Kongo+Regions

// In this page, you will find out about the Regions of Kongo, it's location, and its agriculture//...

The Kingdom of Kongo was an African Kingdom that was located in West-Central Africa. The modern day countries that now ‘take place’ of Kongo are:- northern Angola, Cabinda, Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the country’s greatest extend, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean (in the west) to the east of Kwango River, and form the Congo River in the north to the southern part of Kwanza River.
 * Location and Boundaries**

//The map of Kongo, where it is located//
 * Image Source:** http://fistfulofeuros.net/pedantry/images/kongo-map.gif

There were oral traditions about the early history about Kongo Kingdom. The history was set to writing in the late 16th century, but the ones that are most ‘understandable’ were written in the mid 17th centuries. The historical records also consisted of works written by Italian Capuchin missionary Giovanni Cavazzie da Montecuccolo. These pieces of work may be the only traditions of the Kingdoms’ dynasty.
 * Kingdom Formation**

//A Kongo village; BaKongo people//
 * Source of Image:** http://www.randafricanart.com/images/Nail_fetishes_1902_Boma_Congo.jpg

The agriculture of Kongo cultivates cassava, bananas, maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts, groundnut, beans, and taro. Their cash crops are coffee, cacao, urena, bananas, and palm oil. Although fishing and hunting are still practiced by some groups, but many Kongo people live, work, and trade in towns.
 * Kongo Agriculture**

//This is one of the foods that Kongo cultivates, cassava//
 * Image Source:** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Manihot_esculenta_dsc07325.jpg

The BaKongo, or Kongo people (translated to mean ‘hunter’) live by the Atlantic coast of Africa, from Pointe-Noire (Brazzaville) to Luanda, Angola. The Kongo people probably arrived at the Kongo River before 500 BCE, as part of a large Bantu migration. The BaKongo were already working on iron in the region, and already practicing agriculture at that time. By the late 14th century, the BaKongo were living in several different kingdoms by then, including the Kingdom of Kongo, Ngoyo, Vungu, Kakongo, and other Kingdoms that are stretched on both side of the Congo River. During the 16th century, there was another powerful BaKongo kingdom called Loango developed, and started to control most of the coast at the north of Kongo river. In year 1483, the Portuguese arrived on the Kongo coast, and the BaKongo people in the Kingdom of Kongo started diplomatic relation, which had included sending BaKongo nobles to visit the royal assemblage in Portugal in the year 1485. The Kingdom exacted taxes, forced labor, and collected taxes, forced labor, and also collected fines from its citizens to ‘live’. Sometimes, enslaved people, ivory, and copper were traded to the Europeans on the coast; the known harbors were Soyo and Mpinda.
 * Kongo People**

//Kongo people dancing//
 * Image Source:** http://www.wayland.k12.ma.us/high_school/socialstudies/Africa/Ethnicities/Kongo/dancing.jpg

Traditional BaKongo believed the concept of the dead, as most inhabitants of the other world are said to have once lived in this world.3 //Pictures of skulls. Kongo people believed in the concept of the dead.// Image Source: http://sabahtravelguide.com/images/mapguide/monsopiad/skulls.jpg
 * Religion**