Kazembe (or Kasembe) is a name used for Mwata Kazembe's town in the

Luapula Province Luapula Province is one of Zambia's ten Provinces of Zambia, provinces located in the northern part of the country. Luapula Province is named after the Luapula River and its capital is Mansa, Zambia, Mansa. As per the 2022 Zambian census, the ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, especially on maps and in the Zambian postal service (as PO Kazembe). The other name for the town is Mwansabombwe ("where Mwansa works") and this is the one used by its or Luba or Chibemba-speaking inhabitants. They may refer in English to "Kazembe's Village" or just "Kazembe", as traditionally a settlement is named after the chief or headman, rather than the location. The Luba-Lunda shared with many tribes the custom (now discontinued) of moving to another village or a new site on the death of the chief. Historical references to a village or town may actually be to a different location. For instance when the explorer

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livings ...

visited Mwata Kazembe in 1867 and 1868, "Casembe's town", as he wrote it, was further north at the town now called Kanyembo. Mwansabombwe is situated where the Ngona River enters the swamps of the

Luapula River The Luapula River is a north-flowing river of central Africa, within the Congo River watershed. It rises in the wetlands of Lake Bangweulu (Zambia), which are fed by the Chambeshi River. The Luapula flows west then north, marking the border betw ...

south of

Lake Mweru Lake Mweru (also spelled ''Mwelu'', ''Mwero'') (, ) is a freshwater lake on the longest arm of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. Located on the border between Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, it makes up of the total length ...

. A number of channels through the swamps and lagoons connect to the main river channel about 5 km away, facilitating fishing and trade (mainly illicit) with

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. The town lies close to the middle point of the main artery of the Luapula Province, the tarred road informally known as the 'Valley Road' running from Mansa to Nchelenge, and connecting southwards first to the "Samfya Road" (from Mansa to Serenje) and then to the Great North Road at Serenje. A tarred road also connects eastwards via Mbereshi to the northern Zambian plateau at

Kawambwa Kawambwa is a town in the Zambian province of Luapula located on the edge of the northern Zambian plateau above the Luapula valley at an altitude of 1300 m. It was chosen as an administrative district of the same name by the British colonial au ...

. These features and its status since the 1890s as Mwata Kazembe's capital make Mwansabombwe one of the largest centres of trade, population and culture in the Luapula Valley with a population estimated at 50,000. It retains a rural and traditional African character relatively unmarked by the colonial era leading to it being called the "largest village in central Africa".

References

*David M. Gordon: "History on the Luapula Retold: Landscape, Memory and Identity in the Kazembe Kingdom". ''Journal of African History'', 47 (2006), pp. 21–42. Cambridge University Press. *Robert Cancel: "Asserting/inventing traditions on the Luapula: the Lunda Mutomboko Festival". ''African Arts'', Autumn, 2006. {{coord, 9, 49, S, 28, 45, E, display=title Luapula River Populated places in Luapula Province

See also

References