Ilunga is a relatively common personal name in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .
48-465: The name ILUNGA derives from the verb " kulunga ", which means to unite, unify, gather or put together. ILUNGA is the name that the BALUBA give to those they consider to be unifying or bringing people together. " Kulunga " opposes the verb " kusansanya ", which means to separate or to divide. In June 2004, "ilunga" was reported as being a Bantu word meaning "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for
96-624: A Muscat Arab of the ruling class. His father and paternal grandfather were coastal Arabs of the Swahili Coast who had taken part in earlier slave-trading expeditions to the interior. His paternal great-grandmother, wife of Rajab bin Mohammed bin Said el Murgebi, was the daughter of Juma bin Mohammed el Nebhani, a member of a respected Muscat ( Oman ) family, and a Bantu woman from the settlement of Mbuamaji, south of what would later become
144-673: A Nganga or Mfwintshi (healer) were in service who would perform Lubuko (divination). The religious thought did not limit itself to rituals, but included ideas of a good personhood, good heart, dignity for others and self-respect. The religious code of civil life and goodness affected the Luba social life. Christianity was introduced to the Luba people by colonizers who came with the Belgium colonial rule. Some of these missionaries, such as William Burton, performed ethnographic research, starting with an aggressive projective research and teaching
192-710: A Shakapanga or a Universal Creator, a Leza or the Supreme Being, a natural world and a supernatural world. The supernatural world was where Bankambo (ancestral spirits) and Bavidye (other spirits) lived, and what one joined the afterlife if one lived an Mwikadilo Muyampe (ethical life). The Luba religions accepts the possibility of communion between the living and the dead. The religious life included prayers, community singing, dances, offerings, rites of passage rituals and invocations. These rituals and services had intermediaries for rites such as Nsengha or Kitobo (priests). In addition, for anxiety and ailments,
240-580: A community, the Luba people constructed dams and dikes as high as 6 to 8 feet using mud, papyrus and other vegetation, to improve the marshy soil conditions for agriculture and stock fish during the long dry season. The metal working techniques in use by the early Luba people included drawing out thin wires, twisting them, laminating them, and plaiting them into items such as necklaces, bracelets and hooks for fishing, needles for sewing and such. These products attracted interest and demand from far off ethnic groups, creating trade opportunities and traders amongst
288-479: A friend of Tippu Tip, had entered into an agreement with one of the Ilunga Kabale's son and established the base of his elephant hunting and ivory trade operations in the heart of the Luba people's lands. The Arab-Swahili raids, such as those by Tippu Tip, into Luba people's lands were organized with Nyamwezi subordinates and slave armies. These raids and attacks by the outsiders also introduced smallpox into
336-518: A group of about 100 men into Central Africa seeking slaves and ivory. After plundering several large swathes of land, he returned to Zanzibar to consolidate his resources and recruit for his forces. Following this he returned to mainland Africa. Tippu Tip built a slave-trading empire, and is considered the second wealthiest Muslim slave trader in history, using the proceeds to establish clove plantations on Zanzibar . Abdul Sheriff reported that, when he left for his twelve years of "empire building" on
384-410: A natural border; additionally, their neighbors blocked direct and regular contact with distant international traders in order to monopolize the profits. This originally shielded the Luba from the effects of the slave trade. Later, however, the Luba people became victims of the slave demand and trading, in some cases selling people from their own lands as slaves. By the 1850s, slavers began intruding into
432-568: A relationship and loyalty with the Luba Empire capital. The ivory and slave trade had grown to the east of the Luba Empire by the mid 19th-century; the natural supplies of ivory were exhausted whilst the international demand was increasing. The region under the Luba people had preserved herds of elephants. For example, the Kanyembo region had no ivory to sell. In 1840, after Kumwimbe Ngombe died of old age, king Ilunga Kabale succeeded to rule
480-639: A threat to the Arab-Swahili trade. The Free State government sent a force under commander Francis Dhanis to the East. Dhanis had an early success when chief Ngongo Lutete changed sides from Sefu's to his. The better armed and organised Belgian force defeated their opponents in several fights until the death of Sefu on 20 October 1893, and finally forcing also Rumaliza to flee to German territory in 1895. After returning to Zanzibar around 1890/91, Tippu Tip retired. He set out to write an account of his life, which
528-423: Is compassionate, keeps his distance, one with self control. Mbidi marries the sister of Nkongolo, and they have a son named Kalala. Nkongolo gets jealous and fearful of Kalala, and schemes to murder him. The guardian spirits, knowing the scheme, protect Kalala by (...) The Luba people were a part of a large state in the 16th and 17th centuries, ruled by a Balopwe through delegation to regional chiefs. According to
