Kongo

The Kongo group takes in the Kongo, Yombe, Vili and Bwende, and the Ambundu to the south. From about 1390 the Kingdom of Kongo ruled from M'banza-Kongo, its provincial governors drawn from the royal family and nobles; the nzimbu shells that served as its money came from the island of Luanda.

In 1483 the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the coast, and King Nzinga a Nkuwu accepted baptism. His son Afonso I, king from 1509, built a Catholic church and corresponded with the kings of Portugal, protesting in 1526 against Portuguese slave traders. Portugal founded Angola in 1575, and the slave trade slowly wore down the king's power.