Central African ethnicity indicates genetic origins in the countries situated within the region of Central Africa, which is defined in both geographic and cultural terms as comprising the countries situated within the Congo River system: the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as certain countries with which they share historic ties, including Burundi, Gabon, and Rwanda. The region is inhabited primarily by Bantu peoples, subdivided into distinct groups, including the Kongo, Luba, and Mongo ethnic groups among hundreds others. Central African pygmies, also known as African rainforest hunter-gatherers, have an ancient indigenous lineage, presenting an extreme genetic divergence from all other human populations. A sad history of abduction and forced dislocation through the Atlantic slave trade has widely dispersed ethnic Central Africans across the Americas, whose descendants today make up a significant percentage of the population in the Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States.
Central African history
Archeological evidence points to modern human habitation in Central Africa dating back at least 100,000 years. Approximately 10,000 years ago, environmental changes prompted a dramatic economic revolution among the inhabitants of Central Africa. The region became one of the cradles of the world’s agricultural revolution. Advancements in fishing and agricultural methods allowed Central Africans to adopt a non-nomadic lifestyle and develop increasingly complex societies, with distinct architecture, social organization, land law and property rights, and advanced warfare. Advancements in iron and metalworking reached Central Africa around 1,000 B.C.E., invigorating trade between the resource-laden region and East Africa — the gateway into the Indian Ocean world. They traded in salt and textiles in addition to iron.
While the Swahili coast and the Mozambique channel to the east had been integral parts of the Indian Ocean world since antiquity, Central Africa did not come into major contact with non-African peoples before the 15th century. In the 1470s, the Portuguese established sugarcane plantations on the offshore island of São Tomé. Slaves procured to man European estates on São Tomé served as a precursor to the Atlantic slave trade which would develop over the following centuries. Upon the arrival of the Portuguese in the Kingdom of Kongo (in present-day Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the kingdom’s rulers adopted Christianity. Coming deeply under Portuguese sway, the kingdom became a seat of the Atlantic slave trade.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Muslim slave traders began raiding Central Africa to supply markets along the Mediterranean basin and the Arabian peninsula, as well as to the slave ports and factories along the West African coast. By the mid-17th century, the Dutch became increasingly involved in the region to procure forced labor for their nascent American colonies. In the 18th century, the French replaced the Dutch as the leading slave merchants in northern Central Africa. Congolese captives became the dominant population on the island of Saint Domingue, later renamed Haiti, setting down roots for Central African cultural influence in the Caribbean — including the introduction of Bantu vocabulary and personal names to the region.
Capitalizing on the insatiable demand for slaves, the Lunda people managed to form an alliance with Portuguese conquistadors and establish the Lunda Kingdom: the region’s largest merchant empire, brokering the slave trade first exclusively to the Portuguese and later to Dutch, French, and other European merchants. In its peak in the 19th century, the Lunda Kingdom colonized and controlled a vast area extending throughout much of Central Africa. By the 19th century, the abolition movement helped bring an end to the Central African slave trade.
However, the demand for ivory prompted Central African, Swahili, and Arab traders to foray into the region in search of the valuable commodity. The promise of ivory prompted Leopold II, king of the Belgians, to colonize the Congo. The notorious brutality of Belgian rule in the Congo is illustrated in Joseph Conrad’s 1899 classic Heart of Darkness, depicting the voyage of an English seaman up the Congo River. The German Empire had also established colonies in and around the region, but it was France who provided the most significant competition to the Belgians: among others, the French established Brazzaville — today the capital of the Republic of the Congo — and Ubangi-Shari, which later became the diamond-rich Central African Republic.
After less than a century, the colonial period — which saw the systematic extraction of resources from Central African mines and plantations — ended abruptly in 1960. West African nationalists had secured independence from Britain, and it was clear to both France and Belgium that it would be impossible to suppress such sentiments in Central Africa. The independence of the newly-formed Central African states did not lead to the stability and prosperity envisioned by Central African nationalists, however: the legacies of colonialism, as well as increasing embroilment in Cold War politics, have at different times led to the rise of oppressive governments and to the eruption of deadly civil wars. In the 1980s, the Economic Community of Central African States was formed, promoting regional economic co-operation in Central Africa.
Central African culture
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Central African art reflects the influence of powerful Central African kingdoms and empires, both before and during the colonial era. The art of the Kongo people is well known for its unique sculptural styles, namely the nkisi nkondi (“power sculptures”), wooden figurines that symbolize divine power and are believed to provide spiritual guidance and protection. The art of the Luba people, who trace their descent through the female line, places an emphasis on the female form, adorning objects such as headrests, staffs, spears, axes, and bowls. Many groups inhabiting the area stretching from northern Angola to northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo share the artistic tradition of the mukanda masks: crafted out of bark, the masks are primarily used during initiation rites of young boys into manhood.
Having absorbed influences from the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean worlds, Central African cuisine is a mix of both local and foreign culinary traditions. Foods such as fufu (boiled starchy food crops like cassava, yams, or plantains) are common to both Central and Western Africa. Swahili influences can be gleaned in dishes like pilaf (a vegetable rice dish), kachumbari (a fresh tomato and onion salad), and samosa (a fried or baked pastry filling with spiced potatoes, onions, peas, or lentils), while makayaby — the Kikongo term for salt fish — derives from the Portuguese term bacalhau (dried and salted cod).
Central African languages
Bantu people speak any of a variety of Bantu languages, a branch of the broader Niger-Congo language family. The tremendous ethnic variety of Bantu subgroups is reflected in the region’s lingual diversity: The Republic of the Congo is home to 62 recognized languages, the most common languages being Kikongo and Lingala. The Central African Republic comprises 72 languages, while the country’s official languages are French and Sangho (a creole language based on the Northern Ngbandi language). The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to no fewer than 242 distinct languages, the most common being the Kikongo-based Kituba language, Lingala, Tshiluba, and Swahili — all Bantu languages.
Explore more about ethnicity estimates
- MyHeritage DNA
- Ethnicities around the world at MyHeritage
- What Is My Ethnicity? How MyHeritage Estimates Ethnicities at MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Where's My Ethnicity?!: Why An Ethnicity Might Not Show Up In Your DNA (and How To Find Evidence Of It Anyway) at MyHeritage Knowledge Base