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Kakongo was a former small kingdom located on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, in the modern-day Republic of Congo and Cabinda, Angola. It along with its southern neighbor, Ngoyo, and Loango, its neighbor on the north were important political commercial centers during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. The people speak a dialect of the Kikongo language and thus may be considered a part of the Bakongo ethnicity. The earliest history of Kakongo is unknown, and…

The Kingdom of Kongo was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in present-day northern Cabinda,the Republic of the Congo, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the southernmost part of Gabon. The Kingdom was centered around the great city of Mbanza Kongo, located in what is now northern Angola. By the time of the first recorded contact with the Europeans, the Kingdom of Kongo was a highly developed state at the center of an…

M'banza-Kongo (known as São Salvador in Portuguese from 1570 to 1975), is the capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province. 1 was founded some time before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1483 and was the capital of the Kilukeni dynasty ruling at that time. The site was temporarily abandoned during civil wars in the 17th century. It lies close to Angola's border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located at around 6°16′0″S 14°15′0″E and sits on top of an…

Ngoyo was an Iron Age kingdom state of the Woyo tribe, located in the south of Cabinda (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola). Located on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, just north of the Congo River, it was founded by Bantu-speaking people around the 15th century. Ngoyo tradition held that the kingdom's ancestors were among the earliest settlers in the area, leading their chiefs to title themselves the nfumu nsi ("lords of the earth"). The capital…

The Kingdom of Ndongo, formerly known as Dongo or Angola, was an early-modern African state located in what is now Angola. The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of a number of vassal states to Kongo, though Ndongo was the most powerful of these with a king called the Ngola. The Kimbundu-speaking region was known as the land of Mbundu, and according to late sixteenth-century accounts, it was divided into 736 small political units ruled by…

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 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. Loango exported copper to the European market, and was a major producer and exporter of cloth. The…

The Kasanje Kingdom, also known as the Jaga Kingdom, (1620–1910) was a pre-colonial Central African state. It was formed in 1620 by a mercenary band of Imbangala, which had deserted the Portuguese ranks. The state gets its name from the leader of the band, Kasanje, who settled his followers on the upper Kwango River. The Kasanje people were ruled by the Jaga, a king who was elected from among the three clans who founded the kingdom. The Jaga or Jagas were terms applied by the…

The Kingdom of Matamba (1631–1744) was a pre-colonial African state located in what is now the Baixa de Cassange region of Malanje Province of modern-day Angola. It was a powerful kingdom that long resisted Portuguese colonisation attempts and was only integrated into Angola in the late nineteenth century. The first documentary mention of the Kingdom of Matamba is a reference to it giving tribute to the King of Kongo, then Afonso I of Kongo, in 1530. In 1535 Afonso…

The Nation of Lunda (c. 1665 CE – c. 1887 CE) was a confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola, and north-western Zambia, its central state was in Katanga. The Lunda Kingdom controlled some 150,000 km2 by 1680. The state doubled in size to around 300,000 km2 at its height in the nineteenth century. The Mwata Yamvos of Lunda became powerful militarily from their base of 175,000 inhabitants. Through marriage with descendants of…