The Ngando people (or Bongando, Ngandu) are Bantu subsistence farmers who live in eastern part of
Équateur and the western part of
Orientale province in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
.
[
]
Population
The Bongado are a branch of the Mongo
Mongo may refer to:
Geography Africa
* Mongo, Chad, a Sahel city
* Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo (Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction)
* Mongo, Sierra Leone, a chiefdom
* Mongo River (Little Scarces River), Guinea and Sierra Leone, a tributar ...
cluster, with an estimated population in 1990 of 450,000-500,000.
They speak Longando in the village setting; almost all will also use the Lingala language
Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree ...
in other settings.[
Longando is related to the ]Lalia language
Lalia is a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the ...
.
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
reports that the Ngando live in the Maringa River
The Maringa river is a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Maringa, and the Lopori River to the north, join near Basankusu to form the Lulonga River, a tributary of the Congo River.
The Maringa / Lopori basin contains the Maringa-Lop ...
area, north of Ikela
Ikela is a market town in Tshuapa, Democratic Republic of Congo, lying on the Tshuapa River east of Boende. Founded by Belgium in the early twentieth century as a trading post, it became an important local centre.
It is the headquarters of the Ik ...
, and had a population of 220,000 in 1995.
Location and economy
The Bongando live in the tropical rain forest of the Congo basin
The Congo Basin (french: Bassin du Congo) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It con ...
.
Daily temperatures range from to and annual rainfall is about .
The Bongando's staple crop is cassava, and they also grow bananas. yams, maize, rice and some vegetables.
Their only cash crop is coffee, introduced in the 1960s.
They raise goats, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and supplement their diet through hunting, fishing, and gathering.[
The Bongando have traditionally seen ]bonobo
The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...
s as human beings rather than animals.
However, due to economic stress from political disorders followed by civil wars in the 1992-2005 period and to social and cultural interchanges with other ethnic groups, this perception has changed.
The younger Bongando will now sometimes hunt bonobos as bushmeat.
Settlements
Bongando settlements are typically scattered along the road in an open area to wide that contains the cassava and coffee fields. Behind the fields there is some secondary forest and then huge expanses of primary forest.
The Bongando have a patrilineal lineage system, and wives come to live near their husband's family.
Usually close relatives live close together.[
]
References
{{authority control
Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo