Tumbuka people

The Tumbuka (also known as Yombe, Tonga, Kamanga, Senga and Henga) is a group of Bantu people found in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The Tumbuka group is made up of over fifteen sub groups of peoples such as the Senga, Nyika, Henga, Yombe, Phoka, Tonga and Tumbuka, who are part of the larger Tumbuka family. Their language is called Chitumbuka and has 12 total known dialects such as Yombe, Senga, and Wenya, among others. Together with these groups united under one ruler, they formed a kingdom known as Nkhamanga Kingdom.

There are also many smaller subsidiary Tumbuka groups by origin found mainly in the north-western corner of their original kingdom between Kalonga and Isoka as well as Tanzania. Many of these belong to the Kalonga wa Nkhonde segment of the Mulonga Mbulalubilo Tumbuka.

The Tumbuka tribe was one of the first tribes who originated from Luba in what is currently known as Democratic Republic of the Congo. That was before any formal government setup and they had been staying there for hundreds of years after breaking away from the Bantu tribes in upper central Africa.

The Tumbuka tribe and other tribes were driven out of Luba by a warrior tribe known as Kongolo. He merged with the tribes that remained in Luba after they tried to subdue the Tumbuka people and failed.