Hemba

The Hemba, or Bahemba, are a Bantu people of the eastern Congo basin, living west of Lake Tanganyika along the upper Lualaba River. Their language belongs to the Luba group, and their traditions recall an eastward migration out of the Luba Empire some time after 1600. Traders exchanged salt for Luba-forged iron hoes and wore raffia cloth from the Songye through Luba markets.

Around 1800 the expansion of the Luba king Ilunga Sungu reached their lands: the southern Hemba became tributaries under a client “fire king”, and although they broke away at the king's death, his successor Kumwimbe Ngombe subdued them again and built a client state there.

Hemba villages are led by chiefs whose titles pass through the maternal line, and religious life centres on ancestor shrines and a sculptural tradition of ancestor figures and the two-faced kabeja statuette, in a style close to Luba art.