When the kingdom was first established is uncertain, but it was certainly in existence by the 18th century, the Lozi calling themselves Aluya and their country Ngulu.

With him the Makololo empire appears to have started to fall to pieces, especially after his death in 1863: a year later internal dissension in the ruling class brought to a revolt by the Lozi that is said to have exterminated the Makololo aristocracy and forced the survivors to migrate to present-day Malawi.

In Africa, the hippo is known by various names, including Seekoei ( Afrikaans ), Mvuvu ( Venda ), Kubu ( Lozi ) and Mvubu ( Xhosa, Siswati and Zulu ) in the south ; Kiboko ( Swahili ), Ensherre ( Nkore ), Tomondo ( Turu ), Nvubu ( Luganda ), Ifuru ( Luhya ), Emiria ( Ateso ), Magawit ( Sebei ), Kibei ( Kalenjin ) and Olmakau ( Maasai ) in the Great Lakes region ; and Gumarre ( Amharic ) and Jeer ( Somali ) in the Horn.

The silimba is a xylophone developed by the Lozi people in Barotseland, western Zambia.

Lozi is spoken in Zambia and northeastern Namibia ( in the Caprivi ).

In the Guthrie work — as is now widely acknowledged — Lozi was misclassified as K. 21.

According to the Ethnologue, the Lozi language is " spoken as lingua franca by all East Caprivians.

Lozi, also known as siLozi and Rozi, is a Bantu language of the Niger – Congo language family within the Sotho languages branch of Zone S ( S. 30 ), that is spoken by the Lozi people, primarily in southwestern Zambia and in surrounding countries.

Lozi is the heteroglottonym.

By that time, the Luyana language had been largely forgotten ; the new hybrid language is called Lozi or Silozi and is closer to Sesotho than to any other neighbouring languages in Zambia.

Lozi is also spoken in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia ( Caprivi Region ).

Ilomba is a sea snake with destructive powers in the mythology of the Lozi people of Zambia.

Like many other central African countries, Zambia once had a vibrant tradition of so-called " thumb pianos ," each with a different name depending on tribal origins: the Tonga kankobela is one such thumb piano, the Mbunda " kathandi ", the Lozi " kangombio ", the Lunda " chisanzhi ", the Nsenga " kalimba ", etc ..

It may also be spelt Lotse or Rotse, the spelling Lozi having originated with German missionaries in what is now Namibia.

The political organisation of the Lozi has long centred on a monarchy, whose reigning head, the Paramount King, is known as ' Litunga ' which means ' keeper of the earth.

Lozi society is highly stratified, with a monarch at the top and those of recent royal descent occupying high positions in society.

The monarch or Barotse Royal Establishment ( BRE ) is known as Mulonga, and Lozi society tolerates little criticism even of an unpopular Litunga.

Barotseland is a region in the western part of Zambia, and is the homeland of the Lozi people or Barotse who were previously known as Luyi or Aluyi.

The traditional Monarch of Barotseland is the Paramount Chief, called the Litunga meaning ' keeper or guardian of the earth ', who is directly descended from the ancient Litunga Mulambwa who ruled at the turn of the nineteenth century and through his grandson, the late great Litunga Lewanika who ruled from 1878 – 1916, with one break in 1884-5, who restored the traditions of the Lozi political economy in the arena of recent invasion by the Makololo, internal competition, external threats such as that posed by the Matabele and the inexorable spread of European colonialism.

In August 1999, a separatist Lozi faction in the Caprivi Strip launched a coup attempt ( see Caprivi conflict ) which was summarily put down by the Namibian Defence Force.

The Lozi people of Barotseland had prevented access to their land by Arab and Portuguese traders.

Utterly defeated by Shaka's new Zulu Kingdom in the 1820s, the Makololo under the guide of Sebetwane were forced to march north until they conquered the Lozi and became the aristocracy of Barotseland, with Sebitwane as new Litunga.

Lozi and its dialects are spoken and understood by approximately six percent of the population of Zambia.

They were welcomed by King Lewanika of the Lozi people of Western Zambia.

The Tokaleya paid tribute to the Lozi of Barotseland but in 1838 the Kololo, a Sotho tribe from South Africa displaced by Zulu wars, migrated north and conquered the Lozi.

The main crossing point of the Zambezi was above the falls at the Old Drift, by dugout canoe, later an iron boat propelled by eight Lozi paddlers, or a barge towed across with a steel cable.

Also on display are a Lozi throne ( c. 1900 ) most likely carved in the court of King Lewanika of western Zambia, a 20th-century Hausa Koranic prayer board, and a 2006 video work by Theo Eshetu.

East Caprivi was a bantustan in South West Africa ( present-day Namibia ), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Lozi people.

In about 1830, an army that originated in the Sotho-speaking Bafokeng region of South Africa, known as the Makololo, led by a warrior called Sebetwane, invaded Barotseland and conquered the Lozi.

Criticisms of a Litunga by a foreigner are treated as criticisms of the Lozi nation as a whole.

The Lozi ruler, the Litunga, has a dry season palace 12 km north-west at Lealui on the floodplain, and a flood season palace on higher ground at Limulunga, 17 km north.

Four kingdoms were established in this period-among the Kazembe-Lunda in the north centered around the lower Luapula River, the Bemba in the north east, the Chewa in the east and the Lozi in the west centered around the upper Zambezi River.

The Kololo finally settled north of the Zambezi River in Barotseland, where they conquered the Lozi people.

The word Lozi means ' plain ' in the Makololo language, in reference to the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi on and around which most Lozi live.

The festival celebrates the move of the Litunga, king of the Lozi people, from his compound at Lealui in the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi River to Limulunga on higher ground.

Lewanika ( 1842 – 1916 ) ( also known as Lubosi Lewanika or Lewanika I ) was the Lozi Litunga ( king or paramount chief ) of Barotseland from 1878 to 1916 ( with a break in 1884-5 ).

The Luena ( Lwena ) and Lozi ( Luyani ) in Zambia also claim descent from Kinguri.

The Lozi language developed from a mixture of two languages: Luyana and Kololo.

Mongu is the home city of the Lozi ( or Barotse ) people, who speak a language derived in part from that of the Makololo, related to the South African Sesotho language.

‘ Mosi-oa-Tunya ’ comes from the Kololo or Lozi language and the name is now used throughout Zambia, and in parts of Zimbabwe.

Lozi, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence.