Mbunda Kingdom was re-established at the
confluence of Kwilu and Kasai rivers, from Kola,
within the now Democratic Republic of the Congo
in the 15th century
[8][9]
Prince
Munamwene Nkonde was enthroned as the fourth Mbunda Monarch
in a Palace called Mapamba and, before his death, his son
King Mwene Chinguli was enthroned as the fifth Mbunda
monarch. It was in the reign of King Mwene Nkonde that the
Mbunda resolved to search and migrate to new territories
where they could find fertile land and settle down to
farming. A place where they could expand and consolidate the
structures of their state and ethnic group.
The major factors which stimulated. their migration were
as follows:
1). Tropical forests were extremely hard and for their
survival.
2). There was the cutting down and stumping of the very
tall trees, as well as the digging out of their numerous
roots, which was a physically taxing exercise.
3). These hardships were further compounded by the
botanical scenario of countless wild plants which germinated
and grew so luxuriantly and quickly that it was a relentless
and onerous task to maintain the fields and gardens of
varied crops as required.
4). Ruminants could not be domesticated due to lack of
feeding grass, complicated by the presence of tse-tse fly
that was detrimental to its health.
5). The perpetual dewy atmospheric conditions (mbundu ya
mucuvukila) which were accompanied by stifling, humidity and
ceaseless rainfall (nyondthzi va mucuvulila).
6). The rocky soils (livu lya mamanya) and the lack of
sufficient wild game and fish as relish (lisholo) of which
they were so fond.
7). Finally, the rampant epidemics of smallpox (mushongo
wa lyale), that took a great toll of life amongst them.
King Mwene Nkonde, unable to travel due to old age sent
his son King Mwene Chinguli who had just taken over from him
as the fifth Monarch to go south and search for better land
for their settlement. This was the only time the Mbunda had
two ruling Monarchs.
King Mwene Chinguli led an expedition which traveled in
the direction of what is now called Namibia. Taking a more
central route into the now Angola, from the southwest of the
confluence of Kwilu and Kasai rivers, King Mwene Chinguli
traveled all the way south to the now Kwandu Kuvango
fighting the Bushmen and replacing them in the new found
lands with a trail of Mbunda descendants who later came to
be called the Chimbandi, the Ngonjelo, the Humbi, the Luimbi
and the Nyemba. King Mwene Chinguli never returned to the
confluence of Kwilu and Kasai rivers to report his new found
settlement lands.
Re-Establishment of The Kingdom at Mithimoyi, in the now
Moxico
After a long wait and before the
death of King Mwene Nkonde the fourth Monarch, when King
Mwene Chinguli cha Nkonde did not return from his
expedition, his daughter, Mbaao, was crowned as the sixth
Mbunda Monarch at Kwilu-Kasai to replace the father.
Queen Vamwene Mbaao was left with the responsibility to
migrate the Mbunda to better settlement lands from the
confluence of Kwilu and Kasai rivers. Prior to their
migration, scouts (tumenga) were sent forth to gather
surveillance data and explore the geographical and other
features of the territories beyond their areas of
habitation. The scouting expedition, was led by two Princes,
namely, Munamwene Chimbangala, and Munamwene Chombe, who
were both sons of King Mwene Nkonde respectively. Two other
men of noble ranks in the expedition were Nobleman Mwata
Chombe and Nobleman Mwata Kapyangu.
The expedition explored a large area to the southeast and
discovered an unknown river which they crossed and then went
on to discover the valley of the Luena river, a tributary of
the Zambezi river whose source is in present day Angola. The
scouts returned to the camp where the Mbunda were settled,
near the confluence of the Kwilu and Kasai rivers. The
expedition then tendered a favourable report to the Queen.
After the death of Queen Vamwene Mbaao there arose a
period of disquiet and tumult as a result of the contentious
factions which were involved in the choosing of another
sovereign ruler for the Mbunda state. One faction advocated
the candidature of Prince Munamwene Luputa, who was one of
King Mwene Chinguli cha Nkonde's sons. The other faction
championed Princess Vamunamwene Kaamba, who was one of Queen
Vamwene Mbaao's daughters. In the royal lobbying that
ensued, Princess Vamunamwene Kaamba became the choice of the
Chifunkuto, a group of Counselors which elected the Kings.
The Princess was enthroned as Queen Vamwene Kaamba. She
became the seventh Mbunda monarch.
Under Queen Vamwene Kaamba the Mbunda came across more
bands of pygmies (tumonapi, whom they engaged in armed
combat and vanquished. The Mbunda travelled up to a great
river, whose name they did not know. In the process of
crossing the river, one of the royal Princesses, Mbayi, one
of the daughters of Queen Vamwene Mbaao, and who was a
sister to Queen Vamwene Kaamba, drowned in this unnamed
river's turbulent waters.[10]
In reminiscence of the unfortunate fate that befell
Princesses Vamunamwene Mbayi, the bereaved Mbundas named
that river as the Lindonga lya Mbayi. Through the passage of
time, Lindonga lya Mbayi, which literally means, "the great
river of Mbayi", became abbreviated to Lya Mbayi. To this
day, the Mbundas still call the Zambezi river "Lya Mbayi".
After the crossing of the Lyambayi or Zambezi river, as
it is known today, the Mbunda under the leadership of Queen
Vamwene Kaamba continued south and entered the drier area of
the now Angola. This was a very sandy area with small rivers
which were all tributaries of the Zambezi River. Like the
Zambezi these smaller rivers had very wide flood plains
which were wonderful areas for grazing cattle. Even better
the higher lands adjacent to the flood plains were ideal for
planting their favorite crop, cassava. It was along these
tributaries to the Zambezi river that Queen Vamwene Kaamba
decided to settle in what is now Angola.
This land was also prized by the bushmen who lived there,
hostile pygmies (tumonapi) who were described as very short
people who did not grow any crops nor domesticate any
animals, but who were expert trappers and hunters who shot
wild game with poisoned arrows (mingamba ya vulembe). They
were also very skilful collectors of seeds, leaves, berries,
roots and the fruits of wild plants. They survived by
hunting the wildebeest which lived on the flood plains. They
gathered food from the trees and plants which grew along the
edge of the plains. They were disturbed by the presence of
these newcomers. The Mbunda also liked to hunt wild beast.
They also enjoyed the fruits, nuts and grains they found
growing along the plain. The bushmen found the presence of
the newcomers, the Mbunda, to be intolerable. It was plain
to them that both groups could not remain there. The bushmen
decided to attack the Mbunda. Their problem was that they
were few in number. Their hunter gatherer methods never
allowed them to live in groups larger than 15 to 20. The
Mbunda were already establishing villages which were larger
than that. The bushmen were not warriors. Their energy was
needed to hunt game. For them it had always been better to
walk away from a fight. There was so much open land and
their lives were dangerous enough without fighting other
men. However this time they decided to fight. The Mbunda
knew how to fight. They had fought skirmishes with bushmen
all throughout their journey through the Congo. They
expected they would have to fight to keep this new land in
the now Angola. They were ready and confident. They had the
bow and arrow and they were experts in its use.
The fighting did not last very long. The bushmen attacked
the Mbunda in their villages and were quickly driven off.
The Mbunda chased the bushmen and killed all the men. They
captured the women and children. The children were raised as
Mbundas while the women were allocated out as wives. The
women were very desired because of their large protruding
buttocks and their yellow skin. They then traveled up to a
tributary of the Lwena river in the now Angola which they
named Mithimoyi. They settled on the Mithimoyi, near its
confluence with the Luena river, and, from that juncture,
the settlement and Palace headquarters assumed the name of
Mithimoyi.
After the death of Queen Vamwene Kaamba her son King
Chingwanja was installed as the eighth Mbunda Monarch.
Following the demise of King Mwene Chingwanja, his son
Lweembe ascended to the throne as the ninth Mbunda
sovereign. After their establishment in Mithimoyi and the
surrounding areas, the Mbunda were again threatened by bands
of Bushmen (Vashekele) who regarded the immigrant Mbunda as
despoiling their land and the natural resources which
sustained them in their itinerant livelihood. In the armed
conflict that ensued, the Mbunda routed their Bushmen
adversaries and compelled them to retreat from the areas
which hitherto had been their hunting and food-gathering
preserves.
King Mwene Lweembe convened his royal court (Chifunkuto)
and told them of his desire to permanently occupy and
protect all the new territories that came under Mbunda
subjugation. An increase in the population of the Mbunda and
the resultant necessity to secure more resources and develop
a steady agriculture to sustain the growing population made
it imperative to implement the policy of permanent
settlement over what was to become Mbundaland (Lifuti lya
Mbunda). In the course of time the following ten Princes and
Princesses (Vana va Vimyene), two Noblemen (Vimyata) and
their people were assigned to subjugate and safeguard the
land:
1. Prince Munamwene Mulondola wa Kaamba was despatched to
settle in the valleys of the Lushye and Lungevungu rivers.
2. Prince Munamwene Ndongo ya Kaamba and Princesses
Vamunamwene Katheke-theke ka Kaamba were directed to take
possession of the valleys of the Mwangayi, a tributary of
the Lungevungu river.
3. Prince Munamwene Mwiinga wa Chingwanja was despatched
to take control of the Luthivi, a tributary of the Luena
river whose source is in present day Angola.
4. Prince Munamwene Luputa lwa Chingwanja was directed to
take possession of the Kanathi a tributary of the Luena
river.
5. Prince Munamwene Nkombwe ya Chingwanja was despatched
to settle at the source of the Ndala, also a tributary of
the Lwena river.
6. Prince Munamwene Nkonde ya Chingwanja was directed to
establish settlements in the Lwantamba yet another tributary
of the Luena river.
7. Prime Minister Mwato Ngongi and Prime Mwato Minister
Mukila were despatched to settle in the Lungevungu river
area.
8. Prime Minister Mwato Ngongo was sent to take
possession of the Kwandu-Kembo confluence area.
When King Mwene Lweembe died, his son King Mwene Katete
had already been enthroned as King regent because King Mwene
Lweembe, who had earlier been afflicted with smallpox (mushango
wa lyale) in Kwilu-Kasai, had gradually become blind with
complete cataracts in both eyes. But he was still energetic
enough to discharge his royal duties and shoulder his
responsibilities. Hence King Mwene Katete ka Lweembe was the
tenth sovereign ruler in the Mbunda Royal Dynasty as well as
the first regency since the foundation of the Mbunda
nationality. King Mwene Katete had no offspring and died
there at Mithimoyi.
Queen Vamwene Mukenge wa Lweembe was the last female
royal to be installed as sovereign ruler in the Mbunda
Monarch before the advent of Mukanda circumcision ritual.
Mukanda is a ritual for Mbunda Kings. Queens could not
control this ritual, hence the Mbunda Monarch had to change
to be for Kings only, from the reign of Queen Vamwene
Mukenge.
The Mbunda Kingdom Continues to Expand Further Southeast
Under King Mwene Kathangila
Upon the death of Queen Vamwene
Mukenge wa Lweembe, the last female sovereign, her son
Prince Munamwene Kathangila ka Mukenge assumed the role of
sovereign ruler, as King (Mwene ya Ngoma) Kathangila Mukenge.
He was the twelfth King in the Mbunda royal dynasty and the
first reigning Monarch after the separation of male
political authority from female political authority.
King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge assumed the role of
sovereign ruler at Mithimoyi. Soon he displayed the new
power invested in himself as ruler of the Mbunda state. His
sister, Princess Vamunamwene Chioola cha Mukenge, became the
first to assume the reduced female role among the Mbunda.
She was only entitled to become a Chieftainess (Vamwene) but
could not be considered to be King (Mwene ya Ngoma).
It was in the reign of King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge
that the Mbunda again expanded and settled in new lands. He
left with some of his nobility and prince-consorts (Vimyata)
and a lot of people, following the trail of King Mwene
Chinguli cha Nkonde and reached Namibia. He went on to cross
Lungevungu, Lwanginga and Kwandu rivers, with his people,
but did not find King Mwene Chinguli. King Mwene Kathangila
ka Mukenge found King Mwene Chinguli cha Nkonde had long
left for Vimbundu and Vimbangala lands. King Mwene
Kathangila settled in Kueve river area, the tributary of
Kavangu river, there is where he died. All the Mbunda, King
Mwene Kathangila traveled with settled there, and their
Mbunda language today is mixed with other languages.
During his migration, the Mbunda had once more to contend
with opposition by bands of itinerant Bushmen (Vashekele or
Tundthzama). The wiry Bushmen had encampments at the sources
of the Lungevungu, Lukonya, Luyo, Lwanginga, Kuvanguyi,
Kwanavale Kwitu, Kwime, Kwiva, Munyangwe, Lutembwe and
Kwandu rivers. The Mbunda engaged them in pitched battles
until the courageous Bushmen were almost annihilated. The
remnants were driven across the Kwitu river.
The Mbunda narrations about the earlier travels of King
Mwene Chinguli, one of the progenitors of the Mbunda royal
dynasty, had been handed down through the generations. King
Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge wished to emulate his
illustrious predecessor and directed his attention to plans
for the expansion of the Mbunda Kingdom.
The migration of King Mwene Kathangila from Mithimoyi to
Kueve was likened to split of the Mbunda ethnicity, because
he was followed by many people. A great number of the Mbunda
though, remained in Mithimoyi at the confluence of Luena and
Lyambayi (Zambezi) rivers. The Mbundas that remained,
remembered King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge well in the song
that records the hopes of the king and how he was implored
to curtail his explorations in favour of attending to the
affairs of the Mbunda Kingdom.
In the course of time, King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge,
dispatched Prince Munamwene Ndongo, who was a son of King
Mwene Chingwanja and his followers, to settle in the valleys
of the Kuando river. Prince Munamwene Ndongo went to settle
on an island that to this day is still known as Lithivi lya
Kandungo within the waters of the Kuando river. Lithivi
refers to a species of trees which grow to huge proportions
while Kandungo is the name of the discoverer of the island
which is located near the confluence of the Kwandu river and
its tributary, the Kembo.
In his migrations King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge
journeyed up to the Kueve, a tributary of the Kuitu river
and died there. King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge's reign was
simultaneous with that of his sister Chieftainess Vamwene
Chioola cha Mukenge who was the first royal to assume the
newly lowered position of female rulership and statecraft
among the Mbunda. While King Mwene Kathangila ka Mukenge
ruled as King, Vamwene Chioola cha Mukenge could only be a
Chieftainess as females were now barred from the central
throne of Mbunda. Only those who had undergone the Mukanda
Circumcision ritual could succeed to the Mbunda monarch.
Following Mbunda custom only the maternal nephews of the
reigning sovereign could succeed to the Monarch.
The Mbunda Kingdom Continues to Expand Further Southwest
Under King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda ka
Chioola was the first King of the Mbunda people to leave the
Luena-Upper Zambezi area, which we call Mithimoyi, to move
south and occupy the upper and middle Lungevungu valley and
country. He was the son of Chieftainess Vamwene Chioola and
her Prince Consort (Mukwetunga) Mushinge. King Mwene
Kathangila ka Mukenge, the brother of Chieftainess Vamwene
Chioola cha Mukenge was Yambayamba's uncle. He was chosen to
succeed his uncle Kathangila ka Mukenge as King (Chuundi cha
Mbunda), about the age of thirty years because he had the
right qualities: he was a councillor (lyaako) in the court (mbania)
and in Mbunda society; he was a big game hunter of elands,
buffalos, elephants; he was also a great iron worker who
knew smelting and black smithing and he was a brave warrior.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda was the thirteenth sovereign
ruler of the Mbunda ethnic group. He left the Mithimoyi
chieftainship to his young brother, Chief Mwene Chingumbe.
He gathered his important councillors, (Vimvata) and his
Prime Minister Mwato Likupekupe and traveled south to the
Lungevungu River. Minor Mbunda chiefs and Vimyata had been
sent by King Mwene Yambayamba's predecessors to settle in
the Lungevungu valley and country long before King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda himself moved there from the Upper
Zambezi. King Mwene Lweembe lwa Chingwanja and his regent
son King Mwene Katete had sent Prince Munamwene Mulondola wa
Kaamba to settle in the Lushye and Lungevungu area and
Prince Munamwene Ngongo and Princess Vamunamwene
Katheketheke ka Kaamba to settle in the Mwangayi-Lungevungu
valleys and country, while Nobleman (Mwata) Ngongi and
Nobleman Mwata Mukila were settled in the Lungevungu at the
confluence of the Luyo. Nobleman Mwata Ngongo had been sent
to settle at the confluence of the Kwandu and its tributary,
the Kembo, at Kandungo island. Prince Munamwene Mwiinga wa
Chingwanja occupied the Luthivi area while Prince Munamwene
Luputa lwa Chingwanja took control of the Kanathi and Prince
Munamwene Nkombwe ya Chingwanja controlled the source of the
Ndala river. All of these belong to the Mbunda Mathzi (Katavola),[11]
the central chiefly lineage of the Mbunda Monarch.
The Mbunda preferred red soil, they didn’t want to
settled in the whitish soil to the east of Lungevungu river.
The King and his people followed Lungevungu river to the
west until they found the reddish Mbunda soil confluence of
Luyo and Lungevungu rivers. Where Luyo joins Lungevungu
river, that is where King Yambayamba built his Palace, which
they named Livambi. The Palace was surrounded in a fence,
hence the Palace and its fence was named ‘Chimpaka cha
Livambi’ Livambi Fence.
The moving of King Yambayamba Kapanda from Mithimoyi, at
the Luena area of the Upper Zambezi, to the Lungevungu River
and country was an historical landmark in the history of the
Mbunda people and marks the historical significance of King
Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his young brother Chief Mwene
Chingumbe cha Chioola, their uncle King Mwene Kathangila ka
Mukenge and their mother Chieftainess Vamwene Chioola in the
period of the chiefly migration from the Upper Zambezi area
to the Lungevungu valley and its tributaries.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda reached the Lungevungu at a
place not far from its confluence with the Zambezi and
stayed on the northern side of the river for some time. This
was at the time that King Litunga Mboo was ruling the Aluyi.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his followers decided
to scout for land up the Lungevungu River. He followed the
Lungevungu north-west until they found the reddish mbunda
soil[12]
(livu lya mbunda) at the confluence of the Luyo tributary
and the Lungevungu. Livu lya Mbunda is the reddish brown
soil from which the Mbunda people derive the name of their
tribe Vambunda; people of the reddish-brown soil. They were
known by the tribal name of Mbunda even before they came to
the Lungevungu.
