For the Liberian ethnic group known as the Congo, see Americo-Liberian people.
Bakongo
A Kongo woman's cast from 1910 by Herbert Ward
Total population
18,904,000[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Angola Gabon
Languages
Native languages: Kikongo, Kituba Lingala (minority) Second languages: French (DR Congo, Congo, Gabon) Portuguese (Angola)
Religion
Predominantly Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Basuku, Yaka, Téké and other Bantu peoples
Kongo
Person
Musi Kongo, Muisi Kongo, Mwisi Kongo, Mukongo, Nkongo
People
Bisi Kongo, Esikongo, Besi Kongo, Bakongo, Akongo
Language
Kikongo
Country
Kongo dia Ntotila (or Ntotela), Loango, Ngoyo and Kakongo
The Kongo people (Kongo: Bisi Kongo, EsiKongo, singular: Musi Kongo; also Bakongo, singular: Mukongo or M'kongo)[3][4] are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo.[5] Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others.[6]
They have lived along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, in a region that by the 15th century was a centralized and well-organized Kingdom of Kongo, but is now a part of three countries.[7] Their highest concentrations are found south of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo, southwest of Pool Malebo and west of the Kwango River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, north of Luanda, Angola and southwest Gabon.[5] They are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of the Congo, and one of the major ethnic groups in the other two countries they are found in.[7] In 1975, the Kongo population was reported as 4,040,000.[8]
The Kongo people were among the earliest indigenous Africans to welcome Portuguese traders in 1483 CE, and began converting to Catholicism in the late 15th century.[7] They were among the first to protest slave capture in letters to the King of Portugal in the 1510s and 1520s,[9][10] then succumbed to the demands for slaves from the Portuguese through the 16th century. The Kongo people were a part of the major slave raiding, capture and export trade of African slaves to the European colonial interests in 17th and 18th centuries.[7] The slave raids, colonial wars and the 19th-century Scramble for Africa split the Kongo people into Portuguese, Belgian and French parts. In the early 20th century, they became one of the most active ethnic groups in the efforts to decolonize Africa, helping liberate the three nations to self governance.[7]
^"People Cluster - Bantu, Kongo | Joshua Project".
^40,5% of Rep of the Congo's population, 13% of Angola's population, 12% of DRC's population and 20 000 inhabitants of Gabon (Worldometers and CIA.gov).
^Thornton, J. K. (2000). "Mbanza Kongo / São Salvador". In Anderson (ed.). Africa's Urban Past. James Currey Publishers. p. 79, note 2. ISBN 9780852557617. ...since about 1910 it is not uncommon for the term Bakongo (singular Mukongo) to be used, especially in areas north of the Zaire river, and by intellectuals and anthropologists adopting a standard nomenclature for Bantu-speaking peoples.
^ Wyatt MacGaffey, Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular, Indiana University Press, 2000, p.62
^ ab"Bakongo". Encyclopædia Britannica.
^"Republic of the Congo - People | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
^ abcdeAppiah, Anthony; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9.
^See Redinha, José (1975). Etnias e culturas de Angola. Luanda: Instituto de Investigação Científica de Angola.
^Page, Melvin (2003). Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 773. ISBN 978-1-57607-335-3.
^Shillington, Kevin (2013). Encyclopedia of African History (3-Volume Set). Routledge. p. 1379. ISBN 978-1-135-45670-2.
The Kongopeople (Kongo: Bisi Kongo, EsiKongo, singular: Musi Kongo; also Bakongo, singular: Mukongo or M'kongo) are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined...
The Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo; Portuguese: Reino do Congo) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day...
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongopeople living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo...
Kikongo, one of the Bantu languages Kongo languages KongopeopleKongo religion Kongo, Ghana, a town in Ghana Kongo Central, formerly Bas-Congo, a province...
The Kongo cosmogram (also called yowa or dikenga cross, Kikongo: dikenga dia Kongo or tendwa kia nza-n' Kongo) is a core symbol in Bakongo religion that...
Kongo religion (Kikongo: Bukongo or Bakongo) encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Bakongo people. Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom...
Mountain, in Costa Rica Niger–Congo languages Kongo languages Kongo language, a Bantu language Kongopeople, a Bantu ethnic group The Congos, a reggae vocal...
This is a list of the rulers of the Kingdom of Kongo known commonly as the Manikongos (KiKongo: Mwenekongo). Mwene (plural: Awene) in Kikongo meant a...
In the Kongo Kingdom and its vassals (Loango, Kakongo, Ngoyo), the woven arts were emblematic of kingship and nobility. The coarse filament stripped from...
Kongos may refer to: Kongopeople, a Bantu ethnic group who live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo) to Luanda, Angola...
coordinates) GPX (primary coordinates) GPX (secondary coordinates) Kongo Central (Kongo: Kongo dia Kati), formerly Bas-Congo, is one of the 26 provinces of...
Bundu dia Kongo (Kikongo; lit. "Gathering of Kongo"), known as BDK, is a new religious movement with a political and cultural agenda that is associated...
Vita, Kimpa Mvita, Tsimpa Vita or Tchimpa Vita (1684 – 2 July 1706), was a Kongo Empire prophet and leader of her own Christian movement, Antonianism; this...
Kongopeople, a Bantu ethnic group in the Congo region Congolese (disambiguation) List of Congolese people (disambiguation) List of Congolese people from...
The Sundi (also Sundis, Nsundi, Basundi, Kongo-Sundi, Suundi and Manyanga) are a Central African people established in three countries, in the Republic...
organization served as the major ethno-religious organization for the Kongopeople (also known as Bakongo) and became closely intertwined with the Kimbanguist...
ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from the Lukeni kanda dynasty and ruled in the first half of the 16th century. He reigned over the Kongo Empire from 1509 to...
the dual identity of Kongopeople. The concept of more kinds of souls can be found also in the mythologies of several Uralic peoples. See notion of shadow-soul...
Cheick Kongo is a French mixed martial artist and former kickboxer who fights in the Heavyweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2001, he...
religious beliefs and practices brought in mainly by enslaved Akan, Fon and Kongopeople during the Dutch slave trade. The religion has no written sources, nor...
of Kongo and Mbundu culture survive in Louisiana. Congo Square, a historic place of worship and recreation for Black people, was named for the Kongo people...
traditional Kongo spirituality. His female counterpart is Nzambici, the Sky Mother and Goddess of the Moon. Among other Central African Bantu peoples, such...
The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. Portuguese left several of...
During this period, 200 years after Portugal had already settled in the Kongopeople lands on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa in the 16th century, there...
Kingdom of Kongo and its Bantu inhabitants, the Kongopeople, when they encountered them in the 16th century. The word Kongo comes from the Kongo language...
Global Information
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
Angola 
Gabon