Statue Kongo Yombe from the Congo RDC. Part of over 50 years. Piece on base.

The Kongo form a people from Central Africa, which is mainly found in the south of the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), in the provinces of Bas-Congo and Bandundu in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in a large part of Angola. At the end of the 20th century, they were estimated at around ten million.
According to sources, we observe multiple variants: Bacongo, Badondo, Bakango, Ba-Kongo, Bakongos, Bandibu, Bashikongo, Cabinda, Congo, Congos, Fjort, Frote, Ikeleve, Kakongo, Kikongo, Kileta, Kongos, Koongo, Nkongani1

Internationally, the term Bakongo prevails. Ba- Est, in Kikongo, the prefix which signals the plural, Mo- signals the singular, and ki-, the language.

The Kongo religion considers the world as multidimensional. The material world and the spiritual world are two spaces that meet in certain points in the universe. Humans are confined to lower or advanced dimensions. Spirits evolve in a sub-part of this 8-dimensional universe. In the world of minds is the city of ancestors, Mpemba. Beyond these worlds is Kalunga nzambi ya mpungu tulendu. The ancestors act as intermediaries between the divine and man.

The divine is perceived as the primary cause of everything, the vital essence of everything as well as the final destination of everything. This is how Kalunga is both the place where the spirits are directed, from which they come and God himself (Nzambi), source of these spirits. Kalunga is also the primitive sea from which everything has been released, the self-created, the ka which reigns over everything (ka: vital essence; lunga: accomplish, concretize and reign).

Spirituality is also the basis of political and social organization.

The intersection between the two worlds has a form of cross, hence the importance of this symbol in Kongo thought. In addition, the character of Ne-Kongo (from which the name Kongo comes) is supposed to be this intersection of Kalunga with the human world, therefore a divine being in human form, also symbolized by the cross. It was these similarities to Christianity that have facilitated adoption.

The descendants are matrilineal, and the whole of the Kongo people is grouped around 12 clans (Kânda in Kongo), which is also found in the names of many peoples of black Africa; Thus the Mbenza in the Sérères, Wolofs, the Muyabis, descendants of Nzinga, among the Duala, Mossi, etc.