Middle Africa (1396–1539 CE): Equatorial Forests, River Corridors, and Atlantic Horizons

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola.Anchors include the Congo River basin and its tributaries (Ubangi, Kasai), the Gulf of Guinea islands (São Tomé, Príncipe), the Atlantic mangrove–estuary belt, the Cameroon Highlands, and the northern savanna–Sahel fringetoward Lake Chad. This is a world where dense evergreen forests yield to mosaics of woodland, floodplain, and savanna, threaded by some of Earth’s most voluminous rivers.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age introduced modest cooling and shifts in rainfall seasonality. Equatorial belts retained high annual precipitation, but interannual variability—longer dry seasons in some decades, intensified rains in others—reshaped farming calendars and fish runs. Along the Atlantic coast, estuaries and mangroves buffered storm surges; inland, floodplains rose and fell with the Congo’s pulse, redistributing soils and fisheries.

Subsistence & Settlement

Households combined shifting cultivation (sorghum, pearl millet on northern fringes; plantain, yam, taro, and bananas in forest belts) with cassava’s gradual spread (accelerating later, but present in pockets by this era), plus oil palm, legumes, gourds, and leafy greens. Riverine and lacustrine fisheries furnished key protein; forest hunting and gathering (duiker, bushpig, wild fruits, kola, honey) remained integral. Settlement patterns ranged from riverside towns and hill-foot villages to dispersed hamlets along canoe routes and forest paths. In the far north, Lake Chad basincommunities practiced flood-recession farming and herding.

Technology & Material Culture

Ironworking thrived: hoes, axes, knives, and spearheads supplied farms and hunting; blacksmiths held ritual esteem. Canoe carpentry produced long dugouts for river trade; basketry and pottery stored grain and palm oil. In forest polities, raffia textiles, barkcloth, and beadwork marked status. Copper and salt circulated from regional sources; carved ivories and wood sculpture expressed courtly and ritual aesthetics. Early coastal contacts brought small quantities of European cloth and metal goods by the early 16th century, but inland systems remained largely endogenous.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

The Congo–Kasai–Ubangi waterways were the great arteries, moving palm oil, salt, fish, smoked meat, raffia cloth, and ironware among river towns. Overland paths crossed the Mayombe and Plateaux Batéké, linking forest and savanna markets. To the north, caravan paths brushed the Sahel–Lake Chad edge, exchanging salt, kola, and textiles. From the late 15th century, Atlantic corridors opened: Portuguese ships probed the Kongo–Angola littoral, touching São Tomé and Príncipe (colonized as sugar and way-stations) and forging ties with coastal polities near the Congo estuary and Angola.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Political authority ranged from acephalous village federations to centralized courts. Along the lower Congo, the Kingdom of Kongo—a regional power by the late 15th century—projected influence through provincial lineages, tribute, and ritual kingship. Across forest belts, initiation societies structured life stages; masked dances, ancestor shrines, and sacred groves anchored moral order. Praise poetry and drum speech memorialized rulers and genealogies; sculptural arts (ivory, wood) encoded sovereignty and cosmology. Northward, Sahel–savanna Islam brushed Middle Africa’s margins via traders and scholars, without displacing local ritual life.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Farming systems hedged risk through multicropping, staggered planting, and field rotation; fallow cycles regenerated soils. Floodplain agriculture followed river pulses; smoked fish and dried grains bridged hungry seasons. Forest households balanced gardens with foraging and hunting, guided by ritual taboos that conserved keystone species. In drier zones, mobile herding and dry-season wells buffered drought. Trade networks redistributed surpluses after crop failure, while kinship and initiation societies mobilized labor for clearing, house-building, and canal/landing-site upkeep.

Transition

By 1539 CE, Middle Africa was interlaced by river trade and forest pathways, with Kongo ascendant on the lower river and Atlantic contact growing at coastal nodes and on São Tomé and Príncipe. Inland subsistence systems remained resilient and diverse; courtly and village religions flourished; blacksmiths, canoe builders, and ritual specialists sustained everyday life. The next age would tighten the Atlantic hinge—sugar, Christianity at Kongo’s court, and an accelerating slave trade—reshaping corridors that had long run with the current of the Congo.

Khoi and San hunter-gatherers are the earliest known modern human inhabitants of the area of present Angola and northern Namibia.

They are largely absorbed or replaced by Bantu peoples during the Bantu migrations, though small numbers remain in parts of southern Angola to the present day.

