1000 BC to 1389

Forest and river peoples

The Mbuti, Twa and other forest peoples are among the oldest inhabitants of the Congo rainforest. Over roughly the last three thousand years, Bantu-speaking farmers spread along the rivers of the basin, later working iron and copper. In the Upemba depression of Katanga, rich graves at Sanga show a flourishing culture around a thousand years ago, ancestor of the later Luba kingdom.