Luba people

The Luba (Baluba), Bantu speakers of south-central Congo, built one of Africa's first sacred kingships in the Upemba Depression: by about the 400s CE their miners, smiths, woodworkers and potters worked the Katanga copper and iron, and the Baluba confederation grew into kingdoms where the mulopwe ruled by divine precedent, advised by Bambudye memory-men. Luba art, the lukasa memory boards studded with beads, the caryatid stools and ceremonial axes, carried law and history without writing. Kisalian graves show centuries of ranked burial wealth. Portuguese and Omani-led invasions later broke the kingdoms' trade, but Luba lineages, Kasai and Katanga clans alike, kept the royal drums. Kiluba speech, Luba sculpture and the Upemba fishing calendar still order millions of lives. Lomami and Maniema villages still speak Kiluba dialects of the old confederation. Portuguese muskets and Omani-led caravans broke the trade the kingdoms lived by. Baluba potters still fire the water jars of every household.