Early Congolese History

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.