Thornton, John2024-10-082024-10-082024-09-20Thornton J. Mwene Muji: A Medieval Empire in Central Africa? The Journal of African History. Published online 2024:1-17. doi:10.1017/S00218537240001611469-5138https://hdl.handle.net/2144/49396Although the Lower Kasai was identified by Jan Vansina as a likely center for highly complex societies, he failed to recognize that sixteenth-century sources had mentioned the Empire of Mwene Muji as a large polity in that region. Studying the well known and recently discovered literature on West Central Africa, as well as a critical study of oral tradition, shows considerable evidence for the antiquity and existence of Mwene Muji.en-US© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. This article has been published under a Read & Publish Transformative Open Access (OA) Agreement with CUP.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0Central AfricaAngolaDemocratic Republic of CongoHistorical GeographyHistoriographyCartographyArticle10.1017/S0021853724000161