A crown on the move: stylistic integration of the Luba-Lunda complex in Lunda-Kazembe performance.

Carried on a scarlet and zebra-hide litter above the heads of a throbbing crowd, Mwata Kazembe XIX gloriously stretches out his arms as if to embrace a world that is his own (Fig. 1). As he parts the sea of well-wishers, splashes of red burst into view and the talking drum beats out its decree. Basking in a charged clamor where the senses blur in clouds of dust, Mwata gracefully sways from side to side, jangling the beads and cowries on the back of his akatasa crown. It is on this day that the Lunda-Kazembe Crown moves.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

This magnificent processional display of Lunda-Kazembe (1) royalty takes place annually at the Mutomboko ceremony in Mwansabombwe, which is attended by thousands of Zambians eager to participate in the festivities (see Gordon 2004, Munona and Chiwale 1989). The current Lunda-Kazembe Senior Chief in the Luapula valley, Mwata Kazembe XIX, referred to by local residents simply as Mwata, (2) performs Lunda-Kazembe royalty by donning the cibangula (Fig. 2) akatasa, and amapango (Fig. 3) crowns. In this article I examine the crowns of the ChiBemba-speaking (3) Lunda-Kazembe (sometimes erroneously referred to as Bemba) (4) who migrated to northeastern Zambia in the eighteenth century from Mwata Yamvo's Lunda state in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. As these different crowns move with Mwata during the Mutomboko ceremony, they reflect both Lunda and Luba styles of regalia, complicating the notion of stylistic heritage in relation to the Luba-Lunda complex. On the one hand, the beaded cibangula crowns reveal strong connections to the crowns of Mwata Yamvo's Lunda as well as those of the contemporary Lunda and Luvale in Northwestern Province, of Zambia under Senior Chiefs Ishindi and Kanongesha, and of Senior Chief Ndungu respectively. On the other hand, the variously assembled ututasa (s. akatasa) crowns worn by Mwata resemble the Luba nkaka headdress that has similarly influenced the headdresses of the Zambian Shila of Luapula Province (see Macola 2002, Gordon 2005) and the Tabwa of Northern Province (see Maurer and Roberts 1986).

[FIGURES 2-3 OMITTED]

The meanings associated with these crown assemblages and their specific materials--mostly beads and cloth combined with various animal parts--dynamically shift through time and space, in and out of relationships. Beads and cloth in particular were vital to the engagement with the Portuguese traders and were manipulated in the moulding of authority and the construction of "Lundahood" itself. As Manuela Palmeirim points out regarding the crowns of Mwata Yamvo's Lunda, although regalia codifies status and rank, these objects do not possess absolute value, but are relational according to circumstances. She writes that "The hierarchical function of regalia is understood best ... by focusing on when, where, and particularly in whose presence regalia is displayed, since hierarchy is by definition a mechanism of affirming relative positions" (1998:25). Just as performance defies precise replication, the various crowns performed annually by Mwata during the Mutomboko ceremony and other events project unique aspects of stylistic heritage and Lunda-Kazembe royalty each time that they move.

The Lunda Vine and the Circulation of Objects

This performative emphasis on the integrative material object (5) that constructs status and identity appears to find its basis in the historical events at the core of the Lunda polity, or the Ruund core. The Lunda complex, which played a critical role in the political history of central Africa from the late seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, was established steadily through a process of bilateral amalgamation that relied on "perpetual kinship," where the kin relationship of ancestors is maintained regardless of different blood ties, and "positional succession," where the names of ancestors are inherited (Cunnison 1956:31-6) and related units held titled positions rather than lineages.

Political scientist Edouard Bustin describes the Lunda political expansion as being "reminiscent of the spread of a creeping vine, rapidly shooing its tendrils in several directions and wrapping them around obstacles rather than attempting to topple them outright" (Bustin 1975:4). The paramount chief of the Lunda polity, Mwata Yamvo, is said to have demanded tribute from those who were affiliated with his rule. Salt, copper, slaves, and later ivory were sent to his royal capital in the Congo and he reciprocated the maintenance of this relationship by returning "gifts" of imported cloth, beads, and other goods (ibid.). As Joseph Miller reiterates (1988:32, 205), it was through the slave trade that the Lunda achieved a cosmopolitan air that was also reflected in beads and cloth brought to the west coast from international points of production. Today, residents of Mwansabombwe, the Lunda-Kazembe capital, are viewed as the cosmopolites of the region, and and as many said to me in my visit in 2002, they pride themselves on living in the "largest viUage in central Africa," sometimes referred to as "Little London." (6)

While Bustin points out that the Lunda notion of tribute was essential to the fueling of long-distance trade, he emphasizes that the driving force of this exchange of objects was less focused on the materials themselves than on the movement that these objects facilitated, for "circulation kept the arteries of the empire open" (Bustin 1975:5). Indeed, it was the flow of relationships reflected in the material culture that enabled the Lunda vine to grow, attracting the attention of the Portuguese and other traders. In other words, it was the performance of these materials and objects that established the identity of the Lunda Crown and of "Lundahood" itself.

The Significance of Insignia to "Lundahood"

Anthropologist Ian Cunnison argues (1959:174) that "Lnndahood" is a "living thing" and that it is precisely this fluidity of ethnic identity that makes insignia critical to the Lunda. Referring to the LundaKazembe of the Luapula valley--the tendril of the vine that has spread furthest east--he asserts that the gifting of cloth denotes the investiture of "Lundahood," regardless of ethnic or geographic origin:

   The significance of investiture is in
   the link created at the time of the
   original ceremony and kept alive by
   the Lunda cloth in the recipient's
   village.... I stress again that recipients
   are not necessarily Lunda by
   tribe, nor do they come from the
   present country of Kazembe (Cunnison
   1959:177).

The insignia of this living "Lundahood" reinforced the notion of Lunda-Kazembe rule. The Lunda east of the Luapula River became well known as rulers, and in general, rulers in this region were considered to be Lunda (Andrew Roberts 1976:96). This investiture of ethnic identity was never static, for a Shila or Chishinga person could simultaneously be Lunda if he or she were given the insignia of "Lundahood" (Cunnison 1959:174). (7) Investiture itself is referred to as ukufwika ("to dress"), demonstrating the close relationship between "Lundahood" and insignia, between ethnic designation and the performance of regalia. Such investiture was also related to tribute and trade, for as Cunnison writes, some people would be refused the cloth of "Lundahood" until they brought presents such as drums to the palace (Cunnison 1959:175).

Both Mwata Yamvo at the core of the Lunda polity and Mwata Kazembe at the eastern outskirts were heavily engaged in the trade of beads, cloth, and other goods. In the eighteenth century the Portuguese sought to monopolize transcontinental trade by connecting their colonies of Mozambique and Angola, using the inland Kazembe capital as the linchpin of this commercial endeavor. They sent expeditions to the Kazembe capital in 1798 (see Kazembe XIV 1961 and Burton 1969) and 1832, which were recorded by Lacerda, and after his death, Pinto; and Gamitto respectively. Gamitto's travelogue is rich in description, and the account of Mwata Kazembe stresses the importance of beads to the intertwined relationship between the Lunda and Portuguese traders (Gamitto 1960:17-18). The grandeur of the Lunda-Kazembe and their access to foreign goods surprised the Portuguese. As Gamitto writes, "We certainly never expected to find so much ceremonial, pomp, and ostentation in the potentate of a region so remote from the sea coast" (ibid., p. 21). Furthermore, the Portuguese were surprised by the amount of control and manipulation exerted by the Lunda-Kazembe chiefs, as the initiators of trade dialogues who used beads and cloth to open the process of negotiation.

Beads and Cloth as "Mouths"

Historian Andrew Roberts suggests (1976: 109-110) that the desire to trade with the Portuguese in the east may have been one of the motivations for eastward Lunda migration, as rumors of opportunities in the east had reached the interior from the west coast. In the eighteenth century the ruling Mwata Kazembe initiated trade dialogues by "gifting" examples of goods, such as opaque stoneware beads received from the west coast via Mwata Yamvo, as a means of determining whether the Portuguese in the east had comparable or superior goods. This "gift" was known as a "mouth," as it was seen to facilitate conversation and negotiation (Burton 1969:109; in various Zambian contexts beads are also used as "mouth openers" in the negotiation of marriage--see Chondoka 1988). As such, the stage was set for a contested drama of consumption, where the beads and cloth, as "mouths," not only spoke of trade ambitions, but also had the capacity to metaphorically devour economic proposition and related power, blurring the borders between trade and tribute, and between economics and politics. The Portuguese, in turn, fed this dynamic of performative trade/tribute, and they were known by the Lunda as the "Europeans who scattered beads among the people in front of palaces" (Kazembe XIV 1961:70).

The feeding of gainful reciprocity can be translated in contemporary terms in light of the gifts exchanged by chiefs and government officials at annual ceremonies such as the Mutomboko ceremony. While the Mutomboko is one of the well-established Zambian ceremonies that have been formally recognized by the government's Department of Cultural Services, there has recently been "an explosion" of recognized annual ceremonies amounting to over sixty. (8) One of the many reasons for this is the desire of chiefs, as patrons, to receive not only government funding for the ceremony and potential development in their area, but also to receive gifts, which often include bicycles, blankets, and sometimes money, at the ceremony itself. Such gifting is sometimes reciprocated with return-gifting, where chiefs present goats and chickens to government ministers. This notion of contemporary ceremonies as formal arenas of trade/tribute was explicitly stated by the master of ceremonies of the 2004 Gwembe-Tonga Lwindi ceremony, who insisted that such giving reflected the historical tradition of paying tribute to chiefs as seen in Mwata Kazembe's chiefdom. Such diplomatic trade/tribute in these cultural ceremonies can therefore be viewed as a contemporary "mouth" that initiates dialogue in the often strained relationships between politicians and traditional leaders.

Significantly, the Lunda-Kazembe chiefdom is viewed as exemplary of this political-mercantile dynamic, and the Mutomboko ceremony has indeed become a model for some of the new ceremonies that desire to keep the socioeconomic arteries of a modem, independent Zambia open. The maintenance of this flow of relationships can be seen in the contemporary ambassadorial role of both objects and performances at annual ceremonies. For example, Mwata Kazembe XVIII gave away ututasa headdresses as gifts when he attended the Ngoni Nc'wala Festival in the 1980s (9) and Paramount Chief Mpezeni's Ngoni dancers regularly perform at the Mutomboko ceremony. As such, the gifting of these beaded Lunda-Kazembe crowns preserves not only the "adopted cousinship" of the Ngoni and Lunda-Kazembe, but also reveals a modern tribute/trade relationship that reflects historical strategies of liaison at the Ruund core.

Beads and the Performance of Origins

During the Mutomboko ceremony the Lunda-Kazembe of Mwansabombwe perform the story of their origin at the Ruund core through theatrical demonstration and spiritual commemoration. Stressing their roots (they refer to their place of origin as Kola (10) and to their heritage as LubaLunda), they celebrate successful battles during the process of migration.

Lunda-Kazembe emphasis on generative myths and the history of migration was formalized first in the 1940s with the recording of oral history, (11) and then in 1971 when Mwata Kazembe XVII established the Mutomboko ceremony as an annual commemorative event. (12) The ceremonial and ritual performances that take place at this ceremony reveal one of the fundamental issues in a story of migration--that of appealing to the past in order to legitimize the present and thus shape the future. Writing specifically about the peoples of Luapula Province, Cunnison argues (1959:149, 232) that the past is perpetually used to justify present and even newly introduced customs. Joseph Roach describes the performance of origin as being the reenactment of two types of foundation myths,

   the diasporic, which features migration,
   and the autochthonous, which
   claims indigenous roots deeper than
   memory itself. These myths may coexist
   or compete within the same
   tradition; indeed, they often doe....
   As evocations of the past, both myths
   of origin--the diasporic and the autochthonous--also
   suggest alternatives
   for the future (1996:42-3).

The Lunda-Kazembe employ a rich language of performance to consider their own diasporic foundation myth, which combines political feats of migration and trade with spiritual efficacy as a way of legitimizing rule in the absence of their own autochthonous foundation myth.

It is often beads that link spiritual petition and trade in the story of Lunda diasporic origins. When Mwata Yamvo sent Kazembe II Kanyembo Impemba eastwards, he instructed him to "plant" beads with the tree of chieftainship in order to establish power in a new region:

   Mwata Yamvo Mukanzo took" a
   mutaba tree and gave it to Kanyembo
   Impemba.... He told him, "This tree
   is your chieftainship; you will plant
   it when you have conquered a good
   country where you want to settle;
   you will call the Luunda together
   and tell them to dig a hole, and into
   this hole they will throw beads, with
   some white beads among them" ...
   (Kazembe XIV 1961:27-8).

Mwata Yamvo then blessed Mwata Kazembe by taking off his own beads and holding them out to him saying, "See, Kanyembo, son of Chinyanta, we share with you the girdle of chieftainship" (ibid., p. 28).

While the display of beads evokes mercantile and chiefly strength, it is also utilized in very sacred rituals that pay homage to the forefathers and both honor and legitimize the birth of the Lunda-Kazembe chiefdom. For example, on the final day of performances at the contemporary Mutomboko ceremony, Mwata and his spiritual caretaker, Nakabutula, (13) honor the ancestors inside the Nakabutula shrine, where white beads are placed onto a plate next to sacred stones that embody the Nakabutula spirit. Large elephant tusks and hippopotamus teeth are also kept inside the shrine. According to David M. Gordon (2005:20) Mwata used to invite his subjects to stand around the shrine and throw white beads into the enclosure. (14) The white beads are associated with the ancestors and with origins, as seen in the preceding quote from My Ancestors and My People, and according to Prince Duylu Kabeya, the Nakatubula shrine and the rib uals that take place there evoke the birth of the Lunda-Kazembe. (15) The birth of this chiefdom based on migration and conquest needs to be perpetually legitimized, and this is accomplished through a performance that appropriates symbols of autochthony. Gordon suggests (2005:20) that Nakabutula used to be kept by autochthonous lineages and was taken over by the Lunda-Kazembe, who use it to memorialize their conquest over the Shila.

The whiteness of the beads, the plate, the stones, the elephant tusks, hippopotamus teeth, and the robes worn by Mwata, Nakabutula, and Nakabutula's assistant-in-training, is associated with blessings. According to the shrine-keeper, white evokes brightness and a clear path, like the brightness of the moon or the sunlight that shows you where you are going, hence blessing your journey. (16) This clear path could refer to the successful journey of the Lunda-Kazembe diaspora that brought them to their current location, as well as a clear path into a successful future. Without a clear vision of the origin--the new birth--the future would be ambiguous, and so ritual is used through both remembering and forgetting to construct a performance of origins. As Roach writes, performed memory, which often relies on forgetting, stands in for an origin and for "an elusive identity that it is not but it must vainly aspire to embody and replace. Hence flourish the abiding yet vexed affinities between performance and memory, out of which blossom the most florid nostalgias for authenticity and origin" (Roach 1996:3-4).

It has already been mentioned that both white beads and the mutaba tree symbolize origins. The mutaba tree (17) has a white milky substance known as ubutomfo that oozes from the stems of its leaves, evoking breast milk and hence new birth. Not only is the mutaba tree linked to white beads in terms of the birth of the Lunda-Kazembe, but like trade beads that were used as the "mouths" of mercantile conversations, the leaf of the mutaba tree is also closely associated with the mouth of a "new born" chief during inauguration. Describing his inauguration, Mwata told me that the first time he was presented to the public, after being confined for thirty days and immersed in the N'gona River, a mutaba leaf was placed in his mouth. He was not allowed to talk and had to keep the leaf in his mouth until he announced his own praise name, Kapale. (18)

In the history of the Lunda-Kazembe, both the mutaba tree and beads are associated with new beginnings--new trade relationships, new settlement, new leadership, and new names. Today, beads continue to play a role in biographical dramas, as they are displayed on Mwata's crowns and are linked to various ritual and spiritual performances at the Mutomboko ceremony. At each annual ceremony, Mwata chooses from among half a dozen crowns and headdresses for specific activities, creating a poignant balance between the general interpretations of the individual headdresses and their shifting meanings that reflect specific moments of performance and even accidental events.

The Cihangula Crown as the Public Face of Office

During the 2002 Mutomboko ceremony, Mwata Kazembe XIX wore three different headdresses: the akatasa and cibangula beaded crowns and a "Portuguese" brass fireman's helmet (Fig. 4) with the French words "Sapeurs pompiers de Paris" inscribed on it. Mwata suggests that a Portuguese explorer awarded it to one of his predecessors, (19) but it is recorded in the Lunda-Kazembe history to have been presented to Mwata Kazembe X Kanyembo Ntemena in 1900 when he surrendered to the British; purportedly a "British lady" presented the helmet to him and announced: "This is recognition of your chieftainship" (Kazembe XIV 1961:111). In 2004 Mwata wore the cibangula and the very sacred amapango, which falls within the general category of the ututasa crowns, (20) but the following year he did not wear the amapango again. Each of these headdresses was performed in a very specific space and context, suggesting that the movement and display of these objects was as important as the objects themselves. According to Mwata, the cibangula crown is usually worn when he receives guests at his palace and when he travels, whereas the akatasa and amapango are strictly confined to the ceremony. (21) The crowns gain meaning not only from movement, performance, and relationships, but also from the combination of other royal regalia--such as the ifilala armbands (Fig. 5) always worn with the akatasa and amapango. These different objects work together to cumulatively project a palpable aura of chiefly power as reflected in the Mutomboko song, "When you are plain, Kapale, they can't fear you, but when you wear these things, they know that you are chief!" (Wendo Bwambala, Kapale / Ngawafwala mitenga / Ne imikolo elyo be ngaktina.) (22)

[FIGURES 4-5 OMITTED]

On the penultimate day of the 2002 Mutomboko celebrations, the cibangula crown was worn during the Mutentamo--an investiture ceremony--held for two subchiefs, Kapala and Mpuya, that was conducted by Masumba, the keeper of Mwata's royal regalia. (Masumba is the title given to Peter Kayo, who not only makes all the beaded crowns, but is also in charge of dressing Mwata, earning him the nickname Bamuka Mwata--Mwata's wife [Fig. 6]. According to Gilbert Chishala, whenever Mwata is dressed in his traditional attire, Masumba must stand close to him acting as a chief retainer).

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

The Mutentamo ceremony was held just outside the east gates of the palace and Mwata quietly observed the proceedings as he sat on his throne, which had a leopard skin draped over it. A full lion skin covered the ground before him and his feet rested on the lion's head, suggesting, says Masumba, that no matter how fierce different creatures or people might be, Mwata possesses the power to simply step on them. (23)

Mwata wore a red, blue, and yellow cloth wrap (citenge) over a safari suit, instead of his large skirt (mukonzo). He reserves the latter for the inauguration of more senior chiefs, such as Chief Lukwesa, who was inaugurated in 2005. The spotted pattern of Mwata's wrap echoed the leopard skin on his throne, accruing an exhibition of strength through a connection to powerful animals (see Roberts 1995:98-102 for leopards and their symbolism in Africa). Around his neck Mwata wore sixteen strings of cowrie shells (imibela) and variously shaped and colored beads (ubulungu) made from plastic, seeds, and stones, which Masumba had collected and strung together. (Each Mwata has his own strings of beads made for him, as they remain around his neck when he is buried). Amidst these beads were two triangular-shaped pieces of ceramic imitating the conus shell (impande; see Quiggin 1949 and Liu 1975), which symbolizes the power of a chief and alludes to spirituality associated with the moon (see Roberts 1985, Milbourne 2003:309). Additional royal insignia included a beaded flywhisk, which Masumba says "shows the brightness; shows where one is going," (24) and the broad sword known as mpoko that is kept in an otter-pelt sheath (mukobe) (25) and strung across Mwata's shoulder.

At the Mutentamo, despite the crowd's frenzy, Mwata remained the perfect picture of a serenely powerful leader as various groups of visiting and local dancers and drummers performed before him. From his throne he watched the investiture conducted by Masumba, who began by drawing circles on the ground with impemba powder (white river-clay powder used when one is communicating to the ancestors by many Central African communities). The new chiefs sat in these circles. Masumba then held out two blue skirts symbolic of investiture to Kapala and Mpuya, but then suddenly pulled them back; he and the candidates dramatically fought over them before he finally gave them up. This performed scuffle over the cotton skirts suggests that succession is never an automatic right, but has to be earned and sometimes struggled for, just as "Lundahood" was historically earned through loyalty and was invested by means of cloth. According to Masumba, the impemba circles are like prisons that confine the chiefs until they are freed through the acquisition of their attire. (26)

Mwata then emerged from his throne and sternly lectured the chiefs about their new responsibilities. After presenting a monetary gift to each of them, he performed a very contained version of the mutomboko "dance," gracefully sweeping his royal flywhisk through the air. The crowd exploded as he drew his sword (mpoko), thrust it into the ground, and pointed it towards the sky four times. In an instant, as if swallowed up by the thick clouds of dust and gunpowder, he disappeared behind the palace wall. Compared to the mutomboko "dance" that Mwata performed the following day, his performance at the Mutentamo was short and controlled, in keeping with his demeanor throughout the investiture ceremony. (27) The stoic poise with which the cibangula crown was worn on this occasion reflected the seriousness of Lunda office and inauguration.