At the confluence of the Luyo and the Lungevungu, King
Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda built a fortified capital called
Chimpaka cha Livambi. It was from Livambi that King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda took conquering and occupation
expeditions which brought this country between the
Lungevungu, Kembo-Kwandu confluence, Kwitu north area under
his control the country between the Kwandu, the Lwanginga
and the Lungevungu, west of Barotseland came, under King
Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his Mbunda people.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda Expands The Mbunda Kingdom
Territories
After King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda
ka Chioola had settled at the Palace of Livambi he undertook
expeditions to occupy more land which marked the borders of
the then new country of the Mbunda people. He also
despatched Chiefs and Noblemen to explore and settle new
lands:
- Prince Munamwene Kalanda and Prince Munamwene Lupote
Lwa Mbandthzimo and Nobleman Mwata Kavihu to
Kwanavale, Kembo and Kuvanguyi
- Prince Munamwene Mukonda to Kembo
- Chieftainess Vamwene Mununga and Chieftainess
Vamwene Chioola to Luyo
- Prince Munamwene Lyelu to Luthziyi
- Prince Munamwene Chingumbe to Lukonya
- Prince Munamwene Chondela to Kwandu
At this time most of the Mbunda were still at Mithimoyi
and Luena areas under Chief Mwene Chingumbe, the younger
brother of King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda. In the Upper
Zambezi the Mbunda lived alongside the Mbwela, many of whom
were absorbed into the expanding Mbunda culture. Mbunda oral
tradition does not mention any conflicts between the Mbunda
and the Mbwela ("Mbwela" means people of the east in the
Mbunda language). The new lands which King Mwene Yambayamba
Kapanda claimed and occupied were almost uninhabited except
for camps of itinerant Bushmen living in scattered groups.
From Livambi, Yambayamba Kapanda traveled to the west
until he reached the headwaters of the Lungevungu at a
plateau then called Kandthzelendthzendthze, the place where
the Lungevungu, Kuando and Kuitu rivers have their source.
Here King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda met the Humbi, Luimbi and
the Ngonjelo who were moving away from fighting with the
Nyemba and the Chimbandi across the Kuitu River. *These are
the five Mbunda descendant tribe from the earlier King Mwene
Chinguli, the fifth Mbunda Monarch’s trail in search of good
settlement land for Mbunda people from the confluence of
Kwilu and Kasai rivers.[13]
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda ka Chioola the thirteenth
Mbunda Monarch engaged them in fighting and stopped them
from moving eastward into the country he had already claimed
and occupied two centuries later. These ethnic groups turned
and followed the Kuitu River with their chiefs. King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda left Nobleman (Mwata) Chuma and some
warriors to settle and rule that country for him on the
Kunte River which marked the western frontier of the
Mbundaland.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his main party
continued their expedition down the Kuitu River. The people
across the Kwitu scattered and ran away to the south-west
upon hearing of the approach of King Mwene Yambayamba
Kapanda. They were not followed but were just left to go
away. At the Kueve stream, King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda
left Nobleman Mwata Chikongo and some warriors to guard and
rule that area, while Chief Mwene Tuta was left at Mavinga
to rule and guard it.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda's party continued their
expedition to the confluence of the Kuitu and Kavangu
rivers, and then on to the confluence of Kwandu and its
tributary the Kembo, where Nobleman (Mwata) Ndongo, who had
earlier been sent to occupy that area from Mithimoyi (Upper
Zambezi), was settled by King Mwene Kathangila (ku Lithivi
lya Kandungo), the time that King Mwene Kathangila left
Mithimoyi (Upper Zambezi to migrate to Kweve. King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda did not leave another Chief or Nobleman
there. The places of Kuitu, Kueve and Kwitu-Kavangu marked
the western and south western frontiers of King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda Kingdom and his Mbunda people.
At Lyamuya pool on the Kuando river, King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda met a party of hostile Bushmen who
attacked them. These Bushmen, under their leader Chishiwile
used their usual poisoned arrows in their hit and run
fashion. The Mbunda hunted down the Bushmen for two days and
wiped out their band. Chishiwile was captured and beheaded.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda left Nobleman Mwata Chondela
with some warriors to settle and rule the Lyamuya Pool area.
From that time the Bushmen have known the Mbunda as their
superiors, saying: "A person of the village, because they
are people of the bush" (Munu-wa-limbo, mwafwa vakevo vanu
va xwata) . There have been pockets of Bushmen to the south
of the Mbunda country since the days of King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda, but they have not made troubles. Most
Bushmen have retreated farther south and avoided contact
with the Mbunda.
From Lyamuya, King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his party
made his way north towards the Luanginga river. He reached
Luanginga at a point far south-east of the Tembwashange
rapids. Having seen the river for the first time he explored
it upstream until the party came to the rapids which the
Mbunda call Chipupa cha Tembwashange. King Mwene Yambayamba
Kapanda was satisfied that the course of the river lay
through the land he had explored and claimed for himself and
his people.
From the Lwanginga, King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his
party traveled back to his capital of Livambi on the
Lungevungu after annexing the following rivers while
crossing some of the them: Kavuyi, Mulayi (Lyumba in Kalabo),
N'inda ya Kathanga, Lwati (Lweti in Kalabo), Nengu, Mushuma,
N'inda ya Mwene Ngimbu, (now called Lumbala Ngimbu) Lukula,
Kashwango, Lwanginga River, Lufuta, Lutembwe and then back
to the Luyo confluence at Livambi. These rivers flow into
the Lungevungu and the Lwanginga, which, in turn, flows into
the Zambezi (Lyambayi) on the Barotse flood plain.
By this expedition King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda had won
the country which later became simply known as Mbundaland,
the country of the VaMbunda who now speak various dialects
of the Mbunda language.[14]
When the Mbunda people who were at the Upper Zambezi and
along the Zambezi itself between the Luena and Lungevungu,
mainly on the western side, heard of the new land that King
Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda had occupied, with its mbunda soil,
beautiful rivers and streams and abundance of game, they
started emigrating to the new country in large numbers.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda's Iron Works
King Yambayamba Kapanda was a great
iron worker (N'ulungu, muka kufula).[15]
After he had accomplished his tasks of acquiring the new
land for his people, he realized the need for its defense
and security. He needed tools for tilling the soil and
weapons for defending the country. He set out to survey for
iron deposits all over his new country and he established
iron smelters, (Malungu a ndangeka or Malutengo: lilunga lya
ndangeka (singular) or Lutengo (singular) where iron
deposits were found. A great deal of iron was produced from
these smelting furnaces which were set all over the country.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda ka Chioola and his iron
workers established iron smelters at these places:
- Along the Lungevungu: At Ngova, Longa, Lutwayi,
Luthziyi and Luvweyi.
- Along the Lwanginga: At Luvuu, Mwokoyi, Lukalayi,
Lukula and at the Tembwashange rapids.
- Along the Kwandu: At Kumbule, Chikuluyi, Mwolongo,
Mwethe, Kululu, Lukilika and Kembo.
- Along the Kwanavale: At Tembwe and Nyonga.
- Along the Kwitu: Chinjamba and Chinyondthzi.
- Along the Kuvanguyi: N'okoyi and Ngemwe.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his iron workers
supervised the iron works which produced iron for tools,
weapons and for trade with neighbouring countries: to the
south: Kwanyama, Ngali and Mashi; to the east: ALuyi, Nyengo
and Makoma and to the north, Lovale. In exchange the Mbunda
got cattle from the Kwanyama and the Ngali, fish from the
Luvale and Luyi and the Makoma. The Mbunda were not
fishermen, traditionally they were game hunters and meat was
their favourite relish to vilya, the staple porridge (the
thick porridge made of cassava (lupa) or bulrush millet (mashangu)
or finger-millet (luku); maize (mundele) was rarely grown.
However, the Mbunda Yauma, who preferred to live on the
plains were, and still are, great fishermen. Among the
Mbunda they were also the greatest producers of maize,
pumpkins, cucumbers and beans.
Yambayamba Kapanda, the thirteenth King of the Mbunda
people centralized the Mbunda people from a scattered ethnic
group into a strong and united tribe with an identity of
their own. He acquired a large territory where they
multiplied and became a dominant nationality respected and
recognized by the surrounding ethnic groups. One had to
think twice before he would dare to wage a war against the
Mbunda Kings like Yambayamba.
Before his death, King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda called
all the important heads of families and Noblemen (Vimvata)
to a Royal Court (Mandthzembi) at his Livambi capital his
brother Chief Mwene Chingumbe and his Prime Minister Mwato
Nkombwe Lilema were there. King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda
addressed the Royal Court (Mandthzembi) in the following
words which have been handed down by word of mouth in the
Mbunda royal hierarchy to this day:
Vanike vaka thimutwila vya vanu.
Vanalume vakathimutwila vilingo,
Olojo Vimyene na Maako vakakala na matumbe.
Meaning:
Children discuss persons
Men discuss actions,
But Chiefs and noblemen make plans.
He explained the extent of the Mbunda country ranging
from Mithimoyi, tributary of the Luena in the north, to
Kuvangu at its confluence with the Kwitu in the South. To
the east and north-east as far as the country of the Valuyi
to the west as far as Kweve to the north-west Alto Kwitu
(now called Tembwe). He instructed his councillors to take
his brother, and eventual successor, Chief Mwene Chingumbe
on a tour of the then new Mbunda country. Prime Minister
Mwato Likupekupe, of King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda who had
accompanied King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda on the first
journey of occupation of the Mbunda country was chosen to
lead the tour of showing Chief Mwene Chingumbe the new
country.
Chief Mwene Chingumbe went round the Mbunda country led
by Mwato Likupekupe and other Noblemen chosen from Livambi
and from Lilembalemba. When the Chief's party reached the
confluence of Kwanavale and Kwitu, Chief Mwene Chingumbe saw
and married a beautiful woman of the royal lineage called
Chieftainess Kakuhu ka Musholo from the village of Lyapwa
lya Ndemba. From then on, Chieftainess Kakuhu eventually
became Lishano Kakuhu, the wife of the King, when Chief
Mwene Chingumbe was made the King of the Mbunda. Her
children with Chief Mwene Chingumbe were destined to make
history among the Mbunda people as those who broke away from
their father and went to settle amongst the Aluyi (Valuyi)
during the reign of King Mulambwa of the Aluyi.
Chief Mwene Chingumbe and his party, led by Prime
Minister Mwato Likupekupe went round where King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda had been on his first mission of
occupying the new land; and then he traveled back to
Lilembalemba capital after crossing the Kwandu River and
back heading north to Lwanginga and north-west to Lukonya
River where his capital was situated. Chief Mwene Chingumbe
whom his brother King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda had appointed
as his successor settled down to consolidating his position
and to reign over the Vambunda with kindness and wisdom.
King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda, who had now reached a very
old age, virtually surrendered Mbunda state affairs (Milonga
ya Mbunda) to his brother Chief Mwene Chingumbe. King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda died at a very old age at his capital of
Livambi at the confluence of the Luyo and Lungevungu Rivers.
The Mbunda people, who loved their King, would not accept
his old age as the cause of his death. They accused Nobleman
Nungulule of having bewitched their King.
None among his children could succeed their father as
King because succession was through the mother's family
lineage. Wisdom behind this is that a mother’ child is
unquestionably hers.
The Coming Of Chief Chingumbe To Lungevungu
When the Mbunda elders and princes saw
that King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda was getting old they
decided to go to Mithimoyi at the Upper Zambezi and persuade
Chief Mwene Chingumbe to come to the Lungevungu and take
over from his brother King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda as ruler
of the then new country. Chief Mwene Chingumbe had no choice
but to accept the people's will. They brought him to
Lungevungu where his elder brother had settled in the new
country.
The Mbunda Kingdom Under King Mwene
Chingumbe cha Chioola - Schism in The Mbunda monarch[16]
Chief Mwene Chingumbe was born at
Mithimoyi, a tributary of the Lwena River in the upper
Zambezi where his brother King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda had
been born. His mother was Chieftainess Chioola and his
father was Consort (Mukwetunga) Mushinge (same father and
same mother as King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda).
When Chief Mwene Chingumbe arrived at Lungevungu his
brother King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda built a new capital
for him at the mouth of Lukonya River where it flows into
the Lungevungu. Chief Mwene Chingumbe's capital at Lukonya
was called Lilembalemba and his Prime Minister was Mwato
Nkombwe Lilema. Chief Mwene Chingumbe was a good Lyaako, a
man skilled in settling cases and in giving sound advice to
his noblemen (Vimyata) and to his people generally, but he
did not like wars. Both Mwato Likupekupe, the Prime Minister
of King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda based at the Livambi
capital and Mwato Nkombwe Lilema, the Prime Minister of
Chief Mwene Chingumbe, based at the Lilembalemba capital
worked hard to consolidate the Mbunda occupation of their
new land.
The Mbunda who lived at the Upper Zambezi, (at the Luena
and the Lumbala rivers) heard of the fame of King Mwene
Yambayamba Kapanda and the country he had acquired to the
south, at the Lungevungu, and they began to trek south to
this new country. King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and his
brother Chief Mwene Chingumbe themselves had come from the
Upper Zambezi where they were born and where their mother
Princesses Chioola was born and buried.
When the Luvale under Chinyama cha Mukwamayi came to
settle at the confluence of the Luena and the Zambezi, the
Mbunda had already established themselves along the
Lungevungu and the Luanginga. Some Mbunda had settled among
the Mbwela along the Luena, the Lumbala and between the
Lungevungu and the Lumbala long before the Luvale had
arrived at the Lwena river in the north.
With the death of King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda, Chief
Chingumbe formally took over the Monarch (the Mbunda
Kingship called Chuundi), the royal bracelet (lukano, the
eland flywhisk (mufuka), the cowrie shell (mande), even
though he had acted as the leader of the Mbunda during the
last years of King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda's lifetime. He
reigned over the Mbunda from his capital of Lilembalemba
which his brother King Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda had built
for him when he had called him from Upper Zambezi.
The Mbunda Kingdom Under King Mwene Ngonga "Chiteta"
As a nephew of the illustrious King
Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda and King Mwene Chingumbe, Prince
Ngonga, was born of Chieftainess Mpande and Consort Kayongo
ka Nguluve in the Lumayi valley during the reign of King
Mwene Yambayamba Kapanda.[17]
After the death of his uncle, the renowned King Chingumbe,
Prince Ngonga, who was later given the fearsome title of "Chiteta"
(which is an abbreviation for "Chiteta-makoshi" meaning "The
Beheader"); was crowned as the sixteenth Monarch and reigned
from his palace headquarters in the Lukonya valley.
King Ngonga I Chiteta, was famed for his cruelty and acts
of brutality which he carried out during his infamous
regime. Summary executions, by beheading, of persons found
guilty of various crimes stands out as the hallmark of his
rule and is the origin of his nickname, "Chiteta" the
Beheader. In spite of his cruelty he is said to have
maintained the agricultural and military achievements of his
predecessor, the revered King Chingumbe, the fourteenth
Mbunda sovereign. He encouraged the food production of his
subjects, and kept his nation state at an uncompromising
level of combat readiness. As a result of this preparedness,
surrounding groups like the Lovale, Lunda, Nyemba, Ngonjelo,
the Humbi, Luimbi, Luyana, Herero, Akwanyama, Ovambo and the
Ovimbundu were deterred from conducting military adventures
or incursions into Mbundaland, Lifuti lva Mbunda.
King Ngonga I Chiteta also maintained trade links with
most of the aforementioned. He reigned over a consolidated
state in which his subjects held him both in high esteem and
awe until his death. King Ngonga I Chiteta left behind a
legacy befitting a cruel and despotic personality which had
in turn earned him the fearsome nickname "Chiteta Makoshi".
Inspired by his pioneering predecessors like King Kathangila
and King Yambayamba Kapanda, he maintained a firm hand on
the Mbunda nation state. He did not tolerate any laziness,
treason, nor infringement against established Mbunda
traditional values. His Palace fence, the way to the royal
well and the royal well itself were surrounded with the
skulls of his victims. But the reign of Ngonga I Chiteta had
grave effects for the Mbunda Monarch. It is during the reign
of Ngonga I Chiteta that more Mbunda began to drift away to
form the branches of the Mbunda Mathzi and the unity of the
Mbunda chieftainship was threatened. Some of the Mbunda left
Mundaland because of the cruelty. They passed a message to
King Chiteta in a song that, we are going to Mbalango in
search of another livelihood.
The name "Chiteta" was given to him because of his
cruelty of beheading subjects found guilty of committing
offences. Mbalango is an area around the confluence of
Lwanginga, Lwati and Lutembwe rivers to the east towards
Lyambayi river (Zambezi river). King Ngonga Chiteta did not
reign for many years and he died. After the death of King
Chiteta, his military men (Vakamanda) and Beheaders (Vitapa)
went looking for men to accompany the King Chiteta in his
grave. They abducted the now Chief Chitengi Chingumbe
Chiyengele’s medicine man (chikola), Kapyangu ka Vilondo.
When Chief Chitengi Chingumbe Chiyengele and his Noblemen
head that medicine man Kapyangu ka Vilondo has been abducted
and killed by Beheaders to accompany King Chiteta in his
grave, they were very annoyed. They met to discuss the
embarrassment of Valishano (King Chingumbe wife) the mother
of Chief Chitengi Chingumbe Chiyengele and the cruel
abduction and beheading Kapyanga to accompany King Chiteta
in his grave. These frustrations made them decide to migrate
to Barotseland and live amongst the Aluyi during the reign
of Litunga Mulambwa.
The same year that Chief Chitengi Chingumbe Chiyengele
was planning to leave, locusts invaded Mbundaland and
destroyed all the crops so that a great famine hit the
entire Mbundaland and many people left to go to look for
food elsewhere and a great number of people went into Bulozi.
This group of people that left Mbundaland included the
Mbunda-Nkangala who were among the first people to get to
Mwana Mungela's area where they camped at Tushole in the
Makomaland. The Nkangala, who came from various places,
settled along the banks of the following rivers, Kembo, a
tributary of the Kwandu, the Kumbule, Chikuluyi, Lwela,
Kuthsiyi and Kuntuva in Mbundaland. As they camped at
Tushole in Makomaland it was at the same time that Chitengi
Chingumbe Chiyengele was passing through on his way to
Bulozi and they gladly welcomed him and paid homage so that
when the Chief was finally ready to leave their camps they
also decided to accompany him.
The Mbunda Kingdom After Schism in The Mbunda monarch
When King Ngonga I Chiteta died his
brother, Nyumbu Luputa son of Chieftainess Mpande and
Console (Mukwetunga) Kayongo ka Nguluve took over the Mbunda
monarch (Chuundi). Before his uncle King Chingumbe died,
Nyumbu Luputa Lwa Mpande had proved to be a brave warrior,
and he had a tough character. His bravery and toughness made
his uncle King Chingumbe cha Chioola give Nyumbu Luputa the
western country of Lutwayi and Mwangayi and the sources of
Kuitu and Lungevungu rivers to rule and guard against
external intruders. He was still a young man of about thirty
years when he was given this duty of guarding the western
frontiers of the Mbunda country. He was there for a long
time until the death of his uncle King Chingumbe at
Lilembalemba capital.
