Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Angola. It is a tonal language. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kongo in the above-named countries. An estimated five million more speakers use it as a second language.[
]
Historically, it was spoken by many of those Africans who for centuries were taken captive, transported across the Atlantic, and sold as slaves in the Americas. For this reason, creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Suriname. It is also one of the sources of the Gullah language, which formed in the Low Country and Sea Islands of the United States Southeast,
Geographic distribution
Kikongo was the language of the Kingdom of Kongo prior to the creation of Angola by the Portuguese Crown in 1575. The Berlin Conference (1884-1885) among major European powers divided the rest of the kingdom into three territories. These are now parts of the DRC (Kongo Central and Bandundu), the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.
Kikongo is the base for the Creole language Kituba language, also called Kikongo de l'État and Kikongo ya Leta (French language and Kituba, respectively, for "Kikongo of the state administration" or "Kikongo of the State").
The constitution of the Republic of the Congo uses the name Kituba,[Foreign Service Institute (U.S.) and Lloyd Balderston Swift, Kituba; Basic Course, Department of State, 1963, p.10][Godefroid Muzalia Kihangu, Bundu dia Kongo, une résurgence des messianismes et de l’alliance des Bakongo?, Universiteit Gent, België, 2011, p. 30]
Kikongo and Kituba are spoken in:
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South of Republic of the Congo:
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Kikongo (Yombe, Vili, Ladi, Sundi, etc.) and Kituba:
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Kikongo (Ladi, Kongo Boko, etc.):
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South-west of Democratic Republic of the Congo:
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Kikongo (Yombe, Ntandu, Ndibu, Manyanga, etc.) and Kikongo ya Leta:
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Kikongo ya Leta:
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North of Angola:
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Kikongo (Kisikongo, Zombo, Ibinda, etc.):
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South-West of Gabon.
Presence in the Americas
Many African slaves transported in the Atlantic slave trade spoke Kikongo. Its influence can be seen in many in the African diaspora, such as:
People
Prior to the Berlin Conference, the people called themselves "Bisi Kongo" (plural) and "Mwisi Kongo" (singular). Today they call themselves "Bakongo" (pl.) and "Mukongo" (sing.).[Wyatt MacGaffey, Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular, Indiana University Press, 2000, p.62]
Writing
Kongo was the earliest Bantu languages language to be written in Latin characters. Portuguese created a dictionary in Kongo, the first of any Bantu language. A catechism was produced under the authority of Diogo Gomes, who was born in 1557 in Kongo to Portugal parents and became a Jesuit priest. No version of that survives today.
In 1624, Mateus Cardoso, another Portuguese Jesuit, edited and published a Kongo translation of the Portuguese catechism compiled by Marcos Jorge. The preface says that the translation was done by Kongo teachers from São Salvador (modern Mbanza-Kongo) and was probably partially the work of Félix do Espírito Santo (also a Kongo).[François Bontinck and D. Ndembi Nsasi, Le catéchisme kikongo de 1624. Reeédtion critique (Brussels, 1978)]
The dictionary was written in about 1648 for the use of Capuchin missionaries. The principal author was Manuel Robredo, a secular priest from Kongo (after he became a Capuchin, he was named Francisco de São Salvador). The back of this dictionary includes a two-page sermon written in Kongo. The dictionary has some 10,000 words.
In the 1780s, French Catholic missionaries to the Loango coast created additional dictionaries. Bernardo da Canecattim published a word list in 1805.
Baptist missionaries who arrived in Kongo in 1879 (from Great Britain) developed a modern orthography of the language.
American missionary W. Holman Bentley arranged for his Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language to be published by the University of Michigan in 1887. In the preface, Bentley gave credit to Nlemvo, an African, for his assistance. He described "the methods he used to compile the dictionary, which included sorting and correcting 25,000 slips of paper containing words and their definitions."
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Fiote.
