Loeme

Loeme lies in the borderland between the Kouilou of the Republic of the Congo and the Nyanga country of Gabon, inland from the Atlantic, where forested hills of the Mayombe rise above rivers and cultivated clearings. The Loémé River, called Lwe:mi by the Vili, drains this country southward and reaches the sea south of Pointe-Noire. Along its banks, farmers grew cassava, plantains and palm crops, and hunters worked the forest for game and honey.

The Vili people of this coast belonged to the kingdom of Loango, whose ruler controlled the trade between the interior and the Atlantic. From the sixteenth century Portuguese, Dutch and later English merchants bought ivory, copper and cloth on this coast, and the trade in captives grew alongside them. Loango's markets and river paths linked the forested hinterland with the ports, and the authority of local chiefs depended on their control of those routes.