CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF

A Land of Forests

The earliest inhabitants of the Congo (KAHNG-goe) region were probably the ancestors of today’s Mbuti (ehm-BOO-tee) and Efe (EH-fae) peoples. They lived by hunting the wild animals of the vast rain forests of the Congo Basin. They gathered fruits, roots, and leaves and used smoke to drive wild bees from their hives in hollow trees to obtain sweet honeycombs.

Between about three thousand and one thousand years ago, Bantu-speaking (BAN-too) peoples from western and central Africa moved eastward and southward (see CAMEROON). These farmers and fishers acquired copper- and ironworking skills about two thousand years ago. They built villages along the banks of the great rivers and cultivated yams. The forest people came to barter with them, exchanging labor for tools and forest foods for farm crops.

	CLIMATE
	The Congo Basin is hot and rainy for most of the year. The savanna region’s dry season lasts from June to September, while the far north’s shorter dry season lasts from December to February. The climate in the east varies with the altitude, with snow falling on the highest mountain peaks.

About seven hundred years ago, the most powerful Bantu group was the Kongo, who extended their kingdom across the Congo River from the north. By the 1400s their Kongo Empire included much of what is now Angola, the coastal regions of the two modern Congo nations, and Gabon. The ruler of this state was called manikongo (mah-nee-KAWN-goe), and he lived in great splendor. The empire was organized into regions, each with a governor who was responsible for collecting taxes on traded goods such as ivory or cloth. Shells were used as currency.

In 1482 the Portuguese arrived at the mouth of the Congo River. They were the first of many European peoples who would have such a devastating impact on the region and on Africa as a whole over the following five hundred years. The Portuguese named the estuary Zaire from a local word Zadi (ZAH-dee), meaning "great river," and sent ambassadors to the Manikongo in his capital at M’banza (uhm-BAHN-zah) Congo. The great Kongo Empire soon fell under Portuguese control and became partially Christian.

The Kongo were not the only Bantu people to establish kingdoms in the region. The kingdom of the Luba (LOO-bah) emerged around 1300 and over the next century became a powerful, centralized state. The Luba traced their descent from a great chief called Kalala Ilunga, and their warlike customs were symbolized by their ruler’s badge of authority, a carved wooden stand to hold his bow. In the 1450s some of the Luba nobles who had challenged the ruler’s power moved with their followers toward what is now Angola, and set up a rival state called Lunda (LOON-dah) in the 1600s. Another successful state was that of the Kuba (KOO-bah), whose royal clan was called Bushoong (buh-SHOONG), meaning "men of lightning." Their symbol was the throwing knife. These states continued to exist through the 1600s. Soon the small statues for which the region was famous were portraying new weapons—rifles, traded from the Europeans.

Among all the metalworking Bantu peoples, iron was admired and believed to have an almost magical quality. Kuba legends told of a blacksmith king called Mbop Pelyeeng. Legendary Luba hero Chibinda Ilunga is said to have taught metalworking skills to the Chokwe (SHOE-kwae) people in the south.

Central Africa was the birthplace of many rich customs and traditions, but the curse of the slave trade soon devastated the area. The Kongo and some other indigenous peoples already traded in slaves, but they sold only criminals and prisoners captured during wars. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Europeans transformed the slave trade by providing a trans-Atlantic connection between Africa and the Americas and launching raids in the interior of Africa. They shipped hundreds of thousands of people to the "New World" as slaves. Slave traders from Portugal, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands all operated along the western coasts of central Africa. This cruel business lasted well into the 1800s.

The eastern part of the present day Democratic Republic of Congo lay on the trading routes of Nyamwezi (nee-ahm-WAE-zee) and Swahili (swah-HEE-lee) merchants from eastern Africa, who traded in ivory and copper as well as slaves. In the 1850s Swahili and Arab traders settled in the eastern part of the country to send slaves back to the markets of Zanzibar (ZAN-zuh-bahr), an island off the east African coast (see TANZANIA). The captives were treated with great cruelty. People who worked with the Zanzibari Arabs, such as the Yeke (YEH-kae) people, profited from the trade, and founded an empire in the Shaba (Katanga) region.