The Lozi Kingdom and the Atlantic World

Trade, Slavery and (In)direct Contact with Angola in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The Lozi Kingdom, located in the western part of present-day Zambia, was one of the last polities of West Central Africa to have direct contact with Angola’s Atlantic zone. Very far from being isolated from global processes, the kingdom’s direct (and indirect) connections to long-distance trade networks were the result of conscious political decisions on the part of its leaders, in response to internal and external demands as the kingdom expanded during 18th and 19th centuries. With a special focus on the mid-1800s, when the conditions of its contact with Angolan networks changed radically, this paper analyzes transformations in the governance of the peoples of the Upper Zambezi floodplain, in relation to the arrival of new military and commercial agents in their lands. The paper also argues for the need to conceptualize Atlantic history in a way that takes into account political upheavals that occurred thousands of kilometers inland.