The Bakongo people (aka. the Kongo) live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire, Congo (Brazzaville) to Luanda, Angola. In the late 20th century they numbered about 10,220,000. The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one_fifth of its surface. ... Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earths surface. ... Categories: Africa geography stubs | Capitals in Africa | Cities in the Republic of the Congo ... Luanda (formerly called Loanda) is the largest city and capital of Angola. ...

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History

The Kongo peoples migrated into their current location during the 13th century from the northeast under the leadership of Wene. In 1482 the Portuguese arrived on the coast, and the Bakongo began diplomatic relations which included sending Bakongo nobles to visit the royal assemblage in Portugal in 1485. Bakongo leaders were quickly converted by Christian missionaries and assumed Portuguese court manners, and often divisions between followers of Christianity and followers of the traditional religions resulted. In 1526 the Portuguese were expelled, but the Bakongo peoples were then invaded by the Jagas (Yaka) in 1568, and the Bakongo were forced to look to the Portuguese for help. The Kongo kingdom never regained its former power. In the ensuing years the Bakongo alternatively fought for and against the Portuguese, eventually being colonized in 1885. The Bakongo political party Abako played an important part in national independence in 1960. (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Events Portuguese fortify Fort Elmina on the Gold Coast Tizoc rules the Aztecs Diogo Cão, a Portuguese navigator, becomes the first European to sail up the Congo. ... Events August 22 - Battle of Bosworth Field is fought between the armies of King Richard III of England and rival claimant to the throne of England Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. ... Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. ... Events January 14 - Treaty of Madrid. ... Events March 23 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. ... The Kongo Empire was an African kingdom located in southwest Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In its prime, the Kingdom exacted taxes, forced labor, and collected fines from its citizens in order to prosper. At times, enslaved peoples, ivory, and copper were traded to the Europeans on the coast. The important harbors were Sonyo and Pinda. When the Kongo Kingdom was at its political apex in the 15th and 16th centuries, the King, who had to be a male descendant of Wene, reigned supreme. He was elected by a group of governors, usually the heads of important families and occasionally including Portuguese officials. The activities of the court were supported by an extensive system of civil servants, and the court itself usually consisted of numerous male relatives of the King. The villages were often governed by lesser relatives of the King who were responsible to him. All members of government were invested with their power under the auspices of a ritual specialist. A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a government. ... A monument celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London Wiktionary has a definition of: Slavery Slavery can mean one or more related conditions which involve control of a person against his or her will, enforced by violence or... Ivory is a hard, white, opaque substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth, etc. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8920 kg/m3, 3. ... This article is about the continent. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ...

Culture

The Bakongo religion centers on ancestor and spirit cults, which also play a part in social and political organization. They retain curious traces of the Christianity professed by them in the 16th and 17th centuries and possibly later. Crucifixes are used as potent fetish charms or as symbols of power passing down from chief to chief; whilst every native has a "Santu" or Christian name and is dubbed dom or dona. A strong tradition of prophetism and messianism among the Bakongo has given rise in the 20th century to nativistic, political-religious movements, mostly xenophobic. The most prolific art form from this area is the nkisi objects, which come in all shapes, mediums, and sizes. The stratification of Bakongo society resulted in much of the art being geared toward those of high status, and the nkisi figures were one of the only forms available to everyone. Their language is part of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo languages. Descent is reckoned through the female line, and tribes are grouped in lineages. The main characteristic of their social organization is fragmentation: nearly every village is independent of its neighbours, and almost nothing remains of the ancient Kongo kingdom. Categories: Religion stubs | Anglicanism | Christian art | Eastern Orthodoxy | Roman Catholic Church | Symbols ... This article concerns the concept of fetishism in anthropology. ... Messianism is any Judaic based field of philosophy which concerns itself with the interpretations of messianic fulfilment. ... Xenophobia means fear of strangers or the unknown and comes from the Greek ξενοφοβια, xenophobia, literally meaning fear of the strange. It is often used to describe fear of or dislike of foreigners, but racism in general is sometimes described as a form of xenophobia, as are such prejudices as... Great Museums in the World (Louvre, Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, Picasso …) CGFA: A Virtual Art Museum Very large website with good reproduction quality scans of thousands of paintings Goetia Fine Art - Surrealism Art History With biographies and Works of the Surrealist Masters Art-Atlas. ... The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger_Congo language family, both in terms of sheer number of languages, of which 938 are known (not counting mere dialects), and in terms of speakers, numbering perhaps 550 million. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages are probably the largest group of the world in terms of different languages. ... Descent has several meanings: in anthropology: see Kinship and descent in biology: see Common descent in mathematics: see Descent (category theory) the computer game: Descent in typography, the distance that a typeface descends below the baseline in aviation, the part of a flight of an aircraft when the altitude decreases...

Agriculture

The Bakongo cultivate cassava, bananas, maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts (groundnuts), beans, and taro. Cash crops are coffee, cacao, urena, bananas, and palm oil. Fishing and hunting are still practiced by some groups, but many Bakongo live, work and trade in towns. Binomial name Manihot esculenta Crantz Cassava or manioc (Manihot esculenta; also yuca in Spanish, and mandioca, aipim, or macaxera in Portuguese) is a woody perennial shrub of the spurge family, that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop for its edible starchy tuberous root. ... Species Hybrid origin; see text A banana is a tree-like plant (though strictly an herb) of the genus Musa in the family Musaceae, closely related to plantains. ... Species Zea diploperennis Zea luxurians Zea nicaraguensis Zea perennis References ITIS 42268 2002-09-22 Sorting Zea names This article is about the staple food. ... Binomial name Ipomoea batatas Linnaeus, The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a crop plant whose large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. ... Binomial name Arachis hypogaea L. The Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the pea family Fabaceae native to South America. ... Green beans Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) used for food or feed. ... This Taro is the Tahitian word. ... Coffee beans and a cup of coffee Coffee as a drink, usually served hot, is prepared from the roasted seeds (beans) of the coffee plant. ... Binomial name Theobroma cacao L. Cacao (Theobroma cacao) is a small (4-8 m tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae (formerly Sterculiaceae), native to tropical South America, but now cultivated throughout the tropics. ... Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Oil palm tree. ... Fishing from a Pier Fishing is both the recreation and sport of catching fish (for food or as a trophy), and the commercial fishing industry of catching or harvesting seafood (either fish or other aquatic life-forms, such as shellfish). ... Hunting is, in its most general sense, the pursuit of a target. ...