The Kongo people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others.
The Yaka are an African ethnic group found in southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with Angola border to their west. They number about 300,000 and are related to the Suku people. They live in the forest and savanna region between the Kwango River and the Wamba River. They speak the Yaka language.
The Kingdom of Loango was a pre-colonial African state, during approximately the 16th to 19th centuries in what is now the western part of the Republic of the Congo, Southern Gabon and Cabinda. Situated to the north of the more powerful Kingdom of Kongo, at its height in the 17th century Loango influence extended from Cape St Catherine in the north to almost the mouth of the Congo River.
The Kingdom of Kongo was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. At its greatest extent it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The kingdom consisted of several core provinces ruled by the Manikongo, the Portuguese version of the Kongo title Mwene Kongo, meaning "lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom", but its sphere of influence extended to neighbouring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo, and Matamba, the latter two located in what is Angola today.
Kwilu, also known as the House of Kwilu, was a kanda or royal lineage of the Kingdom of Kongo.
Soyo is a city, with a population of 200,920, and a municipality, with a population of 227,175, located in the province of Zaire in Angola, at the mouth of the Congo River. Historically, Soyo was a significant city in conflicts between the Kingdom of Kongo, Portuguese Angola, and the Dutch West India Company. Soyo became an independent state in the 17th century and had significant influence on politics in Kongo during the Kongo Civil War.
The Kinlaza were members of the Nlaza kanda or House of Kinlaza, one of the ruling houses of the Kingdom of Kongo during the 17th century. It was one of the main factions during the Kongo Civil War along with the Kimpanzu and Kinkanga a Mvika kandas. They are remembered in tradition and are evoked in a proverb, still current in the 1920s Nkutama a mvila za makanda "Kinkanga, Kimpanzu ye Kinlaza makukwa matatu malambila Kongo".
Mvemba a Nzinga, Nzinga Mbemba, Funsu Nzinga Mvemba or Dom Alfonso, also known as King Afonso I, was the sixth 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 late 1542 or 1543.
King João I was the 5th ManiKongo of the Kingdom of Kongo between 1470 and 1509. He voluntarily converted to Roman Catholicism. He was baptized on 3 May 1491 and took the Christian name of João. Soon after, ManiKongo Nzinga-a-Nkuwu João I abandoned the new faith for a number of reasons, one of them being the Roman Catholic Church's requirement of monogamy. Politically, he could not afford to abandon polygamy and embrace monogamy, a cultural shift that the king could not contemplate as power in Kongo was elective, rather than hereditary as in Europe; as Kongo culture followed a matrilineality structure, where the elder son of the king is not automatically the next king.
Pedro I Nkanga a Mvemba was manikongo of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1543 until being deposed in 1545.
Pedro III Nsimba Ntamba was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo during its tumultuous civil war period. He was the elder brother of King Joāo II and one of many partisans of the House of Kinlaza. Since 1666, the two royal kandas, or lineages, Kinlaza and Kimpanzu, had been fighting bitterly over the Kingdom of Kongo.
Afonso II was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo in 1561.
The Jaga or Jagas were terms applied by the Portuguese to tribes such as Yaka, Suku, Teke, Luba, Kuba and Hungaan invading bands of African warriors east and south of the Kingdom of Kongo. The use of the phrase took on different connotations depending on where it was applied. There were two groups of people, both known as fierce warriors, who were dubbed jagas or the jaga. Unbeknownst to the Portuguese who encountered these warriors, the two groups were practically unrelated.
The Kongo Civil War (1665–1709) was a war of succession between rival houses of the Kingdom of Kongo. The war waged throughout the middle of the 17th and 18th centuries pitting partisans of the House of Kinlaza against the House of Kimpanzu. Numerous other factions entered the fray claiming descent from one or both of the main parties such as the Água Rosada of Kibangu and the da Silva of Soyo. By the end of the war, Kongo's vaunted capital had been destroyed and many Bakongo were sold into the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Henrique I Nerika a Mpudi was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1567 to 1568 and the last from the Lukeni kanda dynasty. Like his predecessor Bernardo I, Henrique died while on campaign at the frontiers of the kingdom. He was killed while fighting the BaTeke of the Anziku Kingdom.
Ambrósio I Nimi a Nkanga was a mwenekongo of the Kingdom of Kongo who ruled from
Garcia I Mvemba a Nkanga was a manikongo of Kongo who ruled from April 27, 1624 to March 7, 1626.
The Kilukeni were members of the Lukeni kanda or House of Kilukeni, the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Kongo from its inception in the late 14th century until the 1567 with the rise of the House of Kwilu. The Kilukeni were springboard for most of the major factions that battled for control of Kongo during its civil war.
Mwene Muji was a polity around Lake Mai-Ndombe in the Congo Basin, likely stretching south to Idiofa. It bordered the Tio Kingdom among others to its southwest. Mwene Muji dominated the region of the Lower Kasai. It was ruled by the BaNunu, holding the titles of Ntote. Its unity crumbled in the early 17th century, with the Boma Kingdom, Yaka Kingdom, and Bozanga breaking away. Mwene Muji entered a further severe decline in the 19th century and was surpassed by the Boma Kingdom, on the eve of Belgian conquest in the early 20th century. Its 'empire' status is pending on further archaeological research.
