The Bakongo or the Kongo people (meaning "hunter"), also sometimes referred to as Congolese, live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Brazzaville) to Luanda, Angola. Pointe-Noire is the second largest city in the Republic of the Congo, and a district in the Kouilou province ||-||} Brazzaville is the Capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo and is located on the Congo River. For the mystic of the Han Dynasty see Luan Da. Luanda (formerly called Loanda) is the In Kikongo their ethnonym is usually given as Besikongo, singular Mwisikongo, though Bakongo is linguistically possible and gaining popularity. In the late 20th century they numbered about 10,220,000.

History

The Kongo people probably 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. By the late fourteenth century they were living in a number of kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Kongo, Ngoyo, Vungu, Kakongo and others stretching on both sides of the Congo River. The Kingdom of Kongo (1400 – 1914 ( Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo) was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what Ngoyo was an Iron Age kingdom state of the Woyo tribe located in the south of Cabinda (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kakongo, a former small kingdom located on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa in the modern day Republic of Congo. During the sixteenth century yet another powerful Bakongo kingdom, Loango, developed and controlled much of the coast north of the Congo River. In 1483 the Portuguese arrived on the coast, and the Bakongo of the Kingdom of Kongo began diplomatic relations which included sending Bakongo nobles to visit the royal court in Portugal in 1485. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Bakongo leaders were quickly converted by Christian missionaries and assumed Portuguese court manners, and after an initial confrontation between those who supported the new religion and those who rejected it, the party following King Afonso I triumphed and Kongo became a Christian kingdom. Alfonso ( Italian and Spanish) Alfons ( Catalan and German) Afonso ( Portuguese In 1568 Bakongo peoples were invaded by the Jagas (Yaka), and the Bakongo were forced to look to the Portuguese for help, which ultimately allowed the Portuguese to establish acolony in Angola on Kongo's territory, in 1575. The Jaga or Jagas were terms applied by the Portuguese to invading bands of African warriors east and south of the Kingdom of Kongo. Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (República de Angola Pronounced ʁɛˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈgɔlɐ Repubilika ya Ngola is a country in south-central In the aftermath of the Battle of Mbwila, 1665, in which a Portuguese-led army from Angola defeated that of Kongo, and the civil war that followed, the Kingdom of Kongo never regained its former power. The Kingdom of Kongo (1400 – 1914 ( Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo) was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what In the ensuing years the Bakongo alternately fought for and against the Portuguese, eventually being colonized in 1885. Year 1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Bakongo political party in Democratic Republic Of Congo Abako played an important part in national independence in 1960. ABAKO or Alliance des Bakongo was a cultural and political organization headed by Joseph Kasavabu, which emerged in the late 1950s as vocal opponent of Belgian Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

In its prime, the Kingdom exacted taxes, forced labor, and collected fines from its citizens in order to prosper. At times, enslaved peoples, ivory, and copper were traded to the Europeans on the coast. Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons — known as slaves — are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services Ivory is formed from Dentine and constitutes the bulk of the Teeth and Tusks of animals such as the Elephant, Hippopotamus, Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe. The important harbors were Soyo and Mpinda. Soyo (formerly known as Santo António do Zaire) is a city located in the province of Zaire in Angola and a major port on for the When the Kongo Kingdom was at its political apex in the 16th and 17th centuries, the King, who was elected from among a noble class of descendants of former kings, bana Kongo (plural of mwana Kongo), reigned supreme. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar He was chosen by a group of electors, usually the holders of important offices or governors of provinces. The activities of the court were supported by an extensive system of civil servants, and the court itself usually consisted of numerous relatives of the King. The villages were often governed by lesser relatives of the King who were responsible to him. All members of government were invested with their power under the auspices of a ritual specialist, and frequently a Catholic priest.

Language

Most of them speak Kikongo, which is divided into many dialects that are not sometimes mutually intelligible, but they also speak Portuguese as their first or second language in Angola and French in Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. Kikongo or Kongo is the Bantu language spoken by the Bakongo and Bandundu people living in the tropical forests of the Democratic Republic Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (República de Angola Pronounced ʁɛˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈgɔlɐ Repubilika ya Ngola is a country in south-central French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The Republic of the Congo (République du Congo Kongo: Repubilika ya Kongo; Lingala: Republiki ya Kongó) also known as Congo-Brazzaville The Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo often referred to as DR Congo, DRC or RDC, and formerly known or referred to Others still speak Lingala a common Lingua Franca in Western Congo, or Kikongo ya Leta (also called Kituba in Congo), a creole form of Kikongo spoken widely in Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. Lingua Franca was an American magazine about intellectual and literary life in Academia. Kituba is a widely used Lingua franca in Central Africa. It is based on Kikongo, a family of closely related Bantu languages (some of which

