Kaonde
The people of Zambia's north-west — Luba-descended farmers and hunters whose territory holds the copper of Solwezi and Kansanshi, and whose chiefs still perform the Ntongo and Juba ceremonies over ground now valued for what is under it.
Kaonde people
Kaonde kyabu juan.jpg · Wikimedia Commons
Identity
Population: Around 300,000 in Zambia's North-Western Province
Location: Solwezi, Kasempa, Mufumbwe and Kalumbila districts, extending into the DRC
Language: Kaonde (Chikaonde)
Language family: Niger-Congo → Bantu (L40)
Traditional governance: Chiefs including Senior Chief Mumena and Chief Kapijimpanga, with matrilineal succession; the Zambian House of Chiefs; mining companies as a parallel power in practice.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Solwezi Kaonde
Communities around the provincial capital and the Kansanshi mine.
Kasempa Kaonde
The older heartland, with the senior chieftaincies.
Congolese Kaonde
Related communities across the border in Katanga.
Gallery
1 images
Culture
Clothing: Printed chitenge cloth; chiefly regalia with skins, beads and copper; ceremonial dress for the annual traditional ceremonies.
Food: Maize nshima with cassava, groundnut and pumpkin leaf relishes; game and fish; honey and caterpillars from the miombo woodland.
Ceremonies: Ntongo and Juba, the annual chiefly ceremonies with drumming, dance and the display of regalia; hunting rites; funerals with masked and drum performance.
Marriage customs: Matrilineal descent, with a man's sister's sons as heirs; bridewealth and bride service negotiated between lineages.
Initiation rites: Girls' initiation (kisungu) with seclusion and instruction; boys' initiation in some communities; hunting competence as adult standing.
Stories & Oral Literature
From Luba CountryOrigin tradition
Kaonde tradition traces the chiefly lines to migration from the Luba country of what is now the DRC, arriving in the north-west over several generations and establishing chieftaincies among earlier populations. The Luba connection is claimed in regalia, in succession practice and in the language's relationships.
Copper Under the ChieftaincyContemporary account
Kansanshi and Lumwana turned Solwezi from a quiet district town into one of Zambia's fastest-growing cities, and the North-Western Province from a byword for remoteness into the country's mining frontier. Kaonde chiefs negotiate with mining companies over land, resettlement and community benefit, with mixed outcomes and considerable friction.
Proverbs
“The forest feeds the patient hunter.”
Miombo woodland livelihoods.
“The nephew inherits the stool and the quarrel.”
Matrilineal succession.
“What glitters below does not warm the house above.”
Mining and local benefit.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Lesa as the creator; ancestors and territorial spirits active; chiefly authority tied to ancestral shrines and to the land.
Beliefs: Ancestor veneration through matrilineal lines; territorial spirits; diviners and healers; Christianity dominant, with older practice retained in chiefly ceremony.
Ancestors: Chiefly ancestors legitimate authority; matrilineal ancestors determine inheritance and succession.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Lesa
The creator, named across the Zambian Bantu world
Ancestral chiefs
The dead of the chiefly line, honoured at annual ceremonies
Territorial spirits
Powers of specific rivers, hills and groves
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Villages of pole-and-mud houses with thatch, dispersed through miombo woodland; Solwezi's rapid urban and mining-town growth.
Building techniques: Pole and mud with grass thatch; raised granaries; chiefly compounds with reception space for ceremony.
Village layout: Village around the headman's house with granaries and gardens; the chief's palace with ceremonial ground for Ntongo and Juba.
Artifacts
Chiefly regalia
Regalia
Skins, beads, copper and staffs of the Kaonde chieftaincies.
Hunting equipment
Craft
Bows, traps and guns of the miombo hunting tradition.
Kansanshi mine
Heritage
Copper deposit worked since precolonial times and now industrially.
Ntongo and Juba ceremonies
Festival
Annual chiefly gatherings with dance and regalia display.
Historical Timeline
1700s–1800s
Luba-derived chiefly lines establish themselves in the north-west.
1890s–1964
British South Africa Company and then colonial rule; the province remains marginal.
1964–2000s
Independence; the north-west remains outside the Copperbelt's economy.
2005–present
Kansanshi and Lumwana mines open; Solwezi becomes a boom city.
Present
Chiefs negotiate with mining companies over land and benefit-sharing.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Britannica: Zambia — peopleEncyclopaedia Britannica
- Zambia House of Chiefs recordsNational Assembly of Zambia
Premium & scholarly sources