The pre-colonial history of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo encompasses the history of the Congo Basin region up to the establishment of European colonial rule in the era of New Imperialism and particularly the creation of the Congo Free State and its expansion into the interior after 1885. As the modern territorial boundaries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo did not exist in this period, it is inseparable from the wider pre-colonial histories of Central Africa, the Great Lakes and Rift Valley as well as the Atlantic World and Swahili coast.
The current territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo was occupied by humans in the Paleolithic at least 80,000 years ago. Waves of Bantu migrations from 2000 BC to 500 AD moved into the basin from the northwest and covered the precolonial states absorbed or overthrown by the colonial powers.
The Bantu migrations added to and displaced the indigenous Pygmy populations in the southern regions of the modern Congo states. The Bantu imported agriculture and iron-working techniques from West Africa into the area, as well as establishing the Bantu language family as the primary set of tongues for the Congolese. Subsequent migrations from the Darfur and Kurdufan regions of Sudan into the north of Congo, as well as East Africans migrating into the eastern Congo, added to the mix of ethnic groups.
Paleolithic
The area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was populated as early as 90,000 years ago, as shown by the 1988 discovery of the Semliki harpoon at Katanda, one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, and which is believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish.
In 1960 the Ishango bone tool was discovered, fashioned from the fibula of a baboon with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving. It was first thought to be a tally stick, as it has a series of what has been interpreted as tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the tool, but some scientists have suggested that the groupings of the notches indicate a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting.A very brief history of pure mathematics: The Ishango Bone University of Western Australia School of Mathematics - accessed January 2007. It is now believed to be more than 20,000 years old.Marshack, Alexander (1991): The Roots of Civilization, Colonial Hill, Mount Kisco, NY.Brooks, A.S. and Smith, C.C. (1987): "Ishango revisited: new age determinations and cultural interpretations", The African Archaeological Review, 5 : 65-78.
Bantu migration
The Bantu expansion is thought to have reached modern day DRC as well as Northern Angola and Zambia possibly as early as 500 BC, and then gradually started to expand southward.
Their propagation was accelerated by the adoption of pastoralism and of Iron Age technology. The people living in the south and southwest were hunter-gatherer groups, whose technology involved only minimal use of metal technologies. The development of metal tools during this time period revolutionized agriculture and animal husbandry. This led to the displacement of the hunter-gatherer groups in the east and southeast.
The 10th century marked the final expansion of the Bantu in West-Central Africa. A rising population soon made intricate local, regional and foreign commercial nets possible, forming networks that traded mostly in salt, iron and copper.
Upemba culture In the 5th century, a society began to develop in the Upemba depression along the banks of the Lualaba River in Katanga. This culture, known as the Upemba civilization, would eventually evolve into the more significant Luba Empire, as well as the Kingdom of Lunda.
The process in which the primitive original Upemba society transitioned into the Luba kingdom was gradual and complex. This transition ran without interruption, with several distinct societies developing out of the Upemba culture prior to the genesis of the Luba. Each of these societies based the foundation of their society on that of the one which preceded it (much in the way that many aspects of Roman culture were borrowed from the Greeks). The 5th century saw this societal evolution develop in the area around present day Kamilamba at the Kabambasee, which was followed and replaced by a number of other cultures which were based around the cities of Sanga and Katango.
The region in which these cultures appeared is particularly rich in ore and these civilizations began to develop and implement iron and copper technology, in addition to trading in ivory and other goods. The Upemba established a strong commercial demand for their metal technologies and were able to institute a long-range commercial net (the business connections extended over 1500 km, all the way to the Indian Ocean). Additionally, the region was endowed with favorable agricultural conditions and a wealth of fish and game.
Its strong economy and food-base allowed the region to become extremely wealthy. So wealthy, in fact, that cities and centralized government based on a chieftain system developed. The political institution of the chieftain became generally accepted and these rulers became increasingly powerful, especially at the end of the 16th century.
Effects of geography and climate Additionally, it must be mentioned that, as is this case today, the Congo River and its tributaries, as well as climatic conditions in general, play a powerful role in shaping the lives of the inhabitants of the Congo. The rivers are and were tremendously important to regional trade and provide a vast natural network for such activities, in addition to providing a source of food and water to the population.
