Affinity Bloc: Sub-Saharan African

Overview: Bantu refers to a large, complex linguistic grouping of peoples in Africa. The Kongos are the largest ethnic group in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Substantial numbers of Kongos also live in southern Congo and northern Angola near the Atlantic coast. During the late European Middle Ages, the Kongo established a powerful kingdom in central Africa. The state of Kongo existed south of the Zaire River by 1300; by 1500 there were other Kongo states--Loango, Ngoyo, and Kakongo--north of the river. The Kongos were not brought under European control until the early 1900s. It is the descendants of this Kongo kingdom that comprise the Kongo Bantu people cluster.

  -- James Olson, The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press (1996). P. 295.

Peoples within this cluster: Bavili; Kongo

Countries where they are found: Angola; Congo; Congo, Democratic Republic of the; Gabon; Uganda