Country: Zambia
Group: Tumbuka
Date Finalized: 2/28/2023
Team: Jacob Kebe (lead), Esha Kubavat, Austyn Evans, Julia Curtiss, Likith Munigala, Madison Schultz
Content Warning: slavery
Approximate Time Period: 1700s-1800s
The Tumbuka are a Bantu-speaking tribe in Zambia. They have inhabited the region of Zambia for centuries as an ethnic minority group, as groups such as the Ngoni and other African tribes, as well as European colonists, have gained control over the territory throughout modern history (Britannica 2022).
Throughout their history in the region, groups in power have forced Tumbuka people into involuntary servitude. During the 1700s, Maravi and Yao tribes raided the Tumbuka and captured Tumbuka people as slaves. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, colonial powers such as the British, Arabs, and Portuguese captured and sold Tumbuka people in their respective slave trade empires (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2019). In the late 1800s, the Ngoni tribe kept Tumbuka people as slaves. When Christian missionaries to Zambia pressured the Ngoni to place children in the mission schools, they forced Tumbuka slave children to attend in place of the Ngoni children.
Currently, Tumbuka people have been able to maintain their traditions and culture, but the area in which they live is historically impoverished and underdeveloped (Britannica 2022).
Data Quality: ⅔ – One instance of discrimination was found from a scholarly source, and several were found from a blog about the history of Zambia’s tribes.
Sources
- Britannica, 2022. “Tumbuka”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tumbuka
- Tumbuka. Zambia’s Traditional History. (2019, November 15). Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://traditionalzambia.home.blog/tribes-of-zambia/early-bantu-settlers/tumbukam