Zambia, and eastwards across Katanga into what is now the Luapula Province of Zambia. The empire became a confederation of a number of kingdoms or chieftainships which enjoyed a degree of local autonomy (as long as tributes were paid), with Mwata Yamvo as paramount ruler, and a ruling council (following the Luba model) to assist with administration. In the 18th Century a number of migrations took place from the Lunda Empire as far as the region to the south of Lake Tanganyika. The Bemba people under Chitimukulu migrated from the Lunda Kingdom to Northern Zambia. At the same time, a Lunda chief and warrior called Mwata Kazembe set up an Eastern Lunda kingdom in the valley of the Luapula River. Yeke Kingdom (1856–1891) The Yeke Kingdom (or Garanganze Kingdom) in Katanga was short-lived, existing from about 1856 to 1891 under one king, Msiri, a Nyamwezi (also known as 'Yeke') from Tabora in Tanzania who got himself appointed as successor to a Wasanga chief west of the Luapula River by defeating the chief's Lunda enemies. Once installed he conquered the neighbouring tribes and expanded the chieftainship into a kingdom, taking over the western territory of Mwata Kazembe and subjugating tribes in the southwest, on the trading route to Angola. When King Leopold II of Belgium and British diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes heard that the Yeke Kingdom controlled east-west trade and was rich in copper and possibly gold, they sent competing expeditions to try to negotiate a treaty with the kingdom. The Stairs Expedition sent by Leopold under the flag of his Congo Free State was the winner of this scramble for Katanga when it met and killed Msiri (putting his head on a pole as a 'lesson' to his people), and installed a successor who would sign Katanga over to Leopold. The chieftainship continues to this day under the title Mwami Mwenda ('Mwenda' was one of Msiri's names). Kuba Federation The Kuba Kingdom, or more accurately, the Kuba Federation, was a political entity (one comprising a collection of approximately twenty Bantu ethnic groups) that began to develop out of a number of decentralized, ethnically Bantu states (namely the Luba, the Leele, and the Wongo ethnic groups). The federation's capital was Nsheng, which is now modern Mushenge. The name “Kuba” is derived from the term used by the Luba (whose kingdom lay to the south of the Kuba) for the civilization. Because