King Nyumbu Luputa left the frontier area and came to
take over the Chuundi cha Mbunda after the demise of his
brother King Ngonga I Chiteta and built his capital at
Luvweyi. It was common practice for a new King to shift from
the capital of a deceased King and establish his own capital
within the kingdom.
King Nyumbu's task was that of protecting the country
against external aggression. It was heard that the Chokwe,
the Luvale and the Vimbali or Ovimbundu slave traders might
invade the country in search of slaves and even land to
settle. He called the family heads and noblemen (vimvata)
and all the Princes and Princesses(vana va Vimyene) and
Prince Consorts(Vakwetunga) to a Royal Court (Mandthzembi)
at his capital at Luvweyi. At this assembly they decided to
post chiefs and Noblemen (Vimyata) to all the border areas
of the Mbunda country and along all the main rivers. It was
also resolved that enough weapons should be made; bows and
arrows, spears, shields and the hand-to-hand fighting axes (vukama).
Guns would be bought or confiscated from the Vimbali or
Ovimbundu who were the main source of guns and these to be
kept in the King's armouries (vithala).
The sons of male and female Chiefs and the Noblemen (Vimvata)
who were sent to border areas and along main rivers
throughout the country were the following:
1. Prince Katavola Mwechela,
to Lukula
2. Chieftainess Vukolo
Ngimbu, to Chikuluyi
3. Chieftainess Kanunga, to
Luthziyi
4. Chieftainess Musoka, to
Lufuta
5. Prince Kavalata Kawewe,
to Kwanavale
6. Prince Kalimbwe, to
Chikuluyi
7. Prince Lyanda lya Kawewe,
to Upper Kwandu
8. Prince Thingithingi, to
Muye wa Lwanginga
9. Prince Kandombwe ka
Liheku, to Kembo
10. Prince Nkumbwa ya Yembe,
to Ndima
|
11. Prince Mukonda wa
Kanguya ka Vitumbi, to
Ndima
12. Prince Chiyongo, to
Likinya
13. Prince Ngunga ya
Mbalaka ya Musoka, to
Mpili
14. Prince Kavalata ka
Makuwa, to Kowa
15. Prince Lyelu lya Makuwa,
to Ntyengu
16. Prince Chinjanga cha
Malemu, to Ntyengu
17. Prince Likithi lya
Muwawa, to Kwete
18. Nobleman Chuma, to
Kunte
19. Prince Kapusa ka Lisalo,
to Kwitu
20. Prince Ngandalo ya
Sapeyo, to Kuthsiyi
|
These Chiefs were sent all over the
country to guard it and to rule it on behalf of the Mbunda
Monarch (Chuundi Cha Mbunda). the central kingship in which
all sovereign authority was vested. At this time King Nyumbu
Luputa was the holder of the Monarch (Chuundi). These
representative chiefs were sent with the following rules and
instructions from Mbunda Monarch (Chuundi Cha Mbunda):
- The Mbunda should protect their country, even going
to war for this purpose.
- The Mbunda should not take into other people's
countries any wars of territorial occupation or claims.
- Every chief's village must have an armoury for
keeping weapons at the ready in case of war. There
should also be a warehouse for general goods for the
Chief and his noblemen.
- The people should settle down to growing crops and
stop going on journeys unnecessarily.
- Every Chief must have security servicemen (vitungutungu)
for spying on behalf of the Chiefs and the people to
detect internal and external threats of war.
King Nyumbu Luputa settled down and undertook tours of
all the Chiefs in his Kingdom. He reigned and kept his
Kingdom in peace. All Chiefs prepared to protect their
country. Chokwes and Luvales came and fought with King
Katavola Musangu and King Mbandu Kapova, but that was long
after the death of King Nyumbu. Other tribes did not invade
his Kingdom in war or abducting people for selling to
Vimbundus or Whitemen as slaves during his reign. The
Vimbundus used to interact with the people for business
purposes, but never brought war in Mbundaland.
Following the death of King Mwene Nyumbu Luputa, his
nephew Prince Linjengele Kawewe, the son of Chieftainess
Ngambo Lyambayi and Consort (Mukwetunga) Nduwa, who was born
in the Lumayi valley during the reign of his great uncle
King Chingumbe, was enthroned as King Mwene Ngonga II
Linjengele Kawewe. He was the eighteenth sovereign ruler of
the Mbunda and continued to foster his Kingdom's military
strength and trade relations with the adjacent countries.
During his reign King Ngonga II Linjengele Kawewe is said to
have made a trade pact with a Vimbali (Vimbundu) chieftain
and trade expedition leader appointed by the Portuguese
remembered as Sova Kapitango.
Kapitango, presented various gifts like guns, gunpowder,
cloth and, one gift which engendered enormous curiosity, the
gift of pigs. The Mbunda it is said, had hitherto not known
a pig. When Kapitango presented the King with some pigs the
people remarked on the striking resemblance to the wild
warthog (Chombo) which was familiar to them. Sova Kapitango
was by no means the first, nor the only expedition leader to
head a large column of Vimbali traders as agents of
Portuguese colonists and merchants, on a trading itinerary
into Mbunda country. Vimbali traders plied between
Mbundaland and points farther west in Portuguese colonised
areas. They sought to exchange merchandise like guns,
gunpowder, salt, woollen blankets, beads and clothing
fabrics for beeswax, wild rubber, ivory and slaves. His pigs
were the first to appear in Mbundaland.
During these times, and in the subsequent years, the
Vimbali traders operated under the heel of Portuguese
colonialism. They related tales of the fierce wars they had
waged to no avail against their powerful white opponents,
who had eventually gained the upper hand, routed and
conquered them, and brought them under their brand of rule
and culture. The enterprising Vimbali traders had warned
their Mbunda trading partners that the identical cruel fate
that had befallen them farther westwards, all the way to the
Atlantic coastline, would eventually become the lot of the
Mbunda as well. In riddles they said:
"Eni vakwetu, ‘chamwene Shonge na Kapaji n’ele akucimona’"
Meaning:
‘Our friends, "what Shonge (a valley animal) saw, a Kaji
(a forest animal) will also will see"
The Vimbali (Vimbundu) further explained their riddle
that; they were the Shonges (valley animals) who live near
the water, near the ocean in the western towns. They said;
what they saw in the towns, of their Biye homeland, the
Mbunda will also see in their Mbundaland like Kapaji (forest
animal). They mean’t that those white men, the Portuguese
who entered their homeland and occupied it will one day
enter Mbundaland and occupy it and persecute the people.
For their part, the Mbunda are said to have dismissed
such unwarranted sentiments with their typical contempt for
defeat or domination, all of which they had as yet not
tasted. They just could not visualize themselves being
subjected to occupation and colonialisation by the white
men, who were disparagingly referred to as Vashekele, the
same word used to describe the light skinned Bushmen whom
the Mbunda regarded as weak.
The reign of Mwene Ngonga II Linjengele Kawewe was
epitomized by expanded trade, which next to adequate food
production and defensive capability, became another
important sphere of activity in the Mbunda state. Especially
important was the barter trade connections with the Vimbali,
who brought a range of manufactured goods which they had
obtained from the Portuguese merchants and colonists who had
set up trading stations, warehouses and forts in the
hinterland of Biye highlands and along the coast of the
Atlantic ocean. The Mbunda started dressing in cloth
material and covering with blankets. They started using
plates, dishes and drinking using cups. They also started
using guns. That is the year the ardent was pronounced:
"Kwambulula Chimbali, na mwongwa".
Meaning:
"Reporting an encounter with a Chimbali, is with proof of
their salt (in that Vimbali or Vimbundu traded in salt).
Great hunters like Chief Kaundula and Mulandula, used to
kill elephants and removing the tasks. The right task, they
would give to the King and the left one, they would sell to
Vimbundu in exchange with goods. Chiefs became very rich
because they also used to buy goods from Vimbundu (great
hunters like Chief Kaundula and Mulandula’s fame was known
through dance songs the Mbunda perform in Makonda or
Manyanga dances.
This trade had been pioneered during the reigns of the
courageous and sovereign rulers, King Yambayamba Kapanda and
King Chingumbe and their fearsome nephew Ngonga I Chiteta as
well as King Nyumbu Luputa, right up to the anti-colonialist
King Mbandu I Lyondthi Kapova.
When Mwene Ngonga II Linjengele Kawewe died in the
Lwanginga valley he left behind an industrious and
resourceful nation state which played a significant role, as
one of the major supply sources of raw materials to the
Portuguese merchants and colonists farther west of
Mbundaland (Lifuti lya Mbunda).
With the passing away of King Ngonga II Linjengele Kawewe,
his brother Prince Katavola I Mwechela wa Ngambo was
enthroned as the nineteenth Monarch of the Mbunda state.
King Katavola I Mwechela was born in the Lumayi valley, in
the reign of his great uncle King Chingumbe. Like his
predecessors, King Katavola I Mwechela, continued to
maintain the crucial balance between sufficient food
production, military alertness and expanded trade.
The advent of increased major trade with the Vimbali, and
the lesser trade with the surrounding nationalities brought
about an unprecedented level of interaction between the
Mbunda and the other ethnic groups. That state of affairs,
could, if left unchecked, increase and pose serious
insecurity with far reaching repercussions to the fabric of
the nation-state: Such an intermingling, could, it was
feared, only foster a scenario of multiple loyalties,
patriotism and potentially even a "Fifth Column" within the
Mbunda Kingdom. It was also feared. from another
perspective, that the accelerated. degree of interaction
could spell disaster to the social fabric of the Mbunda as
an ethnic group. The administration of society was founded
on, and encompassed a wide spectrum of Specific cultural
dimensions, which were in turn translated into language,
customs, rituals, taboos, oral tradition, social traditions,
social conventions and social security.
It was feared that the existence of unbridled
inter-marriages could only facilitate the non-observance and
alienation of those qualities and standards which were
fundamentally and profoundly dear to the hearts of the
Mbunda as an ethnic group. Therefore, the reigning sovereign
of the Mbunda State, the shrewd King Katavola I - Mwecela
and his inner circle of courtiers resolved to check the
situation. They only foresaw political and social upheavals
emanating from the relentless onslaught of the Portuguese
merchants and colonists westwards, operating through the
Vimbali. King Katavola I Mwechela decided to protect the
sovereignty of the Mbunda people.
King Katavola I Mwechela, in consultation with his inner
circle of advisors, promulgated a royal decree which forbade
intermarriages with other nationalities. Other royal decrees
made adultery and the use of abusive language by womenfolk
punishable by execution. These royal edicts, affected a
large percentage of the populace, especially the nobility
and royals, who apparently felt oppressed (and out-manoeuvred)
by their Monarch, with such an uncompromising attitude, as
reflected in his statutes. These restrictions caused a
spirit of disgruntlement and discontent which fermented
slowly and secretly in the Mbunda society of King Katavola I
Mwechela's era.
In the sequel that followed the application of those
unpopular laws, a split occurred within the royal
establishment with two opposing factions, the one advocating
the support of the King's measures whilst the- other faction
advocated the annulment of the unpopular edicts at issue. In
the disaffection that ensued, the abolitionist cabal,
clandestinely plotted against and finally assassinated King
Katavola I Mwechela during a hunting expedition. The
conspirators in the royal entourage did not wish to publicly
disclose what precisely had brought about the death of their
ruler therefore, the royal entourage, particularly the
security men known as vitungutungu conspired to give a
fabricated version claiming that their Monarch had been
killed and eaten by a ferocious lion whilst he was relieving
himself at night.
The palace conspired assassination of King Katavola I
Mwechela abruptly ended the reign of the nineteenth Mbunda
Monarch, who had reigned from his palace headquarters in the
Kutupu valley. The king's fatal error had been the
preservation of his people's standard cultural identity as
an ethnic group and as a nation-state. Later the third
dispersion of Mbunda groups took place.
Following the assassination of Mwene Katavola I Mwechela,
his grandson named Prince Musangu was installed as King
Katavola II nicknamed, "Musangu," in his palace located in
the valley of the Kovongo river. King Katavola II Musangu,
was the son of Chieftainess Kanyenge who in turn was the
daughter of Chieftainess Musoka, one of Chieftainess Ngambo
Lyambayi's daughters. He was the twentieth Mbunda sovereign
ruler.
King Katavola II Musangu, could very likely have had a
role as one of the royal actors behind the political scenes
in the secret conspiracy and assassination plot against King
Katavola I Mwechela, prior to his ascension to the throne as
successor. He contravened the royal decree of his
predecessor by his passion for a Chokwe slave beauty named
Nyakoma, who was owned by the Chokwe Senior Chief called Mwa
Mushilinjinji (pronounced as Mushilindindi by their Mbunda
cousins) who had been allocated land to settle at the Luwe,
a tributary of the Nengu river, with his fellow
chieftainship and Chokwe subjects by King Katavola II
Musangu, after their emigration from the Chikapa (a Chokwe
area, Chokwe wa Chikapa) and Minungu (a variety of Chokwe:
Chokwe wa Minungu) areas of northeast Angola. That
eventually led to the Mbunda - Chokwe war and ended up
sacrificing his life unnecessarily against the Chokwe.
The Mbunda Kingdom Under King Mwene
Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova
Peace returned to Mbundaland again
after the war with the Chokwe. Prince Lyondthzi Kapova, was
instaled Mbunda Monarch, replacing King Katavola II Musangu
and named him "Mbandu" meaning he is the wound of King
Katavola II Musangu which was inflicted on him by the Chokwe
before killing him.
After his ascendance to the throne as the twenty first
Mbunda Monarch, King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova the son of
Chieftainess Vukolo Ngimbu Kanchoongwa, one of the
daughters of the famed
King
Mwene Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova, the 21st
Monarch of Mbundaland
Chieftainess Ngambo Lyambayi,
appointed an impressive group of eminent administrators and
royal courtiers to give assistance in ruling his Kingdom.
Consort (Mukwetunga) Shwana Mbambale was his Prime Minister
(Mwata wa Mwene) with Nobleman (Mwata) Kambalameko and
Nobleman Vitumbi as his personal physicians and special
aides. The following were among his royal courtiers namely:
Chief Shwana Kapandi, Chief Shwana Mutangala, Chief
Chinkumbi, Consort Chipolwa, Consort Mundthzindthze,
Nobleman Mupala, Nobleman Munyawa, Nobleman Kandendu,
Nobleman Mayokeka, Nobleman Ndindindi, Nobleman Kathiki,
Nobleman Mafwaku, Nobleman Kan'andu, Nobleman Chingamba,
Nobleman Pwatha and Nobleman Sinkwe.
King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova's capabilities were
immediately shown in his handling the Mbunda affairs, by
conclusively quelling the Mbunda-Chokwe war and the
Luvale-Mbunda war led by Masambo. In recognition of King
Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova's capability in quelling threats
against the Mbunda he was affectionately given the
soubriquet: Kathzima Mishambo which means the "extinguisher
of flames".
The Mbunda nation remained unconquered and in a state of
full military preparedness. So when the prideful Mbunda
heard of the military adventures of the Aluyi under Litunga
Lubosi-Liwanika, they were ready for them, just in case they
ventured into Mbundaland.
In those years of King Nyumbu Luputa, King Ngonga
Linjengele Kawewe, King Katavola Mwecela, King Katavola
Musangu and King Mbandu Kapova; it would have been difficult
for Aluyi to attack Mbundaland in the time of King Lubosi
Liwanika because Chief Mundu, Chief Kandala, Chief Chitengi
Chingumbe Chiyengele and their people had already left
Mbundaland to migrate to Kalabo, Mungu, Sinanga, Sisheke,
Lukulu of the Chief Kandombwe. Those Mbunda people who were
already settled in Barotseland would not have accepted to
have allied with Aluyi to fight there brothers in Mbundaland.
The Aluyi who were acquainted with the military
capability and sagacity of the Mbunda, never undertook a
military campaign against the Mbunda of Mwene Mbandu I
Lyondthi Kapova Kathzima-"Mishambo-the extinguisher of
flames". In those days there was no Northern Rhodesia,
Zambia and Angola, there were no white men. Angola boundary
was only up to Biye of the Vimbundu from the Ocean.
Mbundaland was not part of Angola during the reign of King
Mbandu I
Angola 1906 before the
Portuguese occupation of Mbundaland in 1914
Lyondthzi Kapova. It was only after the
abduction of King Mbandu in 1914, that Angola boundary was
extended beyond and including Mbundaland. Mbunda Kings
didn’t know about the boundaries which whites demarcated
African countries. In 1885, White colonialists met in
Berlin, Germany and demarcated Africa according to their own
wish. No African Kings were represented. Mbunda Kings fought
for their land because they didn’t want to be colonized,
that is why Mbundaland was only colonized after the Mbunda/Portuguese
war, named Kolongongo war.
The
Mbunda - Chokwe War
King Katavola
II Musangu, the successor to the assassinated King Katavola
I Mwechela contravened the royal decree of his predecessor
by his passion for a Chokwe slave beauty named Nyakoma, who
was owned by the Chokwe Senior Chief called Mwa
Mushilinjinji[18]
who had been allocated land to settle at the Luwe, a
tributary of the Nengu river, with his fellow chieftainship
and Chokwe subjects by King Katavola II Musangu, after their
emigration from the Chikapa (a Chokwe area, Chokwe wa
Chikapa) and Minungu (a variety of Chokwe: Chokwe wa Minungu)
areas of northeast Angola.
In the year following the arrival of the Chokwe people,
the Mbunda King decided to pay a visit to his counterpart
Mwa Mushilinjinji. During his visit he became attracted to a
certain Chokwe woman called Nyakoma. On his return home he
sent messengers to go to Mwa Mushilinjinji so that things
were done in a way that would enable the Mbunda King to
marry Nyakoma. But Mwa Mushilinjinji turned down the request
from the Mbunda King to marry Nyakoma. The Mbunda King
wasn't content so he again sent messengers, but Mwa
Mushilinjinji still refused.
Senior Chief Mushilinjinji diplomatically said that he
could not accept King Katavola II Musangu's marriage
proposal because it was a universal taboo for a royal
personage like the King to marry a slave, no matter how
attracted he was to her because the offspring of such a
marriage could never qualify as royals. He begged for the
Mbunda King's patience while he made appropriate
arrangements for a suitable royal choice to be selected back
in their homeland. But this went unnoticed and was unknown
to King Katavola II Musangu because the Mbunda Monarch's
crafty and unscrupulous chief envoy in this matter, a
personality by the name of Consort (Mukwetunga) Lifwembu and
the other messengers, chose to misrepresent the responses
and views of Mwa Mushilinjinji.
On their way back, the messengers thought of creating a
misleading story which would prevent King Katavola II
Masangu from sending them again. They also thought that the
message they were told was an insult to their King, since it
suggested that the King had fallen in love with a slave
woman, which would displease Katavola greatly. So they made
up their own story. They made a "knife" out of a reed (linenga).
