Matrilineal kingdom of the Abena Ng'andu ('crocodile') clan, whose paramount took the title Chitimukulu, ruling the woodland plateau between Lakes Tanganyika, Mweru, Bangweulu and Nyasa. Founded by migrants out of Luba country who crossed the Luapula, the Bemba became the dominant military power of the northern plateau in the 19th century, pushing out the Lungu, Mambwe, Bisa and Tabwa and trading ivory and captives with Arab and Swahili caravans.
Not an ending: the British South Africa Company's forts and the White Fathers' missions closed in on Ubemba through the 1890s, and Robert Codrington took over as Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia in 1898, ending independent Bemba raiding. The Chitimukulu throne survives as a recognised traditional authority in Zambia, and Bemba is the country's main lingua franca.
The standard political history of the Bemba kingdom to 1900, built from oral tradition and the Portuguese and British records.
Richards's classic Bemba field study, still the reference work on Bemba chieftainship, tribute and the economy of the plateau.