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Zaire Peoples of the Savanna: Southeastern Zaire
In eastern Shaba, stretching from the border with
Tanzania and
Zambia roughly to the Lualaba River, Vansina has
distinguished
three sets of communities: the Bemba cluster, the Hemba
cluster,
and the Haut-Katanga cluster encompassing peoples of
Haut-Shaba
Subregion (formerly Haut-Katanga). Settlement patterns are
geographically fragmented so that representatives of one
cluster
live cheek by jowl with representatives of another or
constitute an
enclave in another group's territory.
The area has a long history of conquest and conflict.
Most of
the peoples of Haut-Shaba were subjects of the Kazembe
Kingdom of
Luapula, an offshoot of the Lunda Empire whose center was
farther
west. The Kaonde, the southwesternmost people in the
Haut-Katanga
cluster, living in present-day Lualaba Subregion (of Shaba
Region),
were ruled by still another Lunda king. After the middle
of the
nineteenth century, a group of long-distance traders, the
Nyamwezi
of central Tanzania, established the Yeke Kingdom, which
lasted for
thirty years. The introduction of new cultural elements by
the Yeke
and their trading activities both east and west had
longer-range
effects than the establishment of their political rule
itself.
All of these kingdoms came to an end before the
beginning of
the twentieth century, leaving their people with polities
of much
smaller scale. The political pattern that preceded the
institution
of kingship and outlasted it was based on chiefs of the
earth,
basically ritual offices essential for maintaining
fertility, and,
occasionally, political chiefs.
Data as of December 1993
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