Agriculture

The Bakongo cultivate cassava, bananas, maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts (groundnuts), beans, and taro. The cassava, yuca, manioc, or mandioca ( Manihot esculenta) is a woody Shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family native For the fruit see Banana. For other meanings see Banana (disambiguation. Maize (ˈmeɪz ( Zea mays L. ssp mays) known as corn in some countries is a cereal grain domesticated in Mesoamerica The sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas) is a Dicotyledonous plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae The peanut, or Groundnut ( Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the Legume family Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico Bean is a common name for large plant Seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae used for human food or animal Taro (from Tahitian or other Polynesian languages) more rarely kalo (from Hawaiian) and gabi in The Philippines, is a Cash crops are coffee, cacao, urena, bananas, and palm oil. CoFFEE is an Open source Software for computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL in a digital classroom CACAO is a research Java Virtual Machine developed at Vienna University of Technology. See also Ureña for people with this surname. Urena is a Genus of plants which grow in various Tropical Palm oil is an edible plant oil derived from the Fruit of the Arecaceae Elaeis Oil palm. Fishing and hunting are still practiced by some groups, but many Bakongo live, work and trade in towns. For the computer security term see Phishing. Fishing is the activity of catching Fish. Hunting is the practice of pursuing Animals for Food, Recreation, or Trade.

Religion

Traditional Kongo religion believed heavily on the concept of the dead, as most of the inhabitants of the other world are held to have once lived in this world. Only Nzambi Mpungu, the name for the high god, is usually held to have existed outside the world and to have created it. Other categories of the dead include bakulu or ancestors, the souls of the recently departed, and in some cases, more powerful beings held to be the souls of the long departed. There are also supernatural beings who are guardians of particular places and territories, sometimes held to be the soul of the founder, and there are those who inhabit and are captured in minkisi (singular nkisi), or charms, whose operation is the closest to magic. An Nkisi (plural Minkisi, also Nkishi / Minkishi) literally translates as "sacred medicine" A belief in magic as a means of influencing the world seems to have been common in all Cultures Some of these beliefs crossed over into nascent Religions influencing The value of these supernatural operations is generally held to be in the intentions of the worker, rather than the other world having spirits or souls that are intrisically good or bad.

Following the conversion of Nzinga Nkuwu in 1491 most of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Kongo converted to Christianity, though they continued their older beliefs within its fold, through syncretic practices within the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo. The Roman Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483 Many thousands of Kongo were transported across the Atlantic to the Americas, and especially to Brazil. The Afro-Brazilian Quimbanda religion is a new world manifestation of Bantu religion and spirituality. Quimbanda is an Afro-American religion practiced in Brazil. It is often also called Macumba and found mostly in urban areas such as Rio de Janeiro

Other Kongo living outside the Kingdom of Kongo were not converted and continued their traditional form of religion. Since the 1880s Protestant missionaries, and then renewed Catholic missionaries have claimed a large number of Kongo as converts. Following 1921, a new form of Christianity preached by Simon Kimbangu became extremely popular in spite of the attempts of both Belgian and Portuguese governments to support it. Simon Kimbangu ( September 12, ca 1887 Nkamba near Thysville Congo Free State [[Mbanza-Ngungu] Congo (Kinshasa ] - October Kimbanguism is a very powerful religious spiritual force today, as is one of its modern spin-offs, the Dibundu dia Kongo led by Mwanda Nsemi.

Traditions

The Kongo week used to consist of four days: Konzo, Nkenge, Nsona and Nkandu. A week (also called sennight or sevennight) is a unit of Time longer than a Day and shorter than a Month. The third day, Nsona, was held sacred. The tradition has continued to the modern days so that among some Bakongo the third day of the week, Wednesday, is revered in the same way as Nsona.

See also

• Kimpa Vita The 17th century female prophet, still worshipped as saint by some. Kimpa Vita, baptized as Beatriz and therefore also known as Dona Beatriz (1684 &ndash 1706 was a Congolese Prophet and leader of her own
• Nkisi "Sacred Medicine" that was once used primarily by the Bakongo and people of the surrounding areas. An Nkisi (plural Minkisi, also Nkishi / Minkishi) literally translates as "sacred medicine"