“Bantu Migration and Settlement” Excerpt in Laman’s Kongo Cultural Collection-gctid41302

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

"Bantu Migration and Settlement,"  in Laman's Kongo Cultural Collection, (20,000 pp. microfilm, Lidingo,  Sweden, 1914. Film No. 1, Cahier XVIII/13), he goes on to state:

"A  long time ago in antiquity, people did not exist in this Lower-Congo;  they come from the north of the country. There also, in the north,  people came from far off north, the very north of Kayinga. Kayinga is  the name of the country [region] where lived our ancestors in  antiquity...There they already knew how to weave the cloths they wore,  forge hoes and knives that they used. The main reason for their coming  in this country [area] was the famine that hit Kayinga. For many years  the drought reigned; crops and fruit trees they planted dried up. They  suffered a lot for this. Unable to support the suffering they said to  each other: "Let's go to Banda-Mputu [Let's pass through the dense  forest, the unbreakable wall] and organize chieftaincies, because we  have a lot of hunger up here." So they agreed: "Let's go."

In the  past, two chieftaincies ruled this part of the world [region]. When  people escaped from the north of Kayinga, they separated on their way;  some crossed the Nzadi [Congo river], these are people who live in the  Nsundi area [the left shore of Nzadi] and others are those who live on  the Simu-Kongo [the right shore of the Nzadi]."

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

I came across this passage years ago and I always took this oral history of Bakongo coming from far to the north  of Kayinga when a drought occurred and everything dried up to be a reference to past civilizations in the Sahara desert. If that is correct, it would mean that this oral history is at least 5,000 years old!!! :a10: :reader:

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

There's a Kayinga in Zambia and another in Chad. The one in Chad more closely fits the description in the oral history as it's north of the now (comparatively) largely dried up Lake Chad in the south of the Sahara desert.

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[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Muna nsinkulu mu Kongo diadi dia banda ka, mwateka kala bantu nkutu ko, kansi ku Kongo dia ntandu kaka batotukila. Kuna ntandu mpe bantu batotukila kina ngudia ntandu a Kayinga. Kayinga i nkumbu a nsi yakala kundanga bakulu muna nsiankulu . . . Bau kibeni bakizayila mu bwanga ngombo zibavwata, fula nsengo ye zimbele zibasadila . . . Bila kia ngizulu au mu nsi yayi, i mu diambu dia nlaema mangolo makala kuna Kayinga. Kanda kiatelama mu minvu miamingi; se mbongo ye minti mibakuna miabadika yuma. Se balungwa beni mu diodio. Mpasi bu zavitidila, buna bavovasana: Bika twendano ku Banda-Mputu twe yala bimfumu, kadi kwaku nzala yingi. Buna batambudila: Ndolono.
Muna nsiankulu bimfumu biole biayala ndambu a nsi yayi. Bantu bu basala tina kuna ntandu a Kayinga, basala vambana, se bankaka basabuka nzadi i bau bavwandanga my simu dibikwanga Nsundi ye bankaka i bau bavwandanga mu simu dibikwanga Simu a Kongo (Babutidi, 1914) —

Original quote and attribution in Digging Up The Past by Ngânga Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau.