Teke

The Teke, or Bateke, also called Tyo or Tio, are a Bantu people of the savanna plateaus north of Pool Malebo. They built one of the oldest kingdoms of the region: a sacred king titled the Makoko ruled from around Mbe, and Teke power flourished between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, its smithing-linked kingship later influencing Kongo.

The earliest written mention of a Teke king dates to 1507, and Tio forces killed the Kongo ruler Henrique I in 1568.

During the 1700s charm boxes called nkobi strengthened provincial lords at the crown's expense, and in the early 1800s wars with the Bobangi sapped the monarchy. Teke religion centred on the high god Nzambi, ancestor cults and carved figures such as the Tara-Mantsie that embodied a village elder's authority.