A Luba Tribe in Katanga. Customs and Folklore

Extract

One of the three major divisions of the Luba-speaking people in the Katanga Province in the Southern part of Central Belgian Congo is under the chief Kabongo, in a country well watered, fertile, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet, 8.5° south of the equator.

Game is plentiful, hunted for the most part seasonally, with bow and arrow, after burning the forest to drive out the game.

An agricultural people, without cattle, being cut off from the cattle region by the tsetse-fly belt, they have goats and chickens; though these are not used for food. They are in physique a tall, well-built, vigorous people, alert and intelligent, showing certain distinctions in physiognomy which indicate tribal mixture, although the traditions are unified. Contact with foreigners is occasional, foreign currency is viewed with suspicion, and the unit of exchange for local trade is the woven square of grass-cloth, made in the tribe, barter being still common.