Farmers of the hot Zambezi valley floor between the Batoka gorge and the Luangwa confluence, on both banks, the later homeland of the Gwembe Tonga, with the Sebungwe country above the south bank.
First-millennium villages of the Gwembe tradition are known. Ingombe Ilede, on a hill near the Lusitu confluence, later became a rich trading centre whose burials date to the fifteenth-sixteenth century (McIntosh and Fagan 2017); an earlier first-millennium occupation there is possible. Salt from the valley's springs and ivory were later the valley's wares.
Who holds it
- Title
- Local chiefs and lineage heads; no paramount known
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
None that can be named
How things stand that morning
Independent communities; no trading centre is attested on 1 January 1200.
Customs
Not known for 1200.
Where the sources disagree
- Ingombe Ilede is sometimes treated as a twelfth-to-fourteenth-century site; its rich burials are fifteenth-sixteenth century on the latest dating.
Evidence: Archaeology sparse for the twelfth century.
On the map: An outline drawn from the general distribution of the evidence; it is not a border.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.