On 8 August 1960, motivated partly by long-standing tribal rivalries, Luba chief Albert Kalonji (b.1919) proclaimed independence of the diamond-rich region of South Kasai as the Autonomous State of South Kasai, with its capital at Bakwanga (now called Mbuji-Mayi.)

On 12 April 1961, an assembly of notables invested Kalonji's father with the traditional Luba imperial title of Mulopwe. The new emperor then conveniently abdicated in favour of his son, who thereafter ruled South Kasai as Emperor Albert I Kalonji.

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Here is the set of four stamps showing the Emperor, each in an unhinged mint block of four.

South Kasai had a brief but interesting philatelic history, before being conquered by United Nations and Congolese troops, and absorbed into the Congo Republic, later known as Zaire.

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