The people of Congo
The Bantu is a family of ethnicities comprising many main branches and hundreds of offshoots. Most of the people that now live in the area of the Republic come from them. Our country is a fine example of how people of different origins can live together in peace and harmony and work towards a common future for all. Let’s examine the demographics involved:
THE KONGO
These are the people that originally lived in the Atlantic Coast. They are defined by the Kikongo language that they speak. 40,5% of our population comes from this group.
THE TEKE
Otherwise known as Bateke or Tyo or Tio form up 16,9% of the inhabitants of Congo. Their locale is the southern, central and northern areas of the country and the speak a mixture of the 9 Teke languages.
THE MBOCHI
Another 13,1% of the Congolese belong to this sub division of the Bantu people. The current President and many senior officials come from this ethnic group which nests in the northern parts of the country and some of the districts of the Plateaux Region, after migrating from regions of the African Great Lakes where their language comes from.
THE SANGHA
The fourth largest ethnic group is the Sangha or Sanga amounting to 5,6% of the total. The main body of this ethnicity resides in the Katanga province. Those that reside in Congo fled their original homes during the colonization of the area by the Belgians.
THE BAMBENGA
Those are actually the remnants of the African Pygmies that originally inhabited the area before the advent of the Bantus. Except their height, their main difference is the Ubangian languages that they speak which are quite different than the Bantu.
Each of the aforementioned main groups consists of a number of subgroups. For example, there are seven different subdivisions of the Kongo (Beembe, Sundi, Lari, Dondo, Vili, Yombe, Bwende). The rest of the ethnic groups consist of the Muslim populations that have fled into the country in search of work (about 4.7%), and a number of Europeans and American expatriates.