Nimi

The Nimi line was the ruling house of Vungu, also called Bungu, a kingdom in the Mayombe forest north of the Congo River. In the thirteenth century Vungu led a confederation including Ngoyo and Kakongo, and Kongo court tradition remembered it as the homeland of the first kings of Kongo.

Nimi a Nzima ruled Mpemba Kasi, and his son Lukeni lua Nimi, born around 1380, crossed the Congo River, displaced the local chief Mwene Kabunga and founded Mbanza Kongo. Taking the title Ntinu, he became the first king of Kongo.

Vungu first appears in writing in a letter of Kongo's King Afonso I in 1535; in the 1620s it was occupied by the Jaga after they were driven out of Kongo and allied with Loango.