LUKWESA ILUNGA

Lukwesa Ilunga (circa 1740-October 1805) came to office as Kazembe (military governor) of the Luapula after Kanyimbu Newej Mpemb died in about 1760. While Kanyimba had introduced Lunda control east of the Luapula River (today the southeastern border of Congo), Lukwesa further extended Lunda rule by political and military means. He established commercial links with the eastern coast of Africa, allowing the Lunda empire to trade with maritime states.

In about 1750, to avoid a repetition of succession wars for the title of Kazembe, the Lunda Mwant Yav (ruler) at Musumba designated the ten-year-old Lukwesa Ilunga as the next Kazembe. Lukwesa was the oldest son of Idim Kaumb, Kazembe Kanyimbu’s brother. When Kanyimbu died, however, Lukwesa’s accession was not automatic for he had to dispose off a rival, his uncle Chitend.

Once invested as Kazembe, Lukwesa established his capital at Chungu on Lake Mweru, and forthwith began the wars of conquest expected of a new chief. At the head of a large army, whose leaders and Lunda warriors carried small quantities of firearms, Lukwesa enlarged his territory east of Lake Mweru. Returning to Chungu with considerable plunder in captives, ivory, and other products, he subdued the Tabwa and the Barungu. He remained at Chungu only a short time, leaving almost immediately to attack the Mambwe people south of Lake Tanganyika. Before departing for war against the Mambwe, he had named his maternal uncle, Chibamb Kasokot, as governor of Chungu with orders to capture alive the Shila chief, Katele, who was hiding in the swamp (See the article on Kanyimbu Newej Mpemb).

After an initial fruitless attempt, Chibamb Kasokot succeeded in capturing and killing Katele. In transgressing the Kazembe’s order to keep Katele alive, Chibamb had usurped a prerogative reserved to the Kazembe alone, the right to execute another chief. Thus, on his return from Mambwe and Tabwa, where his wife had given him a son, Chibang Chelek Muswa Musapu, surnamed Mai or Mwana-Wut, (meaning son of the rifle), Lukwesa had Chibamb’s ears cut off. To escape the anger of the Shila ancestors, who might punish the Lunda for Chibamb’s act, the Kazembe moved his capital about 20 km (12 mi) south of Lake Mweru, to Kantapala on the Mofwe lagoon.

Soon after, the Kazembe received the sister of Kawama wa Luemba, the Nkuba or supreme chief of the Shila. This woman, Na-Kituti, had come to ask the Kazembe to punish the Nkuba who had killed her son after an angry exchange of words between the two men.

The Kazembe took advantage of her request to put an end to the guerilla activities of the Shila, who, at the Nkuba’s instigation, had burned Lunda villages and kidnapped their women. The Kazembe gathered an army under the command of Kalandala, the Lunda governor-commander nearest to the territory of the Nkuba.

Kalandala took the Nkuba’s capital, Kisenga, discovered the Nkuba’s hideout, killed the Shila chief together with his brother Mulumbwa, and brought the enemies’ heads back to the Kazembe as trophies. Satisfied, Na-Kituti gave the Kazembe a small basket containing earth and a small vase of water, symbolising Shila ritual power over the land. Her gift made the Lunda legitimate possessors of the Shila lands where the capital of the Kazembe was located. Thus, Lukwesa conquered the entire countryside around Lake Mweru. This was his last and most important military conquest.

His military expeditions over, Lukwesa Ilunga set out to organise and consolidate not only his conquests, but also those of his predecessors Mutand Yembiyemb, Ngand a Bilond, and Kanyimbu Newej, into a coherent political system.

To administer his vast kingdom, the Kazembe Lukwesa placed loyal Lunda chiefs in charge of the new provinces. Local non-Lunda chiefs also received Lunda titles and were incorporated with their subjects into the Lunda system. For example, Kalandala and his brother Sa-Ntambw were sent to Kisenga as governors of the Shila while their deputy, Kashing, went to govern the island of Kilwa in Lake Mweru, where he subdued Chief Kaponto, and killed Chief Mukamba who resisted. Musand dispatched to reign over the west bank of Lake Mweru, conquered the territories of the Shila chiefs Kambala, Kyana, and Mulenga.

Chipep (Kipepa), sent to Pweto at the northern end of Lake Mweru to subdue and govern the Aanza, the northern Shila, and several minor groups of Luba-Hemba, brought these peoples under his authority and established his headquarters at Lunkinda. Kaswup (Kasump) went to the Kalunguishi River about 100 km (60 mi) east of Lake Mweru, where he governed the Tabwa of the Mununga lands and the groups which had been subject to them. Mwilu, placed in charge of the region northeast of Lake Bangweolu, lived at Lwena-lwa-Ntipa and governed the following Bena-Mbeba groups: the Ka- banda-Kalibu, Kapema, Ntenke, Kabila-wa-Katafu, Munkanta, Mwana-Katenda and Kitondo.

Three chiefdoms of the upper Luapula river area in Lubunda lands became provinces headed by representatives. Muland governed the northern Aushi west of the upper Luapula, while Matand, son of Kashib, ruled the southern Aushi.

Kazembe Lukwesa’s dignitary, Mwin Pand (a title meaning “Man of the Crossroads”), received the immense Bemba province north and west of Lake Bangweolu. He controlled the chiefdom of the supreme chief of the Bemba which included the Chishinga and the Bisa of Kinyimbe, Kipiko, and Kilando near the Chambezi River.

The Lungu and the two other Tabura groups, who voluntarily paid regular tribute to the Kazembe were allowed to retain their former chief, who was accepted into the Lunda aristocracy as a ‘perpetual’ relative of the Lunda. Except for the territories of Musokantanda, between modern Kolwezi and Likasi, the present mining arca of Upper Shaba was divided into two provinces. The eastern province, including a large area to the west of the Luapula River, was assigned to Kashib, who lived at Kalundwa, near the Lofoi Falls, about 160 km (100 mi) north of modern Lubumbashi. Kashib governed the Lomotwa and the Lembwe and had authority over the chiefs Ntondo, Kyaba, Sampwe Mwanshya, Katonda, Kimungu, and Mukebu.

The western province remained under the authority of Chiseng, who had proclaimed himself the Kazembe of the Lualaba and who governed the lands between the Lubudi and the Dikulwe rivers. Chiseng’s aggressiveness, a trait also manifest in his successors, drew the suspicion of both the Mwant Yav and of the Kazembe of the Luapula. This distrust explains why the Lunda, both of the east and the west, much later refused to aid Kazembe of the Lualaba when the Yeke of Misiri Ngelengwa began to infiltrate the region after 1850.

All the provincial governors regularly sent tribute to the Kazembe of the Luapula, who in turn sent gifts to the Mwant Yav. The Kanongish, Nshind, Musokantanda, Chinyama, Kiamfu of the Kwango, and Mai-Munene chiefs did the same. The tribute the Kazembe of the Luapula received came to him in the form of ivory, salt, copper from Katanga, shells from Lake Tanganyika, wrought iron, livestock, game, and fish.

In keeping with the warrior tradition of former Kazembes, Lukwesa maintained a considerable number of well-disciplined troops, while a well-organised and omnipresent intelligence service daily brought him news from all the corners of his kingdom. This messenger corps, in turn, transmitted his orders and made certain his decisions were carried to every part of the land. For his own security, Kazembe Lukwesa maintained numerous guard-houses and patrols.

The fame of Lukwesa’s Lunda kingdom reached the eastern coast of Africa, where it came to the attention of the Portuguese of Mozambique. Around 1790, Lukwesa learned the Portuguese were present at Tete on the Zambezi River. He was then successful in establishing commercial ties with them. In 1796, a mulatto named Manuel Gaetano Pereira came to Kazembe’s capital in search of ivory. On his return to Mozambique, he informed Dr. Francisco José de Lacerda e Almeida, governor of the Sena Province at Tete, of the Kazembe’s willingness to establish commercial relations with Tete. Pereira further suggested that Lacerda seize this opportunity to open a commercial route towards Angola.

With these two goals in mind, Lacerda organised an expedition of 50 armed men, including 18 Portuguese, and 40 porters. Directed by Lacerda himself, the group had not reached the Kazembe’s capital when, on October 2, 1798, Lacerda died and was buried not far from the royal cemetery.

The expedition’s chaplain, Fr. Francisco Joao Pinto, led the men on to the court of the Kazembe. Lukwesa graciously received these “children born in the water.” The Portuguese, however, disappointed the Kazembe, who alternated between showing them friendship and reproach. Pinto, was unable to impose discipline on his troops, who violated the laws of hospitality, committed murder, and abused the wives of Lunda notables. These actions influenced Kazembe’s decision to forbid the expedition to cross the Lunda lands and journey to Musumba, Cassange, and eventually Luanda on the Atlantic coast. Lukwesa explained his decision by citing extreme dangers, such as war, famine, and death, which faced travelers. He also noted that the Lacerda himself had died on the voyage.

In reality, Kazembe Lukwesa turned Pinto back because he wanted to maintain the trade monopoly with Tete, and because he considered Lacerda’s successor as a man without political power or authority. He understood, no doubt, the adventurous and frivolous character of the Pinto expedition, which eight months later returned empty-handed to Sena, leaving two of their members to wait for the Kazembe’s eventual authorisation to proceed to Tete.

Once the countryside was organised under his administration, Lukwesa became not only the principal political chief of the region between the Lualaba River and Lake Nyasa, but also the head of the principal trading power in east Central Africa. His capital, Montapala, became a regular starting point for the three trade networks: Cassange-Musumba-Mantapala; Mantapala-Lake Nyasa-Kilwa; Mantapala-Tete. Thus Lukwesa became extremely wealthy. Pinto described him as follows:

Kazembe Ilunga-Lukwesa had become, by the fact of his resounding conquests, of his incredible organisation, and of his prodigious trade, an African potentate of an unequalled power and unparalleled renown. His court had the splendor of the court of a monarch. The king was in the habit of sitting on his throne, dressed in his clothes of black silk bordered in red or in green.

He had a crown on his head, made of red feathers and covered with shells and brilliant prisms. His legs and arms were covered with pearls of diverse colors interlaced with rare shells. On his throne five leopard skins were laid out in the form of a star. Not far from his throne were placed on supports different sculptures representing figurines. Around the king stood his ministers, messengers, counsellors, the ladies of his court, and his pages, troops of armed soldiers stood in rows.

The parvis of the court was of extraordinary cleanliness; pages weeded without cease the least shoots of grass. Young girls kept up a brazier of burning coals in front of the throne: throwing on it some dried aromatic grasses from which came a light and perfumed smoke.

The Kazembe Ilunga Lukwesa died in October 1805. He was buried in the royal cemetery. His son Chibang Chelek, 27 years of age, succeeded him under the name Kazembe IV Chibang Kanyimbu.

TSHIBANGU KABET MUSAS