Standardisation
The work of English, Swedish and other missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries, in collaboration with Kongo linguists and evangelists such as Ndo Nzuawu Nlemvo (or Ndo Nzwawu Nlemvo; Dom João in Portuguese) and Miguel NeKaka, marked the standardisation of Kikongo.[William Holman Bentley, Dictionary and grammar of the Kongo language as spoken at San Salvador, the ancient capital of the old Kongo Empire, Baptist Missionary Society, The University of Michigan, 1887][Karl Edvard Laman, Nkanda wa bilekwa bianza uzayulwanga mpangulu ye nkadulu au, Svenska missionsförbundet, S.M.S., Matadi, 1899][Karl Edvard Laman, Dictionnaire kikongo-français, avec une étude phonétique décrivant les dialectes les plus importants de la langue dite Kikongo, bruxelles : Librairie Falk fils, 1936]
Linguistic classification
Kikongo belongs to the Bantu language family.
According to Malcolm Guthrie, Kikongo is in the language group H10, the Kongo languages. Other languages in the same group include Bembe (H11). Ethnologue 16 counts Ndingi (H14) and Mboka (H15) as dialects of Kongo, though it acknowledges they may be distinct languages.
Bastin, Coupez and Man's classification of the language (as Tervuren) is more recent and precise than that of Guthrie on Kikongo. The former say the language has the following dialects:
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Kikongo group H16
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Southern Kikongo H16a
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Central Kikongo H16b
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Yombe (also called Kiyombe) H16c
[Maho 2009]
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Fiote H16d
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Western Kikongo H16d
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Bwende H16e
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Ladi (Lari) H16f
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Eastern Kikongo H16g
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Southeastern Kikongo H16h
NB:[Jasper DE KIND , Sebastian DOM, Gilles-Maurice DE SCHRYVER et Koen BOSTOEN, Fronted-infinitive constructions in Kikongo (Bantu H16): verb focus, progressive aspect and future, KongoKing Research Group, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2013][Koen Bostoen et Inge Brinkman, The Kongo Kingdom: The Origins, Dynamics and Cosmopolitan Culture of an African Polity, Cambridge University Press, 2018][Raphaël Batsîkama Ba Mampuya Ma Ndâwla, L'ancien royaume du Congo et les Bakongo, séquences d'histoire populaire, L'harmattan, 2000] Kisikongo is not the protolanguage of the Kongo language cluster. Not all varieties of Kikongo are mutually intelligible (for example, 1. Civili is better understood by Kiyombe- and Iwoyo-speakers than by Kisikongo- or Kimanianga-speakers; 2. Kimanianga is better understood by Kikongo of Boko and Kintandu-speakers than by Civili or Iwoyo-speakers).
Phonology
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The phoneme can occur, but is rarely used.
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May also be heard as a nasal sound.
There is contrastive vowel length. /m/ and /n/ also have syllabic variants, which contrast with prenasalized consonants.
Grammar
Noun classes
