Конго Демократиялық Республикасының Луба халқы

Ethnolinguistic group indigenous to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Luba people or Baluba are an 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 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 the Baluba had settlements around the lakes and marshes of the Upemba Depression by the 5th century CE. Of these, the Kisalian period (8th to 11th century) pottery and utensils found. These products attracted interest and demand from far off ethnic groups, creating trade opportunities and traders amongst 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. " [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 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 the neighboring Lunda people and other ethnic groups. 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 the black king Ilunga Mbidi Kiluwe. According to the Luba people's oral history,

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. 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 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. 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 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.

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 a natural border; additionally, their neighbors blocked direct and regular contact with distant international traders in order to monopolize the profits. By the 1850s, slavers began intruding into 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), 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,

Msiri, a Tanzanian operator supplying ivory and slaves to the Sultan of Zanzibar, raided and took over the southeastern Shaba region of Luba people. By 1874, another Arab Swahili trader Juma bin Salum wad Rakad, and 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 the Luba population. 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. 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 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 Luba religions accepts the possibility of communion between the living and the dead. 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 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. According to scholars such as Daniel Kabozi, some of the intricate art works of 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 the world.