Nsudi

The Nsudi, better known as the Sundi or Basundi, are counted as the largest subgroup of the Bakongo, spread across the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cabinda in Angola. Their name recalls Nsundi, once a small kingdom among the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza, absorbed by the Kingdom of Kongo in the early to mid-fifteenth century.

Nsundi became a royal province often entrusted to the king's chosen successor; Afonso I ruled it before taking the Kongo throne in 1509. Around 1590 it became a Duchy.

After the Battle of Mbwila in 1665 the duchy drifted into independence under Kimpanzu dukes during the Kongo civil wars. In the early nineteenth century Sundi expansion into the Niari valley brought repeated wars with the Teke.