The Bantu come from the north, probably from somewhere near the present-day Republic of Cameroon.

During this time, the Bantu establish a number of political units ("kingdoms", "empires") in most parts of what today is Angola.

The best known of these is the Kingdom of the Kongo that has its center in the northwest of contemporary Angola, but includes important regions in the west of present-day Democratic Republic and Republic of Congo and in southern Gabon.

It establishes trade routes with other trading cities and civilizations up and down the coast of southwestern and West Africa and even with …

…the Great Zimbabwe Mutapa Empire, but engages in little or no transoceanic trade.

To its south lies …

…the Kingdom of Ndongo, from which the area of the later Portuguese colony will sometimes be known as Dongo.

Middle Africa (1540–1683 CE): River Worlds, Atlantic Sugar, and Wars of Enslavement

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola.Anchors include the Congo–Kasai–Ubangi river system and floodplains, the Gulf of Guinea islands (São Tomé, Príncipe), the Atlantic mangrove–estuary belt (Cameroon–Gabon), the Mayombe and Plateaux Batéké uplands, the Cameroon Highlands, and the northern savanna fringe toward Lake Chad. Coastal enclaves linked river mouths to Atlantic shipping; inland, long dugout routes knitted forests and savannas.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age persisted with modest cooling and altered rainfall seasonality. Equatorial belts stayed wet but saw longer dry spells in some decades and heavier peak rains in others, shifting planting calendars and fish migrations. Along the lower Congo and coastal estuaries, storm surges and high‐flow years reworked bars and channels; interior floodplains rose and fell with amplified river pulses, redistributing fertile silt—and risk.

Subsistence & Settlement

Forest and riverine economies diversified and intensified. Multicropped gardens—plantain/banana, yam, taro, oil palm, groundnuts, and fast‐spreading cassava (more entrenched after mid-16th century)—anchored household food security. Floodplain rice and sorghum expanded on northern fringes; fisheries (smoked/dried) were critical protein stores. Hunting and gathering (duiker, bushpig, honey, wild fruits, kola) remained vital. On São Tomé and Príncipe, 16th-century sugar estates (enslaved labor) peaked, then waned as Brazil rose; cacao and provisions supported island subsistence. Settlements ranged from riverbank towns and hill‐foot clusters to dispersed hamlets along canoe landings and caravan paths.

Technology & Material Culture

Ironworking supplied axes, hoes, knives, spearheads; blacksmiths retained ritual standing. Canoe carpentry produced high-freeboard dugouts for rough reaches; basketry and pottery stored grain and palm oil. Courtly centers commissioned raffia textiles, carved ivories and woods, copper/brass regalia, and body adornments. Firearms and powder—imported via the coast—entered inland markets, selectively augmenting traditional arms. Mission workshops at coastal courts introduced new liturgical objects, writing tables, and dress, while local artisans adapted them into established aesthetic repertoires.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

The Congo–Kasai–Ubangi remained the great arterial network for palm oil, salt, smoked fish, raffia cloth, ivory, copper, and captives. Portages over the Livingstone Falls and upland paths across the Mayombe linked interior markets to estuaries. Northward paths brushed the Lake Chad zone for salt–kola exchange. From mid-16th century, Atlantic corridors tightened: Portuguese forts and trading posts along the Kongo–Angola littoral and São Tomé/Príncipe fed sugar, ivory, and a rapidly growing trade in enslaved people toward Brazil, the Caribbean, and Iberia. In the 1640s, the Dutch West India Company briefly seized Luanda (1641–1648), rechanneling Atlantic flows before Portuguese reconquest.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Along the lower river, the Kingdom of Kongo patronized Christian missions while sustaining ancestral rites; Kongo elites adopted baptismal names and court liturgy, yet funerary arts, nkisi power figures, and ancestor shrines persisted. In the south, Ndongo and neighboring polities balanced royal cults with new diplomatic-religious idioms. Court poetry, praise-drumming, and drum speech celebrated lineages and victories; masked initiations ordered life stages across forest regions. On São Tomé/Príncipe, Catholic feast cycles coexisted with African ritual continuities among enslaved communities, generating creolized devotions.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