According to Masumba, the cibangula is typically passed on from Mwata to Mwata, stressing the continuation of office, unlike the akatasa crown that Mwata wears when he is buried. Each chief, however, is allowed to moderately alter the design of the cibangula, reflecting the tension between maintaining the institution of rule and reflecting the public face of an individual chief. The current Mwata, for example, decided to have a design of the mpoko beaded into the front headband, revealing a sense of personal design and stylistic flexibility within the notion of continuation and succession. (28) Despite such small changes, the overall style of the cibangula crown clearly links Mwata to the Lunda diaspora, as it is virtually identical to the beaded crowns worn by various twentieth century Mwata Yamvos, (29) as well as the crowns worn by the Lunda chiefs in Northwestern Province, Zambia.

The Cibangula Crown and the Lunda Complex

Senior Chief Kanongesha (Fig. 7) and Senior Chief Ishindi (Fig. 8), both Lunda senior chiefs of Northwestern province, wear cibangula crowns similar to Mwata's crown, while Senior Chief Ndungu of the Luvale (Fig. 9) wears a slightly simpler version of this crown that does not have the extra loops (imikobela) that go over the cascades. Mwata told me that he recently provided a new cibangula for Senior Chief Kanongesha, who was unable to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo where his previous one was made. (30) Mwata sent his own crown-maker, Masumba, to Mwinilunga, Northwestern Province, to replace Kanongesha's wornout cibangula. According to Masumba, this inability to make their own crowns shows how the Northwestern Lunda have "forgotten their traditional lives." (31) This statement reflects the playful banter between the Northwestern Lunda and the Luapula Lunda-Kazembe who are generally viewed as having "lost their tradition" in terms of language, as they speak a Luapula ChiBemba dialect instead of ChiLunda.

[FIGURES 7-9 OMITTED]

In 2004, Senior Chief Ishindi visited Mwansabombwe for the Lunda-Kazembe Mutomboko ceremony. Just before Ishindi departed after the week's events, he and Mwata delivered farewell speeches to each other and some members of the royal family inside Mwata's palace grounds. Ishindi, wearing a cowboy hat and a black suit and holding his staff and white flywhisk, told Mwata that the Lunda-Kazembe of Luapula Province and the Lunda of Northwestern Province should unite and regard themselves as one people. While both Mwata and Ishindi are fluent in English, it is significant that Ishindi's speech about oneness was in ChiLunda, which was then translated into ChiBemba. Ishindi also announced that he was going to send a language teacher to Mwansabombwe to start teaching the Lunda-Kazembe royal family ChiLunda.

Despite this diplomatic call for unity, the two senior chiefs always seemed to distinguish themselves from each other in their choice of headdress. When Ishindi wore his cibangula Mwata either wore his "Portuguese" metal helmet or the amapango crown, and when Mwata wore his cibangula Ishindi wore a Western-styled hat. A month later Mwata sent a delegation to Ishindi's Lunda Lubanza annual ceremony in Zambezi that met with Ishindi in his palace grounds before the final event took place. Again, Ishindi used ChiLunda, announcing that he would send a language teacher to Mwansabombwe, and Mwata's representative apologized (in English) on behalf of the Lunda-Kazembe for having "lost their language." Despite the banter between these two Lunda groups regarding the so-called loss of traditions, the variously styled cibangula crowns belonging to both the Luapula and Northwestern Lunda reveal a strong tie to the stylistic traditions of the Ruund core.

The "Old Fashioned" Horned Cibangula and Hair Assemblages

Within this strong stylistic connection to the Ruund core one can read a flexibility of tradition in terms of fashion and a desire for change. For example, when I showed Masumba a 1980s photograph from Mwinilunga, Northwestern Province, of a cibangula crown with three tubular, hornlike shapes on top of the head, (32) he laughed, calling it an "old model" that looked like a hat with antennae that belonged in a communications room. (33) He insisted that the tubular shapes were not meant to represent horns, but the strong presence of actual and stylized horns attached to hair and headdress in the Luba-Lunda complex suggests a loss of memory of this particular association. A Northwestern Lunda chief, Chief Ishimu, who accompanied Senior Chief Ishindi to Luapula, wore one of these "homed" cibangula crowns at both the Mutomboko and the Lunda Lubanza ceremonies in 2004 (Fig. 10). Mwata also owns one of these crowns, but Masumba says that he seldom wears it because it is considered to be old fashioned. (34) Instead, his "horned" crown is usually stored in the metal chest of regalia and has been supplanted by the more desirable model of cibangula with beaded loops.

[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]

Various nineteenth century records (Carvalho 1894, Chambliss 1875:143) suggest that Mwata Yamvo in the Congo had indeed favored horned crowns and headdresses, and other people who interacted directly or indirectly with the Ruund Lunda--such as the Yaka, Suku, Pende, and Chokwe (see Vansina 1966, de Heusch 1982, Jordan 1998, Roberts and Roberts 1996, and Bastin 1982, 1998a)--similarly employed hornlike structures on headdresses and masks, (35) often as a way providing ritual protection to the wearer. Jeffrey Hoover asserts (1978:557) that the Ruund Lunda beaded crowns and headdresses imitated the coiffure of Chibinda Ilunga, the Luba hunter who married the Lunda woman Ruweji in the Lunda origin myth (see Turner 1955:19 and de Heusch 1982, especially chapter 5).

While hair itself was certainly shaped into horns among the Lunda, as seen for example in the buffalo-horn coiffures recorded by David Livingstone (Chambliss 1875:143), it is impossible to know whether particular crowns were based on hairstyles or vice versa. While the cascade crown, which forms the base of the cibangula, is said to be influenced by the cascade coiffure popular among the Luba in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Sieber and Herreman 2000:138), it is also conceivable that, conversely, the Luba coiffures were based on crown designs, blurring the lines between Lunda and Luba influences of style. Today this simple cascade crown (akanimbi) is still worn in Zambia by the Luvale Senior Chief Ndungu and his wife, the Lunda Chieftainess Nyakulinga (Figs. 11-12), and various subchiefs (Fig. 13).

[FIGURES 11-13 OMITTED]

The distinction between styled hair and a headdress is not always apparent, and when I showed Masumba a photograph of the Luba step coiffure, he insisted that the coiffure was more a structure of beads than a structure of hair. Furthermore, as seen in the engravings of Carvalho's nineteenth century travelogue (Carvalho 1894, 1890), components of material objects were used in a mix-and-match fashion to compose a crown--a denser assemblage of objects reflecting higher social status. Today, however, the cibangula crowns that Masumba makes are single units that cannot be detached. Initially, he constructs separate beaded strips by wrapping cloth around palm leaves that enable the crown to maintain its form. Then, once the crown is assembled, it is not dismantled, even if small sections need fixing or altering. In contrast, the akatasa crown that Mwata wears is made up of many different parts that can be assembled as different headdresses with varying meanings.

The Akatasa Assemblage and the Luba Complex

Compared to the cibangula crown that acts as the public face of Lunda-Kazembe office and succession, reflecting the larger picture of Lunda migration, the akatasa, which is buried with each Mwata, integrates Luba and Luba-ized (36) concepts of style and spirituality. Within Zambia, there is also a close stylistic connection to the akatasa of Senior Chief Mununga (Fig. 14) of the Luba-ized Shila people, whose wealth in fish and fishing techniques attracted various surroundIng peoples. This once-environmentally rich Shila area near Lake Mweru and the Kalungwishi River--known as a "zone of movement" (37)--enticed the Luba from the Congo and the Tabwa from Mporokoso District and southwestern Tanganyika. (38) Just as the dominant rulers in the Luapula area were, according to Cunnison (1959:147), classed as Lunda, fishermen tended to be known as Shila, even though Shilaland was made up of a mix of different people from Luapula, Northern Province, and beyond. (39) This mix of people included some Lnnda-Kazembe who were integrated into the local area by the act of fishing and the payment of Shila taxes.

[FIGURE 14 OMITTED]

The Lunda-Kazembe and the Shila ututasa crowns are stylistically reminiscent of the Luba nkaka headdress, reflecting the close interaction between the Lunda and Luba (Vansina 1998, Roberts and Roberts 1996) and underpinning the spiritual symbolism in the akatasa crown. The Luba nkaka headdress is worn by royal Bilumbu diviners and members of the Mbudye Association and is related to the protection of royal secrets (Roberts and Roberts 1996:104). Both the akatasa and nkaka have broad, richly beaded bands, decorated with diamond shapes, triangles, or zigzags and topped with a splay of feathers or faux feathers. Just as the Luba nkaka, like some Tabwa headdresses, has strings of beads hanging down over the wearer's ears, one of the ututasa crowns worn by Senior Chief Mununga at the 2004 annual Shila Mabila ceremony had small strings of red, black, and white beads hanging over the chief's ears. Similarly, one of the Shila dancers at the ceremony wore a headdress with long, beaded strings ending in small bells over his ears and face (Fig. 15).

[FIGURE 15 OMITTED]

However, in Mwata's akatasa assemblage, the beads that dangle over the ears have been replaced by two ivory pins (imisomo) at his temples that slide underneath the cloth beret (Figs. 16-17). These ivory pins suggest power not only in material (ivory was a significant tribute material and only Mwata himself was allowed to sell it; Cunnison 1959:184), but also in its connection to the elephant, which Masumba describes as a very fierce and harmful animal. (40) Furthermore, the pins are like little spears, and as Masumba adds, "Don't forget that when the Lunda came from Kola they still used spears." (41) The Lunda-Kazembe also associate the spear with the founding of the chiefdom, for Mwata Kazembe II stabbed a mutaba tree with a spear to demonstrate his rule.

[FIGURES 16-17 OMITTED]

Amongst the Luba, pins that slide into the hair are associated with the anvil that is a symbol of secret and royal authority, and hairpins are considered to hold the spirits inside the head (Dewey and Childs 1996:166). As such, Mwata's ivory pins may suggest spiritual protection and power, and although the acceptance of Christianity has downplayed the overt use of power objects, Mwata did suggest to me that components of his crowns are designed to protect him from evil forces. (42) A third ivory pin adorned with different ring-and-dot designs on each side of it appears at the back of Mwata's crown, where beads and cowries hang down from a protruding armature (Fig. 18). The ivory pin is made up of two separate parts that lock into each other to form an up-side-down cross. The armature (akapompo), which is held in place with the pin, is made from the tail of an elephant, which makes a strong frame, and is then wrapped with strips of black cotton. (Again the elephant tail suggests power and strength; Fig. 19.) Both the elephant-tail frame and the ivory pins are passed down from one chief to the next, as these materials are nowadays difficult to find, whereas the rest of the akatasa--the beret, beaded headband, and the red faux-feathers known as feathers of thunder (ingala ya busala)--are buried with each chief.

