The Kongo Kingdom in the middle of…
1396 CE to 1539 CE
Kongo had evolved in the late fourteenth century when a group of Bakongo (Kongo people) moved south of the Congo River into northern Angola, conquering the people they found there and establishing Mbanza Kongo (now spelled Mbanza Congo), the capital of the kingdom.
One of the reasons for the success of the Bakongo is their willingness to assimilate the inhabitants they conquer rather than to try to become their overlords.
The people of the area thus gradually become one and are ruled by leaders with both religious and political authority.
By the middle of the fifteenth century, the manikongo (Kongo king) rules the lands of northern Angola and the north bank of the Congo River (The present-day Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo).
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Middle Africa
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