A SHORT HISTORY OF ABALAMBA

AbaLamba have traditionally mainly inhabited what is now the Copperbelt in Zambia but are generally historically know to have lived in a wider area, encompassing modern Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo. The history of most African tribes is based on accounts written often by Europeans exploring Africa. De Lacerda (Journals of De Lacerda, Chapter III, p99) abaLamba-'' On the south are the Arambas and the Ambos, peaceful friends of the Cazembe, who trade, they declare, with the Caifres near Zumbo.''

​

THE ORIGINS OF THE TRIBE 

According to folklore, elephants trod paths on their journeyings. Local people would say 'abaLamba bulu ku konka ilamba lya nama'...the Lamba follow the paths of the animals.​​​

When Silva Porto and his pombeiros passed through Katanga itinerant Mbundu, Luvale, Bisa and Swahili traders were exchanging calicos, flintlocks and powder for Lamba slaves. Soon thereafter the Sumbwa-Nyamwezi established their Yeke trade empire in northern Katanga. They, along with Chikunda and Swahili slave and ivory traders, began the disastrous cycle of depopulating wars, famines and pestilence which mark the final phase of Ilamba's pre-colonial history.

​Slave raiding here was only ended after Cecil Rhodes decided to challenge Portuguese and Belgian claims to Katangan Ilamba and its reputed mineral

​​​

​

THE SLAVE TRADE AND CHIWALA

According to Clement Doke-Thomson gives a vivid glimpse of those unsettled slave-raiding days.

Of his entrance into Southern Ilamba he says:

It was more unpleasant to discover that we were once more within the pestiferous sphere of influence of the slave-raiding half-caste Portuguese from Zumbo.¹ We hear much of the ravages of the Arabs on the Congo. I should like, if circumstances permitted, to describe to you the ghastly work carried on by men with European blood in their veins, which has spread death and desolation over many thousand miles of the Zambezi basin.

We had soon unpleasant evidence of the reputation the Shakundas, as they are called, had

acquired. Invariably we were assumed to be of the same race, and to be engaged on the same bloody mission. Our appearance was the signal for the usual frenzied war-cry, the gathering of excited warriors, and the flight of terror-stricken women and children.

Natives who speak of the visit of these three white men say that they brought a British flag to Mushili's village. In those days the village was near the Lunsenfwa,  here the present imilyashi (burial-places) of the chiefs are. They remember these men by the names of Mangalananda, Chyochyawukala, and Mwenye.

Their arrival was followed by a scourge of smallpox (ichingwali), which carried off numbers of people. This again was followed by a failure of the food-crops, and many died of famine. 

​

In 1895 began the contact of the Lambas with the Swahili slave-traders under Chiwala. Chiwala, as he was known to the Lambas, Yao, born or Majariwa, as he was known on the east coast, was about 1840. He had been a slave, but had scraped together sufficient wealth to purchase his freedom. Possibly the slow process of buying his freedom in accordance with the laws of Islam developed that trait of frugality which oft-times made him very

niggardly. A young Arab, speaking of him,

once said, "He is so' near' that he will save a fowl's feathers to make soup therefrom, and skin a louse to sell its hide." Eventually Chiwala, who had been the skipper of a dhow on the east coast, collected together a quantity of trade goods, and with several native traders set out westward. Chiwala became leader of the expedition, as he possessed most of the carriers and guns. It is estimated that the expedition was some seven hundred guns strong, and each man carried a load of trade goods besides his muzzle-loader. Nine flags, embellished with Koranic texts and other charms. During the march westward the parties began to separate, going off to various chiefs to trade. After several months' travel Chiwala, at the head of about three hundred and fifty guns, reached the Lamba country. He came to trade for slaves and ivory, and the tariff of exchange was as follows:

• 28 yds. of calico, or 1 gun and 1 barrel of powder and caps = 1 boy or I woman.

• 12 to 20 yds. of calico 200 yds. of calico =1 man (for he might escape).

• 50 lb. of ivory, 48 yds, of calico, or 2 guns and 2 barrels of powder and caps

= 1 girl.

It is alleged that, on a pretext of obtaining from neighbours a vast store of buried ivory for the traders, the Lambas induced Chiwala to hand over his goods, and then treacherously informed him that they intended to keep the goods and take the lives of the traders. The Lambas had meanwhile built stockades and assembled in great numbers. At this juncture the notorious Chipembere, another of the leaders of the traders, who had been similarly treated by the Lambas, arrived, and at once advised an attack. All the other leaders, similarly duped, came together, and the Lambas were attacked and fled. Chiwala declared that he would not return east until he had got back his goods. 'War' after 'war' was fought, the first against Chilasa, the second against Nkunka, the third against Nkana. The Mohammedan guns executed a great slaughter among the Lambas. The fourth 'war' was against Lilanda, who fled to the top of Chibwe (a huge rock near Chinsenda station), where Chipembere took ample revenge.

The fifth 'war' was against Lumina, who sued for peace, and, paying over to the Wanyinasala, as the Lambas called the Swahili slavers, fourteen head of cattle, induced them to make the sixth and seventh 'wars' against Shiwiyungu and Mutofwe. The eighth 'war' was against Mtewa. Two more 'wars' were fought, against Ntututwe and Myele-myele. The eleventh 'war' was fought in resisting the Belgians, headed by two white officers known to the natives as Kasekele and Kaseya, who were surprised and fled, leaving 200 native soldiers and much booty behind. The twelfth 'war' was against Chinama, Chitumbi, Kalasa, Mushili, Chyongo, Chimese, and others, who built them-

selves a big stockade on the Luapula river and asked Chipembere (who was now looked upon as Chiwala's fighting general) where he was going. For answer he and his men stormed the stockade, with great slaughter. The thirteenth 'war' was against Kalonga. Saidi bin Abdullah and Mulilo retired from this fight, but Chipembere had a repeating rifle, and himself killed thirty people that day. Then the Lambas broke through their own stockade, fleeing the dreadful carnage, but the Mohammedans posted outside put to

death 150 of the fugitives. There were other fights, but the preceding thirteen have been designated by the title of wars.' Chipembere acknowledged that at this time "the Lambas were like the leaves of the forest" in number. The fighting spread over several years, and many thousands were slain, and great numbers of youths and girls captured as slaves.

Having subdued a chief, Chiwala's policy was to levy tribute in ivory, and great numbers of tusks passed through his hands every month. Sometimes in one morning as many as twenty tusks would be brought in. Then big parties would set out for Tete, carrying ivory, and return with guns, powder, cloth, and goods. With such wealth, Chiwala's people lived in a most extravagant fashion, until the ivory began to get scarce, the hidden

stocks were finished, and Chikunda hunters competed with them. But the Belgians were not resting beneath the defeat inflicted upon them, and the last war took place at Chiwala's stronghold on the Luapula river, when the Mohammedans were routed and fled from the Congo territory. It was in this fight that Captain Stairs was killed. After this Chiwala settled down to a more peaceful method of trading, though he could not give up dealing in slaves. The British South Africa Company had sent out Captain Codrington, known as Bwana M'Kubwa, about this time, and Government officials came to administer the country. Eventually Chiwala was caught red-handed with people tied up in the slave chain, and along with Saidi bin Abdullah, his evil genius, was imprisoned for a period. Thereafter he lived a quiet life, gradually became blind, and died at his village near Ndola in March 1913.

​