History and Culture of Central Africa

European colonists and the West African tribes influenced a lot of Central Africa's history and culture. About 2000 years ago, the tribes from West Africa migrated to Central Africa and built several kingdoms there. The Kongo Kingdom, which was found in the 1300s near the mouth of the Congo River, was the most important of the all the kingdoms. The West traded the resources in the Central Africa such as animal skins, shells, slaves, and ivory and became very rich. Later in the 1400s, European colonists came to the region and desired for the forest products and the resources such as ivory. They also traded with some kingdoms in Central Africa for slaves. The Europeans started to influence the Central Africa. In the late 1800s, Central Africa was divided into colonies among the European countries, who were France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Ignoring the tribes living in Africa, they started dividing the lands and many different ethnic groups were stuck together against their will. Because of the difference they had among the tribes that were lumped together, they had many conflicts, especially when they gained independence after WWII. Some colonies fought bloody wars for independence, and eventually, all the colonies became independent in 1975 when Angola finally won their independence from Portugal. Though they became independent from European powers, the different ethnic groups fought each other.
There are many different ethnic groups with different customs in Central Africa. The people of Central Africa speak different dialects. Most ethnic groups have their own dialect. Also, there are many official languages in Central Africa that are European languages such as English, French, etc. as the European colonists influenced Central Africa. The Europeans had influenced the religions, too. As you can see, outsiders had come to Central Africa and influenced many things.