Nsi Kwilu is a modern
Kikongo
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from th ...
respelling of "''Essiquilu''" the term used by the Italian
Capuchin missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
Girolamo da Montesarchio
The Italian Capuchin Girolamo da Montesarchio spent twenty years in the mid-17th century in the Kingdom of Kongo in West Africa. His manuscript account, ''Viaggio al Congho'', provides modern historians a rich source of information on the region's ...
in 1650 for the territory along the
Kwilu River
The Kwilu River is a major river in the Kwilu Province formerly known as Bandundu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the city of Bandundu, where it joins the Kwango River just before this stream enters the Kasai River. In t ...
near
Matadi
Matadi is the chief sea port of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the capital of the Kongo Central province, adjacent to the border with Angola. It had a population of 245,862 (2004). Matadi is situated on the left bank of the Congo River, ...
in the modern-day
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 Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
.
Jean Cuvelier
Jean Cuvelier (1882–1962) was a Belgian Redemptorist missionary and bishop of Matadi in Belgian Congo from 1930 until his death in 1962. Cuvelier was notable for his interest in the history of the Kingdom of Kongo, which he saw as a route to ev ...
determined this spelling, which means, in Kikongo, "the country of Kwilu". According to Montesarchio, it was in Nsi Kwilu that the first
kings of Kongo reigned before they became the rulers of a great kingdom that controlled the northern part of modern-day
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
in the fifteenth century.
Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Regions of Africa
places
{{DRCongo-geo-stub