African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 250
The annual festival serves many purposes. First, the Mutomoko is a celebration of
Lunda ethnic identity as it is represented in the person of Kazambe and the various rituals
that draw on history and mythology. Although numerically a small group, the Lunda
exercise a good deal of influence in both the Luapula Province and, at times, even in
national politics. Second, the festival is a powerful economic entity, providing many gifts
for Kazembe to distribute as he sees fit, but also filling the rest houses and small inns of
Mwansabombwe’s business community. Further, small restaurants and many bars are
simply filled to capacity during the three or four days of Mutomboko. It is not uncommon
for some business people to open otherwise dormant establishments only for the festival
and earn enough money to sustain them for months thereafter.
Though Mwansabombwe, located on the main north-south route in the province, is a
relatively thriving community during most of the year, it is clear that the height of the
economic year is the festival. The Mutomboko draws an increasing number of visitors
who come by bus, automobile, and even air to attend the ceremony. This combination of
cultural affirmation and economic opportunity seems to be a growing practice in both
Zambia and some neighboring countries. Although the only nationally and internationally
known festival in the country in the late 1960s was the annual Kuomboka of the Lozi
people, by 2001, the Zambian tourist bureau listed no fewer than fifty annual traditional
festivals.
References
Cancel, Robert. Unpublished interview with the late Mwata Kazembe XVIII Chinyanta Munona,
July 1997; praise poetry recorded from royal bard Mr. Chipolobwe Mwadya Misenga, May
1989.
Chinyanta, M., and Chileya J.Chiwale. 1989. Mutomboko Ceremony and the Lunda-Kazembe
Dynasty. Lusaka, Zambia: Kenneth Kaunda Foundation.
Cunnison, Ian G. 1959. The Luapula Peoples of Northern Rhodesia: Customs and History in Tribal
Politics. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press.
——. 1951. History on the Luapula. The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers number 21. Manchester:
Manchester University Press.
Gordon, David. 2001. Owners of the Land and Lunda Lords: Colonial Chiefs in the Borderlands of
Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo. International Journal of African Historical Studies
34, no. 2:315–38.
Matongo, Albert K. 1992. Popular Culture in a Colonial Society: Another Look at Mbeni and
Kalela Dances on the Copperbelt, 1930–64. In Guardians in Their Time: Experiences of
Zambians Under Colonial Rule, 1890–1964, ed. Samuel N.Chjipungu. London: Macmillan
Press.
Mwata Kazembe XIV. 1951. Ifikolwe Fyandi na Bantu (My Ancestors and My Peoples). Macmillan
and Co. In Central Bantu Historical Texts II: Historical Traditions of the Eastern Lunda, trans,
and annotated by Ian Cunnison Rhodes-Livingstone Communication, Number Twenty-Three.
Lusaka, Zambia: The Rhodes-Livingston Institute.
Pritchett, James A. 2001. The Lunda-Ndembu: Style, Change and Social Transformation in South
Central Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Turner, Victor W. 1969. The Ritual Process. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
ROBERT CANCEL
See also Government Policies toward Folklore; History; Performance in Africa