Ngombe woman - First birth tradition (Libota Liboso)

Ngombe, or ''Lingombe'', is a Bantu language spoken by about 150,000 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 ...

. In general, native speakers live on either side of the

Congo river The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

, and its many tributaries; more specifically, Équateur Province,

Mongala District Mongala District (french: District du Mongala, nl, District Mongala) was a district of the Belgian Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It went through various changes in extent. It covered roughly the same area as the present Mongala ...

and in areas neighboring it (Sud Ubangi and Équateur districts). Ngombe is written in

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...

. The deities of the Ngombe include the supreme creator

Akongo Akongo is a Creator God in African mythology. He is worshipped by the Ngombe people of the Congo. ''The Christian faith and non-Christian religions'' explains that Akongo "is not impersonal, like Mana: indeed the people make a clear distinction ...

and the ancestor goddess Mbokomu. Ngombe includes several dialects in addition to Ngombe proper (Ŋgɔmbɛ). These are ''Wiindza-Baali'', ''Doko'' (Dɔkɔ), and ''Binja'' (also rendered ''Binza'', ''Libindja'', or ''Libinja''). The latter is not the same as the Binja/Binza language. Binja dialect is primarily spoken in

Orientale Province Orientale Province ( French: ''Province orientale'', "Eastern province") is one of the former provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its predecessors the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo. It went through a series of boundary ...

and

Aketi Territory Aketi Territory is a territory in the Bas-Uele Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The administrative capital is located at Aketi. The territory borders Bondo Territory to the north, Buta Territory to the east, Basoko Territory t ...

, and shares about three-quarters of its linguistic characteristics with standard Ngombe. Maho (2009) lists Doko as a distinct language in a separate group.

References

Buja-Ngombe languages Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{DRCongo-stub