When they arrived in the capital they went to the palace.
They then said, in the traditionally respectful way, "Your
Majesty, you have been insulted by the Chief of the Chokwe."
and they presented the reed "knife" as the gift of Mwa
Mushilinjinji. Offering such a pathetic gift was a great
insult to the King according to Mbunda custom. The reed
knife signified a person it is presented to had never been
to Mukanda (circumcision camp); in other words never been
circumcised.
When Mwene Katavola II Musangu saw this "knife", he
became furious. He then called for his counsellors (maako)
and his senior elders to talk over the matter. After
deliberations they decided to declare war against the Chokwe
people and chase them out of the Mbunda country. Owing to
the highly inflammatory reports tendered to the impassioned
Mbunda Monarch, he did not spare much time to prepare for
battle with Mwa Mushilinjinji and his tough Chokwe subjects.
Consort (Mukwetunga) Mbambale consulted some of the
people at the capital and some of the men then brought their
old guns with ammunition and gunpowder, others carried bows
and arrows. When all had gathered in the capital experts in
war were called upon to lead the army of fighters. These
were Prince Liolo, Nobleman Vitumbi and Consort Mbalu who
wanted to confront Chief Mushilinjinji personally because he
knew him well since he had been the one who had interpreted
for King Katavola II Musangu at the time the Chokwe first
arrived at the Mbunda capital in the Kovongo area.
Mwene Katavola II—Musangu had an established custom of
dispatching his army ahead of his departure for battle and
then he would take the form of an eagle and glide to the
battleground. After the battle he would order his army to
return to the palace ahead of him while he would again
change into an eagle and soar back to his palace. On this
occasion he told part of his army to rush to the Luwe area
and teach the insolent Chokwe a lesson, and that he would
join them in no time at all.
The Mbunda started shooting at the surprised Chokwe upon
their arrival in the Luwe area. As a tactical manoeuver, the
Chokwe withdrew their forces within the stockade where most
of the gunshots and arrows from the Mbunda could not reach
them. The Chokwe therefore had an advantage because they
could shoot their guns and arrows accurately through the
spaces of the stockade. The Chokwe had no alternative but to
put up their best resistance to save themselves in a battle
that had been literally forced upon them by the
unpredictable Mbunda of King Katavola II Musangu.
For their part, the Mbunda realized that they had to
change their military tactics and so they retreated for a
considerable interval of time. Meanwhile the stubborn Chokwe
were jubilant in the hope that the Mbunda had earned
themselves a worthwhile lesson at their hands. Subsequently,
the Mbunda cut grass which they made into bundles and also
used it as camouflage themselves. They then crawled down
while pushing the bundles of grass in front of them until
they finally got to the stockade and set the houses and
granaries inside on fire. The Mbunda surrounded the stockade
and started to shoot at the Chokwe with their guns and
arrows while they also occupied themselves with the task of
breaking and uprooting parts of the stockade. The Chokwe
were in a state of panic and confusion inside the stockade
because they had put their best effort in defending
themselves against the rampaging and vengeful Mbunda. King
Katavola II Musangu, by way of traditional magical powers,
made himself invisible and sat beside a granary while taking
a toll of the Chokwe with his gun. Eventually the Chokwe
found themselves out maneuvered and had no option but to
surrender to the Mbunda.
The Chokwe, who could not understand why they had been
attacked, then explained to the triumphant Mbunda what had
actually happened between Mwa Mushilinjinji and the Mbunda
envoys. The Mbunda also explained how they had been misled.
The Mbunda warriors then left for their capital at the
Kovongo area. All this time; King Katavola II Musangu
continued to shoot at the Chokwe inside the stockade, while
basking in his invisibility. The terrified Chokwe got the
sister of Mwa Mushilinjinji to divine the precise
whereabouts of the unseen gunman. The sister of
Mushilinjinji uncovered the location of King Katavola II
Musangu and he was conducted to Mwa Mushilinjinji who
ordered that King Katavola II Musangu be escorted, under
guard, back to his palace in the Kovongo area. The Chokwe
swore that, had they found Consort Lifwembu at the granary,
they would have killed him. Somewhere along the way the
guards met with the Chokwe who had run away from the war,
but now returning. An argument issued between the two
parties, proposing that the King should be killed, instead
of taking him back to his palace!
They finally decided to kill the dangerous Mbunda
Monarch. But they discovered that neither their guns,
knives, axes nor arrows could kill him. But the Chokwe could
inflict terrible wounds on King Katavola II Musangu and he
suffered greatly. Eventually, when the suffering was too
great, King Katovola II Musangu told them if they wanted him
dead, they had to fetch a young girl who had not yet reached
puberty. Then have her break an egg on his head with a
pestle and they would have their desire. They did that and
King Katavola II Musangu died there and then.
The Chokwe guards realised that they could not go forward
to the Kovongo capital of the dead Monarch. In a quandary as
to which action to follow they also realized they could not
go backwards to the Luwe area of Chief Mushilinjinji, as
they could not know what fate would meet them there. They
tried to burn the body of the slain Mbunda Monarch but each
time they tried to set it afire it jumped to another
location. The Chokwe guards then ran away, all the way back
to their original homeland in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
When King Katavola II Musangu did not arrive at the
palace in Kovongo within a few days of the Mbunda-Chokwe
battle, the Mbunda went to enquire of their Monarch in the
Luwe area. They met a Chokwe group which had been dispatched
to ascertain whether the Mbunda King had reached his capital
safely. Both groups then discovered the body of the dead
King Katavola II Musangu.
King Katavola II Musangu's uncle, the tough Prince
Lyondthzi Kapova, in return made Mushilinjinji to pay five
cattle and thirty slaves, promised a systematic war of
vengeance against the Chokwe for his nephew's death. It is
as a result of these battles, as well as those unleashed by
Prince Lyondthzi Kapova on the Chokwe that the cousinship (vutekulu)
between the Mbunda and the Chokwe developed.
The Mbunda re-engage the Chokwe in war in Mbundaland
After the unusual death of King
Katavola II Musangu at the hands of the Chokwe, his uncle,
known as Prince Lyondthzi Kapova played a significant role
in the reprisals against the Chokwe together with another
Prince Limbuti. Prince Lyondthzi Kapova and Prince Limbuti
had marshalled their forces and personally led them in
destroying and wreaking a bloody trail of vengeance against
the fortified stockades (vimpaka) of the Chokwe chiefs and
their subjects. The stockade (cimpaka) of Mwa Ndumba in the
Kwitu valley, the stockade of Mwa Kanyika and the stockade
of Mwa Chinjenge in the Kwandu valley were all attacked.
Most of the Chokwe encountered in those areas and in the
locality of the Kovongo valley were killed and their bodies
thrown in rivers, burnt or beheaded and impaled on stakes.
The Chokwe chief Chinjenge surrendered to Prince Lyondthzi
Kapova. Mostly only the youthful and attractive Chokwe
females were taken and spared as captives.
The war that followed during the mourning of King
Katavola II Musangu gave birth to the Mbunda and Chokwe
cousinship, up to today, and extended to Zambia. However,
the Chokwes who did not migrate to Mbundaland and remained
in their country of origin (Democratic Republic of the
Congo), do not know about this cousinship that came about
because of the King Katavola II Musangu war, because their
forefathers did not witness that war. Some are only
imitating the cousinship and applying it in a different way
from the Chokwe and the Mbunda of Mbundaland. It is
customary for most Africans to have cousinship relations
after a war. It is a good custom because it heals the wounds
of war and promote peace and friendship among the warring
parties.
Long ago, Kings used to be war marshals, they used to die
in wars, because they used to fight themselves physically.
The Mbunda Nkangala also participated in the Katavola
Musangu war. They are the ones that destroyed mwa Chinjenge
stokades, in Kwandu, for the Chokwes to surrender.
The Luvale Mbunda War Led By Masambo - Slavery and royal
rivalries
During that era there used to be
abduction of people in many African countries, to be sold as
slaves. The Vimbundu and some white nationals used to abduct
people and sell them to white men. Confusion engulfed
African as ethnic groups fought each other in a quest to
abduct people for sell, in exchange with cloth, guns,
blankets and other goods.
In Luvale there was a nobleman who used to abduct people
for sale to Vimbundu, in turn Vimbundu would sale to white
men. This nobleman had his military men who used to fight
and abduct people, his name was Masambo.
Masambo entered Mbundaland at Lunjweva river fighting
Mbunda villages to abduct slaves for sale. He jumped about
at the banks of Lunjweva river, with his war head gear,
boasting and threatening to behead all the Mbunda. The
Luvale were anxious to break the military power and
independence of the Mbunda state and wanted to capture
slaves for sale. King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova also led the
Mbunda in their armed confrontation with the Luvale. The two
opposing military forces engaged each other in armed combat
in the Lunjweva area and King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova shot
and killed Masambo,[19]
the leader of the invading Luvale forces. With the
elimination of Masambo, the invaders were put to rout and
forced to beat a hasty and disorderly retreat back to their
homeland.
Portuguese Incursions in Mbundaland
With the passage of time, the
Portuguese colonists were cajoled by their merchant
representatives into developing a keener interest in the
uncolonized territories in the interior and those farther
east of their immediate occupation. This pressure on the
Portuguese colonists was sustained for a long time because
the commercial interests of the Portuguese merchants in
these territories had escalated and hence they greatly
desired to bring them under sole Portuguese control before
the English, farther east, laid their hands on Mbunda
country and other territories.
The Portuguese merchants of the brand such as the famous
Antonio Francisco da Silva, otherwise known as Silva Porto,
realized that it was to their own benefit and advantage as
well, as of Portugal that the Portuguese hastened to bring
the remaining territories under their firm control. As it
became obvious that, Angola or Portuguese West Africa would
eventually be surrounded by non-Portuguese controlled
territories thus making an impossibility of the presumed
union of Angola and Mozambique, the Portuguese merchants
grew more embittered and desperate. They begged the
Portuguese authorities to use their power and influence to
establish missions and forts in the uncontrolled
territories’ such as Luchazi, Nyemba and Mbunda so as to
forestall foreign agents acting on behalf of better
organized foreign European powers or competitors.
As an introductory step towards the implementation of the
policy of colonizing Mbundaland, the Portuguese authorities
dispatched a number ofPortuguese traders to set up trading
posts under the escort of armed pombeiros, mulattoes and
assorted groups of various ethnicities which originated from
the western, southern and south-western hinterlands and
coastal areas under the heel of the brutal Portuguese
colonialism. Portuguese merchants of the likes nicknamed as
"Kamulingi" (meaning small gourd), "Saluwe" in Nengu at its
confluence with the Luwe river, "Kapiyo" in Kashwango, "Chayevala"
in N'inda of Lumbala Ngimbu, another "Kapiyo in Kembo,"
Kamuku (meaning 'little rat') in Lwati, "Lima Samakaka" at
the source of the Kashwango, in the area of Chief Likina, "Pelela",
and many other merchants established trading posts in other
areas of Mbundaland. The Portuguese traders established
themselves with endless expeditions that were sent to
replenish the requisite merchandise; from the hinterland of
the Biye plateau and from points farther afield on the
Atlantic coastline where the Portuguese had already
installed themselves as unscrupulous conquerors and
colonialists, after fierce wars of resistance against
Portuguese colonialism.
As time went by, the Portuguese traders and their
pombeiros experienced the resistance of the Mbunda led by
their Monarch, King Mbandu Lyondthi Kapova also called
Kathzima Mishambo (the Extinguisher of Flames) against
Portuguese colonialism and its avarice. Notwithstanding the
flourishing commerce with the Portuguese traders, the Mbunda
remained firmly opposed to the loss of their sovereignty
through colonization. King Mbandu Lyondthi Kapova and his
subjects were well aware of the approaching Portuguese
authoritarianism, of which their fellow African compatriots
to the west, south-west, to the north, north-west and along
the coastline had not been able to keep off their
territories despite stiff armed resistance.
From their experience with the Portuguese and knowing the
experience of others, King Mbandu Lyondthi Kapova and his
Mbunda people knew that they would probably have to shed
blood in armed opposition to the relentless on-march of
Portuguese colonialism in order to retain their freedom.
Establishment of Cities and Paying Tax
After Portuguese traders, there
came other Portuguese white men who wanted to settle in
Mbundaland. These turned out to be Portuguese Government
officials, whose aim was to occupy the land and build
cities. They requested for permission from Chiefs to built,
and they were allowed. They brought with them gifts such as
guns and cloth fabrics and gave King Mbandu I Lyondthzi
Kapova. The King and his subjects were convinced that these
white men like Kamuku and other traders, opening trading
shops. Those cities had white and black soldiers. There was
neighborliness between whites of the cities and traders.
After a few years, those white visitors, went to find out
from King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova, the population of
Mbundaland. The King was ignorant about figures but just
asserted that they were quite many. They requested the King
if he would allow them to count the people in the land, so
that they would give him the exact figure. A subtle move,
like a Mbunda ardent "Chitakaya akakovela mu vunjandu"
(jiggers enter human flesh as a flea). The King permitted
them and the white men counted all the people in the land,
starting with the Palace.
Two years later, the white men returned to the King with
a proposition that people should pay a specific quantity of
rubber each, which the white men would eventually sell to
coastline cities and Portugal, to raise money for
development of his Kingdom. The King objected, contending
that, his subjects give royal gifts to him only. He reminded
the white men that they also had to pay royal gifts to him
when they settled in his land. They conquered with the King
but also reminded him that, that was not for their benefit,
but development of the land. The King permitted them, but
with a lot of doubts.
The white men of the cities, went throughout the land
collecting the rubber tax. There was no money at that time.
People never understood the reason for the white men’s
settlement in their land. They had no relative and they had
to force them pay rubber tax annually. They started
realizing that the white men came to persecute them.
During the white men’s visit in villages, collecting the
rubber tax, they found some people who could not afford to
pay the rubber tax. Those white men started to arrest them,
beating them with flat shaped wooden nobs in the palm of
their hands, throwing them in prisons and forced labour
without any payments, as if they committed serious offence.
They remembered the Mbunda ardent, "Chitakaya, wa kovelele
ngwe njandu, alyoni mixuni ya munu, nalishetula", (jiggers,
entered as a flea, now eating human flesh, well
established).
Realizing the persecussion, people reported to the King
the white men’s cruelty. The King and his Noblemen (Vimyata)
got very furious. They sounded the war drums, to call people
to assemble at the Palace. People assembled to discuss the
problem. King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova and his Noblemen,
resolved to chase the white men from their land.
When the white men heard about the resolution to chase
them from the land, they schemed a way to abduct King Mbandu
I Lyondthzi kapova from Mbundaland and have him killed
elsewhere, because he is the one powerful enough to chase
them from the land. They also sort for a King’s relative
whom they would convince to would allow them to remain in
the land. In their quest, they found Prince Kathzungo Shanda,
a nephew to King Lyondthzi Kapova and one earmarked to
succeed him, according to Mbunda custom. Secretly they
promised to help him in any ways he wanted in his Kingdom.
The Cause Of The First Mbunda Uprising Against Portuguese
Traders
The Portuguese colonial
administrative officials had the practice of holding as
hostages, wives of those Mbunda villagers who could not
afford to pay the pole tax Lithimu)'. At a circumcision camp
(Mukanda) at Chikunga village, at Luwe stream where a
Portuguese trader, who was locally called 'Saluwe,' had a
shop. The Portuguese officials who were on tour of tax
collection had taken women whose husbands had not been able
to pay the pole tax as hostages in order to force their
husbands to pay. These Portuguese officials decided to do
the most barbaric thing to the women hostages. They made
kraal that resembled a circumcision camp(where women were
not even allowed to venture) and persecuted them there, to
force their husbands to pay the pole tax. The women were
only pinched and not circumcised. The act shocked the people
of Chikunga a Chokwe village in Luwe inside Mbundaland and
the other villages. They beat the tax collectors to death,
took their arms and went on a rampage, beating the
Portuguese traders and burning the trading posts. Saluwe was
killed. When the shocking news of persecuting women at a
Mukanda circumcision camp reached other Mbunda chiefs areas
the reaction was the same violent one. Traders Samakaka,
Kapiyo of Kembo, Chayevala of N’inda ya Ngimbu were killed,
their shops were looted and burnt. The other Kapiyo of Upper
Kashwango was rescued by the local Chief Likina because they
had been on very friendly terms.
Small traders shops were equally looted and burnt; their
wives were taken as part of the loot and were 'married' by
their captors. Some traders managed to escape to Kangamba
administrative centre (Mbongi) where the Portuguese had
first established themselves as colonial rulers of the
Mbunda country. It was named after Chief Kangamba, the
Mbunda local chief whom the Portuguese colonial officials
found in that area when they first came and built their
colonial centre there. This episode was followed by a war of
reprisals against the Mbunda waged by the Portuguese
colonial masters and their supporting forces.
King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova and the Portuguese
The surviving Portuguese traders
and Portuguese colonists were greatly alarmed by this
situation and hastened to bring the kingdom of King Mbandu
Lyondthzi Kapova "Kathzima Mishambo" under their
colonization and tight control. Portuguese officials
accompanied by armed soldiers and escorts were dispatched to
set up forts (vimbongi) in various areas of Mbundaland.
Subsequent to the establishment of these administrative
centres, the Portuguese colonialists introduced a
controversial poll tax throughout the endangered Kingdom of
King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova "Kathzima Mishambo". King
Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova and his subjects realized that
their kingdom had been penetrated by a malignant race and a
malevolent system which desired the usurpation of their
freedom and the occupation of their motherland. The
Portuguese colonists, for their part, were cognizant of the
fact that even though the Mbunda Monarchs detested
colonialism, especially King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova
Kathzima Mishambo, they could assert their authority by
undertaking strategies which would undermine coordinated
Mbunda opposition to Portuguese rule. Since King Mbandu I
Lyondthzi Kapova would be bound to play major role in any
future armed revolt against Portuguese colonialism, the
Portuguese colonists discretely set about finding an
amenable Mbunda royal who would support Portuguese
ambitions. The Portuguese colonists found just the
appropriate royal option to King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova
in the figurehead of Prince Kathzungo Shanda who was a
nephew of the Monarch. Prince Kathzungo Shanda was the son
of Chieftainess Kameya Kashukwe who in turn was the daughter
of Chieftainess Vukolo Ngimbu Kanchungwa. Behind the scenes
he was promised a favoured royal status if he acceded to the
will of the Portuguese colonialists. The Portuguese
colonists had counted on exploiting Chieftainess Kathzungo
Shanda's position and eagerness to influence King Mbandu I
Lyondthzi Kapova and the majority of his subjects into
abandoning their abhorrence to Portuguese rule in preference
to its accommodation which was tantamount to an
unconditional capitulation to colonialism. But they were not
to have their way so easily as the Mbunda were not resigned
to give away their Kingdom and freedom.