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#1732793048484576-640: Is the first example of the literary genre of autobiography in the Bantu Swahili language . Dr. Heinrich Brode, who knew him in Zanzibar, transcribed the manuscript into Roman script and translated it into German. It was subsequently translated into English and published in Britain in 1907. Tippu Tip died June 13, 1905, of malaria (according to Brode) in his home in Stone Town , the main town on
624-864: The Bahr el Ghazal area as a result of the Mahdi uprising in Sudan. Tippu Tip travelled back to the Upper Congo in the company of Stanley, but this time by way of the Atlantic coast and up the Congo River . Aside from its doubtful usefulness, the relief expedition was marred by the near annihilation of its rearguard. After his tenure as governor, the Congo–Arab War broke out. Both sides fought with armies consisting mostly of local African soldiers fighting under
672-738: The Stanley Falls District in the Congo Free State . Both Leopold and Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar agreed and on February 24, 1887, Tippu Tip accepted. At the same time, he agreed to man the expedition which Stanley had been commissioned to organize for the purpose of rescuing Emin Pasha (E. Schnitzer), the German governor of Equatoria (a region of Ottoman Egypt , today in South Sudan ) who had been stranded in
720-568: The Sultan of Uterera , a short-lived state in Kasongo , Maniema ruled by himself and his son Sefu who was an emir of the local WaManyema . Tippu Tip traded in slaves for Zanzibar 's clove plantations. As part of the large and lucrative trade, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa , constructing profitable trading posts deep into the Congo Basin region and thus becoming
768-531: The Swahili . The Luba people tended to cluster in single street villages, with homes with rectangular thatched roofs on both sides of the street whose lineage is usually related. The homes were in the savanna and forests. They hunted, fished in abundant waters near them, gathered food such as fruits from the wild and had mastered agriculture. In contemporary era, they grow cassava , corn, raise livestock. Some Luba carve wood and produce artist handicrafts. Art
816-682: The 400s CE, later developing a well-organised community in the Upemba Depression known as the Baluba in Katanga confederation. Luba society consisted of miners, smiths, woodworkers, potters, crafters, and people of various other professions. They found relative success over time, but this eventually caused their gradual decline with the Portuguese and Omani empires led or influenced invasions . Archaeological evidence suggests that
864-472: The Angolan traders from regular contact with the Luba people. Around the start of the 19th-century, the oral traditions of both the Luba and Kanyok people suggest a major conflict, led by mutual raids. This conflict helped the Luba Empire grow, as its king Ilunga Sungu entered into new territories and formed marriage alliances. By 1810 when he died, his fame and reverence among the Luba people had peaked and
912-413: The Arab-Swahili chiefs such as Tippu Tip and Msiri , states Thomas Reefe. A prominent sociopolitical system of the Luba Empire was the adoption of two layers of power, one of Balopwe (hereditary kingship) and another a council of royals or elders. These provided governmental stability through mutual balancing, when there were disputes of succession from death or other causes. This idea was adopted by
960-669: The Baluba had settlements around the lakes and marshes of the Upemba Depression by the 5th century CE. The evidence suggesting an advanced Iron Age society came from multiple sites. The Kamilambian , Kisalian and Kabambian series of evidence has been dated to be from 5th to 14th-century, suggesting a settled stable Luba culture over many centuries. Of these, the Kisalian period (8th to 11th century) pottery and utensils found. The finds dated to pre-8th century by modern dating methods are iron objects or pottery, thereafter copper objects appear. The archaeological studies suggest that
1008-598: The Congo . Baluba The Luba people or Baluba are a Bantu ethno-linguistic group indigenous to the south-central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in Katanga , Kasaï , Kasaï-Oriental , Kasaï-Central , Lomami and Maniema . The Baluba consist of many sub-groups or clans. The Baluba developed a society and culture by about
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#17327930484841056-610: The Democratic Republic of the Congo. That same year, Katanga Province , which was home to a considerable number of Luba, attempted to secede under Moise Tshombe as the State of Katanga . The Luba were divided, with one faction under Ndaye Emanuel supporting the secession, and another under Kisula Ngoye supporting the central government. United Nations peacekeepers in Congo, as part of the ONUC force came into conflict with
1104-688: The Europeans. When, in August 1886, fighting broke out between the Swahili and the representatives of King Leopold II of Belgium at Stanley Falls , al-Murjabī went to the Belgian consul at Zanzibar to assure him of his "good intentions". Although he was still a force in Central African politics, he could see by 1886 that power in the region was shifting. In early 1887, Stanley arrived in Zanzibar and proposed that Tippu Tip be made governor of
