Country: Zambia

Group: Lunda

Date finalized: 3/22/2023

Team: Khulan Davaasuren (Lead), Kelsey Dwyer, Kelly Hashiro, Hajer Rahee, Zaida Arellano Reyes

Content warning: Forced labor, slavery, violence

Approximate time period: Mid-1800’s

The Lunda are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and formed the Lunda Kingdom in the 17th century (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2019). There are two recorded cases of forced labor in Lunda’s history. The Atlantic slave trade reached the region mid-1700’s and peaked between 1830-1840’s (Taylor, 1991) . The Luvale people enslaved the Lunda people and carried out several attacks which became known as the “Wars of Ulamba”. The Luvalu people saw the large-scale enslavement as a sign of “superiority” over the powerless Lunda people. Information about forced labor of the Lunda people is limited and given a score of ⅓. . There is no current data about forced labor of Lunda people.

Sources:

  1. Zambia’s Traditional History. (2019, November 15). Lunda. https://traditionalzambia.home.blog/tribes-of-zambia/second-bantu-invasion/lunda/

Taylor, L. (1991). The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa. University of California Press.