People and the Population Kongo

People living around the estuary of the stream Congo until the Malebo Pool (Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa), and talking several dialects of the Kongo language. Kongos inhabit the humid forest and the dorsal well watered that separate the inshore plains of the big Congolese pan (hills of the Mayombe). They abandoned their agriculture traditional vivrière, to adopt the American plants (corn, cassava) imported by Portuguese. They are as hunters of small game and fishers, in the numerous rivers, the stream Congo and sides of sea. Of tradition matrilinéaire, they exercise the traditional religion of the forebear cult, the magic (fetish) and divination.

During the 13th century the Kongo peoples migrated into their current location from the northeast. The Portuguese arrived on the coast in 1482, after that the Kongo began diplomatic relations which included sending Kongo nobles to visit the royal assemblage in Portugal in 1485. kongo leaders were targeted for conversion by Christian missionaries, and often divisions between followers of Christianity and followers of the traditional religions resulted. In 1526 the Portuguese were expelled, but the Kongo peoples were then invaded by the Jagas in 1568, and the Kongo were forced to look to the Portuguese for help. The Kongo kingdom never regained its former power.