Firearms, cavalry (where terrain allowed), mercenary bands, and fortified capitals redefined conflict. The Kongo–Portugal relationship oscillated between alliance and war (notably Mbwila, 1665, where the Kongo king fell). In the south, Queen Njinga (Nzinga) of Ndongo–Matamba (r. 1624–1663) forged shifting coalitions with Imbangala companies, Iberians, and Dutch to defend sovereignty and control trade routes. Coastal brokers leveraged forts and shipping calendars; inland chiefs monetized war captives. The slave trade’s profitability deepened raid–tribute–marketfeedback loops, drawing ever wider hinterlands into violence.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Households hedged risk via multicropping (cassava as drought/famine reserve), staggered planting, and smoked/dried fish stores. Floodplain cultivators tracked river pulses; forest farmers rotated fields with longer fallows where possible. Ritual taboos protected key groves and species; initiation societies mobilized labor for clearing, canoe repair, and landing maintenance. Island plantations buffered shortfalls with provisions gardens and inter‐island supply; when sugar booms shifted to Brazil, island economies pivoted to foodstuffs, timber, and shipping services.

Transition

By 1683 CE, Middle Africa was a river-and-Atlantic hinge. The Kingdom of Kongo remained culturally eminent but politically strained; Ndongo/Matamba had proven statecraft under Queen Njinga; Loango and other coastal polities mediated seaboard trade. São Tomé and Príncipe’s sugar phase had crested, even as Luanda anchored an expanding Angolan slave corridor. Inland subsistence systems still fed dense populations, but firearms, mercenary bands, and Atlantic demand had redrawn the map of power—setting the stage for deeper integration into the early modern Atlantic world and its brutal economies.

The Portuguese impose a peace treaty on the Bakongo.

Its conditions, however, are so harsh that peace is never really achieved, and hostilities grow during the 1660s.

The Portuguese victory over the Bakongo at the Battle of Mbwila (also spelled Ambuila) on October 29, 1665, marks the end of the Kongo Kingdom as a unified power.

The Ndongo Kingdom suffers a fate similar to that of Kongo.

Before the Dutch capture Luanda in 1641, the Portuguese had attempted to control Ndongo by supporting a pliant king, and during the Dutch occupation, Ndongo had remained loyal to Portugal , but after the retaking of Luanda in 1648, the ngola judges that the Portuguese have not sufficientiy rewarded the kingdom for its allegiance.

Consequentiy, he reasserts Ndongo independence, an act that angers the colonists.

In 1671 Ndongo intransigence prompts a Portuguese attack and siege on the capital of Pungu-a-Ndondong (present-day Pungo Andongo).

The attackers kill the ngola, enslave many of his followers, and build a fort on the site of the capital.

Thus, the Ndongo Kingdom, which has enjoyed only semi-independent status, now surrenders entirely to Portugal.

Two inland Mbundu states—Matamba and Kasanje—prosper as Portugal becomes preoccupied with the Ndongo Kingdom as a source of slaves.

Little is known of Matamba before the seventeenth century, but in 1621 Nzinga (called Jinga by the Portuguese), the sister of the ngola a kiluanje,  persuades the Portuguese to recognize Ndongo as an independent monarchy and to help the kingdom expel the Imbangala people from its territory.

Three years later, according to some sources, Nzinga poisons her brother and succeeds him as monarch.

Unable to negotiate successfully with a series of Portuguese governors, however, she is eventually removed.

Nzinga and many of her followers travel east and forged alliances with several groups.

She finally ascends to the throne of the Matamba Kingdom.

From this eastern state, she pursues good relations with the Dutch during their occupation of the area from 1641 to 1648 and attempts to reconquer Ndongo.

After the Dutch expulsion, Nzinga again allies with the Portuguese.

A dynamic and wily ruler, Nzinga dominates Mbundu politics until she dies in 1663.

Although she dealt with the Europeans, in modern times Nzinga has been remembered by nationalists as an Angolan leader who never accepted Portuguese sovereignty.

After Nzinga's death, a succession struggle ensues, and the new ruler tries to reduce Portuguese influence.

Following their practice with the Ndongo, the Portuguese force him out and place their own candidate, Kanini, on the throne.

Kanini covets the nearby kingdom of Kasanje—peopled by Mbundu but ruled by Imbangala—for its role in the slave trade.

Once he has consolidated power, in 1680 Kanini successfully moves against Kasanje, which is undergoing a succession crisis of its own.

Kanini's defeat of the Kasanje state madkes his Portuguese benefactors realize that as his empire expands, Kanini is increasingly threatening their own slaving interests.

