The Kongo and the Pygmy Tribes in the Modern Day Zaire Essay -- Explor

The Kongo and the Pygmy Tribes in the Modern Day Zaire The study of tribes in the Congo is a very confusing matter. Linguistic, regional and political divisions are all very prevalent characteristics of these people. Two tribes who speak the same unique language may be separated by thousands of miles. The three major linguistic groups are the Bantu, Central Sudanic, and Ubangian with Bantu being the most prevalent. 2000 to 3000 years ago large numbers of Bantu speaking people slowly but steadily began to migrate from modern day Sudan to the Congo basin, or modern day Zaire (www.nbufront.org). The original inhabitants of this area were the Pygmies, the diminutive forest people. I am going to focus on the two most celebrated of the Congo civilizations: the Kongo Kingdom and the Pygmy tribe. The Kingdom of the Kongo began as a small Bantu-speaking chiefdom founded by Ntinu Wene near the modern day town of Boma in the fourteenth century (Ranger pg. 29). The kingdom expanded rapidly through expansion and conquest of other small chiefdoms. Kingship was a pil...