A Bantu ethnic group, Mongo people comprise the second largest ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a population of about 12 million. The Mongo people live mostly along a region north of the Kasai and Sankuru rivers, south of the main Congo River bend. The Mongo language has about 200 dialects, found clustered regionally as well as based on Mongo sub-ethnic groups.
They include such ethnic groups as the Bokote, Ekonda, Bolia, Sengele, Ntomba, Ndengese, Songomeno, Mbole, Bongandu, Boyela, Nkutu, and Tetela-Kusu. They speak dialects of a common language, Mongo or Nkundo, a member of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo languages. Many groups are disappearing because of falling birth rate.
Agriculture was and remains an important part of the Mongo people’s lives. The Mongo traditionally cultivated cassava and bananas but also relied on wild-plant gathering, fishing, and hunting. Their material culture was generally simple, though some hunting and fishing techniques were well developed. Descent was patrilineal, and communities were grouped in lineages stemming from a single ancestor.
According to Africa 101 Last Tribes:
“Ideological and moral principles and social reality are mirrored in the culture of the Mongo, particularly in their oral literature, which includes histories, folktales, proverbs, poems, songs, and greetings. Traditional folktales, which were usually centered on a moral or a piece of wisdom, were an essential part of a child’s education, and proverbs dealt with all aspects of life, although the ideals of mutual obligation, respect for authority, and the importance of the family were particularly stressed.”
Lineage elders were invested with authority that derived partly from religious sources. Because there was no organization other than the lineage, feuds, covenants between lineages, and marriage payments were means of solving issues that arose between lineages. Only among some southern groups did there exist a true chieftainship, based upon divine right.
Mongo religion placed strong emphasis on ancestor worship. The Mango people’s historical roots aren’t clear, but they likely settled in the Congo in the early centuries of the first millennium.