[FIGURES 18-19 OMITTED]

The extension at the back of the Lunda-Kazembe akatasa bears a strong resemblance to the back of some female Luba figurines, where a crosslike shape is decorated with beads and a hairpin (Figs. 20-21). Among the Luba, the king is signified through representations of women for, as Mary Nooter Roberts suggests (Roberts 2000:17), the king is perceived as a woman both conceptually and spiritually. (It is interesting to note that the only figurative object that I saw amongst Mwata's regalia was a carving of a Luba-ized female head with a crown on the end of his ceremonial axe [mbafi] and most of the carved figurines found amongst Mununga's royal objects are Luba-ized representations of women). Furthermore, the back of the head is, for Luba people, the place where power is centered (Roberts 2000:32), providing a possible explanation for the decorative and symbolic detail on the back of the Lunda-Kazembe akatasa assemblage.

[FIGURES 20-21 OMITTED]

The Communality and Accountability of the Akatasa Crown

Layers of meaning can also be built when components of the akatasa assemblage are taken away. For example, without the ivory pins and the extension at the back of Mwata's akatasa and the accompanying armbands, the crown is very similar to the headdresses worn by Lunda-Kazembe subchiefs and Mwata's traditional councilors, the bakalunda (s. kalunda), who hold Mwata accountable to traditional Lunda-Kazembe rule (Fig. 22). The bakalunda wear their ututasa crowns to all formal meetings, such as Mutomboko ceremony committee meetings, when they convene at the traditional court, and at an investiture ceremony. During the week of the annual celebrations, all the bakalunda converge at the palace grounds (including those who live in other districts or in the Democratic Republic of Congo), wearing either the old-styled fabric crowns, or the newer beaded crowns that have a red cross decorating the headband.

[FIGURE 22 OMITTED]

In terms of day-to-day governance, there are many instances in which Mwata cannot make a decision without conferring with the bakalunda; for example, Mwata cannot alone decide whom he will marry, nor can he alone decide who his successor will be. According to Cunnison, the bakalunda are the guardians or the owners (bene) of the kingship, and their job is to give the law to Mwata. In fact, Cunnison goes as far as to suggest that Mwata is as reliant on the bakalunda for teaching him how to reign as a girl initiate is on her matron (banacimbusa)--a pertinent analogy considering that a chief who is being inaugurated is viewed as a "newborn" who has to come of age in terms of his new position. Furthermore, Cunnison suggests that if the bakalunda are upset with Mwata for breaking certain customs, they can grumble among themselves as a way of drawing the attention of the spirits of dead Mwatas, who can bring sickness to the chief in order to bring him in line with the traditions the bakalunda want upheld (Cunnison 1959:169-70, 173).

Ordinary subjects also have certain strategies for holding Mwata accountable, and the Mutomboko ceremony is turned into a stage for the dramatization of such answerability. For example, on the penultimate day of the events, groups of women from each section in Mwansabombwe bring traditional beer made from maize (umunkoyo kaka and katata) to Mwata--whom Cunnison calls a clearing-house of tribute (1959:184)--which is then redistributed amongst the community as a whole. (43) In a celebratory mood, the women burst through the palace gates, dancing as they deftly balance large pots and jerry cans on their heads, and they sing to the beat of the royal drummers. Some of the songs are in the form of praises such as, "Father Kapale, you don't have to change your heart, just change your clothes" (Tata Kapale, tabacinja umweo icobacinja ninsalu), suggesting that people are satisfied with Mwata's rule and so the only thing he needs to change is his clothes. (44) However, other songs remind Mwata of his responsibility to his people and even critically evaluate his rule: "Father Kapale, he has brought development as a young person. He brought water pipes. There are pipes, but we people of Nakabamba Section are short of that development" (Tata Kapale, aleto buyantanshi umwana munono. Aleto mipompi, ne mipompi nomba fweba Nakabamba twapelapo). (45)

Mwata is not only held accountable to his subjects for his sociopolitical actions, but also to the ancestors for the well-being of the chiefdom. Such spiritual accountability is seen when Mwata goes to the shrines of Chinyanta and Kasombola (46) during the ceremony and is temporarily prohibited access to the site by a bamboo bar that is held across his path. (47) Standing amidst his subjects, who escort him down to the Ng'ona River, Mwata is scolded by a ritual specialist who complains that he does not come to honor the ancestors often enough. During the 2004 ceremony, the ritual caretaker, Chilalo, shouted out prohibitions and taboos at the crowd, saying, "If you come here with shoes I will cut off your toes!" (Kuno nga mwaisa nensapato kamiputula utukondo!) (48) He then demanded tribute from Mwata in the form of goats and cassava before Mwata was allowed to continue to Chinyanta's shrine.

This accountability to both his subjects and the ancestors is integrated into Mwata's akatasa crown that he wears for the final ritual event at the Mutomboko arena. Combining spiritual connotations in its nkaka-like style with political accountability in its similarity to the bakalunda headdresses, the akatasa is saved for the climax of the ceremony--the mutomboko "dance." Just as the cibangula suggests a tension between an individual ruler and institutions of office and succession, the akatasa evokes the relationship between the individual and the community in large, including the beneficent spiritual ancestors--the "living dead."

The Spirit of the Akatasa in the "Jumping" on the Land

On the final day of the 2002 Mutomboko ceremony Mwata wore the akatasa crown as he was danced upon his royal hammock (umuselo) through the Mwansabombwe streets and around the arena. His demeanor was relaxed and joyful as he played the talking drum, praising both himself and the ancestors, and telling the hammock bearers (ifimankata) when to move forward or backward and when to stop. (49) The step danced by the ifimankata, which symbolizes a skillful militaristic maneuver to outsmart the enemy, (50) is called ukushalila ("remaining behind," referring to the forward and backward steps performed) and the drum rhythm played during the procession is known as yamulwendo or icamulwengo. (51)

As Mwata exited his palace grounds on his umuselo, he was carried over the blood of a freshly slaughtered goat, symbolizing the blood that was shed in the historical Lunda battles. According to Masumba, the blood of these battles is also remembered through the prominence of red on the akatasa, while the blue, black, and white beads on the crown represent love, skin, and brightness respectively. (52) As such, the color symbolism of the akatasa incorporates both the political and the spiritual, as is further seen in the mutomboko "dance" and the ritual of the sword (mpoko), which Mwata usually performs whilst wearing his akatasa crown.

The mutomboko "dance"--the "dance of gladness" that is recorded in both Lacerda and Gamitto's travelogues--commemorates victory in battles that enabled migration. During the 2002 performance Mwata gracefully but swiftly waved the royal ax (mbafi) and the sword (mpoko), reenacting historical Lunda militaristic power (Fig. 24). Masumba cautiously trailed behind Mwata, holding onto two red, cotton "tails" attached to the chief's skirt. Mwata and his crown-maker played a kind of cat-and-mouse game, reflecting the alertness required not only in battle, but also in the task of maintaining one's position of rule. In this performance, Mwata raised his sword and suddenly turned around as if in an attempt to attack Masumba, who quickly dodged out of the way. Allegedly Masumba would have to be killed if he were caught standing in front of his chief, facing him like a challenger to the Crown. (53) According to Professor Mapopa Mtonga, if Mwata caught a glimpse of Masumba it would be as if he had seen his own shadow, and this would be seen as an omen of death for the chief himself. (54) During the performance Mwata would also lift up his right leg in a high arc, dramatically displaying the billowing, 25m (27 yard)-wide skirt and jangling the bells attached to the cowhide belt (inshipo) around his waist (Fig. 24). In a low, shuffling pace, he would move forward, and then retreat backward one step, demonstrating the warring watchfulness already seen in the performance of the hammock-bearers.

[FIGURE 24 OMITTED]

Although this performance is, today, commonly known in English as a dance, Kapya Kaoma suggests that one should never use the ChiBemba verb ukucinda ("to dance") when referring to a chief, for, "a chief does not dance in public. He only dances in his own house." (55) Instead, he argues that the chief "jumps"--aletomboka--for Mwata's predecessors jumped on the land that they had conquered as a gesture of ownership and reign. This "dance" has also been described as a performance of "pacing the ground," (56) and no one is allowed to do the mutomboko in exactly the same way as Mwata does.

According to historian David M. Gordon, "Like many of the Eastern Lunda dances and praises, the mutomboko seems to relate more closely to Luba royal customs rather than those of the Central Lunda to whom Mwata Kazembe claims the closest affiliation." (Gordon 2004:78) He adds that "[r]oyal Luba males had to undergo a kutomboka investiture ceremony--the verb kutomboka referring to the act of investiture, the performance of the kutomboka dance, and a revolt in established political relationships...." (ibid.) While a Luba connection certainly seems to exist, the Lunda-Kazembe performance of "jumping" or "pacing the ground" also has a strong connection to the Lunda of Northwestern Province who perform their own kutomboka. At the 2004 annual Lunda Lubanza ceremony in Zambezi District, a young man performed the Lunda kutomboka royal dance. According to Lunda linguist Joseph Chilongu, kutomboka also means "to jump" in ChiLunda, suggesting that if the LundaKazembe "jumping" is close to the Luba complex as Gordon suggests, then a more intertwined connection between the Lunda kutomboka and Luba kutomboka seems probable. Like Gordon, Karen Milboume suggests that there is a historical connection between the Luba kutomboka, the Luapula "Bemba mutomboka" (presumably the Luapula ChiBemba-speaking Lunda-Kazembe mutomboko) and the Lozi kuomboka (2003:350-51, fn 120). While Gordon and Milbourne rightly connect the Lunda-Kazembe Mutomboko and the Lozi Kuomboka to Luba ceremonial rituals of investiture, the inclusion of the kutomboka royal dance of the Northwestern Lunda implies a more complex historical interrelationship between the Luba and the Lunda.

The Lunda performer at the Lunda Lubanza in Northwestern Province wore a simple t-shirt and cloth wrap; waving a ceremonial ax in his right hand, he performed a beautifully light, springy step around the arena. At one point he also did a forward and backward motion as he approached the visiting chiefs, and then retreated, skipping backward as he still faced them. (This forward and backward motion reflects the way Mwata, Ishindi, and Mununga are all danced on their hammocks. Whenever the hammock-bearers reverse for a few steps, the people running alongside the chief scream with de-light). With nimble elevation, the Lunda Lubanza dancer went back and forth, back and forth while the chiefs held out monetary tribute for him each time he approached.

