Kingdoms of the Savanna: A history of Central African state until European occupation
Jan Vansina
Published by
The University of Wisconsin Press
Box 1379, Madison, Wisconsin 53701
The University of Wisconsin Press, Ltd.
27-29 Whitfield Street, London, W.1
Copyright © 1966 by the
Regents of the University of Wisconsin
All rights reserved
Published 1966; reprinted 1968, 1970
Printed in the
United States of America
SBN 299-03664-2; LC 65-16367
Preface
=======
This book grew out of a set of three Knaplund lectures in Tropical History given at the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1961. I was asked to publish them and promised to do so, but I felt that more detail and a small bibliography might be useful. By the time the present version was completed, I came to wonder if I should have kept that promise at all, for the gaps in the data are little short of appalling and because of that any synthesis is out of the question. This indicates how little work has been devoted to the history of Central Africa. On the other hand, reports keep coming in about fieldwork (especially among the Lozi, Bemba, and Lunda) and archival research is also being pushed, which is a sign that historians are becoming aware of the task which awaits them there. Because of this situation, a work like this cannot be more than a modest introduction to the field, a tool for the convenience of other historians.
Apart from place names, for which the official spelling has been retained, an attempt has been made to unify the spelling of all other Bantu words by the use of the African alphabet. In this spelling the letter _c_ stands for the English sound _ch_. The other symbols are close to standard usage in English. The combination _ng_ should always be uttered as _ng_ in English at the end of a word, for example, as in sing.
Without the persistent interest of Dr. Philip D. Curtin in the fruition of this study, the work would never have been written. I am also grateful to M. F. Crine, M. le Chanoine L. Jadin, and Fräulein Dr. E. Sulzmann for their help in providing materials from their unpublished research about the Lunda, the Kongo, and the Bolia. Miss L. Marmor has been my research assistant on this project, and I wish especially to thank her for her unstinting cooperation. Finally, I also want to thank the staff of the Memorial Library of the University, which has been of great help in locating some published materials in foreign libraries.
The Rockefeller Foundation, the Graduate School, and the Institute for Research in the Humanities of the University of Wisconsin have provided the necessary funds and created time for research. I am grateful to all of them for their support.
]. Vansina
Gooreind, 1963
Madison, 1964
Author(s): Jan Vansina
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Year: 1966
Language: English
Pages: 387
City: Madison, Wisconsin
Tags: Africa, Savanna
Contents
========
List of Maps, ix
3 >> Introduction
6 -- The sources
14 -- Some basic concepts
8 >> One: The Peoples and Cultures of the Savanna
19 -- Material culture and economic life
24 -- Social organization
28 -- Political structures
30 -- Religion
33 -- Language
33 -- The origins of the population
37 >> Two: The Kingdom of Kongo until the Jaga Invasion
38 -- The origins of Kongo
41 -- The political institutions of Kongo
45 -- Affonso I
58 -- Diogo I
65 -- The invasion of the Jaga
70 >> Three: The Birth of the Luba and Lunda Empires
71 -- The birth of the Luba kingdom
78 -- The birth of the Lunda empire
84 -- Lunda expansion in Angola
87 -- Lunda expansion toward the east
92 -- Lunda expansion in the Kwango area
98 >> Four: The States on the Fringe of the Savanna
99 -- The Bolia group
102 -- Guthrie's zone B group
124 >> Five: The Rise of Angola
125 -- Ndongo and the Portuguese until 1623
130 -- The recovery in Kongo under Alvare I and II
134 -- Angola, Holland, and Nzinga
138 -- From Alvare III to Alvare VI: breakdown in Kongo
142 -- The Dutch period and the restoration of Angola
146 -- The internal organization of Angola around 1700
147 -- Kongo under Garcia II and Antonio I
152 -- The transformation of the kingdom of Kongo, 1665-1710
155 >> Six: The States of Katanga and Northern Rhodesia from 1700 to 1850
156 -- The main Luba kingdom
159 -- The other Luba chiefdoms and the Songye and the Luba Kasai
160 -- The Lunda homeland
162 -- The southern Lunda
165 -- The formation of the kingdom of Kazembe
170 -- Kazembe's kingdom at its height (1760-1850)
174 -- The Lozi kingdom
180 >> Seven: Traders on the Central African Coast: 1700-1900
181 -- The colony of Angola in the eighteenth century
185 -- The colony of Angola in the nineteenth century
189 -- Kongo, Ngoy, Kakongo, and Loango
197 -- The middlemen: the Ovimbundu
201 -- The middlemen: the Kasanje and the Matamba
203 -- The peoples on the Kwango and on the middle Kwilu
208 >> Eight: The Fall of the Kings: 1840-1900
209 -- Fugitives from the south: the Ngoni and Kololo
216 -- The Cokwe, Lwena, and Ndembu
227 -- The Yeke kingdom in Katanga and its rival, Kazembe
235 -- The Arabs
242 -- The Luba and Bemba kingdoms, allies of the Arabs
245 >> Conclusion
251 >> Appendix: A Note on the Chronology of Central African History
258 >> List of Abbreviations
261 >> Notes
305 >> Selected Bibliography
333 >> Glossary of African Expressions
337 >> Index, 337
List of Maps and Charts
=======================
MAPS
22 - I Cultural regions in Central Africa
39 - II The kingdom of Kongo in the sixteenth century
65 - III States founded by the Jaga
101 - IV The peoples of the lower Kasai and Bolia regions around 1900
127 - V Angola and Kongo in the seventeenth century
175 - VI The Lozi kingdom around 1830
201-211 - VII The peoples of Northern Rhodesia around 1890
217 - VIII The peoples of eastern Angola around 1850
291 - IX Sketch of Cokwe expansion to 1900
237 - X The Arabs in Congo
Between pages 167 - 168
A The Luba-Lunda states by 1700
B States in Katanga and eastern Rhodesia around 1800
C Western Central Africa around 1850
D The peoples of Kasai and Katanga around 1890
CHARTS
20 - I Cultural regions in Central Africa and the peoples grouped in them
76 - II The rulers of the second Luba "empire"
