The historical background of the Luba Empire is one of the most renowned Afrikan states, along with the Mali Empire, Songhay Empire, the Kingdom of Asante, Zulu Empire, Kongo Empire, Mongo Kingdom, Lunda Empire, the Kingdom of Buganda, the Kingdom of the Mwami of Kivu or Rwanda or the Empire of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Archaeologists have shown that the origins of the Luba state goes back to the 5th century AD and spanned almost 1, 500 years.

After flourishing from 500 AD to 1900 AD, it was fragmented by Belgian colonisation between 1880 and 1960. However, it survives today in a variety of polities. Today, Lubaland is divided into the kingdoms of Kabongo, Kasong’wa Nyembo, Kinkondja, Kabondo – Dianda, Malemba – Nkulu, and Mwanza, among the most prominent and although these adminstrative entities are integrated in the modern Republic, traditional “Chiefs” are recognised by the government.

They administer their territories with a standing police force and levy taxes. The Baluba (Luba) 1 of the 200 ethnic groups of the Kongo (DRC) are a branch of the Bantu people and thus share a common worldview with many other people from the Equator to South Afrika. They live principally in the DRC in the Katanga Province, but the Luba Empire included a large number of people living in various countries including Zambia and Angola.

The original location of the Baluba is the region between Lualaba (or the Kongo River) and Lake Tanganika. This location in the Great Lakes region provided the Baluba with sufficient means of subsistence necessary for the development of a powerful civilisation: water, abundant food, fish and raw material necessary for a technology needed for protection and agriculture. Some scholars think that the Baluba are one of the protobantu groups and their territory constitutes one of the main centers from which the Bantu spread across Central and Southern Afrika.