Kassali

Kassali lies in the wooded interior of central Congo, in the Lomami basin, where rivers cut through a mosaic of forest and savanna. Farming supplied the household, with cassava, maize and groundnuts grown on cleared ground. Fishing in the streams, hunting in the woods and the gathering of palm products and wild fruit added to the food supply, and paths and waterways carried goods between neighbouring villages.

To the west, along the Sankuru and Kasai rivers, the Kuba kingdom kept a court famous for its woodcarving, embroidered raffia cloth and royal ritual. Farther south and east, between the upper Lomami and Lualaba rivers, Luba political and cultural ideas spread across the central savanna, and by the eighteenth century Luba chiefs and their followers had extended their influence over a broad part of the region. Kassali's people lived between these centres of power and drew on both.