Before he performed this light springing on the land, the dancer at Lunda Lubanza picked up his ceremonial ax from the ground, thrust its blade into the earth, and pointed it towards Senior Chief Ishindi, who was seated on his throne. He then repeated this action, pointing the ax in different directions, and then finally at the sky. This performance bears a strong resemblance to Mwata's ceremonial waving of the mpoko at the climax of the Mutomboko ceremony, where the spirit of the akatasa reflects the political, mercantile, (57) and spiritual connotations of this action. In this performance of militaristic conquest, Mwata plunges his sword into the earth and then points it toward the four cardinal directions, suggesting that no person from any corner of the earth is as powerful as he is, and only the earth in which he will one day be buried can defeat him. (58) As dust lingers in the air, he then gestures dramatically toward the heavens, alluding--according to local residents in Mwansabombwe--to the belief that God above him is his only superior.

The Chthonic Performance of the Mpoko

Taking this act of touching the earth with the mpoko one step further, I read this performance as a chthonic gesture--the word "chthonic," from the Greek word for "earth," relating to some kind of underworld or spirit world. As such, this gesture of touching the earth and flicking some soil into the air with the point of the sword connects the ideas of militaristic power and political ownership to the honoring of the ancestors of the original and ritual owners of the land. Corporeal touching of the land is often a significant expression of communication with the ancestral spirits. For example, when the praise poet Nawezi performed before Mwata at the 2002 and 2005 Mutomboko ceremonies, he lay prostrate on the ground not only in reverence of Mwata, but also as a way of evoking the ancestors. In the middle of a staged arena, Nawezi identified himself to the ancestral spirits by smearing impemba on his face and upper body with theatrical deliberation before he praised Mwata in a combination of ChiBemba and ChiLunda.

Similarly, the location of Mwata's own body during performances of governance and ritual reveals details regarding his status as well as his relationship to the forefathers (Palmeirim 1998:26). When he stresses his role as the Lunda-Kazembe leader, he is carried high up above the ground, either on his royal hammock or on someone's shoulders (59) as he was carried during his inauguration. However, when he returns from the river, he dismounts the hammock or shoulders before he passes the shrines. Similarly, when he honors the ancestors at the Miyombo tree shrine, his body, close to the ground, registers spiritual reverence. During this sacred ritual he does not wear a crown or shoes, and he crawls on the ground on his hands and knees.

A spiritual connection to the land is significant to the Lunda-Kazembe who, as participants of a diasporic history, were not the initial dwellers of the Luapula Valley. Cunnison writes (1951:14) that the retelling of local histories stresses the justification of a claim to a piece of land, and in this context there are three types of land ownership: one can own land by either being there first (the Bwilile), through ritual authority (the Shila), or though political ownership (the Lunda-Kazembe). In order to maintain legitimacy as a political owner, then, part of Mwata's role is to nurture a relationship to the forefathers of the ancestral and ritual owners of the land, and this retelling of history is expressed through both ritual and ceremonial performance. Considering this symbolism and the way it is expressed through corporeal height and physical contact with the land, the performance of the mpoko can be read as more than a commemorative expression of migration and militaristic power. As the tip of the sword digs into the earth, these intertwined themes of militaristic, ancestral, and religious power come together in the spirit of the akatasa crown. When the sacred amapango crown is worn, it is the religious power that is emphasized.

[FIGURE 23 OMITTED]

The Sacred Amapango Crown as Power Object

While the cibangula reflects the public face of office and the akatasa evokes both political authority and the spiritual nurturing of this power, the amapango crown is revered as the most sacred of all the Lunda-Kazembe crowns. At the 2004 Mutomboko ceremony, Mwata was initially planning to perform the mutomboko "pacing of the land" and the ritual of the mpoko wearing the amapango. More than a month before the ceremony, he told me that he was going to wear the amapango for the very first time since he had come into office in 1998. This headdress falls under the category of the general ututasa crowns (including Mwata's akatasa and the ututasa of the bakalunda), as certain components of Mwata's akatasa are incorporated into it.

The amapango is known in full as amapango icisote chabo fumo ("the amapango crown of the chief"), indicating its uniqueness in comparison to the communality built into Mwata's more general akatasa that is similar to the headdresses of the bakalunda and subchiefs. Cunnison relays (1959:197) a story of a prince--Chief Kambwali--who wanted to be allowed to wear the amapango, but his request was considered to be an insult to Mwata who is the sole wearer of this crown. Significantly, the components taken from the general akatasa and incorporated into the amapango are the side and back ivory pins (imisomo) and the elephant hair frame (akapompo)--the parts that are not found in any other akatasa. (Even the akatasa worn by Senior Chief Mununga of the Shila people does not have the ivory pins and elephant hair extension).

These valuable components of the akatasa, which are handed down from chief to chief, are combined with three other parts to form the amapango: a beaded headband with about twenty-one button-shaped ivory disks attached to it, two cloth-covered loops that protrude at the sides of the head, and a blue and red cotton cover displaying the small pelt of a striped weasel (Fig. 25). (60) Each ivory disk has a different cosmographic design on it including crosses, diagonal lines, a ring of dots, and lines extending outward like the rays of the sun. While it seems likely that the designs on these disks at one time had specific cosmological meanings, today Masumba claims to have no knowledge of any cosmographic symbolism and suggests that the designs are simply decorative. According to Masumba, these disks are attached to the cotton tube and the headband with elephant hair (ubukafu), and the cotton tube is filled with hair from an elephant's tail. A careful comparison of the current amapango and a photograph of the amapango worn by Mwata Kazembe XV Brown Ngombe in 1951 reveals that the cosmographic designs as well as their sequential order are exactly the same, confirming Masumba's point that this valuable and sacred crown is passed down from Mwata to Mwata (Fig. 26).

[FIGURES 25-26 OMITTED]

Another component of the crown is the tubular structure that goes over the head in such a way that it forms two large loops at the sides of the head, near the ears. These loops are also made from elephant tail hair wrapped in black cotton, forming the base for a piece of red cloth onto which small pieces of white shell are stitched. These loops at the side of the head are reminiscent of the large loops curving up to the top of the headpiece of the Chokwe cikungu mask--a very sacred mask that evokes the ancestors of the lord of the land and is worn at a chief's investiture ceremony and at his performance of proprietary sacrifices (Bastin 1998b:18). Similar loops are found on some Chokwe mukuku headpieces worn during the mukanda initiation ceremony, as well as the Yaka initiation mask, where the long horns are tied up to encircle the face, evoking the cosmological symbols of the rainbow-python and the moon (Bourgeois 1984:134).

The headband and the side loops fit tightly over the head, and together with the back armature and side ivory pins they hold a piece of cloth and the skin of a striped weasel in place. When I asked Mwansabombwe residents about the weasel (akasama), which is dark brown with white stripes down its back, they immediately said it was such a fierce animal that despite its smallness it is known in the Lunda tradition as a large leopard. They also said it has a foul smell coming from its mouth, and its skin is often incorporated into power objects (ubwanga). I was told that the weasel is used in medicines by shop owners, suggesting that it has the power to make one successful in business. (61)

Luapula has been stereotyped as the province with the most powerful and commonly used ubwanga. At the 2002 Mutomboko ceremony, the Mwansabombwe organizing committee, under the Chairman Mr. Chitalu, organized a temporary exhibition of local ubwanga, apparently confiscated from people suspected of witchcraft by the traditional court, in an attempt to launch the Kola Museum. This exhibition consisted of various objects, such as plastic dolls and carved figurines, combined with shells, razor blades, and animal parts, including snakeskin, crocodile skin, and assorted claws. Each object was labeled according to its intended efficacy, such as causing someone to hiccup until they die, causing an abortion, causing a man to be struck by lightening, causing someone to grow thinner, and causing someone's blood to be drained. Other objects were labeled as "an airplane used to travel on when you are going to use ubwanga," (Indeke sha kwendelapo pakuya kukulowa) or "the medicine used by the priest to call people to church, and when he beats the small drum people fill up the church" (Ubwanga bwa kwa shimapepo ubwa kwita abantu. Nga alisha pakaoma ninshi abantu kwisula icalici). A particularly powerfuMooking object was a carved figurine with a mirror in its belly and about six tightly bound bundles covered in cloth that were also attached to the stomach. The object was labeled "Medicine to kill someone on a mirror. An assemblage showing the number of people killed" (Bwanga bwakwipayape kalashi. Ulufunda nimpendwa yalaipaiwa). (62) According to Mr. Chitalu, each bundle represented someone who had been killed, suggesting that they were tied to the assemblage at different points in time.

The three most common features of all the exhibited ubwanga were 1) the compilation of many different components, 2) the tying and binding of these components together, and 3) the inclusion of animal parts considered to contain power of their own. Strikingly, these three features are also vital to the amapango, which consists of five different elements: the headband, side loops, top cloth with animal skin, side pins, and back frame and pin. Unlike the general akatasa, there is no frame or base such as the beret onto which the other components are added, but the entire crown is compiled through the action of tying and binding and of sticking the pins into and under cloth to hold the pieces together. As such, the sacred amapango crown itself could be read as a kind of power object, not only in terms of the materials used, but also in the performative action of creating the assemblage. Furthermore, the performance of the amapango at the 2004 Mutomboko ceremony quickly generated rumors of the use of ubwanga to both protect Mwata and to overthrow him.

An Attempt to Usurp the Power of the Lunda-Kazembe Crown

On the final day of the 2004 Mutomboko ceremony I excitedly anticipated Mwata's first wearing of the amapango crown. As a throng of celebraters danced toward me, muzzle-loaders were fired, saturating the already full sound of drums and whistles pierced with shrill shouts of "Mwataaaa! Akaaaaa!" From time to time Mwata would play the talking drum, and then he would swing out his arms, throw his head and upper body backward and, with eyes tightly closed, dance to the music of his royal musicians. As he was bounced around by his hammock-bearers, the black animal tail sticking out from the back of the zebra hammock bobbed up and down. Mwata gracefully swayed his body from side to side and occasionally punched the air, energetically animating the amapango crown, the lion-hair armbands, and the large cotton rosette billowing up from his skirt.