The Portuguese colonists decided to make a preemptive
move against this opposition to their rule. They privately
collaborated with one of the Portuguese merchants in Lwati,
where King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova's Kalyamba palace was
based, to summon the King on their behalf. This Portuguese
trader nicknamed "Kamuku" (the little rat) by the indigenous
people was a friend of the King due to the reciprocal trade
ties between them. King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova, who had
on many occasions shared cordial conversations and business
transactions with "Kamuku" did not have cause to suspect the
jeopardy attached to the acceptance of Kamuku's request for
him to discuss some routine points of commerce. King Mbandu
I Lyondthzi Kapova, accompanied by Prime Minister, Consort (Mukwetunga)
Shwana Mbambale, his two personal physicians and special
aides, Nobleman (Mwata) Kambalameko and Nobleman Vitumbi
along with some members of the royal guard did not know that
Kamuku's trading post was entirely ringed by hidden
Portuguese soldiers, some of whom were mounted on horseback,
with a band of veteran troops posted inside the house
itself. The King of the Mbunda and his escort were duly
conducted inside the house where his friend, the Portuguese
merchant nicknamed Kamuku and the Portuguese troops were
waiting for him.
After Kamuku greeted the King and his entourage, the
white commander of the Portuguese troops, who was nicknamed
"Kahombo", asked the King if he was King Mbandu, the King
affirmed. Kahombo then got a chain from his pocket and put
it around one of the King’s hand, as an identity. He then
politely, but forcefully, told King Mbandu I Lyondthzi
Kapova that the Portuguese Governor (Nguvulu wa Kama)
demanded an audience with the King and had dispatched his
troops to escort the "Great King" for that very purpose. The
Mbunda Monarch calmly replied that the commander should make
it clear to the Governor that, as he was the sovereign ruler
of the Mbunda country, he had the right to counter-demand
that the governor should instead travel to the Mbunda
country since he was the one who wished to have an audience
with the Monarch. For his own part King Mbandu I Lyondthzi
Kapova had no desire whatsoever to see the governor in far
away Luanda.
The Portuguese abduction of King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova
The Portuguese commander and his
subordinates insisted that they could not go back without
the "Great King" because the governor simply demanded to
have an audience with him and it was within his right and
power to do so and, besides, his troops were available to
give the "Great King" safe conduct to the governor. Then
suddenly, Portuguese soldiers came from other bedrooms with
guns to abduct King Mbandu.
While the polemics between King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova
and his Portuguese opponents were going on, the Mbunda found
out that their sovereign was under duress from the
Portuguese. The Mbunda quickly organized themselves and
their battle-tested warriors were only too ready to rescue
their Monarch by taking on the Portuguese troops and
liquidating them to the last man. Apparently taken aback and
furious that the Portuguese colonists (Vindele Tuluvambi)
would lure their Monarch into something which amounted to a
trap, the assembled Mbunda warriors, royals and courtiers
from the Kalyamba Palace and its environs were debating as
to whether an onslaught on Kamuku's trading post, with the
aim of rescuing their King, would be too dangerous and
jeopardize his life. While some of them were for an
immediate attack to rescue the King, yet others were for
restraint so as not to endanger his life while he was
closeted with Portuguese desperadoes who would do anything.
For the Mbunda warriors who tucked gunpowder kegs under
their head rests at night and slept with their guns, bows
and arrows as well as double-edged machetes (mikwale) close
at hand, it took all the composure they could master not to
attack the Portuguese when provoked to such an extent. In
the midst of all this activity, Prince Kathzungo Shanda,
nephew and ambitious heir-apparent to the King, accompanied
by Prince Mumbamba Lyondthzi and Prince Limbwambwa Kalyangu
and by a number of important courtiers was summoned to
confer with King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova inside Kamuku's
house within the trading post fortifications. It is alleged
that Prince Kathzungo Shanda had urged his uncle the King to
exercise caution and compromise with the Portuguese by
allowing himself to be peacefully conducted to the governor
to hear his views as well as to negotiate for his position.
As a tactical maneuver the King appeared to have agreed to
go along with the Portuguese demands that he be escorted to
see the governor. In actual fact, he did not intend to
succumb to Portuguese pressure nor to capitulate lamely
without shedding blood for blood. Within earshot of his
courtiers King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova Kathzima Mishambo
(the Extinguisher of Flames) instructed his nephew Prince
Kazungo Shanda that after he had been taken away by the
Portuguese troops, Shanda should take the King's special
loaded gun (vuta vwa Mwene) with magical powers and fire it
at the midday sun. The King told his nephew and the
courtiers that when the esoteric ritual had been carried out
as directed he would then become invisible to the Portuguese
troops who would be escorting him and he could make his way
back to the Kalyamba Palace headquarters in Lwati.
Little did King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova Kathzima Mishambo
know that his nephew was an ambitious traitor and would not
follow the King's instructions. King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova,
his Prime Minister Shwana Mbambale, his two personal
physicians and special aides, Nobleman (Mwata) Kambalameko
and Nobleman Vitumbi, some important courtiers as well as a
number of his bodyguards were kidnaped and taken away in
1914 by Portuguese colonial troops mounted on horseback.[20]
Some of those kidnaped with the King were released at
Kangamba and returned, but some were taken to Bie and their
capital city and beyond. King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova
kathzima Mishambo’s fate at the hands of the Portuguese is
not known to date. All what is known is that he went forever
and never returned to his Kalyamba palace in Lwati. No one
has ever attempted to explain exactly what happened to King
Mbandu. The Portuguese kept what they did to him as a
secret!
King Mbandu was abducted from his Kingdom, other Mbunda
Chiefs and their subjects did not know what happened at King
Mbandu’s Palace in Lwati. They were shocked to hear that
King Mbandu was abducted in Kamuku’ house and shop near the
King’s Palace.
People gathered at King Mbandu’s Palace after his
abduction to Kangamba. Prince Kathzungo Shanda was reminded
to follow the Kings instructions of shooting at the sun
using the King’s magical gun. But Prince Kathzungo Shanda
refused to follow the instruction so that the King would
return to his Palace in Lwati.
Thereafter, the Portuguese started taking more soldiers
to Mbundaland and forcing people to pay poll tax. People
suffered but nothing was known to have been done by King
Kathzungo Shanda who supported the white men in encouraging
his people to accept the poll tax instruction. Some white
men of the cities used to sleep in the Palace of King
Kathzungo Shanda, from there they would go in villages
arresting people over poll tax and eventually taking them to
cities where they were beaten and thrown into prisons. Even
his participation in the war that followed King Mbandu’s
abduction is not known.
City of Kangamba in Mbundaland
Kangamba, where King Mbandu was
taken was part of Mbundaland under Mbunda Chieftainship
which is still existing to date. Chief Kangamba is a Mbunda
chief. In Chief Kangamba’s area, that is where the
Portuguese built their first city in Mbundaland. Chief
Kangamba and his Noblemen were subjugated by the Portuguese
without a fight. However, though Kangamba was occupied by
the white men without a fight, it was later given to their
allies the Luchazi who helped them fight the Mbunda, in a
typical Portuguese divide and rule tactics. This is as given
in a Mbunda, ardent which says: "Kathzila ka vinjamba na
vate", (an elephant bird trap). This explained says; a bird
would go to a hunter and warn, "see the elephants are
there!". It will then go to the elephants and warn, "see the
hunter is there!" That was how the Portuguese divided the
Luchazi from their brothers, the Mbunda of Chief Kangamba
and other Mbunda people in general.
The Portuguese started by tricking Chief Kangamba before
they went to trick Prince Kathzungo Shanda who eventually
became King Mbandu II Kathzungo Shanda. These Royalties
thought the Portuguese have uplifted their Chieftainship by
giving them great respect. In the turn of events, the
Portuguese appointed their own Sobas (Chiefs) to occupy and
govern Mbundaland.
Some white men of the cities used to sleep in the Place
of King Kazungo Shanda, from there they would go in villages
arresting people over poll tax and eventually taking them to
cities where they were beaten and thrown into prisons. Even
his participation in the war that followed King Mbandu’s
abduction is not known.
When King Mbandu Lyothzi Kapova was taken to Kangamba
during his abduction, the Sobas there did not defend the
King because they were Portuguese stooges, who were already
subjugated by the white men. They never even took part in
the Kolongongo war (the Mbunda/Portuguese war).[21]
The Sobas and the Portuguese suppressed Chief Kangamba’s
people from taking part in the war.
Kolongongo War - Mbunda/Portuguese War Following abduction
of King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova
Messages of distress had already
been dispatched throughout Mbundaland to the numerous Mbunda
princes who ruled as chiefs to prepare to face the
Portuguese colonists who had abducted "Kathzima Mishambo."
The Mbunda royalty, warriors and courtiers converged on the
Kalyamba palace headquarters in Lwati to the sound of war
drums which pulsated in all directions. They had come to
devise a strategy of resistance in the light of the
abduction of their Monarch by the loathed Portuguese
colonialists.
Prince Kathzungo Shanda was reminded to perform the
ritual as directed by the kidnaped King Mbandu Kapova
Kathzima "Mishambo" (the Extinguisher of Flames) in order to
facilitate his escape from the Portuguese forces which had
taken him and his compatriots away. To their chagrin he was
not prepared to do anything of the sort. He argued that such
action would only endanger his uncle's life. Emotional
arguments were raised against Prince Kathzungo Shanda's
treasonous sentiments. Nevertheless, he refused to change
his position and would not carry out the ritual as directed
by "Kathzima Mishambo."
It is believed that King Mbunda Lyondthi Kapova and his
compatriots were taken on horseback to Kangamba Boma and
into the hinterland of the Biye plateau and then onwards' to
Luanda on the Atlantic coast (Mbaka ya Kalumga-mema) and
into oblivion.
After looting shops and beating up white men, Portuguese
came with soldiers composed of different ethnic groups to
fight the Mbunda in Mbundaland, to occupy and make it part
of Angola. White men and other ethnic groups from the
coastline including the Luchazi, the Luimbi, the Ngonjelo,
the Nyemba and Milatu were recruited as soldiers to fight
against the Mbunda in Mbundaland. These are ethnic groups in
the west of Mbundaland, whose lands were earlier occupied by
the Portuguese without resistance, and therefore joined the
Portuguese forces to help them occupy other ethnic groups
lands. In those days, native ethnic groups looked at white
men like gods and their fellow natives, like animals.
The whole Mbundaland was engulfed in war with the white
men and their soldiers, except for few areas and Kangamba,
which was earlier occupied and built a city in a Mbunda
Chief Kangamba’s land. This was the time when King Mbandu
Lyondthzi Kapova "Kathzima Mishambo" had already been
abducted, and taken to their place. Prince Kathzungo Shanda
had also been installed as the 22nd Mbunda Monarch. However,
the Portuguese did not fight him in the war that raged in
Mbundaland. People suffered in the land, but their King was
in a peaceful relationship with the Portuguese.
The enraged Mbunda warriors led by Chief Katota, Prince
Thinganyeka, Prince Shwana Nyumbu, Prince Njamba, Prince
Shwana Lyelu, Prince Mumbamba, Prince Kalyangu, Chief Lyelu,
as well as war leaders like Mwata Kaliki and some Chokwe
warriors applied war paint on their bodies and faces, took
up their arms and embarked on the warpath against anything
Portuguese in their land. Those few Portuguese traders who
survived the first uprising, along with Portuguese Boma
officials and their henchmen were promptly killed, beheaded
and impaled on stakes in various areas of Mbundaland. The
Portuguese Bomas and trading posts were ransacked and burnt
down with frightening vengeance. In the general insurrection
that ensued the Portuguese colonists dispatched troops to
deal with the Mbunda. The Mbunda who had been making special
slugs to go with the gunpowder of their muzzle loaders also
employed bows and arrows which were effective at long ranges
with deadly accuracy. They set up ambushes at various
vantage and strategic points which were unknown to the
Portuguese forces. They displayed remarkable skill and
ferocity vis-a-vis the Portuguese forces, most of whom were
felons, outcastes, fortune-seekers, adventurers and criminal
elements of various shades, either deported or imported from
Portugal, Brazil and many other such places.
The Mbunda warriors lay flat on their bellies within good
range of the Portuguese forces, clutching their muzzle
loaders. They took aim at the Portuguese troops and fired
all at once, then the arrays of gunners would shove back the
fired guns to yet other arrays of warriors who loaded them
with alacrity before shoving them back to the gunners for
another round of fire. In the midst of this frenzied
activity yet another array of expert archers also took heavy
toll of their Portuguese foes. In the initial waves of
Portuguese onslaughts they were soundly routed and compelled
to retreat for reinforcements. The fallen and wounded
Portuguese captives were beheaded with a double-edged sword
(mukwale) and their heads impaled on sharp sticks and
displayed in many parts of Mbundaland. Chief Katota earned
his bloody soubriquet of "Katota kalya Vwongo" which means "Katota
the Brain Eater" due to the fact that he cracked open
Portuguese skulls in his battles against them. Chief Katota
kalya Vwongo (Katota the Brain-Eater), a number of other
Princes and warrior leaders (vantwama va ndthzita of the
likes of Nobleman Kaliki were the central figures of the
armed resistance against Portuguese colonialism.
The Portuguese Invite Horse Back Fighting Mercenary (Kolongongo)
When the Portuguese saw that the
Mbunda resistance was getting stronger, they invited a very
experienced white man soldier in horse back fighting
technics. As the Mbunda fought the white man on a horse
back, they were astonished to see his technic, as he was
shooting at them while the horse was running. The Mbunda
asked themselves questions; What sot of a white man is this?
Where is this white man coming from? That was because all
the other white men they fought previously, were not as
strong as that one. That white man was therefore nicknamed "Kolongongo,
Kakundukundu (whirlwind)!
Kolongongo, in this context represented Portuguese
colonialism, whereas Kolongongo was the name which the
Mbunda gave the white chief field commander of the
Portuguese forces who happened to be mounted on a dashing
white horse. As the war wore on, the Portuguese colonists
mobilized more and more white troops, a substantial portion
of which were mounted on horses brought in from the coast
and the hinterlands in order to carry out other military
engagements against the embattled Mbunda. In their
desperation to defeat the anti-colonialist Mbunda, they
drafted fellow Africans into their forces. Various
ethnicities like the Vimbali, Kimbundu, Kikongo, Luchazi,
Nyemba, Humbi, Ngonjelo, Luimbi, Holo, Hungu, Imbangala and
Mulattos were deployed against the besieged Mbunda for the
purpose of breaking their armed resistance as well as to sow
the seeds of political discord and animosity between them.
Some of these African ethnicities had, like the Mbunda
also fought against the Portuguese colonists while some of
them had capitulated to Portuguese subjugation without much
armed resistance.
The Mbunda Call Upon The Nkwambi As Allies
When the Mbunda, saw that the
Portuguese forces had increased in number. The Mbunda were
surprised to see fellow blacks teaming up with the white men
to fight the Mbunda. Even the Luchazi who came to settle in
Mbundaland were also among the whites fighting and beating
up people in the Mbunda villages. It was shameful in the
land! That prompted the Mbunda to also invite ethnic groups
from Chivanda (Namibia). For their part, they invited the
Nkwambi to fight alongside them in their struggle against
Portuguese domination. Vakwambi means mercenaries. The
Mbunda like Katota Kalya Vwongo recruited Vakwambi, mostly
from southern Angola/Namibian areas. They were promised a
share in the spoils should the Portuguese be driven from the
country. Unfortunately the Nkwambi were not very good
soldiers and contributed little in the military encounters
against the colonialist forces.
The Vakwambi did not come with guns, they came with bows
and arrows with flammable material tied around the arrows,
which would set the Portuguese houses on fire when shot at.
The Mbunda and Vakwambi fought and burnt the Portuguese
buildings with these arrows. The Mbunda refer to this war as
Ndthzita ya Kolongongo or Ndthzita ya Nkwambi. The Mbunda
refer to all mercenaries as Vakwambi, even those who fought
with the Portuguese. The word itself is not Mbunda, it
appears to originate in western Angola.
The Mbunda continued to wage fierce armed campaigns in
their desperate bid to maintain their independence of
Portuguese subjugation. Chief Katota kalya Vwongo (Katota
the Brain Eater), Prince Mumbamba Lyondthzi, Prince
Limbwambwa Kalyangu, Prince Shwana Nyumbu and Prince
Thinganyeka journeyed to present day Namibia in order to
enlist the military support of other nationalities. It
appears that they were unsuccessful. As time elapsed, the
Portuguese forces gained an upper hand in the war because
they were continuously provisioned with gunpowder for their
guns. The embattled Mbunda, who did not possess the know-how
essential to the making of gunpowder eventually found the
muzzle-loaders to be absolutely useless. The Mbunda used to
buy gunpowder from the Vimbundu and the white men, that time
they had nowhere to turn too, to buy the commodity.
The old Mbunda ardent came to be a reality to them, which
said: "Akunyila njamba co ukajwela ku ndonga, oshe akunyila
ndonga ukajwela kuli?" (If an elephant defecated on you, you
will go and wash at a river, what if a river defecated on
you, where will you go to wash?). This old ardent means; the
Mbunda felt like a river has defecated on them and they had
nowhere to go and wash. If it were like nowadays, they would
have dispatched some to go and purchase gunpowder from other
countries, to continue fighting the Portuguese. They had to
increasingly rely on their bows and arrows as well as a few
other traditional arms which were suited for warfare only at
close quarters. Superior Portuguese firepower took a heavy
toll of the increasingly dispirited Mbunda, some of whom
began to throw their muzzle-loaders in the rivers for lack
of gunpowder.
The Portuguese forces embarked on a campaign of vengeance
against the Mbunda. They engaged Mbunda forces led by Prince
Shwana Nyumbu in N'inda area. In the pitched battle that
followed it was said that there were proportional casualties
on both sides. Consort (Mukwetunga) Lyato was among those
who lost their lives in this epic military encounter where a
traditional strategy specialist named Vushuka Isha Kathzila
also featured prominently. The Portuguese forces also
converged on Mbunda forces led by Prince Lyelu in Kashwango
area. The besieged Mbunda fought fearlessly, but despite
that, Prince Lyelu was captured whilst his courtiers
Nobleman (Mwata) Hungu, Nobleman Chitakala and Nobleman
Kathuta were killed. The colonialist forces confronted
Mbunda forces in the other N'inda where they killed Prince
Njamba, his courtier Mwata Mufungula and many other people.
Meanwhile Prince Ngoveka was left unscathed in Mushuma area
while Prince-Consorts Mundanya and Kupwakwanjeke as well as
large numbers of people were killed in Lwati area. The
triumphant colonist forces descended on many areas of
Mbundaland exacting untold atrocities in their wake.
