The Kuba kingdom formed a centralized military and commercial power developed out of the diverse ethnic communities along the savanna and rain forest border of the upper Congo River. The kingdom emerged through a process of migration, population growth, political innovation, and the introduction and adaptation of several New World crops brought to Africa by the Portuguese. Also, Kuba art remains among the most influential cultural achievements of the early modern era, and is highly valued.
The Kuba kingdom was one of several new African states that emerged in central Africa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their concurrent development suggests that shared economic influences and common political innovations contributed to their rise.
The Kuba state emerged on the fringe of the equatorial rain forest, in the modern Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1600’. The Kuba area lied between the Sankuru and Kasai Rivers, parallel tributaries of the Congo that rise south of the river. Linguistic and archaeological evidence suggest that the founders of the Kuba kingdom were Mongo-speaking immigrants who drifted from the rain forest to the north into the border of the savanna. On the savanna-forest fringe, these immigrants encountered ethnically diverse peoples, the dominant power among them being the Bushong, a Mongo-speaking community that lived along the Sankuru River.
Because there are no written records of Kuba history before the eighteenth century, little is known about this crucial period. However, Kuba myth and oral tradition provide insight into the origins of the state. The Kuba believe they are descended from a heroic ancestor named Woot. In one tradition, Woot stole a magic basket from the Kuba’s creator god, only to have it returned to the Kuba king by a Pygmy. This tradition reflects the integration of the aboriginal Pygmy, or Twa, peoples of the region into the community that eventually became the Kuba kingdom. The story of Woot and his family form a central motif in Kuba rituals and art.
Kuba traditions attribute the kingdom’s rise to the arrival of a great immigrant warrior and leader named Shyaam the Great
Under Shyaam and his successors, Kuba royalty tied together many diverse ethnic groups, though the chiefly clan was the Bushong
With Shyaam’s arrival came the adoption of crops from the New World, such as maize and cassava, which Portuguese traders brought to Africa. Indeed, the introduction of New World crops appears to have played a critical role in the Kuba economy’s expansion and diversification. Though the Kuba were not in direct contact with traders from the Atlantic coast, they were able to adapt many useful and lucrative new crops for trade shortly after they first appeared on the African continent. In addition to the staples maize and cassava, Kuba farmers grew peanuts, chili peppers, tobacco, and other crops for export. The expansion of agriculture
In the Kuba state, the Bushong clan successfully claimed a monopoly on royal power. However, the Bushong rulers had councils made up of representatives from the kingdom’s major ethnic groups. At the state’s height, the Kuba rulers relied on an administration of tax collectors and administrators to run their affairs.
According to Jan Vansina, a Kuba historian, pre-Kuba politics in the region was focused on the collections of villages, which shared a common chief. These chiefs ruled with councils of elders and village leaders. Shyaam and his followers were able to play the rulers against one another, throwing their weight on one side in a power struggle between two leading chiefdoms. Between 1625 and 1680, this new Kuba state successfully integrated villages and chiefdoms from throughout the region.
The wealth of Kuba, which flowed from the trade and industry of the growing agricultural population of the region, sustained also one of the most fertile artistic traditions of central Africa
Kuba wooden sculpture
In addition to providing prestige to the ruling classes, Kuba art also played an important role in regional trade. Kuba textiles, woven from raffia cloth, were a highly valued trade good in regional commerce. Kuba traders conducted a brisk commerce in textiles with their neighbors, particularly with the Luba to the south.
The Kuba empire fell into decline in the nineteenth century and was incorporated into Belgian king Leopold II’s Congo Empire by century’s end (1884-1885). It was annexed to Belgium in 1908. Today the Kuba are considered an ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of Congo that traces its antecedents to the precolonial Kuba kingdom.
The Kuba state was one of several similar centralized political entities to emerge in central Africa during the seventeenth century. Before this period, this region had been populated by scattered farming and fishing villages and by hunter-gatherer peoples. Under the leadership of monarchs of the Bushong clan, the Kuba kings forged a centralized state from a host of disparate ethnic groups, including the Kel, Pyaang, Ngeende, Bieeng, Ilebo, Kaam, Idiing, and Ngoombe.
Like the Lunda Empire to the south, Kuba state formation was encouraged by a process of migration, population growth, political innovation, and the introduction and adaptation of several New World crops. These processes allowed Kuba monarchs to develop a powerful dynasty whose wealth was based on taxation from agriculture, manufacturing, and trade. However, the Kuba developed a highly specialized and distinctive artistic tradition that reflects its unique development. Kuba art showed the wealth, centralization, and social stratification that were hallmarks of this civilization. This artistic tradition played an important role in the formation of elite identity among the Kuba, and Kuba sculpture today is well-known and highly prized. It is often at the center of museum collections worldwide.
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Edgerton, Robert B. The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002. Edgerton provides a thorough and complete history of the Congo region, from the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500’s through the twentieth century. -
Gondola, Ch. Didier. The History of Congo. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. A survey of Congo’s history, covering the Kuba and other kingdoms and peoples. Provides, also, biographical sketches of key figures in the region’s history. -
Vansina, Jan. The Children of Woot. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978. The standard text on Kuba history. Vansina is the author of dozens of books on the precolonial history, art, and politics of central Africa. -
Vansina, Jan. Kingdoms of the Savanna. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. An early and important work on state formation in central Africa. -
Vansina, Jan. “The Peoples of the Forest.” In History of Central Africa, edited by David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin. Vol. 1. New York: Longman, 1983. An excellent article about the Congo region.
Njinga.