The Tumbwe people are a Bantu ethnic group living mostly in

Tanganyika District Tanganika District was a district of the pre-2015 Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The district dates back to the days of the Belgian Congo. At its greatest extent it roughly corresponded to the present Tanganyika Provi ...

of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Tumbwe are a small group of about 100,000 people whose homeland is on the west shore of

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...

. They take their name from a hereditary chief of the

Sanga people The Sanga people (also ''Luba-Garenganze'', ''Luba-Sanga'' or ''Southern Luba'') are an ethnic group that lives mostly in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The missionary Frederick Stanley Arnot relates that a copper ...

. Other people in the region include the related

Luba Luba may refer to: Geography *Kingdom of Luba, a pre-colonial Central African empire *Ľubá, a village and municipality in the Nitra region of south-west Slovakia *Luba, Abra, a municipality in the Philippines *Luba, Equatorial Guinea, a town o ...

Tabwa The Lungu people (also known as Rungu or Tabwa) are a Bantu ethnic group living primarily on the southwestern shores of Lake Tanganyika, on the Marungu massif in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in southwestern Tanzania and northeas ...

and

Hemba The Hemba people (or ''Eastern Luba'') are a Bantu ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). History The Hemba language belongs to a group of related languages spoken by people in a belt that runs from southern Kasai to nort ...

. The Tumbwe Chiefdom is an administrative area around the port of Kalemie, on Lake Tanganyika, where the Lukuga River leaves the lake. The Tumbwe, who live between the road leading south from Kalemie and the lake, may be the oldest settled group in the area. Traditionally the Tumbwe made their living by small-scale farming and by fishing on the lake. Today, growing numbers of Tumbwes work for wages in urban areas. A Tumbwe chief will own a ceremonial staff, kept hidden when not in use, which indicates his rank and status. The staff is decorated with abstract design that tell of the chief's ancestry and is a residence for their spirits.

References

{{authority control Bantu peoples Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo