Affinity Bloc: Sub-Saharan African

Overview: Bantu refers to a large, complex linguistic grouping of peoples in Africa. The Luba are a major ethnic group of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Luba Kingdom first appeared in the fifteenth century. It began to decline in the late nineteenth century due to the expansion of the Chokwe empire. The Central-Luba Bantu people cluster encompasses more than a dozen people groups, most of which are subgroups of the Luba.

  -- James Olson, The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press (1996). Pp. 345-346.

Peoples within this cluster: Bangobango; Binji; Kanyok; Kete; Luba; Luba-Hemba; Luba-Lulua; Lwalwa; Ruund; Salampasu; Sanga, Luba Garenganze; Songye

Countries where they are found: Congo (Kinshasa); United States