[1] Silva Porto on his 1852 expedition mentions the Kunda people, “Where the Luangwa is crossed begins the territory of the Cunda.”[2] David Livingstone during his 1868 visit to the Awemba country makes a sketch drawing of an “Akunda” person with facial tribal markings.
Whenever Kunda people tell legends about their origins, they never miss to say three things: that they came from ‘ku Uluba’ (Luba Kingdom), ‘kwa Chaŵala Makumba’ (from Chaŵala Makumba's Kingdom) under the leadership of Mambwe, their revered great leader during the migration, who led them from the Congo basin to their present settlement in the mid Luangwa valley (which they fondly call Malambo).
When Mambwee with his subjects settled in what is today known as Mambwe District in the Eastern Province of Zambia after their migration from Caŵala Makumba Leader of the Bisa People of the Luba Kingdom in Congo.
The Malaila traditional ceremony is a ‘victory festival where the Kunda people celebrate the legend of the killing of a marauding lion and other beasts which wreaked havoc in Malambo (wilderness) killing men and women who dared to go and tend their gardens or do their daily chores.
This brought widespread famine because people stopped cultivating their fields living in terror for fear of being mauled.
This ceremony is commemorated annually on the third Saturday of the month of August at a traditional historical site called Luŵaneni.
It begins with the ceremony of Moving Mambwee Che Nsefu from his palace to his home at Luŵaneni through an exhibition exercise of going round his entire Kunda Kingdom, followed by paying homage to the departed Chiefs and is characterized by much dancing, feasting, and showcasing of Kunda culture and tradition.
Although at present day the Kunda People are no longer preoccupied with fighting enemies at war nor demonstrating their bravery over wildlife which dominated the Malambo valley, the people still perform Malaila Traditional Ceremony as a symbol of preservation of the Kunda traditions, heritage and respect to "Mambwee” the Senior Chief and his Chiefs.
Since 2008 the ceremony is now being held at Luŵaneni, an appropriate historical and traditional site where most remarkable and memorable Kunda history was and is still being recorded.
According to Kunda oral history, a Luba king by the name of Chaŵala Makumba ordered that all boys were to be killed as soon as they are born.
Being afraid of losing his throne, he ordered that all his baby boys should be killed at birth; one of his wives by the name of Chiluya Manda of the Chulu Clan defied the law by keeping her son whom she called Mambwe.
As they travelled, they came to the Luangwa River which they crossed easily because Mambwe took his magic tail and struck the water to make a dry path, and the name of that place was called Pakaimba.