Multitudes of women, children to the extent of stuffing
babies into mortars and pounded to death or disemboweled or
shot in the head, men and their livestock were slaughtered
and their granaries and villages plundered and burnt. The
Mbunda were overwhelmed despite the many early victories.
The superior firepower of the Portuguese turned the tide of
military waves in their favour.
Dispirited as they were, the Mbunda nevertheless fought
on to the bitter end even though they realized that their
cause and crusade
against Portuguese subjugation was now lost. With the
Mbunda defeat, the Portuguese finally colonialised
Mbundaland and added it to the other colony Angola to make
it one country in 1917.[22]
The majority of Mbunda Princes or chieftains and their
people, resigned themselves to their fate and decided to
stay on in their homeland. A minority elected to emigrate
into present day Namibia and Zambia. Some of the princes and
chiefs who emigrated into the Barotse Protectorate were as
follows: Prince Katota kalya Vwongo (The Eater of Brains),
Prince Lindeho or Mulyata, Prince Kankanga, Prince Shwana
Ngimbu, Prince Kangombe, Prince Shwana Mutenga, Prince
Shwana Njamba, Prince Kavuvi, Prince Mumbamba Lyondthzi,
Prince Lyangengela, Prince Chinyundu, Prince Ngunga, Prince
Chiputa and Prince Limbwambwa Kalyangu.
Chief Katota kalya Vwongo settled in Zongwe in
Barotseland now Zambia, where he died. He left Mbundaland
after the Kolongongo war. He was not in their administration
with Sobas. Katota kalya Vwongo was known by past white men
in the town of Kaoma (Mankoya), that he was a powerful
personality who gave a lot of respect to chieftainship. Even
the Lukena chieftainship of Mwene Mutondo in Kaoma (Mankoya)
knew him.
The Mbunda Kingdom Under King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo
Shanda - In Portuguese Ruled Angola
King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo Xaanda, the 22nd
Monarch of Mbundaland
The
subservient Prince Kathzungo Shanda, a nephew of the
kidnapped King Mbandu Lyondthzi Kapova was quickly
recognized as a traditional chief, (soba, in
Portuguese) of the entire Mbunda nation by the victorious
Portuguese colonists. He was the son of Chieftainess Kameya
Kashukwe, the daughter of Chieftainess Vukola Ngimbu
Kanchungwa, and mother to King Mbandu I Londthzi Kapova. He
built his own palace at Lwati and reigned as the twenty
second Mbunda Monarch even though his own people did not
enthrone him in accordance with the established, traditional
royal ritual. Meanwhile the colonists rewarded him with
colonial uniforms and the privilege to be carried about in a
hammock like some colonial administrator. This was against
traditional privilege which entitled Mbunda Monarchs and
chiefs to be carried about on the backs of ox bulls which
were adorned with ringing bells.
King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo Shanda built his palace
named Kalyamba, near the palace left by his uncle King Mwene
Mbandu I Kapova. After the first palace he built a second
one named Livingi, with a distance of twenty kilometres
between them. In each palace he had four wives.
His cabinet consisted of the following:
1. Lyambombola - Prime Minister,
2. Nobleman Avilaama - Security
official,
3. Nobleman Isha Kathzungo -
Security official,
4. Nobleman Tolothi Katako -
Secuity official.
Court Yard Counselors:
1. Nobleman Mwata Kawewe,
2. Nobleman Mwata Kanjamba,
3. Consort Mukwetunga Thoto ya
Thikwe
|
4. Consort Mukwetunga Xwana
Mutuva
5. Chief Mwene Chinyundu cha
Makalu
6. Chief Mwene Mumbamba
7. Nobleman Mwata Xwana Munjini
8. Consort Mukwetunga Nyundu
9. Consort Mukwetunga Litwai
10. Nobleman Mwata Kambole
11. Consort Mwata Kafwana
12. Nobleman Mwata Xwana Mbambale
|
Though he ruled during the Portuguese
occupation from 1914 to 1974, he was a Mbunda monarch for
all the Mbunda people and their chieftainships in Angola,
Zambia, Congo and Namibia. The Portuguese colonialists did
not give King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo Shanda political
governance over his chiefs, but he had the birthright
monarch governance. He was given respect as a Mbunda monarch
in the whole country, including those in the diaspora like
Zambia. That respect gave him authority to govern all his
chiefs in their respective palaces in Mbundaland.
Atrocities of The Portuguese Colonialists and Their
Mercenaries
Subsequent to the defeat of the
Mbunda, Portuguese colonialism displayed the barbarism which
is gradually associated with Portuguese colonialism in
Africa. Perhaps it stemmed from the fact that the Portuguese
back home in Portugal itself were, at that time, a backward
European nation in many aspects of human endeavor. The
colonialists employed divide and rule methods of pitting the
Mbunda against their fellow Africans in their quest to
consolidate their suppression of them. Those fellow Africans
of the Mbunda who were deployed against them as mercenaries
were people who had surrendered to Portuguese subjugation
without armed opposition or people who, like the Mbunda, had
been vanquished by colonial forces after waging bloody
battles against them. It was those fellow Africans of the
Mbunda, led by some of the most criminal elements of white
and mulatto buccaneers, who committed massacres against
defenseless children and women. Babies and children were
stuffed into mortars and pounded to death or disemboweled or
shot in the head. Beautiful women were taken as wives under
duress whereas the youth were drafted into wageless
construction labour and dissidents were shot on the spot.
Repression washed over Mbundaland as the colonists strove to
bring the resistant Mbunda under their subjugation.[23]
Most of the Portuguese white men who occupied Mbundaland
were not credible from their country of origin. Very few
were credible. Most of them were of questionable character,
who were sent to Portuguese occupied lands. Some were
thieves, rapists, criminals, murderers of their fellow white
men, unemployed roaming about causing despondency, poor
without means of living. Such are the ones the Portuguese
Government used to send to their occupied lands, in order
for them to find a new way of life. They were rejected by
their country of origin. These rejected white men, when they
arrived in the Portuguese occupied lands, saw the natives of
the land as animals. They even regarded the chiefs of the
land they found as inferior. The criminal activities which
caused their rejection from their country of origin
increase! The Portuguese aim in sending these characters was
to subdue and break the resolve of the black man to defend
his land! That was the type of white Portuguese men who
fought the Mbunda. When war came to the end, that was the
kind of characters who assumed the administration
responsibilities in occupying the land. That in itself
worsened the development of the land, resulting in cruelty
and anarchy, perpetuated from administrative towns.
Royal family chiefs lost their honor and respect, and
replaced by soldiers allies. Those war leaders were called
"Soma" or "Sova", meaning chief in Portuguese and gave them
authoritative power to rule Mbundaland as tools for local
Government administration. Those Sova and soldiers
persecuted the Mbunda in villages. They used Luchazi
soldiers and other ethnic groups close to Luchazi. Little
did these ethnic groups realize that, the Portuguese used
them as tools, they thought they regarded them as the wise
ones.
The poll tax persecution increased in Mbundaland, men and
women were made to build roads with whips like oxen!
Beautiful women were abducted from their husbands and
parents in villages and forcibly married or made servants by
soldiers and messengers. Men who tried to resist were shot
at in the head or taken to their cities for bloody corporal
punishment.
Most of the people who were taken from villages to big
cities like Lumbala Nguimbo by soldiers and messengers
perished there. Once a person is taken to such cities, the
relatives and friends would get very worried. The Mbunda,
with their military power and collective spirit and prestige
broken and scattered, feared those cities because of the
constant disappearance of many people there.
Lumbala was an administrative center where a bigger city
was built by the Portuguese and named it; Gago Countinho,
which today is called Lumbala Nguimbo. It became the centre
for torture and liquidation. Those who were sent there never
returned to their villages. Because of this, yet more
disillusioned Mbunda emigrated to Barotseland (ku Njenie)
which is in present day Western and Northwestern Provinces
of Zambia and some went as far as present day Namibia (Chivanda).
That is the area where Chieftainess Vukolo Ngimbu, the
mother to King Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova, who was abducted
by the Portuguese, built a Palace. Up to today in Mbunda
language, if someone was sick and they say he has gone to
Lumbala, it means he is dead.
The Luchazi who had earlier settled amongst the Mbunda
were generally victimized by the Mbunda. Hence when
opportunity for vengeance presented itself through the
Portuguese colonists, some Luchazi, certainly not all, took
this opportunity to settle old scores with the Mbunda,
encouraged by the Portuguese policy of divide, exploit and
rule. The Portuguese took advantage of the strained
relationship which existed at that time between the Mbunda
and the Luchazi.
In the period that followed the entrenchment of
colonialism in Mbundaland, a burning hatred for the
Portuguese colonists developed among the Mbunda because of
their policy of rewarding those Luchazi (recompensa in
Portuguese) who had lamely surrendered to the colonists
without any armed resistance and who came to settle in
Mbundaland especially in the following bomas:
Kwitu-Kwanavale, Mpili, Kunjamba, Mavinga, Lwenge, Likinya,
Livungu, Nankova, Muuye, Kangombe, Sheshe, Kashamba,
Mwangayi, Tembwe and Kangamba. This recompensa also took the
form of a deliberate and calculated imposition of the
Luchazi language as the official native lingua franca in
form of Ngangela in seven out of the more
than fifteen Mbunda speaking bomas, namely: Muuye ruled by
Chief Ngandalo and Chief Mbambo Kangombe, Kashamba ruled by
Chief Kangombe ka Thapeyo ya Thingithingi and Chief Nyundu
and Chief Limbuti lya Mungindu, Sheshe ruled by Chief Likupe,
Mwene Lyelu, Mwene Chameya Kanyanga and Mwene Kambindomyoko,
Mwangayi ruled by Chief Soma, Tembwe, Kangamba ruled by
Mwene Kangamba Kalilonge, Mwene Kangamba Kaloloki Palata,
Mwene Kangamba Liti lya Vwanda, Mwene Kangamba Chinkelenga,
Mwene Kangamba Sumpu and Mwene Kangamba Loloji Chimbayi.
Lutembwe and Lumayi on the Luvweyi river also belonged to
Mbundaland. The divisions were made by Portuguese
colonialists. The establishment of Muuye was preceded by
Chikuluyi where Chief Kalimbwe I reigned.
Some of the Mbunda princes or chiefs who had not yet
emigrated elsewhere were divested of their titles, as former
collaborators brought in were appointed as Sovas or Chiefs
in their stead. These appointee chiefs were nothing more
than colonial instruments, lackeys and adventurers who were
imposed on the vanquished Mbunda in order to break and
brutalize their rebellious spirit.
King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo Shanda Achievements As a
Mbunda monarch
The barbarism of Portuguese
colonialism represented by white boma administrators was
manifested in its total lack of a sense of social obligation
in respect to educational, economic and social policies for
the colonized people. It was content to provide the most
elementary facilities like basic reading and writing in the
vernacular through mission built and funded schools.
In 1948, King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo Shanda went with
three Mbunda Chiefs to Silva Porto Biê, which today is
called Kwito, to meet Government officials; Hortrêncio de
Sousa and Idelfonso dos Santos of Moxico Province. This
visit was for him to appeal to the Government to build
schools in Mbundaland. Chiefs who accompanied King Mbandu II
Kazungo Shanda were; His nephew Chief Kalyangu ka Lyapingwa
and Chief Kambungo Samukunga. All those came from N’inda in
Mbundaland.
That meeting with the Government officials in Luena was
sanctioned by the administrator for Lumbala Ngimbu named
Lovato Farai and João de Nascimento Rodrigues of Vili Luso,
which today is called Luena. This appeal by King Mbandu II
Kathzungo Shanda was approved on 15 August 1948, by the
sending of the first teacher Barnabe José Maria to N’inda.
The Portuguese also tolerated white, mulatto and African
brigands who held to ransom people who had returned to
Angola after serving their labour contracts in the South
African mines or in nearby Namibia or Southern Rhodesia.
Ex-workers in these countries had their newly acquired items
like: smart shoes, stockings, suits, jackets, shirts,
bicycles, hats, scarves, coats, watches, sewing machines and
other things, even wives and livestock grabbed from them by
white Portuguese administrators in exchange for pitiful
token payments which were much less than the value of the
confiscated items. That was the best one could expect, to be
forced to surrender hard earned goods for token payments.
Gratuitous incarceration, corporal punishment or
imprisonment awaited those who were unprepared to give away
their goods.
Incidents of this type exacerbated the existing tension
between the Mbunda and their white colonial masters. One
example (of many) comes from the village of Chitenga in
N'inda. Three men and women from that village were beheaded
by Prince Shwana Ngimbu Kapatiso at his palace after they
had been accused of treachery for leaking information to
Portuguese officials to the effect that the Mbunda planned
to mount attacks against the Bomas. These six victims of
Mbunda dissent had their severed heads impaled on the stakes
around the royal graves (vingina) of Chief Livenga and Chief
Shwana Vitumbi which are located in Lulambo, a tributary of
the Lukula river.
Luchazi soldiers and Sovas were still allied to the
Portuguese white men! Mbunda Noblemen also urged their
youthful sons and nephews to join the military and police
service, but that did not help, because persecution and
brutality and reached advanced levels. The Mbunda started to
migrate to Barotseland again.
Those years, Barotseland was already under the control of
the British South African Company, this was before the
occupation by the British Government. Even though, the
Company was a rich mining exploration company, it never
brought confusion in King Liwanika’s land like what the
Portuguese brought to Mbundaland. That caused a lot of
people to migrate from Mbundaland to Barotseland, because of
the peace that prevailed there. Mbundaland was occupied by
poor white men.
Those Mbunda chiefs that remained in Mbundaland were
stripped of their power and authority. The Mbunda remained
astonished by the stripping of power and authority from
their royal blood chiefs, and given to foreigners who
occupied their land. The Portuguese never brought anything
to develop Mbundaland. They forced people in the villages to
speak Portuguese language, without schools only a few
missionary schools which taught in Luchazi. In addition to
Portuguese language, only Luchazi was allowed to be spoken
in Cities and Missionary centers.
The Portuguese never wanted to educate local ethnic
groups for their enlightenment, but in all the lands they
occupied, they only wanted to plunder the natural resources
such as: rubber, wax, ivory, animal skins and slaves for
sale to South and North America.
The Portuguese Use Luchazi
Some of the Luchazi migrated to
Mbundaland and settled among the Mbunda villages. Mbunda
chiefs welcomed them and allowed them to settle. They
settled in areas such as:
Kwitu Kwanavale: Land of Mbunda Chief
Kavalata Kawewe and King Yambayamba Kapanda the thirteenth
Mbunda Monarch, that is where King Chingumbe the fourteenth
Mbunda Monarch married Lishano Kakuhu ka Musholo during his
familiarization trip of visiting all areas his predecessor
King Yambayamba Kapanda passed in Mbundaland.
Mpili: Land of Mbunda Chief Ngunga ya
Mbalaka ya Musoka.
Mavinga: Land of Mbunda Chief Tuta. King
Yambayamba Kapanda left Chief Tuta and Nobleman (Mwata)
Kweve in Mavinga, while Chief Likithi lya Muwawa settled in
Kwete, during the reign of King Nyumbu Luputa the
seventeenth Mbunda Monarch.
Likinya: Land of Mbunda Chief Chiyongo from
the time of King Nyumbu Luputa.
Muie: Land of Mbunda Chief Ngandalo and
Mbunda Chief Mbamba.
Kangombe: Land of Mbunda Chief Thapeyo ya
Thingithingi, along Kavanguyi river, with Chief Nyundu,
Chief Limbuti lya Mungindu, Chief Kaliki ka Mambeli and
Chief Kambindomyoko.
Kashamba: Landa of Mbunda Chief Thoma.
Mwangayi: Land of Chieftainess Katheketheke
and Chief Ndongo, children of Queen Kaamba the seventh
Mbunda Monarch who led the Mbunda to Mithimoyi. That is the
land King Nyumbu Luputa, Katongotongo likithi lya Mbunda
succeeded before he was installed as the seventeenth Mbunda
Monarch, when his predecessor King Ngonga Chiteta was
installed as the sixteenth Mbunda Monarch and built his
Palace in Luvweyi. He came from Mwangayi and Lutwayi where
he was sent by his uncle King Chingumbe to succeed the land.
Kangamba: Land of the Mbunda Paramount
Chief Kangamba along rivers Kuvanguyi, Kangombe Tembwe,
Kashamba and Muuye.
Ntyengu: Land of Mbunda Chief Lyelu lya
Makuwa and Chief Chinjanga cha Malemu.
Chikuluyi: Land of Mbunda Chief Kalimbwe.
Chumi: Land of Mbunda Chief Katuya and
Chief Kanjonja.
Mushuma: Land of Mbunda Chief Makayi
Lyawema and Chief Shwana Mbambi
Sheshe: Land of Mbunda ChiefLikupe and
Chief Lyelu.
N’inda Kasanga: Land of Mbunda Chief
Kathanga, Chieftainess Kalipate, Chieftainess Malao, Chief
Ngongola and Chief Mulyata in Tundombe.
Kunjamba: Land of Mbunda Chief Mbandwa ya
Chikeva.
Other lands where Mbunda chiefs reigned were: Lwenge,
Nankova, Kashamba, Livungu, Tembwe, Lumbala Ngimbu, Lumayi
and Mitete.
The Mbunda and Angola Liberation War
The Mbunda continued to resist
Portuguese colonialism, right up to the time of the national
liberation struggle against Portuguese colonialism in
Angola. They embraced this struggle, with other Angolan
peoples, and prosecuted it with vigor and valor. To the
present day, in tribute to their abducted great King, Mwene
Mbandu I Kapova "Kathzima Mishambo" (The Extinguisher of
Flames), the Mbunda still symbolically say:
Na Mwene Mbandu ka vithethzele.
This means,
This was unknown by Mwene Mbandu, the hero.
When the liberation war started, King Mbandu II Kathzungo
Shanda decided to work with MPLA, a Party led by Augustino
Neto, committed to liberate Angola. He became the leader of
Sector I, Zone C.
In 1972 King Mbandu II Kathzungo Shaanda, voluntarily and
temporarily left his land to give way to the gallant
liberation forces of MPLA. In Zambia, King Mbandu II
Kathzungo Shaanda reached Lusaka, Kaoma and Mongu, visiting
his Mbunda subjects who had migrated earlier. During his
stay in Zambia, the King was also invited by MPLA there, to
update them on reported Mbunda persecution by the
Portuguese, of among others, fumigating crops with chemicals
to rot. The King also had the honor to meet the Zambian
first Republican President Kenneth Kaunda.
King Kathzungo Shaanda, died in exile, late in August
1974 in the Kalabo District of Zambia. King Mbandu II
Kathzungo Shaanda's grave is in the Lyondondo village of
Kaole area.
