The Kele people (or Lokele) are a Bantu ethnic group of about 160,000 people, 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 ...
.
They mainly live on the south bank of the Congo River between
Kisangani
Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville or Stanleystad) is the capital of Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the fifth most populous urban area in the country, with an estimated population of 1,312,000 in 2021, and the larg ...
and
Isangi
Isangi is a town in the Tshopo Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
headquarters of Isangi Territory.
Location
Isangi is downstream from Kisangani at the confluence of the Lomami and Congo rivers.
There is a road running south from ...
.
The
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
was first published in their
Kele language in 1918.
Drum language
The Kele were known for their
drum language, described by the English missionary
John F. Carrington, who spent his life in Africa.
His findings were published in his 1949 book ''The Talking Drums of Africa''.
The Kele people used drum language for rapid communication between villages. Each village had an expert drummer,
and all villagers could understand the drum language.
Carrington studied the drum language at a time when it was already falling out of use, and today it is extinct.
References
{{authority control
Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo