Early Congolese History
Early Congo History covers most of the Congo River basin occupied today by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Angola's Cabinda province and northern Angola. 'Congo' and 'Congolese' refer to this area.
The current territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo was occupied by humans in the Paleolithic from at least 80,000 years ago. There were waves of Bantu migrations from 2000 BC to 500 AD moving into the basin from the northwest and covers the precolonial states absorbed or overthrown by the colonial powers. The Bantu migrations added to and displaced the indigenous Pygmy populations into the southern regions of the modern Congo states. The Bantu imported agriculture and iron-working techniques from West Africa into the area, as well as establishing the Bantu language family as the primary set of tongues for the Congolese.
Subsequent migrations from the Darfur and Kordofan regions of Sudan into the north of Congo, as well as East Africans migrating into the eastern Congo, added to the mix of ethnic groups.
Read more about Early Congolese History: Paleolithic, Bantu Migration, Upemba Culture, Effects of Geography and Climate, Kongo Empire, Luba Kingdom, Lunda Kingdom, Yeke Kingdom, Kuba Federation, Other States
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:
“I taught school in the early days of my manhood and I think I know something about mothers. There is a thread of aspiration that runs strong in them. It is the fiber that has formed the most unselfish creatures who inhabit this earth. They want three things only; for their children to be fed, to be healthy, and to make the most of themselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)