Ila, a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting an area west of Lusaka, the national capital of Zambia. The Ila-Tonga cluster consists of about 12 dialect groups, including the Lozi, Koba, Lenje, Tonga, Totela, Ila, and others.
The Ila combine agriculture with animal husbandry. Men hunt, fish, and clear land, while women gather foods from the countryside and are responsible for most of the cultivation. Early in the 20th century, crops such as corn (maize), sorghum, millet, beans, peanuts (groundnuts), and yams were cultivated by hoe techniques and shifting land use. Since that time the Ila have overcome an aversion to forcing cattle into harnesses, and animal-drawn plowing has supplanted the hoe culture. They possess large numbers of cattle and consume a considerable amount of milk.
The Ila did not operate within a centralized political system; an autonomous mwami (chief) presided over each of a number of independent shishi (territories). Their villages were governed by headmen and councils of elders.
The Ila appear to recognize kinship by both male and female links, depending upon circumstances and purposes. Marriage expenses or bride price in cattle, blankets, shells, and hoes were provided primarily by the husband’s matrilineal relations, but assistance was also given by patrilineal relations; after marriage the extended-family compound of the husband’s father was the usual residence. The Ila traditionally worship Leza (the supreme being) and the spirits of family ancestors, but missionaries opened schools in the 1920s, and many of the Ila are now Christian.