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Angola Lunda and Chokwe Kingdoms
The Lunda Kingdom lay east, beyond Matamba and Kasanje.
It
developed in the seventeenth century, and its center was
in
present-day Zaire's western Shaba Province (formerly
Katanga
Province). The Lunda Kingdom expanded by absorbing the
chiefs of
neighboring groups in the empire, rather than by deposing
them. The
Lunda consolidated their state by adopting an orderly
system of
succession and by gaining control of the trade caravans
that passed
through their kingdom.
The Portuguese hoped to deal directly with the Lunda
for slaves
and thus bypass the representatives of the Matamba and
Kasanje, who
acted as intermediaries. Apparently entertaining similar
ideas, the
Lunda attacked Matamba and Kasanje in the 1760s. The
Lunda,
however, proved no more successful than the Portuguese at
totally
subduing these Mbundu kingdoms.
The Chokwe, who, according to oral accounts, migrated
from
either central Africa or the Upper Kasai region in
present-day
Zaire, established themselves as trading intermediaries in
eastern
Angola in the middle of the nineteenth century. With guns
that they
obtained from the Ovimbundu, they attacked and destroyed
the Lunda
Kingdom in 1900. The Chokwe rapidly expanded their
influence in the
northeast and east, replacing the Lunda culture with their
own
language and customs.
Data as of February 1989
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