Bangala (ethnic group)
Bangala (also Ngala or Mangala ) is a name for the population between the Congo and Ubangi rivers . The ethnic groups Ngombe , Bobangi and Bundja are called Bangala .
The area is the origin of the Lingála language , which has found widespread use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo .
The African explorer Henry Morton Stanley was the first European to visit this area and choose the name. The origin of the term is unclear. Stanley first used the name only for a 16 km long series of settlements on the northern bank of the Congo. Over time, the name was expanded to include residents of the province of Equateur . For a long time research believed in the existence of a Bangala people, but after research in the 1950s this teaching was discarded.
The exaggeration of the term Bangala is related to the spread of the Lingala language. This established itself as the language of trade in the lower Congo in the middle of the 19th century , in the colonial era of the Congo Free State it became the language of the military and was further spread through music and media even after the independence of the Congo.
Despite the artificial term, a Bangala identity developed among the locals.
literature
- Emizet Francois Kisangani, Scott F. Bobb: Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810863251 , pp. 395–396 [1]
- Mumbanza Mwa Bawele: Colonialisme et identité "Bangala" en Afrique centrale. In Society, State, and Identity in African History. African Books Collective, 2008, ISBN 9994450255 , pp. 87-104 [2]
- Crawford Young: The Politics of Cultural Pluralism. Publishing house Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1976, ISBN 0299067440 , pp. 170-173 [3]
