Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Kongo |
KongoNoun1. The Bantu language spoken by the Kongo people living in the tropical forests of Zaire and Congo and Angola. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Kongo" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1913. (references) |
Crosswords: Kongo |
| Etymologies containing "Kongo": okapi. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Kongo" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (Congo, Zaire), Dutch (Congo, Zaïre, Zaire), Esperanto (Congo, Zaire), Finnish (the Congo), German (Congo, Zaire), Serbo-Croatian (congo), Swedish (Congo). |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Kongo Empire was a highly developed state at the center of an extensive trading network. Apart from natural resources and ivory, the country manufactured and traded copperware, raffia cloth, and pottery.
In his travels along the African coast in the 1480s, Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao first encountered stories of a great empire that controlled trade in the region. In 1483, he visited Manikongo Nzinga in his capital, Mbanza, and persuaded the king to open his country to the Portuguese. Catholic missionaries arrived in 1490, and ten years later the Manikongo himself was baptized and assumed the name Afonso. The king also sent his son Afonso to Portugal to be educated, and one of his grandsons later became the first black African bishop in the Catholic Church. The capital city was renamed Sao Salvador.
In the following decades, the Kongo Empire became a major source of slaves for traders from Portugal and other European countries. This began taking its toll on the Empire, and in 1526, the Manikongo wrote to king João of Portugal, imploring him to put a stop to the practice. His plea went unanswered, and relations between the two countries soured. Severely weakened by a loss of manpower and a victim of incursions by other neighboring states, the Kongo Empire went into decline. The Portuguese saw this as an opportunity to increase the number of slaves being taken from the region. Under increasing pressure from without and within, by the late sixteenth century the country had all but ceased to exist. In 1665, the Portuguese defeated the Kongo Empire in war. Nevertheless, the country continued to exist, at least in name, for over two centuries, until the realm was divided among Portugal, Belgium, and France at the Conference of Berlin in 1884-1885.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Kongo."
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Verbetering der voedingsgewassen in Kongo (1959) Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955) Kongo (1932) Het hart van Afrika Kongo (1930) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Japanese Carrier Division Three under attack by Task Force 38 planes, 20 June 1944. The battleship in the lower center is either Haruna or Kongo. The carrier Chiyoda is at right. Photographed from a USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) plane. Credit: NAVY. |  | Photograph printed on a postal card. It was taken between 1925 and 1928. The Japanese language caption in upper left center gives information on the ship's construction, displacement, dimensions and armament. Text in upper right identifies Kongo and Haruna as having this appearance. However, only Kongo had the searchlight platform between the first and second smokestacks, as seen here. See Photo # NH 89176 for an identical view, with very similar Japanese language caption. Credit: NAVY. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Democratic Republic of Congo | The most numerous people are the Kongo, Luba, and Mongo. (references) |
Republic of Congo | Several Bantu kingdoms--notably those of the Kongo, the Loango, and the Teke--built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. (references) | |
Democratic Republic of Congo | Ethnic groups: More than 200 African ethnic groups; Bantu 80% of which Luba (18% of total population), Kongo (16.1%), and Mongo (13.5%) are largest. (references) | |
Minorities | Congo | Within the Kongo group are various subgroups, including the Lari and the Vili. (references) |
Congo | The largest ethnic group is the Kongo, who constitute the main ethnic/linguistic group in the southern part of the country and approximately half the country's population. (references) | |
Congo | There is no majority ethnic group; the four largest ethnic groups are the Mongo, Luba, Kongo, and Angbetu-Azande, who together make up approximately 45 percent of the population. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Language | Translations for "Kongo"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Russian | конго (congo). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-k-n-o-o" | |
-1 letter: gook, goon, nook. | |
-2 letters: goo, nog, noo. | |
-3 letters: go, no, on. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-k-n-o-o" | |
+2 letters: booking, cooking, hooking, looking, rooking. | |
+3 letters: bookings, brooking, cookings, crooking, folksong, kangaroo, kinghood, kingwood, kotowing, snooking, songbook, spooking, stooking. | |
+4 letters: convoking, cuckooing, folksongs, gooseneck, inglenook, kangaroos, kinghoods, kingwoods, kowtowing, noncoking, onlooking, provoking, rebooking, recooking, relooking, skidooing, songbooks, unhooking. | |
+5 letters: bookmaking, goosenecks, groundwork, inglenooks, knighthood, miscooking, nonsmoking, nonworking, outcooking, outrocking, outsmoking, outworking, prebooking, precooking, skiddooing, snookering, toolmaking, topworking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4B 6F 6E 67 6F |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.- --- -. --. --- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001011 01101111 01101110 01100111 01101111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)K o n g o |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004B 006F 006E 0067 006F |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4581807381 |
| Language | Coverage | Language Translations |
Russian | словарь, определение, трансляция, сдвиг, перевод, перемещение | русский |
English | Dictionary, Definition, Translation | английский |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Translations: Modern 8. Anagrams | 9. Orthography 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
