History and Culture of Central Africa

Many early people lived in Central Africa but about 20,000 years ago, new peoples began to migrate to Central Africa from West Africa. They made some kingdoms and one of the most important kingdoms is the Kongo Kingdom. It was located near the Congo River and founded in the 1300s. The Kongo Kingdom is important because the kingdom grew rich by trading animal skins, shells, slaves, and ivory. Europeans wanted the resources such as ivory. They used ivory for many different kinds of things. Like, furniture, jewelry, statues, and piano keys. By trading with Europeans, some African kingdoms became rich. Great African kingdoms and European colonizers have affected a lot to the history of Central Africa. People who lived in Central Africa, they spoke different kinds of languages. They had hundreds of different languages and spoke different dialects, regional varieties. There are many different languages because of the number of ethnic groups. Each ethnic groups had their own language. And there were lot of ethnic groups. The most major religion of Central Africa is Christianity. Then traditional religions, and then lastly, Islam. Europeans introduced Christianity to the Africans. For the Central Africa arts, it is famous for sculpture, carved wooden masks, and beautiful cotton gowns dyed in bright colors. Also, Central Africa is famous of music. As you can see, European colonizers affected the Central Africa's history and culture (a lot).