Luapula Province, Zambia

Luapula Province is one of the ten provinces of Zambia, in the northern part of the country, and takes its name from the Luapula River. Its capital is Mansa. At the 2022 census it had 1,519,478 people, about 7.7 percent of the national population. The province has an international border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and runs along the northern and eastern banks of the Luapula River from Lake Bangweulu to Lake Mweru. The Lunda are the main people, Bemba is widely spoken, and the Mutomboko ceremony is its most important festival. Agriculture and fishing dominate the economy, cassava is the major crop, and the area has manganese, lime, copper and precious metals. In the nineteenth century the valley was dominated by the Kingdom of Lunda of Mwata Kazembe. About 80 percent of its people were counted as poor in 2010, the highest share of any Zambian province.