Loango

Loango was a kingdom on the Atlantic coast north of the Congo River. Its Vili merchants connected the coast with communities across the forested interior, while the Maloango ruled from Buali, inland from the harbour. The kingdom formed part of a wider coastal world alongside Kakongo and Ngoyo, where African rulers and traders negotiated with visitors arriving by sea.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, commerce on the Loango coast became increasingly bound to the Atlantic slave trade. Captives were brought along inland routes to Loango and neighbouring ports, where European merchants competed for them. The scale of the trade grew sharply in the second half of the eighteenth century, linking this coast to plantations across the ocean and drawing people from regions far beyond the shoreline.