Kikongo has a system of 18 noun classes in which nouns are classified according to noun prefixes. Most of the classes go in pairs (singular and plural) except for the locative and infinitive classes which do not admit plurals.[Amélia Arlete MINGAS, ETUDE GRAMMATICALE DE L'IWOYO (ANGOLA), UNIVERSITE RENE DESCARTES PARIS - UFR DE LINGUISTIQUE GENERALE ET APPLIQUEE, 1994 (in French)][Luntadila Nlandu Inocente, Nominalisations en kìsìkongò (H16): Les substantifs predicatifs et les verbes-supports Vánga, Sála, Sá et Tá (faire), Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 2015 (in French)][Elise Solange Bagamboula, Les classificateurs BU (CL. 14), GA (CL. 16), KU (CL. 17) et MU (CL. 18) dans l’expression de la localisation en kikongo (lari), Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), 2019 (in French)][Audrey Mariette TELE-PEMBA, Eléments pour une approche comparée des emprunts lexicaux du civili du Gabon, du Congo-Brazzaville et du Cabinda : proposition d’ un modèle de dictionnaire, UNIVERSITE OMAR BONGO – Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines – Département des Sciences du Langage, Libreville, 2009 (in French)][R. P. L. DE CLERCQ, Grammaire du Kiyombe , Edition Goemaere – Bruxelles – Kinshasa, 1907 (in French)][Léon Dereau, COURS DE KIKONGO, Maison d’éditions AD. WESMAEL-CHARLIER, Namur, 1955 (in French)][François Lumwamu, Sur les classes nominales et le nombre dans une langue bantu, Cahiers d’Études africaines, 1970 (in French)][Joaquim Mbachi, CAMINHOS DA GRAMÁTICA IBINDA, Cabinda (Angola), 2013 (in Portuguese)][Robert Tinou, Abécédaire du kouilou zaab’ ku tub’ tchi vili, L’HARMATTAN, 2015 (in French)][Filipe Camilo Miaca, Corpus lexical dos verbos em iwoyo e português, proposta de um dicionário bilingue de verbos em português e iwoyo, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2020 (in Portuguese)][Guy Noël Kouarata, DICTIONNAIRE BEEMBE–FRANÇAIS, SIL-Congo, 2010 (in French)][Raharimanantsoa Ruth, Petit guide d’orthographe et de grammaire KUNYI (KUNI), SIL-Congo, 2022 (in French)][Emmanuel Ngizulu Nsemi, Longoka Kikongo, Paari éditeur, 2025][JOSÉ LOURENÇO TAVARES, Gramática da língua do Congo (kikongo) (dialecto kisolongo), Composto e Impresso nas oficinas da Imprensa, Nacional de Angola, 1915 (in Portuguese)]
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| muntu/muuntu/mutu/muutu (person, human) |
| bantu/baantu/batu/baatu/wantu/antu (people, humans,) |
| muti/nti (tree), nlangu (water) |
| miti/minti/inti (trees), milangu/minlangu (waters) |
| didezo/lideso/lidezu/didezu (bean) |
| madezo/medeso/madeso/madezu (beans), maza/maamba/mamba/maampa/masi/masa (water) |
| kikongo/cikongo/tsikongo/ikongo (kongo language), kikuku/cikuuku/tsikûku (kitchen) |
| bikuku/bikuuku/bikûku (kitchens) |
| nzo/nso (house), ngulu (pig) |
| si nzo/zi nzo/zinzo/tsi nso (houses), si ngulu/zi ngulu/zingulu (pigs) |
| lulendo (pride), lupangu/lupaangu (plot of land) |
| tupangu/tupaangu (plots of land) |
| bumolo/bubolo (laziness) |
| kutuba/kutub'/utuba (to speak), kutanga/kutaangë/utanga (to read) |
| kulu (foot), koko/kooko (hand) |
| malu (feet), moko/mooko (hands) |
| miooko/mioko(hands) |
| va nzo (near the house), fa (on, over), ga/ha (on), va (on) |
| ku vata (in the village), kuna (over there) |
| mu nzo (in the house) |
| fi nzo (small house), fi nuni (nestling, fledgling, little bird), mua (or mwa) nuni (nestling, fledgling, little bird) |
NB: Noun prefixes may or may not change from one Kikongo variant to another (e.g. class 7: the noun prefix ci is used in civili, iwoyo or ciladi (lari) and the noun prefix ki is used in kisikongo, kiyombe, kizombo, kimanianga,...).
Conjugation
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!Personal pronouns
!Translation |
| Mono | I |
| Ngeye | You |
| Yandi | He or she |
| Kima | It (for an object / an animal / a thing, examples: a table, a knife,...) |
| Yeto / Beto | We |
| Yeno / Beno | You |
| Yawu / Bawu (or Bau) | They |
| Bima | They (for objects / animals / things, examples: tables, knives,...) |
NB: Not all variants of Kikongo have completely the same personal pronouns and when conjugating verbs, the personal pronouns become stressed pronouns (see below and/or the references posted).
