Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia and southeastern Congo

For more than two hundred and fifty years Kazembe has been an influential kingdom or chieftainship of the Kiluba-Chibemba speaking the Swahili language, a mixture of Arabic and the traditional African language people or Eastern Luba-Lunda people of south-central Africa also known as the Luba, Luunda, Eastern Luba-Lunda, and Luba-Lunda-Kazembe).

Its position on trade routes in a well-watered, relatively fertile and well-populated area of forestry, fishery and agricultural resources draws expeditions by traders and explorers (such as Scottish missionary David Livingstone) who call it variously Kasembe, Cazembe and Casembe.

Known by the title Mwata or Mulopwe, now equivalent to 'Paramount Chief', the chieftainship with its annual Mutomboko festival stands out in the Luapula Valley and Lake Mweru in present-day Zambia, though its history in colonial times is an example of how Europeans divide traditional kingdoms and tribes without regard to the consequences.