1152-643: The German capital of Dar es Salaam in present-day Kigamboni District. Throughout his lifetime Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi was more commonly known as Tippu Tib , which translates to "the gatherer together of wealth". According to him, he was given the nickname Tippu Tip after the "tiptip" sound that his guns gave off during expeditions in Chungu territory. At a relatively young age, Tippu Tip led
1200-418: The Luba Empire has been derived from foreign documents. The later written texts suggest that the Luba people had developed sophisticated literary traditions around their concepts of good and evil, and integrated these concepts and their religious ideas into their legends about morality and people with power. For example, one legend relates to two kings, one called the red king Nkongolo Mwamba and other called
1248-542: The Luba Empire rapidly between 1860 and 1880s, and accelerated its demise. In parallel, the news of disarray and confusion from many corners of the Luba Empire, led to internal disputes on succession and strategy when the Luba king Ilunga Kabale died in 1870. By 1868, Said bin Habib el-Afifi had raided Luba operations and with force taken 10,500 pounds of copper. By 1874, another Arab-Swahili trader Juma bin Salum wad Rakad, and
1296-544: The Luba people began to coalesce into a single, unified state which historians now call the Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire . The kingdom grew and became more sophisticated over time, reaching its peak between 18th to 19th-century. "...[I]ntegration into the forward edges of the expanding frontiers of international trade tore the Empire apart" in tandem with the advances of the 19th-century slave and ivory trade from Belgium and
1344-478: The Luba people lands. Despite a ban on slave trading in the Western world, the eastern and northern parts of Africa, led by Arab-Swahili slave and ivory traders entered into the eastern and northeastern regions of the Luba Empire. These intruders came with guns, experience of running caravans, and other tools of war. Although the weapons of the Luba people were not primitive (with implements such as blades and bows),
1392-475: The Luba people lived in villages, in homes made of reeds and wattle , around the shores of numerous streams and lakes found in the Upemba Depression of Central Africa. This Depression has been historically flooded from the water runoff from southern Shaba highlands for parts of the year, its water bodies filled with papyrus islands and floating vegetation, the region drying out after rains ended. As
1440-464: The Luba people until his death in 1870. By then, the region of Luba people and their empire covered much of what is now the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, extending for hundreds of kilometers from their early 19th-century heartland. The success and wealth of Luba people grew in relative isolation because they were far from the eastern and western coasts of Africa, living in comparatively inaccessible terrain. The forests and mountains provided
1488-769: The Luba people was swift." Msiri , a Tanzanian operator supplying ivory and slaves to the Sultan of Zanzibar, raided and took over the southeastern Shaba region of Luba people. Its other side, the southwestern borders were breached by the Ovimbundu ivory and slave hunters operating with the Portuguese. While slaves could no longer be exported to the Americas, they were used for work and caravan operations within Africa. Breaches from all sides, by better equipped armies, weakened
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1536-520: The Luba people were mnemonic devices, a form of symbolic coded script to aid preserving information and recalling the history and knowledge of the Luba. The Luba people, according to Mary Roberts, developed "one [of] the most complex and brilliant mnemonic systems in Africa for recording royal history, king lists, migrations, initiation esoterica and family genealogies", such as the Lukasa memory board . This artwork are now found in numerous museums of
1584-616: The Luba people. Luba Catholics would later produce the famed Missa Luba , a form of the Latin Mass inculturated in the Luba arts and expression. This would lay the groundwork for the Zaire Use , a full-on rite of the Mass based on (and used primarily in) the Congo. According to a 2011 source, an estimated 12% of Luba are adherents of Islam. Islam spread among the Luba during the 19th and 20th century due to increasing contact with
1632-460: The Luba people. This trade and all economic activity in the villages of Luba people had a tribute system, where a portion of the hunt, fish or produce was given to the lineage head or the people guarding the borders. These were natural borders, such as that created by waters of Lake Upemba, where passage across required channels and bridges. The movement into and out of the Luba people lands was thus controlled and taxed. Around 1500, possibly earlier,
1680-407: The Luba population. In 1885 Leopold II , king of Belgium , secured European recognition of his right over the territories that became what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first Belgian expedition into the Luba people's region arrived in 1891. The king of Belgium, impressed with the accomplishments of Tippu Tip in getting resources from central Africa, appointed him the governor of
1728-461: The Luba. On 8 November 1960, an Irish Army patrol was ambushed outside Niemba . In the fighting, the Irish soldiers killed 25 Baluba with their firearms, and 9 of the 11 Irish were killed. When Tshombe's breakaway regime collapsed in 1965, Kisula Ngoye became the liaison between the Luba people and the central government. The traditional religious beliefs of the Luba people included the concept of
