Luvale people

The Luvale people, also spelled Lovale, Balovale, Lubale, as well as Lwena or Luena in Angola, are a Bantu ethnic group found in northwestern Zambia and southeastern Angola. They are closely related to the Lunda and Ndembu to the northeast, but they also share cultural similarities to the Kaonde to the east, and to the Chokwe and Luchazi, important groups of eastern Angola.

The Luvale language belongs to the larger Niger-Congo language phylum, and is considered a west central Bantu language. It is recognized as a regional language for educational and administrative purposes in Zambia, where 168,000 people speak it (2006).

Prior to settling in the Congo, the Luvale originally came from north of Lake Tanganyika in an area located between the Eastern Rift mountains and Lake Victoria. Oral tradition holds that the first leader among these migrants was Kenga Naweji. During the migration south, she became too old to move, and set up her first camp at Lake Tanganyika. The trek then continued on until they reached the present day Democratic Republic of Congo. This is where the Luvale dynasty originated from Konde Mateti, who had 6 children. The first was Chinguli, believed to be the founder of the tribes in the north of Namibia and south of Angola. The second was Chinyama cha Mukwamayi, the founder of the Luvale chieftainship. Then came Kalumbu, a girl who was followed by a boy called Ndonji, commonly associated with Chokwe. The fifth was another boy called Lukombo who died at an early age.

The Luvale were the first in the Upper Zambezi to receive Ovimbundu traders from Angola in the 18th century. The Ovimbundu were seeking slaves for the Portuguese Generally, they were not interested in taking the slaves themselves, but preferred to buy them for guns, cloth, jewelry, and other goods. Through their participation, the Luvale became a force to reckon with, and raided nearby tribes to procure slaves for the Ovimbundu.