Kasembe and the Bemba (Awemba) Nation
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KASEMBE AND THE BEMBA (AWEMBA) NATION [The following notes are reprinted, by permission of the Author, from a little Handbook to the language of this interesting Central African tribe: about to be issued by the London Missionary Society.] HISTORICAL NOTE. THE people whose language is described in this book now inhabit a district about 18,000 square miles in extent, lying between Lakes Bangweulu, Mweru and Tanganyika, on one side, and the Anglo-German boundary and Senga country, on the other. They were correctly spoken of by Dr. Livingstone as Bemba,1 but among Europeans they are more generally called by the name given them by their Mambwe neighbours, of Awemba. The earliest references to the Bemba people are found in accounts of trading expeditions which were made to the land of the Kasembe, about a hundred years ago, and published at Lisbon, in 1854, under the title of O Muata Casembe. The first recorded visit to the country was made by Manoel Caetano Pereira, the half-caste son of a Goanese trader named Gonc,alo Caetano Pereira, who visited the Kasembe's village in 1796, on one of his trading expeditions. On his return to Tete, on the Zambesi, the report of his journey, and the account which he gave of that country as an opening for trade, were such as to lead Dr. Francisco Jose de Maria Lacerda e Almeida, governor of Tete, to equip an expedition to the land of Kasembe. Leaving in July, 1798, with Pereira as guide, Lacerda suc- ceeded in reaching that chiefs kraal in October, but so ex- 1 The root of the name would seem to be -tmba, which it a Bantu root meaning " Lake " (Liewtia, Pkmia, Ltumba, &c). Bu-mba or Aba-mba (easily contracted to Pemba) would mean the people of the take—Editor. 184 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY hausted by the fatigues of the journey, that he died there shortly after his arrival. His chaplain, Father Francisco J0S0 Pinto, returned to Tete in November, 1799, with the shattered remains of the expedition. In 1802, Honorado da Costa sent two Pombeiros,1 named Pedro Joao Baptista and Anastacio Jose, from Angola. These men made a successful journey from Kasanji, via Kasembe's country to Tete. In 1831-2, Major Monteiro and Captain Gamitto travelled from Sena, on the Zambezi, to the land of Kasembe. From journals kept by several of these travellers we gather that "Kasembe" is the hereditary title applied to the most powerful of the local chiefs ; but that he was subject to the Mwata-ya-nvo,1 a potentate, whose chief town was Kabebe, near the borders of Angola, and almost in the centre of the African continent The position of Kabebe, which was visited by the Pombeiros in May, 1802, is given as about 8* S. lat, 23$* E. long.—about sixty days' march from where Kasembe lived. Kasembe's village was, at that time, at Chungu, near the little lake of Mofu, but his territory began at the River Luburi (n° S., 250 E.). Mention is made of a powerful chieftain living near that river, and named Chamuginga, who had been estab- lished there by the Mwata-ya-nvo, as ruler over the Senga (or Senda), but who was subject to both the Mwata and the Kasembe. The first Kasembe, named Kanyimbe, had come from Lunda- country, further to the west, about the year 1730, and invaded the country occupied by Senga and Bisa tribes. Having defeated the former, under their chief, Katere, he settled for a time in their country, to the south-west of Lake Mweru, on the western side of the Luapula. Kanyimbe was succeeded in turn by Chinyata, Nguandamilonda* and Kanyembo, This last, Kaserabe-Kanyembo* was the slave Mutanda* son of the Mwata-ya-nvo, who had sent him eastwards, with the object of establishing trade relations with the Yao and other 1 Half-cute native traders. * Also called Mulopwe. 1 Abo called Ngangabilcmdfl. 4 Alto called Cinhrmbo, Kiyombo, KwinhaU and Kwinyatu. • Also called Mnkurtza, KASEMBE AND THE BEMBA (AWEMBA) NATION 185 tribes. He was left by his master at Chungu, to superintend the salt industry in that district, and to send the necessary supplies of salt to Mwata-ya-nvo. Kanyembo did this so suc- cessfully, and sent such liberal supplies, that Mwata-ya-nvo refused to accept of the smaller gifts offered by his master. Jealousy was aroused, and Mutanda drowned his slave Kanyembo, in the River Lualaba. The Mwata-ya-nvo, however, deposed Mutanda, and established Lekesa, Kanyembo's son, as the Kasembe. This Lekesa1 was the first to see a European, and it was he who received Pereira in 1796, and Lacerda in 1798. He seems to have been a powerful ruler, for he finally subdued the