Kongo People - History

History

It is most likely the Kongo people arrived in the region of the mouth of the Congo River before 500 BCE, as part of the larger Bantu migration. They were already working iron in the region and practicing agriculture by that time. Social complexity had probably been achieved in some regions where Kikongo is spoken by second century CE. By the late fifteenth century when European voyagers described them, they were living in a number of kingdoms, including the kingdoms of Kongo, Ngoyo, Vungu, Kakongo, and others, stretching on both sides of the Congo River. During the sixteenth century, yet another powerful Bakongo kingdom, Loango, developed and controlled much of the coast north of the Congo River.

The histories of the various branches of the Kikongo-speaking world are quite diverse, with large monarchies in Kongo and Loango, smaller monarchies in Ngoyo, Kakongo, and Vungu, and even less centralized entities in the Niari Valley and other places north of the Congo River. Because the best anthropological work on the Bakongo has been done in the parts of the region colonized by the French and Belgians (Loango, Vungu, and the Niari Valley), it is well described and often the cultural institutions of those regions are better represented than those of other parts of the larger Kikongo-speaking world. On the other hand, the abundant historical written records for the Kingdom of Kongo means that the history of that region is much better documented. One of the central problems of understanding the region is thus to marry historical records that relate to one region within the zone to anthropological research applicable to another part of the zone.