thumb|A Yaka people's mask at the Brooklyn Museum.
The Yaka are an African ethnic group found in southwest Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the Angola border to their west. They number about 300,000 and are related to the Suku people. They live in the forest and savanna region between the Kwango River and the Wamba River. They speak the Yaka language.
The Yaka people are a matrilineal society that includes patrilineal lineage as family name. Their villages have chiefs, who are recognized by the Congo government as a political office. The Yaka farm cassava, sweet potatoes, and corn as staple source of food, and supplement this with fish and game meat. They have traditionally hunted with the help of hunting dogs.
Other sources suggest there was an earlier Yaka Kingdom which was defeated and subordinated by expansion of the Lunda Empire in the 1730s.
The name Yaka is a title that the Kongo gave to their warriors. Upon the arrival of Lunda, the kingdom of Kongo was already weakened by Portuguese incursions. Thus, the resistance that the Lunda find in the Kwango region is that of the isolated local tribes Kongo, including the Mbala, Tsamba, Hungana, Pindi, Ngongo, rather than that of a United Kongo kingdom. The Lunda, these "biluwa", or foreigners, which Nothing resisted on their passage, capable of catching bullets and arrows, were also called "Iluwa" (foreigners) or Bayaka (Catchers of the balls and the arrows). Both the Lunda that arrived and the kongo warriors had similar traits, hence the exact titles being given to them. Periodic tributes of parts of powerful animals such as leopard or elephants are periodically paid to the paramount chief by both the village and regional chiefs as a way to show respect to his authority. Another great signifier of chiefly rulership is the mbeele phoko, a double sided sword that is sheathed in a phallus shaped wood and hide sheath that embodies the founding ancestor and signifies the chief's role in maintaining order and securing food as well as his powers over life and death. It is only unsheathed in the special occasions of execution and warfare. The earth chiefs wore woven raffia headpieces called bweni as their symbols of authority.
Art
Masks
In Yaka culture, masks are believed to have spiritual power and are used to communicate with the spirit world. They are often worn by dancers and performers during ceremonies and rituals and are thought to embody the spirits of ancestors and other supernatural beings.
The statuettes have widespread use in Yaka society. The statuettes are used to assist with interpreting dreams and communicating with the ancestors in divination rituals as it is believed the statues have the ability to provide insight into the past, present, and future. The statuettes are also used in healing rituals. They are rubbed with medicinal substances, or less often the substances were placed in the cavities in the figures’ abdomens, and are believed to have the power to cure diseases and ailments. They are also used in protection rituals to ward off evil spirits and to provide spiritual protection to individuals or communities. Without these, the statuettes have no meaning and are just waiting to be prepared with these substances.