Kingdom of Kongo (13th-19th century)

It happened that the Congo people, who originally lived in the south, settled on the banks of the current Congo River around the 3rd century, led by their leaders Tutti Dia Tia and Kodi.

It dominated the current Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, and the region corresponding to northern Angola.
 

In the 1400s, even before the arrival of Europeans, it prospered as a trading nation with trade with the Arabs.
Roman Catholic missionaries appeared after 1490, and the King (Manikongo) converted to Catholicism.
Exchanges with Portugal flourished, and since then it has become the center of the Atlantic slave trade.
1665 Portuguese troops invade Angola and defeat the Kingdom of Kongo troops.

After that, the country name remained, but it was actually divided into Portuguese territory, and later in the early 19th century, it was divided into French territory and Belgian territory. After independence, it became the current Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, respectively.

Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)

Kinshasa, the capital

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Languages French (official language), Swahili, Lingala, Kongo, Chilba, etc.

Ethnicity Bantu (Luba 18%, Kongo 16%, Hmong 14%), Sudanese, Nile, Pygmy, Ham

Religion Catholic 50%, Protestant 20%, Primitive religion 20%, Islam 10%

Area 6.2 times that of Japan
 

1885 --1908 Free State of Congo (Private land of the King of Belgium)

1908-1960 Belgian Congo  

1960-1967 Republic of the Congo (independent of Belgium)

1967-1971 Democratic Republic of the Congo
1971-1997 Republic of Zaire

1997-Currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo
 

It is the third largest area in Africa and is comparable to the area in Western Europe. It is extremely rainy and is also the region with the most lightning on the planet. Annual rainfall exceeds 2,000 mm in some places, and it has a tropical rainforest next to the Amazon.
 

Republic of the Congo
 

Brazzaville, the capital

Language French (official language) Bantu languages (Congo, Teke, Lingala, Swahili, etc.)

Ethnic Bantu tribes (Kongo 45%, Turkmen 20%, Bubangi 16%)

Religion Catholic 50%, Primitive religion 48%, Islam 2%

Area about 90% of Japan
 

1910 Became part of French Equatorial Africa

1960 Independence from France
 

About half of the country is the Congo Basin, which is overgrown with rainforest.
Due to the hot and humid tropical climate, the average annual temperature in Brazzaville, the capital, is 25 ° C. Annual rainfall is 1,367 mm.
 

Congolese
In Cuba, it is also called Bantu, but Bantu does not originally refer to a specific ethnic group or language, but to a broadly speaking ethnic group (Niger-Congo language family). The Congolese is one of them.
 

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Congolese religion in the Kingdom of Kongo
In the Congolese faith, this world is believed to be a multidimensional world formed by overlapping two worlds, the physical world and the spiritual world.
Humans exist in the inner world, and spirits are said to be divided into at least eight, and exist in a world different from humans.
In the world of spirits, there is an ancestral town, Mpemba, and beyond that world, from Karunga Nzambi to Npungu Turend.
 

It is between the sublime being and human beings, and the ancestors are in between.
The sublime being is perceived as the primary cause of all things, as the essence of all life, and as the ultimate destination of all things.
 

So Karunga is where the spirits, and God itself, go, and at the same time, where they are born, the fountain of the spirits.
In addition, Karunga is the primordial sea for the origin of all things, a self-creation, and a car that governs all things (car is the essence of life, Lunga is to reach, reify, and rule).
 

For the people of Congo, spirituality was the basis of political and social organizations.
Also, the intersection of the two worlds forms a cross, which is an important symbol for understanding the ideas of the Congolese people.

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According to the influential person of Ne Congo (the name of origin of Congo), the intersection of Karunga and the human world, that is, the intersection of the noble being and human beings, is symbolized by the cross.
It is said that the similarity with Christianity in this respect may have facilitated the penetration of Christianity into the Congolese.

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reference

Congo (Japanese)
http://www.tcat.ne.jp/~eden/Hst/dic/congo.html
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Japanese)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B4%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E5%85%B1%E5 % 92% 8C% E5% 9B% BD
Reino del Congo (Kingdom of Kongo / Spanish)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reino_del_Congo