Sira and banished their chief Kapaka to Kasanji. He is always praised, and was respected both by European and native. Probably it was the presence of Kapaka at Kasanji, which led da Costa to send his expedition from thence in 1802. Lekesa was succeeded by Chireka* who was ruling, and looking about fifty years old when Gamitto visited him in 1831. His character seems to have been very different from that of Lekesa, and he is not well spoken of. His sister Mpembe was an im- portant chieftainess, and his chief wives were Mwalyangombe and Intemena. Up to about this time the Bisa were probably the largest tribe, and they occupied most of the country from the river Luangwa, in the south, to Lake Tanganyika, and from near the present German boundary on the east to the river Luburi (25° E. long.) on the west. They seem, however, to have formed several sections—the Senga, living between the Luburi and the Luapula, the Malua towards the north of Lake Mweru, and the Sira in the Muchinga country. The country was, moreover, being rapidly over-run, and the tribe dispersed. The Lunda, under the Kasembe, were forcing their way in from the west, and having conquered the Senga chiefs Kapembe* and Muiro, had settled a head man, named Chewe,* in that district The reigning Kasembe had, indeed, advanced further and settled at Chungu, near the village of his successors, and had even conquered the Sira in Muchinga-land. 1 Also called Lekwisa, Leqnexa, Aneeva, Ilongamurongo, and Kanyembo IV. (Canbembo). 1 Abo oiled Kanyembo V. (Canhembo). * Or Cambembc * Or Qaibi. 186 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY The Fipa* had invaded the country from the north-east, and from the north-west, the Bemba, under a Chitimukulu, were approaching through the lands of their congeuitors the Malua. To the south, beyond the Luangwa, lay (also in several sections) the Marave races, whose country extended to the Zambezi First, near the north, was that section of the tribe known as the Tambuka, further south were the Chewa, under the Mukando, then the great body of the Maravi, under the chief Unde. A certain amount of trade was carried on with those southern tribes and with the Zambezi, extending even to the Yao and other East-coast tribes. The next traveller to give us any information about the people was Dr. Livingstone, who visited a Kasembe in 1867. There had been in the interval two expeditions to the country, one in 1853 led by a Portuguese named Freitas, and one (or, perhaps, two) conducted by an Arab named Muhammad bin Saleh. Livingstone tells us that Kasembe- Chireka had been succeeded by three of his sons in succession—Kapumba, Chinyanta and Lekwisa. The last-named had been driven from the country in 1862 by Muongo, also a son of Chireka, but by a slave woman. Mwongo was the Kasembe who received Livingstone in 1867. He also found Mperembe, the son of Katere, who had been conquered by the first Kazembe, still living. He must have been nearly ninety years old, for in Lacerda's time (1798) he had already children. The Arab Hamid bin Muhammad bin Juma Borajib, known to the natives as Tiputipu, was at this time settled at Ponde, from whence he seriously menaced Nsama, the Bemba ruler of Itaba-country. Kasonso was the chief of the Lungu, and Chitimbwa, chief of the Mambwe, had just died. The Bemba tribe seem at this time already to be occupying the district in which they now are settled. It is difficult to reconcile the history as thus handed down by European observers, with the traditions collected from the Bemba themselves by Robert Young, Esq., the District Commis- sioner to their country. The natural tendency of a people to 1 Called locally Musulcuma. KASEMBE AND THE BEMBA (AWEMBA) NATION 187 augment the importance of their own tribe, and to increase its antiquity is particularly apparent when we find lists of chiefs claimed sufficient to cover a period of over 350 years. Tradition reports correctly that a Kasembe, a Chiti, and a Chewe, originally of one stock, invaded the country, coming from the Lunda-country to the west of their present abodes. It speaks also of Kolemfumu and Kanyanta, whom it has not been possible to trace. It speaks of an easterly advance having been occasioned by the visit of " white men " from the west (probably Pereira, in 1796). One Kasembe (probably K.-Kattyetn6o) settled in the Chungu neighbourhood and a Chewe settled in the salt country of Senga, as above indicated, but Chiti and Kolemfumu continued to move eastwards. The latter was wounded in the arm, in a fight with the Senga, caused by bis having had an intrigue with the young wife of their chief Mwasi, then in the Luangwa Valley.