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>"Kingdoms of the Savanna" typically refers to the historical empires in south-central Africa, particularly the Luba and Lunda states that emerged from the 15th century onwards, as first detailed in Jan Vansina's influential 1966 book. These centralized, hereditary kingdoms developed durable forms of government centered on sacred kingship and ruled by councils, eventually spreading across parts of modern-day Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The term can also refer to the broader study of the Luba and Lunda political structures, art, and oral traditions and the 19th-century context of trade and violence that impacted these polities.