Pre-colonial Africa-The Bakimbiri warrior clan that founded Kongo(Wene Kongo) and Mwene Mutapa Empires

From ancient Sudan to medieval Zimbabwe, there emerged a group of warriors who were later termed as the Bakimbiri or Beine Bakimbiri(as a clan) that influenced the creation of  African kingdoms that made their mark on history. An example of these prominent Bakimbiri warriors were Nimi a Nzima and Luqueni Luansanze's son Lukeni lua Nimi the founders of the Kongo Kingdom of Wene Kongo kingdoms. The other was Nyatsimba Mutota the founder of the Mwene Mutapa empire.These Bakimbiri Mutapa monarchs ruled over a population of warriors who were also farmers & cattle herders who fought for the ruling elite.

mutapa (aka Matapa, Mwenemutapa, and Monomotapa) was a southern African kingdom located in the north of modern Zimbabwe along the Zambezi River which flourished between the mid-15th and mid-17th century CE. Although sometimes described as an empire, there is little evidence that the Shona people of Mutapa ever established such control over the region. Prospering thanks to its local resources of gold and ivory, the kingdom traded with Muslim merchants on the coast of East Africa and then the Portuguese during the 16th century CE. The kingdom went into decline when it was weakened by civil wars, and the Portuguese conquered its territory around 1633 CE.

By the 15th century CE, the kingdom of Great Zimbabwe (est. c. 1100 CE) was in decline and any links with the lucrative coastal trade of the Swahili coast had ceased. This may be because gold deposits had run out in the territory controlled by the kingdom. Additional factors may have included overpopulation, overworking of the land, and deforestation, leading to food shortages which were perhaps brought to crisis point by a series of droughts.By the second half of the 15th century CE, the Bantu-speaking Shona peoples had migrated a few hundred kilometres northwards from Great Zimbabwe to a land where they displaced the indigenous pygmies and smaller tribes who fled to the forests and desert. The exact relationship between Great Zimbabwe and Mutapa is not known other than that archaeology has shown both kingdoms had very similar pottery, weapons, tools, and luxury manufactured goods like jewellery.The Shona thus formed a new state, the kingdom of Mutapa, from around 1450 CE, although it may well have been a case of the Zimbabwe ruling elite changing capital rather than a general population movement from the south. The founder and first Mutapa king was Nyatsimba Mutota. According to Shona oral tradition, Mutota had been sent to investigate the land around the north bend of the Zambezi River and he came back with the glad tidings that it was plentiful in salt and wild game. The second king, Mutota’s son Nyanhehwe Matope, would expand the kingdom even further, capturing both land and cattle.

The first king of the Kingdom of Kongo Dya Ntotila was Nimi a Nzima and Luqueni Luansanze's son Lukeni lua Nimi (circa 1380–1420) are said to have come from another planet as was the case for most Bakimbiri at that time. The name Nimi a Lukeni appeared in later oral traditions and some modern historians, notably Jean Cuvelier, popularized it. Lukeni lua Nimi, or Nimi a Lukeni, became the founder of Kongo when he conquered the kingdom of the Mwene Kabunga (or Mwene Mpangala), which lay on a mountain to his south. He transferred his rule to this mountain, the Mongo dia Kongo or "mountain of Kongo", and made Mbanza Kongo, the town there, his capital. Two centuries later the Mwene Kabunga's descendants still symbolically challenged the conquest in an annual celebration. The rulers that followed Lukeni the mukimbiri all claimed some form of relation to his kanda, or lineage and were known as the Kilukeni. The Kilukeni kanda or "house" as it was recorded in Portuguese documents, ruled Kongo unopposed until 1567..After the death of Nimi a Lukeni, his brother, Mbokani Mavinga, took over the throne and ruled until approximately 1467. He had two wives and nine children. His rule saw an expansion of the Kingdom of Kongo to include the neighbouring state the Kingdom of Loango and other areas now encompassed by the current Republic of Congo.

The Bakimbiri today are just a part of the various African clans who have embraced changed and mutations to modern society.