The Restoration of The Mbunda Monarch
Due to the liberation and civil wars that
ravaged Angola, the Mbunda people could not install a
monarch to replace King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo Shanda who
died in Zambia, for thirty four years. After attaining peace
in Angola, the Mbunda people in Angola and Zambia and others
realized it conducive time for the restoration of the Mbunda
monarch.
Search For The Right Successor To The Mbunda Monarch
On 26 August 2002, Prince Justino
Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge in Angola wrote to the Mbunda
people in Zambia, in response to a letter written to him
earlier by the Cheke Cultural Writers Association, in which
he was asked about the nephews, sons and grand children of
the immediate past Mbunda monarchs, eligible to the Mbunda
throne, who could be found in Zambia.
In his response, Prince Justino Frederico Katwiya
Kanyenge wrote that it was difficult to know which one of
them are in Zambia, because;
1) Some migrated during the time of Chief Mwene
Limbwambwa Kalyangu ka Mbandu and others in 1927, and as a
consequence they have had sons, grandsons and grand
grandsons;
2) Some migrated during the liberation war from 1960 and
they also have had sons, grandsons and others sons only;
3) And therefore it would have been easier for the Mbunda
people in Zambia to know each other better;
4) However, as regards King Mwene Mbandu Kathzungo Shanda,
the nephews he knew were only two, as follows:
i) Mwe Katolo Makuwa
ii) Mwe Thempyeka Nyembu (António).
5) King Mwene Mbandu II Kathungo Shanda, only one son:
i) Shanda Kathzungo
6) Sons of his nephews:
a) Sons of Prince Mwene Maliya Muleji were Kapova Kapova
and Thzingitha Kapova
b) Prince Mwe Lyula had one son, Mwe Malali Lyula
c) Prince Mwe Katuya had four sons; Fernando Kapova
Katuya, Guilherme Kathzungo Katuya, Mande Katuya, and José
Nguvo Katuya (in Angola)
d) Prince Mwe Luneta Lifuti had one known son, Prince
Mbandu
7) The task of installing a King on the Mbunda throne
became a responsibility for all the Mbunda people of Angola
and Zambia. It became difficult before the war ended because
many were scattered in other countries. Even in Angola, many
took refuge in other cities. With the war ended and many
people returning to their areas of original habitation,
plans for the restoration of the Mbunda monarch also made
easy. Both names in Angola and Zambia were considered.
8) The father of José Nguvo Katuya is Mwe Katuya ka Thivi
of Lwathothi. The mother of Mwene Katuya was Vamwene Thivi
ya Kalimbwe, and Kalimbwe is the son of King Mwene Mbandu.
Mother of Mwene Kalimbwe was Ngimbu ya Vukolo, with Prince
Consort Mukwetung Mwini. Mwene Kalimbwe had the last born
brother, Mwene Kamweya Muyeji and that was the father to the
mother of Prince Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge, his
brother King Mwene Kathzungo and others.
On 27 August 2003, the National Executive Committee for
Cheke Cultural Writers Association held a meeting to appoint
a Mbunda Kingdom Advisory Committee, which will work
together with the other similar committees in Angola and
Kaoma in Zambia, to organize the restoration of the Mbunda
monarch.
On 3 December 2003, a group of Mbunda people in Luampa,
Kaoma District of Zambia and their leaders: Elijah Matheka
Kavita, Julius Kathzima Lyawema, Amandio J. Kayoka, Fama
Chinjenge and John Kalenga Chitumbo; wrote a letter to
Prince Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge, requesting him to
succeed on the Mbunda monarch throne. Alternatively, if he
was not ready to succeed, then Prince Mwe Thempyeka Nyembu
would succeed, because those two were not only eligible but
new people in Angola very well. The Luampa group then sent
Elijah Matheka Kavita and Julius Kathzima Lyawema to the
Angola Mongu Consulate, in order to facilitate the sending
of that letter electronically.
In response to the Luampa group letter, on 11 February
2004, Prince Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge wrote that
for himself, his relatives and the majority of the Mbunda
people had carefully considered their letter, and were all
waiting for Mwe Katolo Makuwa and Mwe Thempyeka Nyembu, so
that they could choose a successor amongst them. He advised
though that, he was unable to succeed because of the
accident he had which left him lame, pausing a challenge for
him to perform adequately as a monarch. He was agreeable
with the Luampa group recommendation or Mwe Thempyeka Nyembu
to succeed. He further assured to announce on Angola Radio (Rádio
Ngola) for the Mbunda fraternity to be informed.
After those letters and on 7 May 2007, the Chairman for
the Committee For The Restoration of The Mbunda Monarch (Comissão
Organizadora Para Restauração Do Reino Mbunda) Prince
Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge wrote a letter to the
Cheke Cultural and Writers Association in Zambia, informing
them that preparations for the restoration of the Mbunda
monarch in Angola had started. He bemoaned in the letter
that because of the long time of the absence of the Mbunda
monarch, his committee wanted to meet other associations in
countries sharing borders with Moxico Province of Angola,
promoting traditional chiefdoms such as: Chisemwa Cha Lunda,
Likumbi Lya Mize, Lunda Lubanza, Chivweka, Kazanga, Kuomboka,
Lukwakwa, Lienya, Cheke and Vakaonde. That meeting was to
share knowledge with those that have been organizing
traditional and cultural values of their chiefdoms and
people in general.
The National Chairman for Cheke Cultural and Writers
Association in Zambia then, Geoffrey Muyonga Kaliki, on 29
May 2007 wrote a letter to the Government of the Republic of
Zambia, enlightening about the restoration of the Mbunda
monarch in Angola. The letter also requested the Zambian
Government to permit the Mbunda fraternity in Zambia to work
together with their counterparts in Angola in preparation
for the restoration of the Mbunda monarch.
After that letter to the Zambian Government, National
Chairman for Cheke Cultural and Writers Association then,
Geoffrey Muyonga Kaliki, on 19 June 2007 wrote a letter to
the Chairman of The Commission For The Restoration of The
Mbunda monarch (Comissão Organizadora Para Restauração Do
Reino Mbunda), Prince Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge in
Angola informing him of the commitment by the Mbunda
fraternity in Zambia to work together with their brothers in
Angola. He also informed him of the pledge by Cheke Cultural
Writers Association in Zambia to provide the Mbunda monarch
regalia as follows: 1) Litanda (Throne), 2) Vuthzalo vwa
Mwene (The King’s Robe), 3) Mufuka wa Shefu (An Eland Fly
Whisk), 4) Mukwale (Sword), 5) Vingoma vya Mukupele (Two
sided drums, 6) Malimba (Xylophone) 7) Chilongo (Crown) and
8) Chimbuya (ceremonial axe).
A meeting was called in Lumbala Nguimbo, Angola for three
days from 22 to 24 September 2007 to discuss the successor
to the Mbunda monarch. Present among them was the
Administrator for Municipality of Lumbala Nguimbo, an
Angolan Government official, Júlio Augusto Kuandu and Prince
Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge. The meeting resolved
that the eligibility of Mwe Thempyeka Nyembu to succeed was
marred by his illiteracy and luck of acumen to represent the
Mbunda people. It was argued that governance in the world
had changed, in that government wanted a literate one who
would be able to interpret government policies accurately to
all different ethnic groups in Mbundaland. Thus, the
government challenged the Mbunda people to reconsider their
monarch succession eligibility requirements and move closer
to finding a literate candidate.
A manhunt for a literate and eligible royal candidate was
started throughout Angola and Zambia, which ended up in
discovering the grand son to King Mwene Mbandu II Kathzungo
Shanda by the name of Mbandu Lifuti in Zambia to succeed on
the Mbunda monarch throne. Prince Mbandu Lifuti was a son to
the nephew of King Mwene Kathzungo Shanda. War in Angola
made him to flee with his father into Zambia. When the
father died in Zambia, he was kept by Munamwene Kalyangu
Kenneth, son of Prince Munamwene Limbwambwa Kalyangu, and
grandson of King Mwene Mbandu I Lyondthzi Kapova, who
facilitated his education until he started working. During
his stay in Zambia he participated in activities to help
liberate his country of origin, Angola. He joined the
liberation movements and became a leader of the MPLA Branch
in Kanyama coumpound of Lusaka, Zambia, until the Mbunda
people selected him to succeed as the Mbunda Monarch.
After that three days meeting in Lumbala Nguimbo, Angola,
Prince Justino Frederico Katwiya Kanyenge wrote a letter to
the National Chairman of Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and
Writers Association in Zambia, informing the Mbunda
fraternity in Zambia through the association about the
selection of Prince Mbandu Lifuti as the Mbunda monarch
candidate. In the same letter, he also reminded the National
Chairman of Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and Writers
Association, who was Ndandula Libingi then, about what his
predecessor Geoffrey Muyonga Kaliki pledged in his letter,
concerning the provinding of the monarch regalia such as:
Litanda (Throne), Vuthzalo vwa Mwene (The King’s Robe),
Mufuka wa Shefu (An Eland Fly Whisk), Mukwale (Sword),
Vingoma vya Mukupele (Two sided drums, Malimba (Xylophone)
Chilongo (Crown) and Chimbuya (ceremonial axe). The Prince
in his letter concluded that all matters concerning the
monarch restoration would be delivered by a two-man
delegation who would be sent to Zambia.
In preparation of the monarch restoration, the National
Chairman for Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and Writers
Association in Zambia wrote a letter to the Government of
The Republic of Zambia on 22 January 2008, informing them
about the two man delegation expected from Angola, sent to
inform the Mbunda fraternity, their chiefs and the Litunga
of the Lozi people in Western Province, about the
restoration of the Mbunda monarch in Angola. The letter was
also meant to request the government permission to allow the
Mbunda fraternity in Zambia join in preparations with the
two man delegation.
As expected The Commission For The Restoration of The
Mbunda monarch (Comissão Organizadora Para Restauração Do
Reino Mbunda) in Angola, sent Nobleman Pedro Kameya Chavaya
and Chief Mwene Julius Kathzima Lyawema, with a letter
written on 12 November 2007, which contained detailed
explanation regarding the Mbunda monarch restoration
preparations.
The two man delegation did their work diligently together
with Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and Writers Association in
Zambia. The association prepared all royal regalia for the
monarch such as: Litanda (Throne), Vuthzalo vwa Mwene (The
King’s Robe), Mufuka wa Shefu (An Eland Fly Whisk), Mukwale
(Sword), Vingoma vya Mukupele (Two sided drums, Malimba
(Xylophone) Chilongo (Crown) and Chimbuya (ceremonial axe).
A challenge to get the Mbunda monarch to Angola arose
because of the floods between Zambia and Angola. The
National Chairman of Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and Writers
Association in Zambia, Ndandula Libingi wrote a letter to
The President of the Republic of Angola, His Excellency,
Edwado Dos Santos, requesting for the assistance of his
government in facilitating the transportation of the Mbunda
monarch designate and his delegation by air and road for his
goods, and dancers from Zambia.
The Mbunda people saluted the Angolan Ambassador in
Zambia then, His Excellency Pedro Neto for having delivered
the letter to the President in Luanda and the request was
approved. The government sent money for road travel
logistics and bought air tickets for the Mbunda monarch
designate and the Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and Writers
Association, National Executive Committee members who
escorted him. Those that escorted the Mbunda monarch
designate were as follows:
1) Ndandula Libingi (National Chairman then).
2) Geoffrey M. Kaliki (Former National Chairman) and
responsible for security.
3) Christopher Lihuxa (National Coordinator then).
4) Claire Kashukwe Limbwambwa (Economic, Finance and
Fundraising Sub-Committee Chairperson then).
5) Makuwa Kapanda (Economic, Finance and Fund-raising
Sub-Committee Vice Chairperson then) and responsible for
security.
The monarch designate delegation left for Lumbala Nguimbo
via Luanda by Angola Airline (TAAG) on 8 August 2008. In
Luanda, the delegation was received by the Angolan
Ambassador to Zambia, His Excellency Pedro Neto. The next
day, they were transported by two hired aircraft to Lumbala
Nguimbo, where they were received by the Administrator Júlio
Augusto Kuandu.
The delegation had to be in Lumbala Nguimbo for a week
before the restoration ceremony, in order to enable them
discuss and put final touches to the preparations with The
Commission For The Restoration of The Mbunda monarch (Comissão
Organizadora Para Restauração Do Reino Mbunda).
The major challenge identified in those discussions was a
luck of a palace in which to install the Mbunda monarch.
That challenge was partly overcome by a self-sacrificing and
committed son of the Mbunda community and Administrator of
Lumbala Ngimbu by the name of Júlio Augusto Kuandu, who
offered one of his houses as a temporal palace, before the
Angolan Government built one which was pledged.
The other Cheke Cha Mbunda Cultural and Writers
Association delegation traveled by road to Lumbala Nguimbo.
That delegation was headed by Agness Fundulu, Felix Kashweka
and Emmanuel Musenge. Also on the delegation were two Mbunda
Chiefs Mwene Chiyengele Nyumbu and Mwene Kandala Sakwiba
Livimba, whose chieftainships migrated to Barotseland, now
part of Zambia at the end of the 18th Century. That
delegation also included cultural dancers from Lusaka,
Kalabo and Kaoma of Zambia.
The Mbunda monarch restoration ceremony took three days
to celebrate. Early morning at cockcrow on 16 August 2008,
King Mwene
23rd Mbunda
Monarch His Majesty, King
Mwene Mbandu III Mbandu Lifuti at His coronation
and restoration of The Mbunda Kingdom in 2008.
Mbandu III Mbandu
Lifuti was invested as the 23rd Mbunda monarch, away from
the public eye as per Mbunda custom and tradition.
At day break, people from all works of life gathered at
the main arena, away from the palace, to catch a glimpse of
the newly invested king and join the celebrations,
capitalized by the Mbunda Makithi artifacts and different
kinds of Mbunda dances. The Angolan Government officials and
other ethnic groups from Luanda, Luena and other Angolan
cities attended the occasion.
The Angolan Government officials who attended the
ceremony in Lumbala Nguimbo were: Senhor Garciano Sunday,
Deputy Minister of Territory then; Senhor João Ernesto dos
Santos "Liberdade",the Governor of Moxico Province; The
Angolan Ambassador in Zambia Senhor Pedro Neto and the
Administrator of Lumbala Ngimbu Júlio Augusto Kuandu.
Finally, the Mbunda monarch was restored in Lumbala
Nguimbo on 16 August 2008.
Military
structure
The Vambunda knew how to fight. They were
a fearless, strong and brave people.[24]
Long ago, Kings used to be war marshals, they used to die in
wars, because they used to fight themselves physically. When
they were going to war they prepared their weapons for
battle. There were war experts (van'ulungu) which included
the following:
1) There was the chief himself or a traditional medicine
man who carried medicine that was magical so as to make them
invisible in the presence of their enemies.
2) There would be a magical basket (lishewa) which would
collect bullets or arrows of their enemies. When their
enemies shot the arrows or bullets they would find their way
into the basket only and not hurt anyone in the Mbunda army.
3) The seconders (myato) to the medicine man (chimbanda)
or Chief were leaders of war or commanders.
In preparation for war, inter alia was the taboo that a
man going to war should not meet his wife. Even while at war
the wife should not "see" another man. This allegedly
enabled the Vambunda to triumph over their foes.
The weapons used at war were axes, spears, bows and
arrows and muzzle loading firearms, (vitwa vya ndthzita). On
the arrow heads they tied some rags and other materials
which they would light on fire and shoot onto the roofs to
burn the houses and granaries, thus causing confusion and
panic among the enemy. Another tactic they used was to
encircle their enemy's area at night and attack it. The
captives of war were often taken as slaves if they were
women and small children, the enemy warriors were killed.
Political
structure
The Mbunda system of traditional rule had
been such that sovereign rule of the entire Kingdom was
vested in the King who had to come from the central
matrilineal line of the royal hierarchy. This somewhat
limited the number of aspiring royals to the central throne.
At the same time there was an effective, decentralized
system of traditional rule in the numerous areas and
localities which composed Mbunda country. Here numerous
princes and princesses fulfilled their roles as chiefs and
chieftainesses of the people under their jurisdiction. This
system of traditional rule had been one of the fundamental
factors which had contributed to the relative stability and
consolidation of the Mbunda national state ever since the
era of the renowned founder King Yambayamba Kapanda.
The King (Mwene wa Ngoma) or Chief had absolute authority
so that when he made a decision his or her decision was not
questioned but was to be carried out. The two main functions
of a Chief were to legislate rules and govern the community.
When he wants to make decisions he told his Prime
Minister (Mwato). The Chief told the Mwato what he intends
to do. Then the Mwato goes to tell the elders about the
Chiefs plan. The people are summoned to the palace by
sounding mwondo or livulu. The former is a special drum
which is sounded to carry out certain messages. Its sound
can be heard several kilometres away. Livulu is a bull's
horn that is used for the same purpose of calling people.
When the people have gathered, the Chief, through the Mwato,
then explains his decisions.
The Chief also regulates the settlement of people. When a
person shifts from his own place to a different place he
reports to the authorities of that place. He sees the elders
or the senior elder in the palace of the chief of the
country he has come to live in. The request for a place to
live in is taken to the Mwato who takes it to the Chief.
When the request is granted, the immigrant is asked to
choose the place he wishes to set up his village. The
results are taken back to the Chief for confirmation. When
the Chief agrees, the immigrant is accepted as a member of
the community in that area. He is entitled to the rights
enjoyed by the local dwellers. Anyone, even non-Mbunda
enjoyed these rights when granted by the King.
Receiving strangers, travelers or visitors is the work of
the Mwato wa Mwene. He takes the traveler to the Chiefs
palace. When they arrive at the palace the Mwato performs
what is called either kulamba or kukumbuka. It is a
traditional way of approaching the Chief respectfully. It is
a praise performance before the Chief. It is important that
when choosing a Mwato he has to have a good memory because
he needs to recite the words of praise precisely. At the
Chiefs palace the Mwato speaks in the language of respect to
the Chief. He does this accompanied by the traveler. He says
the following verse:
Avulye Shukulu. Yove Katavola ka
Ngambo
Mbandu ya Vukolo,
Avulye Kalombo, Yove Mboma wa
Tanga- Mwetele Vanene
Vanene ku va myetele yeni avulye,
Shukulu, avulye.
Twalya mutamba, mutamba wathala
avulye, Shukulu, avulye.
|
Ooh your Majesty, you Katavola
the son of Ngambo,
Mbandu the son of Vukolo
Ooh! Your majesty, you the python
who possessed the great ones.
But the great ones never
possessed you.
We have eaten one side and left
the other side. Ooh! Your majesty.
|
This is the way the Mbunda address their
Chiefs with respect.