1776-567: The best-known slave trader in Africa, supplying much of the world with enslaved Africans. He also bought ivory from WaManyema suppliers in Kasongo, the capital of the Sultanate of Utetera and resold it at coastal ports. Based on descriptions of his age at different points in his life, it is believed that Tippu Tip was born around 1832 in Zanzibar. Tippu Tip's mother, Bint Habib bin Bushir, was
1824-538: The black king Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe . According to the Luba people's oral history, There are two kings, the Nkongolo Mwamba or red king, and Mbidi Kiluwe or black king. Nkongolo Mwamba is the violent, cruel and drunken despot; Mbidi Kiluwe is the gentle, just and refined one. Nkongolo is one who gets drunk, is ruthless, mocking, raping, robbing other, seen without manners. Mbidi Kiluwe is the opposite, one obsessed with good manners, thoughtful, who speaks carefully,
1872-609: The command of either Arab or European leaders. When Tippu Tip left the Congo, the authority of King Leopold's Free State was still very weak in the Eastern parts of the territory and the power lay largely with local Arabic or Swahili strongmen. Amongst these were Tippu Tip's son Sefu bin Hamid and a trader known as Rumaliza in the area close to Lake Tanganyika . In 1892, Sefu bin Hamed attacked Belgian ivory traders, who were seen as
1920-416: The first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time", and – in the opinion of 1,000 linguists surveyed on the subject – the world 's most difficult word to translate . Ilunga is a family name placed before the given name . There are many famous African and African-descended people named Ilunga. For example: Tshiluba is a language spoken in southeastern Democratic Republic of
1968-671: The mainland, he had no plantations of his own. By 1895, he had acquired "seven 'shambas' [plantations] and 10,000 slaves". He met and helped several Western explorers of the African continent , including David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley . Between 1884 and 1887, he claimed the Eastern Congo for himself and for the Sultan of Zanzibar, Bargash bin Said el Busaidi . In spite of his position as protector of Zanzibar's interests in Congo , he managed to maintain good relations with
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2016-441: The neighboring Lunda people and other ethnic groups. The development and evolution of the Luba Empire, and the life of Luba people therein, has been unclear. This is in part because the Luba people were an entirely oral tradition culture where knowledge and records were held verbally without the use of a script. The orthography for the Luba language, called kiLuba , was invented in the 19th century; thus, early information about
2064-463: The opposing forces had more advanced weapons. David Livingstone, in his memoir, wrote how amazed the Luba people were with the guns, as they thought they were tobacco pipes; the firearm was the primary tool used against large populations of the Luba. Slave and ivory trader, Tippu Tip for example wrote, "Luba had no guns, their weapons were bows and arrows; guns they did not know. The guns we have with us, they asked us, 'Are they pestles?' The conquest of
2112-487: The oral tradition by inabanza Kataba , the empire expanded over time, with a major consolidation in the 18th century, partly triggered by the desire by rivals to control the salt and iron mines in the south. The Luba Empire was shielded from Portuguese and other colonial interests by the Lunda Empire , which lay to their southeast. This shielding was noted by David Livingstone in his travel memoirs, and likely blocked
2160-512: The region that included the Luba people's territory. The Luba people were forced to work in the copper and gemstone mines of the Katanga province during the Belgian rule, causing numerous mining-related deaths. They rebelled in 1895, then again from 1905 to 1917, and these insurrections were subdued through military intervention. In 1960, the Belgians, faced with rising demand for independence and an end to colonial rule, granted independence to
2208-430: The site of his royal court had become Kitenta (royal sacred village) where his spirit was venerated. After the death of Ilunga Sungu, Kumwimbe Ngombe came to power leading his warriors to expand southeast with contacts with traders from East Africa. After his victory, in accordance with Luba traditions, the conquered chiefs and rulers had to marry sisters or daughters from the Luba ruling family in order to tie them into
2256-402: The world. Tippu Tip Tippu Tip , or Tippu Tib (c. 1837 – June 14, 1905), real name Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī ( Arabic : حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي ), was an Afro-Omani ivory and slave owner and trader, explorer, governor and plantation owner. He worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar and was
2304-476: Was well-developed in the Luba culture. Pottery, articles crafted from iron (such as axes, bows and spears), wooden staff and carvings and parts clad in sheets of copper were routinely produced. A notable artform of the Luba people was the Mwadi , where the male ancestors were represent in their female incarnations of the ancestral kings. According to scholars such as Daniel Kabozi, some of the intricate art works of
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