Baluba

Luba

 or Baluba

Female Luba ancestral statue of carved wood; in the Musée de l'Homme, Paris.

(credit: Courtesy of the Musee de l'Homme, Paris)

Cluster of some 5.6 million Bantu-speaking peoples who share a common political history surrounding the Luba-Lunda states. They are savanna and forest dwellers who hunt and gather, engage in agriculture, and keep livestock; they also fish intensively in the Congo and its tributaries. They have associations for hunting, magic, and medicine and a well-developed oral tradition that includes epic cycles. Two groups are noted as wood-carvers.

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Baluba 

(Luba), a people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire); inhabit primarily the province of Katanga and contiguous districts of the province of Kasai. Population, 2.8 million (1967).

The language of the Baluba is Kiluba (Chiluba), one of the most widespread Central African languages. Kiluba belongs to the central group of the Bantu language family; it uses a script with a Latin base. The religion of the Baluba is Christianity, but ancient beliefs (ancestor worship, animism, and others) persist. The Baluba founded their own state of Baluba during the Middle Ages. The Baluba have engaged in agriculture since ancient times. Applied arts, particularly artistic wood carving, are highly developed. Many Baluba work at enterprises in Katanga.