The Kongo place stone figures called tumba (a Ki-Kongo word, pl. bitumba) on the graves of powerful people. Bitumba were created in Zaire and Angola during the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth. The term tumba comes from the Kikongo word "tumbama" which means "to be placed or set before". [1] In the Punu language of the neighbouring Republic of Congo, the word itumbe means "image, engraving, statue", showing a relation. [2]
Bitumba were executed in soft stone. Their average height it close to 50 centimeters; the smallest bitumba measure between 15 and 20 centimeters and the largest are approximately a meter in height. [3]
Artist Robert Verly gathered a large number of statues in the north of Angola near the Zaire border and, in the May 1955 issue of Zaire, he classified the objects by type and proposed an explanation for their use. [4] In July 1978, the Institut des Musees Nationaux du Zaire at the Center for International Commerce of Zaire in Kinshasa mounted an exhibition of 72 bitumba called "Sculptures Stones from Lower Zaire." [5]
Bitumba sculptures are unique in their variety of styles. Robert Farris Thompson has identified about twenty workshops that explain stylistic individuality. The wide dispersal of the works, however, has made it impossible to localize their centers of production.
Bitumba are express a variety of themes. The most widely found - about twenty percent of statues belong to this type - is a figure who raises his hands in front of his face in a gesture often interpreted as praying. The second most prevalent theme is that of mother and child. The art of Lower Zaire, and especially the art of Mayombe, is known for privileging maternity subjects. The third theme is that of the "thinker," who holds on hand on the hip and the other pressed to check in an attitude of meditation. [3]
The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third largest river in the world by discharge volume, following the Amazon and the Ganges rivers. It is also the world's deepest recorded river, with measured depths of around 220 m (720 ft). The Congo-Lualaba-Chambeshi River system has an overall length of 4,700 km (2,900 mi), which makes it the world's ninth-longest river. The Chambeshi is a tributary of the Lualaba River, and Lualaba is the name of the Congo River upstream of Boyoma Falls, extending for 1,800 km (1,100 mi).
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Kongo Central, formerly Bas-Congo is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Matadi.
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from the region and sold as slaves in the Americas. For this reason, while Kongo still is spoken in the above-mentioned countries, creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It is also one of the sources of the Gullah language and the Palenquero creole in Colombia. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kongo, with perhaps two million more who use it as a second language.
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 culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely varied, reflecting the great diversity and different customs which exist in the country. Congolese culture combines the influence of tradition to the region, but also combines influences from abroad which arrived during the era of colonization and continue to have a strong influence, without destroying the individuality of many tribal customs.
Kituba is a widely used lingua franca in Central Africa. It is a creole language based on Kikongo, a Bantu language. It is a national language in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Articles related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo include:
Simon Mbatshi Batshia is a politician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was the Governor of Bas-Congo province from February 2007 to March 2012, when he was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly. Batshia is also a consultant in conflict resolution at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, based in Cape Town, South Africa, and is a member of the South African Institute for International Affairs.
Daniel P. Biebuyck was a Belgian scholar of Central African art.
M'banza-Kongo, is the capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province with a population of 148,000 in 2014. M'banza Kongo was the capital of the Kingdom of Kongo since its foundation before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1483 until the abolition of the kingdom in 1915, aside from a brief period of abandonment during civil wars in the 17th century. In 2017, M'banza Kongo was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Nkondi are mystical statuettes made by the Kongo people of the Congo region. Nkondi are a subclass of minkisi that are considered aggressive. The name nkondi derives from the verb -konda, meaning "to hunt" and thus nkondi means "hunter" because they can hunt down and attack wrong-doers, witches, or enemies.
MadimbaTerritory is a territory in the Kongo Central Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Its seat is the town of Madimba. The region covers an area of 8,260 square miles and is situated 100 km from Kinshasa. It spans from the Lukusu River in the north to Kintano in the west, and from the Inkisi River in the west to Kinkosi-Luidi in the southeast. The territory borders Kasangulu Territory to the northeast, Kimvula Territory to the southeast, Mbanza-Ngungu Territory to the west, and Angola to the south. Madimba Territory is home to an approximate population of 463,132 residents.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Phemba, also known as Yombe maternity figures, refers to sculptural objects that depict the figures of a mother and child. Phemba are iconic examples of Kongo art and according to Thompson (1981) "reflect the degree to which women are treasured in Kongo culture, not just for their fecundity, but as seers and guardians of the spirit". Kongo societies are matrilineal.
In the Kongo Kingdom and its vassals, the woven arts were emblematic of kingship and nobility. The coarse filament stripped from the fronds of the raffia palm tree served as the foundation of the Kongo weaving arts. This material imposed constraints that were overcome to produce varied and ingenious textile formats and structures. Raffia cloth was used as currency.
Bas-Congo was a district of the Belgian Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It went through various significant changes in extent. It roughly corresponds to the present province of Kongo Central.
Pierre Yambuya Lotika Kibesi was a Zairean helicopter pilot, civil servant, and political refugee.
The Compagnie du chemin de fer du bas-Congo au Katanga (BCK) was a railway operator in the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo and later in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zaire. Most of the lines were in the southern Katanga Province, with links to the Kasai River for transport of mineral exports down to Kinshasa and onward to the port of Matadi, and a link to the Angolan railway network for transport to Lobito on the Atlantic.
The Bwende people are a Bantu ethnic group which inhabit a region across the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo. They mainly inhabit the area north of the Congo river, between the rivers Luala and Kenke. They speak Bwende, a Bantu language related to Kikongo and were a part of the Kongo Kingdom.
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