After proceeding through the main street of Mwansabombwe Mwata was escorted into the arena, majestically waving his royal flywhisk as his subjects in turn waved their arms, cloth wraps (fitenge), and bottles in the air. Just before Mwata dismounted the hammock, the ifimankata took several steps backwards, lowered the hammock to about knee level, and gently swung it back and forth four or five times. Interestingly, exactly the same motion was performed at the royal funeral that I had witnessed, where the bed of the deceased, which served as a litter, was lowered and swung back and forth just before the body was handed down to the gravediggers. Such congruences between the funeral ritual and the royal ceremony complicate the notion of celebration and emphasize the importance of the "living dead" who perform an active role in the Mutomboko ceremony.

Suddenly, as the formal performances were about to begin on stage, confusion swept over the crowd when people realized that Mwata, who was seated on his throne, had fainted. The bakalunda and ifimankata rushed to his side, and were about to put him on the hammock when a car sped into the arena to take him away. For a brief moment his subjects caught a glimpse of their chief appearing weak as he hung limply in his brother's arms with no crown on his head, for the amapango had been removed. (As Gilbert Chishala points out, the only time Mwata is ever seen without his headdress in a public space outside of his palace grounds is when he attends church). (63) For a while people aimlessly wandered around in shock, ignoring the the Master of Ceremonies' attempts to continue with the program. People began to walk out of the arena, and the musicians, who all belong to the royal family, packed their instruments into the back of a van and returned to the palace.

A short while later, the quiet distress and confusion that still hung in the air suddenly erupted into loud cheers and whistles as the car returned to the arena honking in eagerness to reenter the celebrations. As Mwata climbed out of the car I saw that he had changed his crown--his amapango had been replaced by the cibangula. The musicians jumped out of the van and began to play and dance as they welcomed Mwata back to the ceremony. The palpable joy and relief expressed by participants and viewers was extraordinary.

A much-shortened version of the ceremony followed, which ended with Mwata's performance of the Mutomboko "dance." Mwata was presented first with the sword and then the ax, which he held in his right and left hands respectively as he "paced the earth." Just as the new chiefs being installed at the Mutentamo had to physically struggle for their skirts that signified their new positions, Mwata had to theatrically fight for the possession of his ceremonial weapons. In comparison to this performance in 2002, the intense passion with which Mwata dramatically pulled the sword back and forth until he wrenched it from the other man's hands and the determination that he displayed when he demanded that the ax be handed over to him spoke volumes. Having come close to being rendered a powerless patron in the face of an aborted ceremony, he assertively grabbed back the power of his position as Mwata with full force.

Very quickly, rumors spread all over Mwansabombwe as people understandably pondered over the fate of their much-liked chief. The first rumor that I heard was that someone had put medicine inside Mwata's crown in an attempt to overthrow or kill him. While this would explain why he changed his crown, other people insisted that either the amapango was too tight, so it had to be taken off, or the amapango was forgotten at the arena so the cibangula had to be worn upon his return. However, I was also told that Mwata's medicine men, who sit near to him in the arena to detect evil forces, had sensed ubwanga in one of the gifts that had been brought to the arena by someone in government. This, of course, would put a peculiar spin on the notion of tribute at contemporary ceremonies, where gifts can be seen as the "mouths" for dialogue between politicians and traditional rulers. Later it was also suggested to me that a subchief had tried to overthrow Mwata.

The circulating rumors even reached the ears of a man who generally falls outside the daily affairs of society--a mentally disturbed man who is often seen wandering about the streets of Mwansabombwe picking up small pieces of rubbish and grasses and stuffing them into his shirt. The following morning I found him rolling on the ground, clapping in honor of his chief and shouting at the bakalunda who were seated outside the palace, accusing them of trying to murder Mwata. That afternoon, when Senior Chief Ishindi formally bade farewell to Mwata, he subtly acknowledged that he too thought someone had deliberately tried to bring Mwata down, and added that the Lunda of Northwestern and Luapula should therefore come together in support of each other.

By the next day such rumors of ubwanga and attempted murder were delivered to Mwata's doorstep in the form of The Post newspaper. As I walked around the palace grounds, I watched Mwata calmly read the sensational article that carried a front-page photograph of himself, crownless, being helped into the car. According to the article, the royal establishment suspected foul play: "This kind of crime amounts to death. Someone will have to die mysteriously over this issue." Not surprisingly, the national chairman of the organizing committee diplomatically made a formal statement a few days later saying that Mwata did not suspect any witchcraft, and that people should stop pointing fingers. He added that throughout their history, Luba-Lunda people overcame many obstacles, and that Mwata's short illness caused by heat and fatigue was just one of those obstacles to be overcome.

Regardless of what really happened to Mwata that day, it is interesting to consider the stories that circulated Mwansabombwe and beyond, fueling rumors of attempts to usurp the Lunda-Kazembe Crown. Similarly, a couple of weeks before the 2002 Mutomboko ceremony, when I was on the Luapula plateau--about 50km (31 miles) from Mwansabombwe--I heard a rumor that Mwata had died. This turned out to be far from true, but such rumors suggest that when a specific period of time is dedicated to the celebration of royalty and power, excited fabrications about the extent of this power and its possible demise more readily circulate. (64) As such, the crowns that Mwata wears only during this period--the akatasa and particularly the sacred amapango--are drawn into a heightened performative sphere where they not only perform everyday power in the name of the Crown, but also become ceremonial "mouths" that speak to a larger-than-normal audience at a time when expectations of both success and failure run high.

While the pictures in Zambian newspapers captured Mwata at his most vulnerable and displayed this moment to a national audience, these photographs failed to capture the fact that the unusual sight of a crownless Mwata at the Mutomboko intensified credence in his power while the Crown--the symbol of office through which this power is usually displayed--temporarily became a phantom object. To anyone who was present at the ceremony there could be little doubt that the absence of the physical crown during Mwata's short illness dramatically increased the splendor of Lunda-KaI zembe nile upon his return to the ceremony. In this particular context the cibangula, used for daily public affairs, was forced to perform the role of the akatasa, which is restricted to ceremonial events, demonstrating the fluidity of meaning as performance and objects interact. On this day the cibangula and the amapango came together in a connotative crescendo where the Lunda-Kazembe "mouth" performatively manifested a story of trade, tribute, militaristic power, succession, ritual, and spirituality. It was on this day that the meaning of these Lunda-Kazembe crowns gracefully moved.

Significantly, the Lunda-Kazembe crowns speak differently according to time, place, and audience, integrating not only different physical components at different times, but also the interpretive responses of onlookers. When Mwata sent a delegation to the Lunda Lubanza ceremony in Northwestern Province in August 2004, he was represented by his brother, who wore an akatasa crown without the ivory pins and back armature that Mwata alone can wear. However, many onlookers did not realize that this person performing the Mutomboko "dance" was not Mwata himself, as they were expecting the Lunda-Kazembe Senior Chief and were unable to discern the subtleties of dress and dance. For the Zambezi locals who shouted "Mwata Kazembe!" as Mwata's brother performed, the general akatasa performed as the akatasa reserved for Mwata. Similarly, the metal helmet that Mwata sometimes wears is embroiled in interpretive fluidity. Mwata himself claims that the helmet was presented to his forefathers by the Portuguese, but its inscription is in French and Lunda-Kazembe history records it as having been donated by the British. As such, the helmet becomes a "mouth" that negotiates the act of remembering and forgetting in terms of the histories of British, Portuguese, and Belgian colonialism in the region.

These fluid moments--where the cibangula performs as the amapango, the general akatasa performs as Mwata's akatasa, and the British helmet performs as a Portuguese object of tribute--do not render the codification of these objects redundant. Instead, these moments demonstrate that just as "Lundahood" is a "living thing," so too are the crowns of Lunda-Kazembe royalty "living objects" that actively perform in the discourse of Lunda-Kazembe rule. Just as beads acted as "mouths" in opening up trade dialogue with the Portuguese, these objects continue to act as "mouths" opening up new dialogues about the history of migration, contemporary stylistic integration, and future movements of the Lunda-Kazembe Crown.

I thank Christopher M. Annear, Suzanne Blier, Elisabeth Cameron, David M. Gordon, Manuel Jordan, Allen Roberts, and Zenzo Simbao for insightful comments. Research for this paper was largely done in Mwansabombwe, Zambia, with the financial support of the Whiting Foundation and a Jennifer Oppenheimer grant through the African Studies Committee, Harvard University, 2002. In 2004 I returned to Mwansabombwe and traveled to Munungu and Zambezi with the assistance of a Norton Grant from Harvard University, and in 2005 I returned to Mwansabombwe with the assistance of the International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship Program of the Social Science Research Council with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I thank the many residents of Mwansabombwe who generously shared their knowledge with me, particularly Prince Dyulu Kabeya, Masumba (Peter Kayo), junior Masumba (Stephen Kasasa), Gilbert Chishala, Nakabutula, Nakaululu, and John Katumbo. I am most grateful to Mwata for warmly welcoming me into his palace and for allow ing me to examine his royal crowns and other ceremonial objects. I deeply regret the passing away of Senior Chief Munugu in September 2005. The cheerful humor that he had displayed at the 2004 Shila Mabila left a great impression upon me.

[This article was accepted for publication in April 2006.]

References cited

Arnoldi, Mary Jo, and Christine Kreamer, eds. 1995. Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Bastin, Mane-Louise. 1982. La Sculpture Tshokwe. Meudon: Alain et Francoise Chaffin.

--. 1998a. Art et Mythologie: Figures Tshokwe. Paris: Foundation Dapper.

--. 1998b. "Wealth of Symbolism and Aesthetic Expression." In Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples, ed. Manuel Jordan, pp. 13-19. Munich: Prestel.

Bourgeois, Arthur P. 1984. Art of the Yaka and Suku. Mendon, France: A. & F. Chaffin.

Burton, R.F., trans, and annotations. 1969. The Lands of Cazonbe: Lacerda's Voyaye to Cazembe in 1798. New York: Negro University Press.

Bustin, Edouard. 1975. Lunda under Belgian Rule: The Politics of Ethnicity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Carvalho, Henrique Augusta Dias de. 1894. Descripcao da Viagem a Mussumba do Muatianvua. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional.

--. 1890. Ethnographia e Historia Tradicional dos Provos da Lunda. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional.

Chambliss, J.E. 1875. The Life and Labors of David Livingstone. Boston: Hubbard.

Chipungu, Samuel N. 1992. "African Leadership under Indirect Rule in Colonial Zambia." hi Guardians in their Time: Experiences of Zambians Under Colonial Rule, 1890-1964, pp. 50-73. London: McMillan.

Chondoka, Yizenge A. 1988. Traditional Marriages in Zambia: A Study of Cultural History. Ndola: Mission Press.