VWAAKO (Administration and Justice)
Ruling and governing people in any
country is not easy. It requires a courteous, wise and
upright man. A man of wisdom, one who knows and can get
along with people and be in a position to know what they
want. The Mbunda are a people who know how to administer
themselves from the Chief at the top, down to the village.
All decisions pertaining to administration were made at
the capital. Men are often the main rulers who held powers
at the villages in courts (vimbania) in trying cases and
reigned in the capitals of the country at large. Female
chiefs also exercised powers and controlled areas allocated
to them. Female chiefs have the same powers as a male chief
except they are not allowed to succeed to the central Mbunda
chieftainship.
When a case was to be tried, the people in that village
tried it before the headman. If the court, which was made up
of the senior village men as judges, failed because the case
was particularly difficult, the headman took the case to the
palace and related it before the Chiefs Councillor who took
it to the Chief. His judgement, made in conjunction with his
advisors, was final.
From the capital came all decisions, rules, laws and
regulations in regard to the government of the whole country
for the people to follow in order to maintain peace (chovu)
in the chiefdom.
In the capital's Mbania (court) was found a Council of
Counsellors or advisors who helped the Chief make decisions
in line with the governing of the chiefdom. This council was
called Chifunkuto (royal court). Here the Counsellors and
elders sat to discuss matters of ruling the country. These
discussions were called mandthzimwe (politics). In the
Council were also those who are called vitutumwi, people who
went out and collected news and stories from the countryside
and brought this information before the Chifunkuto. When
this was done the Prime Minister was sent by the Council to
tell the Chief what was taking place in the countryside. It
was here in the Mbanja that vithzilamo (matangwa a cithzila
or public holidays) were set.
Holidays were declared, for example, when a Chief died
and the people were ordered to mourn their Chief and abstain
from heavy work. Also when the first rains fell the people
didn't work, they were told not to "cut" with the hoe. The
first rains are called chikaluvula.
All this was part of administering justice and governing
the country so that peace reigned in the country.
KASHITIKO (Punishment)
The Mbunda system of punishment was under
the power of the Chief. Punishment differed in accordance
with the kind of rule that had been violated, whether big or
small. When a person had breached a small rule like stealing
a chicken, goat or a quantity of cassava or millet or some
one's animal from a trap in the forest, he was subjected to
punishments which included having his feet placed in
shackles or 'fetters (kakunju), having his head tied between
two sticks (chingwali) and then left in the sun for him to
repent or renounce what he did and pay compensation.
If one had broken a considerable rule, assault for
example, he was made to pay. Often the relatives of the
offender paid for him in the form of a goat, cow, bull or
oxen. Sometimes even such things as clothes were paid.
If the offense 'committed was very important, maiming for
example, the relatives had to pay considerable sums or the
offender was sold as a slave. In the olden days a slave
might be given in payment. If a person did not pay he could
be beheaded. If the offence was adultery with the Chiefs
wife the guilty man was beheaded.
VUNDUNGO (Slavery)
Enslavement in the Mbunda conception was
selling away somebody or giving him or her away as a payment
for a fine, charge or offence so that he or she left his or
her own people to go and stay with people who were not
relatives. The following were the reasons that brought
slavery into the Mbunda country:
Wars
The female and children captives of wars
were made slaves to serve as servants of the victorious
people. Even some men were spared as it was often the Mbunda
custom to behead male captives.
Love of riches
The Chief often wanted to get rich so he
would buy disobedient people. People were sold for cloth and
guns to the Chief.
Crime Offenses and Fines
These created slavery because when one
had committed a serious offense, or in the case of the death
of a wife one was forced to give away a person in
compensation. If not he was often taken away into slavery.
It should be noted that in the case of a wife's death the
widower was not taken to be enslaved, he could only be taken
after his nephew or niece. Sometimes a kidnapped person held
for ransom was not ransomed and so he or she would become a
slave of the offended people.
Stranger (Mungendthzi)
when the Mbunda met a person at some
place or on a journey, especially if he was alone, he was
asked some questions and if he didn't say clearly where he
came from, he was taken for a slave because it was believed
that he was a fleeing slave because he could not say where
he/she came from.
Most of the slaves were often treated
very kindly, like members of the family of their masters. It
would be noted that the slave trade in the Mbunda country
was primarily introduced by the Vimbali people who were the
slave agents of the Portuguese. But few Mbunda became
slaves, far fewer than other ethnic groups because of Mbunda
bravery and fearlessness. At war they were the ones who took
slaves.
Economic
structure
The Kings maintained trade links with the
Portuguese merchants in the hinterland of the Bie plateaux
and on the Atlantic coastline through their long time agents
the Vimbali or Ovimbundu traders. Trade was carried out on a
large scale in such articles like partly processed wild
rubber, animal skins, beeswax and ivory, which were
exchanged for guns (mata), gunpowder (fundanga), salt,
woolen blankets and splendid clothing fabrics.
The Vimbali or Ovimbundu used to camp near local chiefs'
capitals or the villages of important Noblemen (Vimyata).
The Vimbali conducted their trading activities from these
camps. Bigger groups of Vimbali traders used to come in
caravans (vin'ola) with ox drawn wagons loaded with European
trade goods. The wagons were loaded with products from
Mbundaland before returning to Bie in the west. This trade
made the Mbunda prosperous by the standards of those days.
Well to do men had big stocks of cloth, blankets, guns,
gunpowder and enamelware utensils in their houses. In those
days the Mbunda did not like to wear trousers and scorned
anyone who wore them, calling them a "naked walker." This
trade was later disrupted by the Portuguese war of
occupation in 1914, which brought the country of the Mbunda
within the borders of Angola.
Trade connections also thrived with the adjacent
nationalities like the Akwanyama, Ovambo, Chokwe, Luvale,
Aluyi, Lwimbi, Herero, the Humbi, Chimbandi, Nyemba,
Ngonjelo, Lunda, the Vangati, Mashi, Mbukushu, Makoma and
Nyengo. This was before the Sesheke road, which white men
used to bring their merchandise into Barotseland existed.
This road came into existence during the reign of King
Lubosi Liwanika, thereafter.
The Mbunda also started trekking to Bie and beyond taking
their bee wax and elephant tasks for sale. They used to
travel on foot spending lots of nights during their
journeys. They used to travel in large groups of strong men,
not individually. Their merchandise of bee wax, elephant
tasks and animal skins were carried on their heads and
shoulders. They all traveled together, guarding each other
against wild animals and slave abductors who sold them into
slavery to Portuguese on the coastal line cities. On their
return, they traveled the same way in large groups, back
home, to the ululation of their relatives.
It is said that it was at this juncture that the Mbunda
began to own substantial herds of cattle which they mainly
obtained through bartering with the Akwanyama of Kowa area,
as well as the Herero, Vangali and Mbukushu of present day
Namibia which was known to the Mbunda as Chivanda.
Art
of the Mbunda Kingdom
The Mbunda people are divided into many
subgroups including the Katavola,
Mbalango, Sango, Yauma,
Nkangala, Ndundu,
Mashaka and Ciyengele (Shamuka)[25]
but share a common language, Mbunda. These
groups have many cultural similarities, including that they
all produce a huge range of sculptural art. The most notable
feature of this region’s figurative style is the relative
naturalism of the representation of both humans and animals.
"The musculature of face and body is carefully rendered, and
great attention is paid to items of personal adornment and
scarification. Much of the region’s art was produced for
social and economic benefit."
Art of making pots and jars of baked clay
They collect clay from the plain or the
river banks, put it in a special container called liwati and
wet it with water, after pounding it they then mix it with
burnt clay powder called vunga vwa vitambi.
Wood-carvings
Men cut pieces of trees and carve them
into pounding sticks, mortars, spear and fish-spear shafts,
knife-handles, walking sticks, axe and hoe handles, poles,
curios, canoes and oars and also musical instruments,
vithandthzi, a type of harp, vinkuvu, drums, stools, bowls,
pounding troughs and other utensils.
Weaving, bark-cloth making
Men peel off the bark of big trees such
as mushovi and munyumbe and hammer them on a plank with
mallets called vithano till they become soft. These bark
cloths are called vifundo and when the work is completed,
the vifundo or maina! can be worn around the waist and also
used as blankets.
Basket-making
Women make winnowing baskets, small bowl
baskets called vingalo for food and big bowl shaped baskets
called mendeko for keeping mealie meal and other things out
of the roots of mijalu trees and small roots called tujalu.
Men make fishing baskets called matambi out of a species of
reeds called manenga, mats out of mateve (papyrus) called
manala, also manala or mats out of long grass called
n'olokoko as well as mavoya and kambanga water grass.
Salt-making
Long ago the Mbunda people introduced
their own salt called mukele. Mukele is made out of the
following grasses: mulele, stalks of maize and millet,
mateve (papyrus) and cassava stalks.
Plant and animal oil-making
This is mainly for women again with the
help of men. Oil is made out of wild fruits that bears fat
and some of them are edible.
Social
structure
The Mbunda pay tribute to their Chiefs in
accordance with what a person may have. When hunters go out
hunting and they kill an elephant or a leopard, they take
the right elephant tusk or the leopard's skin to the Chief.
Those who specialize in bee-keeping would take the Chief
amounts of honey. Farmers would take part of what they have
harvested from their fields.
The Chief also gives gifts to his people, especially
visitors. He may give them food in the form of meat,
livestock, dried relish or meal i.e.-meal. The Prime
Minister (Mwato) takes them to the people concerned and he
says this is liiumbu (an offer in the form of food) from the
Chief.
Chieftainship depends upon its own people in order for it
to grow, be respected and be of good character and for other
tribes to acknowledge its dignity and self-respect.
Matrilineal succession
Enthronement to chieftainship is very
important because it is very special as it is the most
senior position in the leadership. Counselors, elders and
wise men gather to choose a successor. Preferably a nephew
of the deceased chief is sought more than a prince. But
sometimes even a son or a nephew born of a male cousin or
brother can be enthroned to rule over the people.
Succession is considered when the chief is very old or
has died. When the chief is very old he is given the name
Muthsi, that is to say "deceased" to indicate that he is old
and near to be succeeded. The successor is called Shwana
(one who inherits) or Chiinga (one who takes over).
On the day of succession it is a great event. The Prime
Minister (Mwato wa Mwene), the Counselors and the Prince (Munamwene)
prepare beforehand a lion's skin and fat, a leopard's skin
and then the throne. The Mwato wa Mwene and the counselors
of the capital rub the lion s fat on the one they have
chosen to be the successor and he is taken into the palace
where the lion's skin is placed on the floor. The Throne is
placed there on the skin and the successor is made to sit on
it with his feet on the hide. His shoulders are draped with
the leopard's skin and again more lion's fat is rubbed on
him. If it is a female chief a cowrie shell is worn around
her neck. The cowrie shell signifies royalty, belonging to
the royal blood. Female chiefs usually like to wear the
shell as part of their female ornaments. Male chiefs wear it
on special occasion, not everyday.
In a minor chieftainship, a female chief would succeed
another female chief but in the main chieftainship, the
Chuundi is for male chiefs only. The reasons for choosing a
female over a male are the same as for choosing a male to
succeed another male: First, seniority in age, second,
closeness in the line of succession, third, fairness in
satisfying the chiefly families, fourth, integrity of the
candidates and lastly, stability (or lack of it), of the
previous chiefs reign.
The chief is then told by the Noblemen (Vimyata) in
accordance with the traditional system how to reign and
govern the chiefdom. The lion's skin and fat as well as the
leopard skin are chosen by the Mbunda people for the
installation of the chief for the reason that these beasts
are thought to be brave, strong and great. So it is thought
that by using their hides and fat it signifies that the
Mbunda Chiefs have to be strong, courageous, fearless and
great as well as frightening to the people, like a lion.
Succession To Other Positions of Authority (vushwana or
chiingo)
Vushwsna is inheritance. That is taking
over from someone his property, his position or even his
name. Succession among ordinary people is such that when a
person is very old he chooses among his relatives the one
that his heart desires to succeed him, based on his
capabilities. The successor is called and the predecessor
takes his copper bracelet and places it on the chosen
successor and tells him what is expected of him. If a person
has died without a chosen successor the people who remain
have to choose from the deceased's kin one who is eligible
to take his place. The successor takes the name of the
deceased.
The succession of a village headman (vushwana vwa limbo)
This takes place when the people of that
village sit together and the issues pertaining to succession
are discussed. A person who is mature in age and wise enough
to govern the people is suggested. Beer is brewed
specifically for this function. A goat or a cow is killed
and the people who have come for this important event
celebrate by partaking in the drinking of beer and eating
the food offered. All the honorable people, i.e. the headmen
and their elders come to the newly appointed headman and
counsel him on all matters pertaining to village government
in accordance with Mbunda tradition.
Choosing a Mukwetunga (Consort)
Mukwetunga means one who has
married a Chiefs daughter or niece. To be a Mukwetunega in
the palace is not an easy thing for anyone. If a person is
to be appointed a Mukwetunga there has to be a Council which
sits down to choose a man who is courteous enough to be
appointed. The person to be chosen is kept ignorant of what
is going on in the capital. The Council is held before the
Chief in the evening. The Chief may suggest that in this
Chiefdom or in a particular village there is a young man
eligible to be Mukwetunega. He may even demand that this
person be "caught" and brought to the capital.
Often three Counselors are appointed to go and "catch"
the man suggested. When the messengers arrive at the place
of the person selected they talk with him softly and
persuade him. When he is persuaded he is brought to the
capital. The Chief is told and then as soon as they arrive
he is taken to the house of his new wife.
The reason the Mukwetunga had to be persuaded before
being brought to the capital was because, in olden times,
the customs in the capital were often very difficult and
hard to keep for many men, when one law was broken the
offender was beheaded. That is why many men didn't want to
be Vakwetunga.
Also, a Mukwetunga had no authority over his royal wife,
like other men had over their ordinary wives. In public a
Mukwetunga was respected and had his royal wife's prestige.
But as a husband he was not a free man, hence the
consortship was something usually accepted only with
reluctance. If a Mukwetunga failed to fulfill his functions
he was removed and replaced with a man with suitable
qualities. Ordinary people who lived in chiefs villages or
in ordinary villages were beheaded if they committed crimes
or acts of disobedience to the chief.
The chief would choose his own wives and people would be
sent to bring the women he had chosen to the palace to
become Mashano (queens). The chief often had many wives
because he could select for himself .
References
[1] Robert
Papstein, The Zambia Journal of History, Central
African Oral History Project, University of Zambia,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[2]
Almanac of African Peoples & Nations, page 523. By
Muḥammad Zuhdī Yakan,
Transaction Publishers, Putgers - The State University, 35
Berrue Circle, Piscataway, New Jersey
008854-8042, ISBN 1-56000-433-9,
[3]
Robert Papstein, 1994, The
History and Cultural Life of the Mbunda Speaking People,
Lusaka Cheke Cultural
Writers Association, pages 9,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[4]
Robert Papstein, 1994, The
History and Cultural Life of the Mbunda Speaking People,
Lusaka Cheke Cultural
Writers Association,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[5]
Almanac of African Peoples &
Nations page 523, Social Science By Muḥammad Zuhdī
Yakan, Transaction
Publishers, Putgers - The State University, New Jersey,
ISBN 1-56000-433-9
[6]
Historical Dictionary of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, By Emizet Francois
Kisangani, Scott F. Bobb,
page 336, 2009 - History, Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ISBN 978-0-8108-5761-2
[7]
Robert Papstein, 1994, The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People
Page 9, Lusaka Cheke Cultural Writers Association, ISBN
9982-03-006-X
[8]
Bantu-Languages.com describes
these languages as "a variety of Mbunda, also a K.10 Bantu
language, citing Maniacky
1997. These languages are not to be confused with Ngangela.
In fact
"Ngangela" is one of the
ethnographic classification categories invented during
colonial times in a
series of African countries
which do not correspond to one people held together by a
common
social identity"
[9]
Terms of trade and terms of
trust: the history and contexts of pre-colonial pages
133...By
Achim von Oppen, LIT Verlag
Münster Publishers, 1993,
ISBN 3-89473-246-6,
ISBN 978-3-
89473-246-2
[10]
Bantu-Languages.com describes
these languages as "a variety of Mbunda, also a K.10 Bantu
language, citing Maniacky
1997. These languages are not to be confused with
Ngangela. In fact
"Ngangela" is one of the
ethnographic classification categories invented during
colonial times in a
series of African countries
which do not correspond to one people held together by a
common
social identity"
[11]
Robert Papstein, 1994, The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People Page 32, Lusaka Cheke
Cultural Writers Association, ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[12]http://books.google.com/books?id=gUgwAQAAIAAJ&q=luvale+war&dq=luvale+war&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SMf-Ue3IMJL64APXgoHgAw&redir_esc=y
Robert Papstein, 1994, The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People, Lusaka Cheke Cultural
Writers Association, pages 63-64,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[13]
Robert Papstein, 1994,
The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People Page 46, Lusaka Cheke
Cultural Writers Association, ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[14]http://books.google.com/books?id=gUgwAQAAIAAJ&q=chokwe+mbunda+war&dq=chokwe+mbunda+war&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SMf-Ue3IMJL64APXgoHgAw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA
Robert Papstein, 1994, The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People, Lusaka Cheke Cultural
Writers Association, pages 79-81,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[15]http://books.google.com/books?id=gUgwAQAAIAAJ&q=masambo&dq=masambo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SMf-Ue3IMJL64APXgoHgAw&redir_esc=y
Robert Papstein, 1994, The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People, Lusaka Cheke Cultural
Writers Association, pages 84,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[16]
René Pélissier, La révolte des
Bunda (1916–1917), pp. 408 - 412 (French for "the Mbunda
revolt"), section footnotes citing sources: Luís Figueira,
Princesa Negra: O preço da civilização em África, Coimbra
Edição do autor, 1932
[17]
Robert Papstein, 1994,
The History and Cultural Life of
the Mbunda Speaking People Page xv, Lusaka Cheke
Cultural Writers Association, ISBN 9982-03-006-X
[18]
Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and Middle East,
Facts On File library of world history, Facts On File,
Incorporated, Social Science, Infobase Publishing, 2009,
ISBN 1-4381-2676-X, ISBN 978-1-4381-2676-0
Literature
- Jacky Maniacky, 1997,
"Contribution à l'étude des langues bantoues de la zone
K: analyse comparative et sous-groupements", Mémoire
pour l'obtention du DEA de langues, littératures et
sociétés, études bantoues, INALCO (Paris - France),
101p.
- Robert Papstein, 1994, The History and Cultural
Life of the Mbunda Speaking People, Lusaka Cheke
Cultural Writers Association,
ISBN 9982-03-006-X
- José Redinha, 1975, Etnias e Culturas de Angola,
Luanda: Instituto de Investigação Científica de Angola;
reprinted fac-simile by the Associação das Universidades
de Língua Portuguesa, 2009,
ISBN 978-989-8271-00-6
|