Kalala Ilunga
Luba · demigod · dynastic · Recorded classification
The civilizing founder hero-king of the Luba empire — Kalala Ilunga, 'Ilunga the warrior' — son of Mbidi Kiluwe and Bulanda, who, warned by the diviner Mijibu wa Kalenga, escapes Nkongolo's spear-pit, defeats and beheads his tyrant uncle, and inaugurates sacred kingship (bulopwe), founding the dynasty (popular chronology ~1585; Reefe, later 16th c.). Authored as a demigod (the half-divine prince-hero who founds the kingship); bulopwe is carried by descent (inheritability 'full'). era dynastic; lifecycle runs mythic (birth in the epic generation) → dynastic (foundation and death).
Parentage
- father: Mbidi KiluweSon of the eastern prince-hunter Mbidi Kiluwe, from whom he inherits bulopwe.Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King (1982); Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings (1981) (secondary)
- mother: BulandaSon of Bulanda (per de Heusch); through her, grandson/nephew of Nkongolo.Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King, or The Origin of the State (1982) (secondary)
Domains
- kingship
- war
- civilization and statecraft
Powers
- Inherits and inaugurates sacred kingship by descent
- Defeats and beheads the tyrant Nkongolo
- Founds the Luba empire
Epithets
- Ilunga the WarriorThe literal sense of 'Kalala Ilunga' — the champion who wins the kingdom.Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King, or The Origin of the State (1982) (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: Nkongolo MwambaHis maternal uncle and nemesis, the tyrant whom he defeats and beheads.Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King (1982); Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings (1981) (secondary)
- ally: Mijibu wa KalengaThe diviner whose clairvoyance saves him and makes his accession possible.Mary Nooter Roberts & Allen F. Roberts, Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History (1996) (secondary)
- father: Mbidi KiluweSon of the eastern prince-hunter Mbidi Kiluwe, from whom he inherits bulopwe.Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King (1982); Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings (1981) (secondary)
- mother: BulandaSon of Bulanda (per de Heusch); through her, grandson/nephew of Nkongolo.Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King, or The Origin of the State (1982) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King, or The Origin of the State (Indiana Univ. Press, 1982; Fr. Le roi ivre, 1972) (secondary); Thomas Q. Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 (Univ. of California Press, 1981) (secondary); Harold Womersley, Legends and History of the Luba (1984) (secondary)