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The Bakongo, or the Kongo people (Kongo: “hunters”〔Bentley, Wm. Holman. ''Pioneering on the Congo''. Fleming H. Revell Co., 1900.〕), also referred to as the Congolese, are a Bantu ethnic group who live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo) to Luanda, Angola. They are primarily defined by the speaking of Kikongo, a common language. They are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Congo. In the late 20th century, the Kongo population was about 10,220,000.〔See José Redinha, ''Etnias e culturas de Angola'', Luanda: Instituto de Investigação Científica de Angola, 1975.〕 ==Name== In the earliest documented ethnonyms of the 17th century, those residing in the Kingdom of Kongo called themselves ''Esikongo'' (singular ''Mwisikongo''); those in the Kingdom of Loango called themselves ''Bavili'' (singular ''Muvili''), and in other parts of the Kikongo-speaking world they had different names as well. Late nineteenth century missionaries sometimes applied the term ''Bafiote'' (singular ''M(a)fiote'') to the group, though it is unclear whether the term was ever used by local people to describe their own identity. Since the early twentieth century, ''Bakongo'' (singular ''M’Kongo'' or ''Mukongo'') has become applied as an ethnonym for all members of the Kikongo-speaking community, or more broadly to speakers of the closely related Kongo languages (a subgroup of the Zone H Bantu languages). The group is identified largely by speaking a cluster of mutually intelligible dialects rather than by large continuities in their history or even in culture. The term “Congo” was more widely deployed to identify Kikongo-speaking people enslaved in the Americas.〔John Thornton, "La nation angolaise en Amérique, son identité en Afrique et en Amérique," ''Les anneaux de la Memoire''2 (2000) 235-49.()"〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kongo people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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