Cunnison, Ian. 1959. The Luapala Peoples of Northern Rhodesia. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press and the Rhodes-Livingstone Foundation.

--. 1956. "Perpetual Kinship: A Political Institution of the Luapala Peoples." Rhodes Livingstone Journal 20.

--. 1951. "History on the Luapala." Rhodes Livingstone Journal 2.

Dewey, William J., and S. Terry Childs. 1996. "Forging Memory." In Memory: Luba and the Making of Tradition, eds. Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, pp. 61-83. Munich: Presetl and New York: Museum for African Art.

Gamitto, A.C.P. 1960. King Kaembe and the Marave, Cheva, Bisa, Bemba, Lunda, and Other Peoples of Southern Africa: Diary of the Portuguese Expedition to that Potentate in the Years 183 and 1832. Trans. Ian Cunnison. Lisbon: Junta de investigaceos do ultramar centro de estudos politicos e socials.

Gordon, David M. 2005. Nachituti's Gift: Economy, Society and Environment in Central Africa. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

--. 2004. "The Cultural Politics of a Traditional Ceremony: Mutomboko and the Performance of History on the Luapula (Zambia)." Comparative Studies in Society and History 46 (1):63-83.

--. 2006. "History on the Luapula Retold: Landscape, Memory, and Identity in the Kazembe Kingdom." Journal of African History 47:21-42.

Heusch, Luc de. 1982. The Drunken King, or The Origin of the State. Trans. Roy Willis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hoover, Jeffrey. 1978. The Seduction of Ruweji: Reconstructing Ruund History (The Nuclear Lunda; Zaire, Angola, Zambia). PhD diss., Yale University.

Jordan, Manuel, ed. 1998. Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples. Munich: Prestel.

Kazembe XIV. 1961. Ifikolwe Fyandi na Bantu Bandi (My Ancestors and my People): Historical Traditions of the Eastern Lunda. trans, and annotated by Ian Cunnison. Rhodes-Livingstone Communication 23. Lusaka: The Rhodes-Livingstone Institution.

Liu, Robert K. 1975. "Conus Shell Discs Revisited." Bead Journal 2 (1):30-32.

Macola, Giacomo. 2002. (2003?) The Kingdom of Kazembe: History and Polities in North-Eastern Zambia and Katanga to 1950. Hamburg: LIT Verlag.

--. 2001. "Literate Ethnohistory in Colonial Zambia: The Case of Ifikolwe Fyandi na Bantu Bandi." History in Africa 28:187-201.

Maurer, Evan M., and Allen F. Roberts. 1986. Tabwa: The Rising of a New Moon: A Century of Tabwa Art. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Milbourne, Karen. 2003. Diplomacy in Motion: Art, Pageantry and the Politics of Creativity in Barotseland. PhD diss., University of Iowa.

Miller, Joseph C. 1988. Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade 1730-1830. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Munona, Chinyanta, and Chileya J. Chiwale. 1989. Mutomboko Ceremony and the Lunda-Kazembe Dynasty. Lusaka: Kenneth Kaunda Foundation.

Palmeirim, Manuela. 1998. "The Kings Crowns: Hierarchy in the Making among the Aruwund (Lunda)." In Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples, ed. Manuel Jordan, pp. 21-27. Munich: Prestel.

Quiggin, A.H. 1949. "Trade Routes: Trade and Currency in East Africa." The Occasional Papers of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, nos. 1-16, pp. 145-66. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press for the Institute for African Studies, University of Zambia.

Roach, Joseph. 1996. Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance. New York: Columbia University Press.

Roberts, Allen F. 1995. Animals in African Art: From the Familiar to the Marvelous. Munich: Prestel-Verlag for the Museum of African Art.

--. 1986. "Social and Historical Contexts of Tabwa Art." In The Rising of a New Moon: A Century of Tabwa Art, eds. Evan M. Maurer and Allen F. Roberts, pp. 1-48. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Roberts, Andrew. 1976. A History of Zambia. New York: Africana Publishing.

Roberts, Mary Nooter. 2000. Body Politics: The Female Image in Luba Art and the Sculpture of Alison Saar. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Roberts, Mary Nooter, and Allen E Roberts. 1996. Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History. Munich: Prestel and New York: Museum for African Art.

Sieber, Roy, and Frank Herreman, eds. 2000. Hair in African Art and Culture. Munich: Prestel and New York: Museum for African Art.

Turner, Victor. 1955. "A Lunda Love Story and its Consequences." Rhodes Livingstone Journal 19:1-26.

Vansina, Jan. 1966. Kingdoms of the Savanna: A History of Central African States until European Occupation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

(1.) While scholars such as Ian Cunnison (1959), David M. Gordon (2004), and Giacomo Macola (2002) refer to the Lunda-Kazembe as the eastern Lunda to distinguish them from the Lunda in Nortwestern Province, Zambia and the central Lunda of the Congo, in my experience residents of Mwansabombwe refer to themselves as Lunda-Kazembe or simply as Lunda. It used to be that a visitor to Mwansabombwe village was greeted with a mural that depicted Mwata's royal regalia, and the words "Welcome to the Lunda Kazembe Capital" were written across the wall. This mural has now been replaced with a statue of Chinyanata Nankula Kazembe XIV (r. 1941-1950) wearing the sacred amapango crown.

(2.) Mwata is sometimes referred to as Mwata Kazembe. As Cunnison points out, "Kazembe Ng'anda Bilonda was the first Mwata Kazembe, as future kings of the eastern Lunda were to be known. They all inherited the personal name (Kazembe) and the title (Mwata), while they were further distinguished by their own personal names" (1959:153). However, many Lunda-Kazembe today insist that Mwata Kazembe should just be referred to as Mwata, for as Chinyanta and Chiwale suggest, "the term Mwata in the Lunda-Kazembe traditional history was and still is associated with mystical powers" (1989:27). Contemporary residents of Mwansabombwe insist that their chief should simply be referred to as Mwata, as no further qualification is needed. The 2005 Mutonthoko brochure explicitly stated that Mwata can be called Mwata Kazembe, but "NOT Chief Mwata Kazembe." When I lived in Mwansabombwe in 2002 and 2004 I would use the titles Mwata, BaMwata, or BaKanabesa (a term of respect) in personal conversations with Mwata Kazembe XIX. Throughout this essay I simply use the title Mwata, which is most commonly heard in Mwansabombwe.

(3.) While the Lunda who migrated to Zambia's Northwestern Province maintained the ChiLunda language, the Lunda-Kazembe adopted the ChiBemba dialect widely spoken in Luapula Province. Many of the ChiBemba songs that are sung during the Mutomboko ceremony include some ChiLunda words, and the current Mwata refers to this ChiBemba as "Union Bemba." When there is more of an emphasis on ChiLunda words, such as the words played by the talking drum, he refers to this as "Union Lunda." He told me that when he learned how to play the talking drum, he first had to master the actual words in "Union Lunda" before he could learn how to perform them on the drum. (Personal conversation with Mwata, Mwansabombwe, June 10, 2004).

(4.) Many residents of the capital city, Lusaka, erroneously refer to the Lunda-Kazembe as "Bembas" due to their language, whereas the residents of Mwansabombwe refer to themselves as Lunda. The Bemba of Northern Province distinguish themselves from other ChiBemba-speaking peoples by calling themselves the "Bemba proper." Ironically, while many Lusaka residents themselves comfortably maintain a fluid relationship between language and ethnicity, they complain that the Lunda-Kazembe have lost their tradition because they do not speak ChiLunda.

(5.) By "integrative material object" I mean an object that combines different material components at different times, incorporating them into various repertoires of meaning. Furthermore, the interpretation of such an object is negotiated according the time and space in which it is performed and the audience that observes this performance. As I shall discuss later, individual crowns, such as the akatasa and amapango, are made up of separate parts that can be put together in different combinations.

(6.) The Times of Zambia, July 21, 2003, and personal conversation with Lucian Ng'andwe, Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 2003. Anthropologist Ian Cunnison also referred to the area as "Little Paris."

(7.) David Gordon (2006) argues that the ethnic designations of "Lunda" and "Shila" were not simply colonial constructs, but that the Kazembe rulers used the performance, celebration, and commemoration of history to help construct these identities of the "Lunda" and the "Shila," of the "conquerors" and the "conquered."

(8.) Personal conversation with Mulenga Kapwepwe, April 27, 2004.

(9.) Personal conversation with Mark Auslander, Waltham, Massachusetts, February 17, 2003.

(10.) Kola is the place that many Zambian peoples claim to have originated from. As Allen Roberts suggests, Kola is variously associated with the Lunda heartland, "Angola," and the confluence of the Lualaba and the Luvua Rivers (1986:25, 45 fn 185).

(11.) Mwata Kazembe XIV recorded the Lunda-Kazembe oral history with the help of a committee between 1942 and 1944. Apparently the original manuscript was lost and then reconstructed by the Canadian missionary Labrecque and was published in 1961 as Ifikolwe Fyandi na Bantu Bandi (My Ancestors and my People). According to Giacomo Macola, the document should be read with a certain amount of skepticism due to the influence that Labrecque had over the reconstruction process and to the fact that he conspicuously incorporated other literature, such as that of Pinto, Lacerda, and Gamitto, into the final product, changing the document into something other than a purely oral history. Macola (2001:201) calls for a tripartite reading that reflects not only Labrecque's interjections, but also the context of "interethnic competition" and the "bulwark against social tension." David M. Gordon argues that this text becomes a "script" or a "template" that stifles the emergence of alternative historical discourses (2004:76-7).

(12.) The ceremony in its current form as an annual celebration was initially a tenth anniversary commemoration of the installation of Mwata Kazembe XVII Paul Kanyembo in 1961. See Gordon 2004:70-72, who writes that organizers claim that the ceremony became an annual event in 1961, but it was really after the 1971 anniversary that the state became revolved in the ceremony as an annual event.

(13.) Nakabutula plays a very significant role as the spiritual caretaker of Mwata. At the rise of the new moon each month, he goes to the palace to smear Mwata with impemba so as to ensure good health. The talking drum is also played (usual ly by Gilbert Chishala) to welcome the new moon. (I thank Allen Roberts for suggesting I enquire more about the significance of the moon). Whenever Mwata travels, Nakabutula also smears him with impemba to protect and bless him on his journey.

(14.) Based on his conversation with Prince Dyulu (2000), Gordon says that this practice has not taken place for at least fifty years.

