Mongo people
 |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (12 million) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| Languages | |
| Mongo, Lingala | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, African Traditional Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Bantu peoples |
| Mongo | |
|---|---|
| People | Bomongo |
| Language | Lomongo, Nkundo |
The Mongo people are a Bantu ethnic group who live in the equatorial forest of Central Africa. They are the second largest ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, highly influential in its north region. A diverse collection of sub-ethnic groups, they are mostly residents of a region north of the Kasai and the Sankuru Rivers, south of the main Congo River bend. Their highest presence is in the province of Équateur and the northern parts of the Bandundu Province.
The Mongo people, despite their diversity, share a common legend wherein they believe that they are the descendants of a single ancestor named Mongo. They also share similarities in their language and social organization, but also have differences. Anthropologists first proposed the Mongo unity as an ethnic group in 1938 particularly by Boelaert, followed by a major corpus on Mongo people in 1944 by Vanderkerken – then the governor of Équateur.
The Mongo people traditionally speak the Mongo language (also called Nkundo) or one of the related languages in the Bantu Mongo family, in the Niger-Congo family of languages. The Lingala language, however, often replaces Mongo in urban centers. This language has about 200 dialects, and these are found clustered regionally as well as based on Mongo sub-ethnic groups such as Bolia, Bokote, Bongandu, Ekonda, Iyaelima, Konda, Mbole, Mpama, Nkutu, Ntomba, Sengele, Songomeno, Dengese and Tetela-Kusu, Bakutu, Boyela and many others.
The historic roots of the Mongo people are unclear, but they probably settled along the rainy, hot and humid river valleys of northern and western Congo in early centuries of the 1st millennium. Farming of staples such as yam and banana was likely established by about 1000 CE. The Belgian colonial rule impacted the traditions, culture and religious beliefs of the Mongo people, and they predominantly converted to one of numerous denominations of Christianity found in Congo. The influence of Islamic missionary activity from northern Africa has been a source of deep resentment for the Christian Mongo people, leading to a history of conflicts between them and some Muslim ethnic groups found in the neighboring northeastern regions of Congo.
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Wikipedia