Conjugating the verb ( mpanga in Kikongo) to be ( kukala or kuba; also kuena, kwena or kuwena in Kikongo) in the present:
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| (Mono) ngiena / Mono ngina | (Me), I am |
| (Ngeye) wena / Ngeye wina / wuna / una | (You), you are |
| (Yandi) wena / Yandi kena / wuna / una | (Him / Her), he or she is |
| (Kima) kiena | (It), it is (for an object / an animal / a thing, examples: a table, a knife,...) |
| (Beto) tuena / Yeto tuina / tuna | (Us), we are |
| (Beno) luena / Yeno luina / luna | (You), you are |
| (Bawu) bena / Yawu bena | (Them), they are |
| (Bima) biena | (Them), they are (for objects / animals / things, examples: tables, knives,...) |
Conjugating the verb ( mpanga in Kikongo) to have ( kuvua in Kikongo; also kuba na or kukala ye) in the present :
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| (Mono) mvuidi | (Me), I have |
| (Ngeye) vuidi | (You), you have |
| (Yandi) vuidi | (Him / Her), he or she has |
| (Beto) tuvuidi | (Us), we have |
| (Beno) luvuidi | (You), you have |
| (Bawu) bavuidi | (Them), they have |
NB: In Kikongo, the conjugation of a tense to different persons is done by changing verbal prefixes (highlighted in bold). These verbal prefixes are also personal pronouns. However, not all variants of Kikongo have completely the same verbal prefixes and the same verbs (cf. the references posted). The ksludotique site uses several variants of Kikongo (kimanianga,...).
Vocabulary
|
| hello, good morning |
| malafu, malavu | alcoholic drink |
| diamba | hemp |
| binkutu, binkuti | clothes |
| soil, floor, ground, Earth |
| country, province, region |
| village |
| villages |
| house |
| sky, top, above |
| water |
| fire |
| leaves (example : hemp leaves) |
| man, husband |
| woman |
| mukazi, nkazi, nkasi, mukasi | spouse (wife) |
| mulumi, nlumi, nnuni | spouse (husband) |
| muana (or mwana) ndumba, ndumba | young girl, single young woman |
nkumbu / zina / li zina / dizina / ligina [The family name and first name were not part of the Kongo culture, meaning the Kongo people gave the children a name based on the circumstances surrounding their birth, significant events, etc. The rule of giving a surname, a first name and a middle name to the children was introduced by the Westerners (Portuguese, French and Belgians).] | name |
| to eat |
| to drink |
| big |
| small |
| night |
| day |
| to cough |
| to give |
| love |
| love, will |
| to read |
| to write |
| to say, to speak, to talk, to tell |
| kuzola, kutsola, kutsolo, kuzolo, uzola | to love |
| time, sun, hour |
| to laugh |
| god |
| the respect |
| the death |
| i love you |
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!Days of the week in English
!Kisikongo and Kizombo
!Congolese Yombe
!Ladi (Lari)
!Vili[Old version of the days of week in Vili: Ntoonu (Monday), Nsilu (Tuesday), Nkoyo (Wednesday), Bukonzo (Thursday), Mpika (Friday), Nduka (Saturday), Sona (Sunday).]
!Ibinda
!Ntandu
!Kisingombe and Kimanianga |
| Monday | Kyamosi | Un'tône | Buduka / Nsila | Un'tône | Tchikunda | Kintete | Kiamonde / Kiantete |
| Tuesday | Kyazole | N'silu | Nkênge | N'silu | Tchimuali / Tchimwali | Kinzole | Kianzole |
| Wednesday | Kyatatu | Un'duka | Mpika | Un'duk' | Tchintatu | Kintatu | Kiantatu |
| Thursday | Kyaya | N'sone | Nkôyi | N'sone | Tchinna | Kinya | Kianya |
| Friday | Kyatanu | Bukonzu | Bukônzo | Bukonz' | Tchintanu | Kintanu | Kiantanu |
| Saturday | Kyasabala | Sab'l | Saba / Sabala | Sab'l | Tchisabala | Sabala | Kiasabala |
| Sunday | Kyalumingu | Lumingu | Lumîngu / Nsona | Lumingu | Tchilumingu | Lumingu | Kialumingu |
|
|
| Mueka / Tchimueka |
| Wali |
| Tatu |
| Na |
| Tanu |
| Sambanu |
| Sambuali (Sambwali) |
| Nana |
| Vua (Vwa) |
| Kumi |
English words of Kongo origin
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The southern Black American English word "goober" comes from Kongo nguba, meaning "peanut".
