Kakongo was a small kingdom located on the Atlantic coast of

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

, in the modern-day

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

and

Cabinda Province Cabinda (formerly called Portuguese Congo, ) is an exclave and province of Angola, a status that has been disputed by several political organizations in the territory. The capital city is also called Cabinda, known locally as ''Tchiowa'', ''Tsi ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. In the 13th century, it formed part of a confederation led by Vungu. Along with its neighboring kingdoms of Ngoyo and Loango, Kakongo became an important political commercial center during the 17th through 19th centuries. The people speak a dialect of the Kikongo language and thus may be considered a part of the

Bakongo The Kongo people (also , singular: or ''M'kongo; , , singular: '') are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others. They have li ...

ethnicity. Kakongo was a vassal of the

Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( or ''Wene wa 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 gre ...

for a part of its history.

Early history

The earliest history of Kakongo is unknown, and oral traditions collected in the region in the 19th and 20th centuries do not do much to elucidate. In its present state, archaeology can only attest that the region was already in the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

by the 5th century BC, and that complex societies were emerging in the general vicinity by the early centuries CE. The kingdom is first mentioned in the titles of the King of Kongo Afonso I in 1535, in which he notes that he was king over this region, as well as a number of others located along the north bank of the

Congo River 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 list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...

. This title has led historians to believe that Kakongo was once part of a federation of states that included Kongo and that may have formed around the late 14th century. Kakongo was, however, an independent state for all intents and purposes from the 16th century onward. Portuguese merchants, interested in the trade in copper, ivory, and slaves, began to establish factories in Kakongo in the 1620s, and Dutch and English merchants also visited the kingdom during the 17th century. Its capital was called Kinguele and was an inland town. In the 1680s Kakongo had diplomatic relations with

Soyo Soyo (formerly known as ''Santo António do Zaire'') is a city, with a population of 200,920 (2014 census), and a municipality, with a population of 227,175 (2014 census), located in the province of Zaire in Angola, at the mouth of the Congo Riv ...

on the south side of the Congo River. It lost control of the island of Nzari a Kongo in the river to Soyo in about 1688. John K. Thornton. ''History of West Central Africa to 1850''. p. 202

Commercial center

Kakongo became a very important commercial center in the 18th century, regularly visited by ships from England, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Its port of Cabinda was a major hub that lay in a protected bay.

Slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

dominated the exports of the country, though most were simply transhipped from areas further south, mostly from the Kingdom of Kongo and the eastern provinces of Angola, such as Matamba. Important goods that were also traded included gunpowder, guns, knives, cotton cloths, glass beads, copper and iron bars. In 1775, French missionaries sought to convert the kingdom, along with its neighbors, to Christianity, hoping to reap the fruit of its long association with the neighboring, Christian, Kingdom of Kongo. The mission was largely unsuccessful but did make contact with a community of Christians from Kongo's province of

, living in the town of Manguenzo in the interior. The mission was ultimately abandoned.

Notes

{{Reflist Iron Age cultures of Africa Countries in medieval Africa Countries in precolonial Africa History of the Republic of the Congo Former kingdoms Kingdom of Kongo