People or land · The Swahili Coast and the Gold Country · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Luapula and Mweru

The fishing and farming peoples of the Luapula river and Lake Mweru, on both sides of the modern Congo-Zambia border; forebears of the Shila and Bwile.

The Lunda kingdom of Kazembe is of the eighteenth century.

Who holds it

Name
Not known: no leader is named for this date
Title
Heads of lineages, villages and clans
Since
Not pinned
Confidence
low

How things stand that morning

Independent.

Assemblies

Village and lineage elders settle disputes and allocate land; there is no chief over the whole people that the evidence can show for 1200.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Through 1200No dated event is known.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Very thin.

On the map: Drawn from modern language areas, physical geography and a few dated sites; the 1200 extent is a rough guess.

Sources and studies

  1. Phillipson, The Later Prehistory of Eastern and Southern Africa (1977), on the Luangwa tradition and the Later Iron Age (cited from memory of the literature)
  2. UNESCO General History of Africa, vol. 4, and Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 3, chapters on East Africa and the interior (cited from memory of the literature)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.