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The southern Black American English word "Mfinda", from the Hoodoo tradition, comes from the Kongo word mfinda, meaning "the great forest."
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The southern Black American English word "mojo", from the Hoodoo tradition, comes from the Kongo word mooyo, meaning "to the spirits that dwelt within magical charms."
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The Black American popular music terms "funk" and "funky" may be from the Kongo word lu-fuki.
[Farris Thompson, in his work Flash Of The Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy]
Spanish words of Kongo origin
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The name of the Cuban dance mambo comes from a Bantu word meaning "conversation with the gods".
In popular culture
The roller coaster Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida gets its name from the Kongo word for "roar".
Sample text
According to Filomão CUBOLA, article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Fiote translates to:
- Bizingi bioso bisiwu ti batu bambutukanga mu kidedi ki buzitu ayi kibumswa. Bizingi-bene, batu, badi diela ayi tsi-ntima, bafwene kuzingila mbatzi-na-mbatzi-yandi mu mtima bukhomba.
- "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Literature
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Mgr. Jean Cuvelier, Nkutama a mvila za Makanda, Impr. Mission Catholique, 1934
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A. Fu-kiau kia Bunseki-Lumanisa, N'Kongo Ye Nza Yakun'zungidila : Nza-Kôngo, Office National de la Recherche et de Développement, Kinshasa, 1969 (Réimpression 2021, Paari éditeur).
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Fernando Ndombele Kidima Tadi, Malongi ma mpila mu mpila muna ndinga kikongo, Mayamba, 2023.
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Rodrigue Tchamna and Imanuel Kimbuala Hemsey, Wasala wûnu, si kadia mbazi. Wavuata kimôlo wûnu, si kalaba mbazi, Cameroun BD, 2019.
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Jussie Nsana and Armel Bemba, M'tekolo, Nsana-Arts Bustiele and Ecole Les Bourgeons, 2020.
External links
Kongo learning materials
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(1955) (French and Kongo language) par Léon DEREAU. Maison d'éditions AD. WESMAEL-CHARLIER, Namur; 117 pages.
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(1964) Eengenhoven - Louvain. Grammaire et Vocabulaire. 62 pages.
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(1960) par A. Coene, Imprimerie Mission Catholique Tumba. 102 pages.
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(1957) par Léon DEREAU, d'après le dictionnaire de K. E. LAMAN. Maison d'éditions AD. WESMAEL-CHARLIER, Namur. 60 pages.
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Kongo language course : a course in the dialect of Zoombo, northern Angola = Maloòngi makíkoongo (1987) by Carter, Hazel and João Makoondekwa. Madison, WI : African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin—Madison.
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Nominalisations en Kisikóngó (H16): les substantifs prédicatifs et les verbes-supports vánga, sala, sá et tá (faire) (2015). Luntadila Nlandu Inocente.
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par R. P. L. DE CLERCQ. Edition Goemaere - Bruxelles - Kinshasa. 47 pages
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, (1934) par J. CUVELIER, Vic. Apostlique de Matadi. 56 pages (L'auteur est en réalité Mwene Petelo BOKA, Catechiste redemptoriste à Vungu, originaire de Kionzo.)
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Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language (1886) Bentley, William Holman. 718 pages.
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Learn basic Kikongo (Mofeko) Omotola Akindipe and Moisés Kudimuena.
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Leçons de kikongo (kintandu) par des Bakongo. (1964) Eegenhoven - Louvain. 61 pages or Leçons de kintandu par des Bakongo. (1964) Eegenhoven - Louvain. 61 pages
