Barotse Mabunda

Barotse Mabunda lies on the Zambezi floodplain in the country of the Lozi, where communities organise their lives around the river's annual rise and fall. In the flood season people moved their households from the low ground to higher villages, and herds were driven to the drier ridges. The floodplain gave rich grazing and fish, while the higher ground held the gardens and granaries.

The Lozi kingdom of Bulozi grew on this floodplain in the seventeenth century and extended its authority over surrounding peoples. Its ruler, the Litunga, the keeper of the earth, governed through a court whose officials supervised the floodplain villages, collected tribute and organised the seasonal move to higher ground. The yearly move was marked by the Kuomboka ceremony, when the king's court travelled by barge from the flooded plains to the high ground at the start of the rains.