Subsequently, Kanini defeats a Portuguese military expedition sent against him, although he dies soon after.

In 1683 Portugal negotiates with the new Matamba queen to halt further attempts to conquer Kasanje territory and, because of mounting competition from other European powers, persuades her to trade exclusively with Portugal.

Spain's enemies subject the Portuguese colonies to attacks during the first half of the 1600s when Portugal, at the insistence of Spain, becomes involved in a succession of European religious and dynastic wars.

Holland, one of Spain's most potent enemies, raids and harasses the Portuguese territories in Angola.

The Dutch also begin pursuing alliances with Africans, including the king of Kongo and Nzinga of Matamba, who, angered by their treatment at the hands of the Portuguese, welcome the opportunity to deal with another European power.

When Portugal rebels against Spain in 1640, the kingdom hopes to establish good relations with the Dutch.

Instead, the Dutch see an opportunity to expand their own colonial holdings and in 1641 capture  Luanda and Benguela, forcing the Portuguese governor to flee with his fellow refugees inland to Massangano.

The Portuguese are unable to dislodge the Dutch from their coastal beachhead.

As the Dutch occupation cuts off the supply of slaves to Brazil, that colony's economy suffers.

In response, Brazilian colonists raise money and organize forces to launch an expedition aimed at unseating the Dutch from Angola.

In May 1648, the Dutch garrison in Luanda surrenders to the Brazilian detachment, and the Dutch eventually relinquish their other Angolan conquests.

According to some historians, after the retaking of Luanda, Angola becomes a de facto colony of Brazil, so driven is the South American colony's sugar-growing economy by its need for slaves.

Diogo Cão, shortly after making his initial contact with the Kongo Kingdom of northern Angola in 1483, had established links farther south with Ndongo—an African state less advanced than Kongo that is made up of Kimbundu-speaking people.

Their ruler, who is tributary to the manikongo, is called the ngola a kiluanje.

It is the first part of the title, its pronunciation changed to "Angola," by which the Portuguese refer  to the entire area.

Throughout most of the sixteenth century, Portugal's relations with Ndongo are overshadowed by its dealings with Kongo.

Some historians, citing the disruptions the Portuguese caused in Kongo society, believe that Ndongo benefited from the lack of Portuguese interest.

It is not until after the founding of Luanda in 1576 that Portugal's exploration into the area of present-day Angola rivals its trade and commerce in Kongo.

Furthermore, it is only in the early seventeenth century that the importance of the colony Portugal has established comes to exceed that of Kongo.

Although officially ignored by Lisbon, the Angolan colony is the center of disputes, usually concerning the slave trade, between local Portuguese traders and the Mbundu people, who inhabit Ndongo, but by mid-century, the favorable attention the ngola receives from Portuguese trade or missionary groups angers the manikongo, who in 1556 sends an army against the Ndongo Kingdom.

The forces of the ngola defeat the Kongo army, encouraging him to declare his independence from Kongo and appeal to Portugal for military support.

In 1560 Lisbon responds by sending an expedition to Angola, but in the interim the ngola who had requested Portuguese support had died, and his successor takes captive four members of the expedition.

After the hostage taking, Lisbon routinely employs military force in dealing with the Ndongo Kingdom.

This results in a major eastward migration of Mbundu people and the subsequent establishment of other kingdoms.

Following the founding of Luanda, Paulo Dias carries out a series of bloody military campaigns that contribute to Ndongo resentment of Europeans.

Dias founds several forts east of Luanda, but—indicative of Portugal's declining status as a world power—he is unable to gain firm control of the land around them.

Dias dies in 1579 without having conquered the Ndongo Kingdom.

Dias's successors make slow progress up the Cuanza River, meeting constant African resistance.

By 1604 they reach Cambambe, where they learn that the presumed silver mines do not exist.

The failure of the Portuguese to find mineral wealth changes their outlook on the Angolan colony.

Slave taking, which had been incidental to the quest for the mines, now becomes the major economic motivation for expansion and extension of Portuguese authority.

In search of slaves, the Portuguese push farther into Ndongo country, establishing a fort a short distance from Massangano, itself about one hundred and seventy-five kilometers east of Angola's Atlantic coast.

The consequent fighting with the Ndongo generates a stream of slaves who are shipped to the coast.

Following a period of Ndongo diplomatic initiatives toward Lisbon in the 1620s, relations degenerate into a state of war.