Difference between Congo, Bakongo and Kongo...
[This is obviously directed at those who write in English when talking about the two Congos and the Bakongo.]
The term Congo can refer to the Congo river and also Congo rain forest
The term also refers to two different countries:
1) The Republic of the Congo (aka ROC, Congo-Brazzaville) previously known as French Congo and The People’s Republic of the Congo
2) The Democratic Republic of the Congo (aka Congo-Kinshasa DR Congo, DRC, RDC, Zaïre - yes some people still call it Zaïre even Congolese people) previously known as Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of Zaire
[These two countries are not the same, we were never one. Just because we share a pre colonial history, a few ethnic groups and cultures doesn’t mean we’re the same. We also share those things with Angola, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia etc as well, so saying we’re the same just because of those things doesn’t make sense. My ethnic groups has more in common with people from Tanzania and Zambia than ROC, because we share a lot of cultural similarities and history with ethnic groups from those two countries]
People who are Congolese are those either from the Democratic Republic of Congo or Republic of Congo.
[As I said, some people from the Democratic Republic of Congo still refer to the country as Zaïre and themselves as Zarian or Zaïroise/Zaïrois. I still get called Zaïroise by other Congolese people and other Africans because I was born before the country changed its name to DRC]
The term refers to the pre colonial kingdom (Kongo Kingdom) in what is now northern Angola, Cabinda (which is a province of Angola but located between DRC and ROC), southern Republic of the Congo, western Democratic Republic of the Congo
Kongo also refers to the Kongo aka Bakongo and Kongolese. This is not a tribe (learn the difference between tribe and ethnic group) Bakongo are an ethnic group and there are tribes who are part of the Bakongo for example the Vili, Yombe or Lumbo etc
Kongo can also refer to the language of the Bakongo aka Kikongo and also Kituba
It can also refer to the two modern day countries, depends in which language you write in
Kongo/Bakongo means fighters (or warriors)
The Kongo Kingdom was the first pre colonial Christian (specifically Catholic) Kingdom in Central Africa. Not the whole of African, because the was other pre colonial Christian African Kingdoms
A new movement of Catholicism was created within the kingdom by prophetess Beatriz Kimpa Vita called Antonianism. Even after she was martyred and the new sect was suppressed, Antonianism is still practiced by people today particularly the Bakongo
Traditional Kongo (Bakongo) religion still existed in the Kingdom and its still practiced today.Kongo religion along with Kongo Catholicism has influenced Haitian Voudou, Quimbanda (an Afro-Brazilian religion) and other religions of the African diaspora
Many Bakongo were taken to Cuba, Haiti, the US, Brazil and others
(I might have missed a few points tell me if I did)
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