(15.) According to Gordon (based on his conversation with the shrine keeper), the name "Nakabutula" means "to bear children," and Gordon concurs that the stone resembles a fertility object, although he does not say why. He says that although the stone was "possibly at one time related directly to the fertility of the king or kingdom, this no longer seems to be the case; instead, the stones seem to ensure that intambi customs associated with kingship are maintained" (2005:19). I do not think that a name meaning "to bear children" refers necessarily to the fertility of the incumbent king or chiefdom, but rather to the origins (i.e. the birth) of the Lunda-Kazembe chiefdom that continues to be legitimized through the rituals at the Nakabutula shrine.

(16.) Personal conversation with Nakabutula, Mwansabombwe, June 10, 2004.

(17.) The mutaba tree is also known for healing properties. BaSizo (Mwata's senior chief retainer), who showed me the white, milky substance in the leaf stems of the mutaba tree, said that if one boils these pounded leaves with nkoti, mwenge, kalafulu, and luena leaves, one can make an excellent medicine for a cough.

(18.) Personal conversation with Mwata, June 5, 2004. Kapale is a small, squirrel-like animal that climbs so high up in trees that it risks falling down and killing itself. Mwata chose this praise name to demonstrate his determination to climb to the top at a time when some traditional councilors (bakalunda) suggested that he was too young to take over the position of Lunda-Kazembe chief.

(19.) Personal conversation with Mwata, July 30, 2002.

(20.) According to Masumba, the amapango is a type of akatasa crown, but is more sacred than any other akatasa.

(21.) Personal conversation with Mwata, June 5, 2004.

(22.) This song was recited and translated by Mwata's kapaso Peter Kapansha and by Masumba's assistant Stephen Kasasa, June 10, 2004.

(23.) Personal conversation with senior Masuntha (Peter Kayo), June 10, 2004.

(24.) In "showing brightness," the flywhisk appears to clear the path for the person bearing it, in the same sense that the moon shows one where to walk at night. Masumba used the word "brightness" in relation to the flywhisk and the moon, as well as the color white in general.

(25.) According to Masumba, the otter pelt was chosen because the hair is very soft, but the skin is very strong and cannot easily be cut by the knife. The size and shape of the otter complements the shape of the mpoko, as the tip of the knife fits snugly into the otter's whiskered snout. The strap of the sheath is made from the part of the pelt that covers the backbone at the otter. While Masumba did not know of any symbolic significance of the otter, there may be some importance in it being an aquatic animal, as rivers play an important role in some of the myths of Lunda-Kazembe migration and in the ritual homage that is paid to the ancestors.

(26.) Personal conversation with Masumba (Peter Kayo), June 10, 2004.

(27.) According to Paul Kapansha and Stephen Kasasa, the performance of the Mutomboko "dance" was also constrained because the chiefs being inaugurated were not senior chiefs. (Personal conversation, June 10, 2004).

(28.) Similarly, if part of the crown wears out or is broken, then just that section can be fixed. Personal conversation with Masumba (Peter Kayo) June 10, 2004.

(29.) This assertion is based on a comparison of photographs of various Mwata Yamvos who ruled from the 1950s to the 1980s. The photographs were presented to me during the 2002 Mutomboko ceremony by a Congolese man who bad complied a poster showing the line of Lunda chiefs in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

(30.) Personal conversation with Mwata, June 5, 2004.

(31.) Personal conversation with Masumba (Peter Kayo), June 10, 2004.

(32.) I thank anthropologist James Pritchett for showing me this photograph, which he took when was conducting research in Mwinilunga.

(33.) Personal conversation with Masumba (Peter Kayo), June 10, 2004. When Masumba showed me Mwata's regalia that is kept in a special chest in the chota, I was surprised by the presence of one of these tubular cibangula crowns, as I have never seen Mwata wearing it. Masumba confirmed that it is considered to be an old model and is therefore hardly ever worn.

(34.) At the 2005 Mutomboko Ceremony I saw Mwata wear this horned crown for just a few minutes inside his palace grounds.

(35.) Pende and Yaka beaded bicorn crowns each have projections on each side of the head onto which are attached the beaded horns (see Arnoldi and Kreamer 1995:102). These projections are very similar to the small side flaps on the contemporary Lunda-Kazembe cibangula, although the latter crown does not possess horns. These flaps can also be compared to the larger, winglike flaps on the Chokwe and Songs headdresses, which curl either upward or to the back of the head. These flaps evoke the wings of the black stork in Chokwe iconography, which signifies high social status. According to Marie Louise Bastin, such headdresses were inspired by the large loops curving up to the top of the headpiece of the Chokwe cikungu mask (Bastin 1998b:18).

(36.) This term is used by Allen Roberts (1986:8) to connote dynamic cultural borrowing. He suggests the use of this term based on Verhulpen's "Baluba et Balubaises."

(37.) This term is used by J. Nash, who conducted a tour of Senior Chief Mununga's area in December 1960 on behalf of the Northern Rhodesian colonial government. National Archives of Zambia, File 248, LP2/2,16.

(38.) Reports written by G.S. Temba (African Administrative Assistant) 4 April 1961, and N.E. Williams, 1952. National Archives of Zambia, File 248, LP2/2,16; report by J. Nash, December 1960, National Archives of Zambia, File 248, LP2/2, 16.

(39.) This mixture of ethnic groups was pointed out by D.M. Wright, the District Officer in Charge who accompanied G.S. Temba on a tour of Senior Chief Mununga's area in 1961. National Archives, File 248, LP2/2, 16.

(40.) Personal conversation with Masuntha inside Mwata's Palace, June, 10, 2004.

(41.) Ibid.

(42.) Personal conversation with Mwata, June 5, 2004. While Masumba insisted that no medicines were used inside the crowns for protection, Mwata suggested that "these things still do happen."

(43.) This event, which is a formal part of the ceremony, is an example of involuntary tribute, as the headman of each section chooses specific women to brew the beer and bring it to the palace, and these women have to fulfill their obligation. Cunnision identifies two kinds of tribute: voluntary tribute (mulambo) and requested tribute (mufungo). Beer tribute and other forms of involuntary tribute are continued in the death or absence of the chief, suggesting that the tribute is directed more at the institution of chieftaincy rather than an individual person (1959:198-9). However, even though the beer ceremony is a form of involuntary tribute, women still manage to use this occasion to hold Mwata accountable to his subjects through their songs, some very much addressed to the individual, using his specific praise name.

(44.) Interpretation of this song is based on a discussion with John Katumbo. It was recorded in Nakabamba Section of Mwansabombwe while the women were brewing beer, July 29, 2004. Translated by John Katumbo.

(45.) This song was sung by the beer brewers of Nakabamba Section, July 20, 2004, and translated by John Katumbo. While there was initially some controversy over the current Mwata being installed at a relatively young age, John Katumbo says that in general, his subjects commend him on the development he has brought, which previous, more elderly chiefs failed to bring.

(46.) Chinyanta and Kasombola were two brothers who were drowned in Mukelweji River in the early eighteenth century and are honored as ancestral spirits. During the ceremony, beer and foodstuffs are thrown into the Ng'ona River to feed these spirits, while a ritual specialists asks for mercy on the current chiefdom. See Gordon 2006:31-5 for a detailed discussion on Chinyanta and Kasombola.

(47.) This act of obstruction is reminiscent of a royal funeral that I witnessed, where Nakaululu, the grave-caretaker, drew a line of impemba across the ground, prohibiting the pall-bearers from carrying the body to the grave until they offered her some payment.

(48.) Recorded at the 2004 Mutomboko Ceremony (July 31) and translated by Zenzo Simbao. Cunnison also writes (1959:183) that in the past an offence against the Lunda-Kazembe state was punished by cutting off the offender's fingers, toes, or nose by an officer known as katamatwi--"cutter of ears."

(49.) Personal conversation with Gilbert Chishala, the official talking drum player. Mwansabombwe, July 29, 2004.

(50.) Personal conversation with William Mike, Lusaka, March 17, 2004.

(51.) Interestingly, exactly the same drum rhythm and step is used during the funeral procession of a member of the royal family, where the body is similarly danced, on either a hammock or on the bed of the deceased, to the Mporokoso Royal Graveyard (personal conversations with Nakaululu, the grave caretaker, July 26, 2004, and Gilbert Chishala, July 29, 2004). Reflecting on the parallel between a funeral and the annual ceremony, a young man, Jackson Bweupe, observed that the royal funeral "is a mini Mutomboko" (personal conversation, July 24, 2004).

(52.) Personal conversation with Masumba, July 10, 2004.

(53.) Ibid.

(54.) Personal conversation with Professor Mapopa Mtonga, Lusaka, June 25, 2005.

(55.) Personal conversation with Kapya Kaoma, January 31, 2003, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

(56.) This term is used in a write-up by the Department of Cultural Services, "Brief of Zambian Traditional Services." (nd).

(57.) A similar performance of pointing to particular directions with a weapon is described in Lacerda's eighteenth century travelogue as tallows: "At once out came Catara ... and began to 'pemberar,' that is to say to dance, in token of joy.... With his knife he pointed to the directions where Angola and Tete are supposed to be, signifying that the Cazembe was very happy in being visited by whites from both countries" (Burton 1969:112). Although Pinto, through a translator, interpreted the gesture of pointing to Angola and Tete as a welcoming sign, the interaction of Mwata III with the Portuguese suggests a more complex entanglement than mere conviviality. If the current gesture of pointing to the cardinal points is partly a way of asserting supremacy, then it is feasible to interpret the historical gesture as an expression of mercantile power in relation to Portuguese trade ambitions stemming from both Angola and Mozambique.

(58.) Mwata told me that "when Mwata came eastwards from the west he said, 'There is no one I can fear. The only one l fear is Almighty God." That is why I point to the east and the west, because no one could conquer Mwata." Personal conversation, June 5, 2004.

(59.) There is an interesting connotation of the burden of labor in relation to the shoulders, which seems to stem for colonial times when European masters expected to be carried on hammocks resting on the shoulders of African servants. See Chipungu 1992:65 and opposite p. 82 (photographs of colonial administrators being carried on hammocks and peoples' shoulders).

(60.) The crowns worn by Tabwa chiefs have genet skin on top of the head, with the beaded band going around the forehead (see Roberts 1986:15).

(61.) Personal conversation with John Katumbo, Mwansabombwe, July 28, 2004.

(62.) These labels were all translated by Lucien Ng'andwe, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 2003.

(63.) Personal conversation, July 28, 2004. Church is also the only social space in which people can shake Mwata's hand, as customarily he does not touch anybody's hand.

(64.) Similarly, during this period there were heightened rumors about foreigners coming into the village to either kill or steal children. According to Jackson Bweupe, parents who attended the Mutomboko ceremony would lock their children in their homes to make sure that they were not abducted by foreigners while they were away (personal conversation, June 2, 2004).