Country: Angola

Group: Kongo/Bakongo

Date: 09/21/2022

Name: Natasha Chandra (lead), Lacey Hurst, Isabella Boker, James Driscoll, Jocelyn Chen, and Hannah Lux

Content Warnings: discrimination, slavery, forced labor, kidnapping, sexual violence, violence

Approximate Time Period: 1482-present

The Kongo speak the language Kikongo and are the third largest ethnic group in Angola (Refworld, 2000). Prior to Portuguese occupation of Angolan territory, the Kongo kingdom was the most dominant kingdom of the region (Minority Rights Group 2015). Over the course of several centuries, the Portuguese kidnapped and exported many Kongo, often exploiting instabilities and civil wars between local kingdoms and empires (South African History Online, 2016; Britannica, n.d.). From the 1700s, the Kingdom of Kongo depended on slave labor and armies to maintain control (South African History Online, 2016).

The Portuguese continued forced labor practices well into the 1960s, regularly rounding up Angolans through violence and intimidation into work regiments for extraction of ivory, rubber and minerals as well as other colonial projects (Ignatius, 1972; Africa Museum, 2015; South African History Online, 2016).

Today, children in Angola are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking (Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2020). In 2020, Angola made efforts into eliminate child labor in Angola (Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2020).

Data Quality: The data quality is rated a 3/3 because there is a substantial amount of evidence from qualified sources for forced labor in Angola.

Sources

  1. African Museum. (2015). The Kongo Kingdom: Long-standing Diplomatic and Trade

Connections with Europe. Retrieved 18 September 2022 from

https://www.africamuseum.be/en/discover/history_articles/kongo-kingdom.
  1. Britannica. (n.d.) Angola – History | Retrieved 27 September 2022 from https://www.britannica.com/place/Angola/History. 
  2. Bureau of International Labor Affairs. (2020). Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports. Retrieved 18 September 2022 from https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/angola.
  3. Ignatius, D. (1972, March 14). Gulf in Angola | News | The Harvard Crimson. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/3/14/gulf-in-angola-pthere-is-in/.
  4. Minority Rights Group International. (2015). Bakongo and Cabindans. Retrieved 18 September 2022 from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/bakongo-and-cabindans//.
  5. Refworld. (31 December 2000). Assessment for Bakongo in Angola. Retrieved 10 September 2022 from https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f3a532e.html.
  6. South African History Online. (18 May 2016). Kingdom of Kongo 1390 – 1914. Retrieved 18 September 2022 from https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/kingdom-kongo-1390-1914.