It must also be mentioned that the climate is a major force in the Congo, which is made up primarily of tropical rainforest that sees some of the highest annual rainfall in the world. This high amount of rainfall makes it difficult to sustain agriculture, and subsequently a large population because the soil is simply too watered-down and prone to periodic floods to produce large quantities of food. For this reason, the population of the Congo has maintained a low population in addition to an extremely low population density.
Also, much has been made about the large number of hunter-gatherer groups that inhabit the Congo, especially the Pygmy population. The reason for this particular life-style being so prominent in the Congo is geographical and climatic: the area is simply not capable of producing a large amount of food from agriculture, and as a result, a portion of the population has continued to hunt and gather because it is a much more sustainable way of life.
Cultural practices
Religion and Spirituality
The Congo region was home to a wide array of ethnicities and communities and therefore differing spiritual and religious practices. Due to the scarcity in precolonial documentation the exact nature and dates of development of some of these practices remain elusive. The religions practised in precolonial Congo were as far as is known animistic in nature. They believed that places, objects and creatures could possess a spiritual essence and practised ancestral worship.
According to the religion practised by the Bakongo people the world is split into the world of the living and the world of the dead. Shamans known as Nganga can mediate between these two worlds. A specific characteristic of the Kongo religion is the so-called cosmogram. It is believed the highest god, next to other high gods, resides at the top of the world, the spirits and other deities living below, followed by the physical realm populated by humans and animals, with water existing in the middle where the two worlds meet.
When people die, their souls leave their bodies to travel to the realm of the dead, but can still be contacted or called upon by means of prayer. The dead talk to the living through dreams, omens or through shamans.
Similar characteristics are seen in the Baluba religion, where priests can also serve as intermediaries between the natural and supernatural world. The traditional religious beliefs of the Luba people included the concept of a Universal Creator, a Leza or the Supreme Being, a natural world and a supernatural world. The supernatural world was where ancestral spirits lived, and what one joined the afterlife if one lived a righteous life.
The Bakuba people from the Kingdom of Kuba believed in a single creator deity, named Bumba or m'Bombo. He is said to have originally existed alone in darkness, in a universe consisting of nothing but primordial water. The creation took place when he vomited the sun, moon, animals and then humanity."Bushongo Creation World of Myth". Valencia College. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
Cannibalism Although cannibalism was indeed practiced in the (eastern) Congo region, some of contemporary accounts were the result of exaggeration and miscommunication. The attitudes towards cannibalism in the Congo region varied significantly, with certain cultures practicing cannibalism in certain contexts while in other cultures cannibalism was either only practiced by certain individuals or shunned altogether and its practitioners dehumanized.Hogg, G. (2007), Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice, Nonsuch Publishing, UK The most infamous militia were the so-called Zappo Zap, a subgroup of the Songye people. They had a habit of eating their fallen enemies, and were said to consider human meat a delicacy.Phipps, William E. (2002). William Sheppard: Congo's African American Livingstone. Westminster John Knox Press. Pp. 138-139 These warrior cultures were also used by both the Leopoldian forces as well as the Arab slavers during the Congo-Arab war. During the 1892–1894 war between the Congo Free State and the Swahili-Arab city-states of Nyangwe and Kasongo in Eastern Congo, there were reports of widespread cannibalization of the bodies of defeated Arab combatants by the Batetela allies of Belgian commander Francis Dhanis.Pakenham, T. (1991). The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent From 1876 to 1912. New York: Perennial. pp. 439–449.
Kingdom of Kongo (1390–1914)
By the 13th century there were three main federations of states in the western Congo Basin. In the east were the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza, considered to be the oldest and most powerful, which likely included Nsundi, Mbata, Mpangu, and possibly Kundi and Okanga. South of these was Mpemba which stretched from modern-day Angola to the Congo River. It included various kingdoms such as Mpemba Kasi and Vunda. To its west across the Congo River was a confederation of three small states; Vungu (its leader), Kakongo, and Ngoyo.
The dominant political force of the Congo region prior to and during the initial arrival of Europeans was the Kingdom of Kongo. The Kongo was a state located primarily in the southwest portion of the modern Congo, and also occupying portions of northern Angola and Cabinda. At its greatest extent, the kingdom reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Point Noire in the north to the Loje River in the south.
The kingdom was headed by a king known as the Manikongo, who exercised his authority over the six provinces that constituted the Kongo kingdom and the Bakongo (Kongo peoples). 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.