The Vili people are a Central African Bantu ethnic group, established in southwestern Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Cabinda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are a subgroup of the Kongo people.
With the Yombe, the Lumbu, the Vungu, the Punu and the Kugni, they lived harmoniously within the former Kingdom of Loango. They have even developed with the Kugni, the Bundiku, a good neighborly relationship to avoid conflicts.
The Vili culture is rich in a secular history, a matrilineal society which is the foundation of the Vili language full of nuances where proverbs have a prominent place; of an original measurement system, of a spirituality whose Nkisi, Nkisi Konde, or "nail fetishes", are the famous physical representation. These artifacts are "commentaries by themselves". They provide keys to the understanding of creativity and identity that prevailed at the time of their creation.
While abundant documentation exists concerning the history of the Kingdom of Kongo, the Kingdom of Loango is much less documented by the written sources.
The Vili have very early maintained relations of equal to equal with the Westerners, especially in trade. However, this contact with the West and engagement in the slave trade enriched a tiny minority at the cost of upsetting the societal structure of the Vili. The epidemics of trypanosomiasis and smallpox further drastically decreased the population of this people.
Name Depending on the source and context, there are several forms: Bavili, Bavilis, Fiote, Ivili, Loango, Vilis. The term fiote ("black"), used by Portuguese settlers, is now considered pejorative. The term of Vili also refers to their cultures, and traditions.
Language They speak the Vili, a Bantu language whose number of speakers was estimated at 50 000 in 2010. Approximately 45 000 were counted in the Republic of Congo and 5 000 in Gabon. The other known names and dialect names are : Civili, Civili ci Luango, Civili ci Moongo, Civili ci Waanda, Civili ci Yombe, Fiot, Fiote, Tshivili, Tsivili. The close ethnic group are: Kotchi, Lindji, Ciyoombe, Woyo, Yombe, Yoombe.
History
The origins
The Vili, as well as the Yombe (ethnically closest cultural and geographically to Vili people), the Lumbu, the Vungu, the Punu and the Kugni, formed the ethnic components of the ancient kingdom of Loango. There were also intermingling with pygmy populations of the Babenzi, the Binga or Baka.
In the sixteenth century, the Bawoyo dynasty, which belongs to the mighty Brotherhood of Blacksmiths of the Buvandji, led by Njimbe, and based on an army of warriors, is imposed on the local people on the coast of Loango. According to several sources, such as the English explorer Andrew Battel, present in the region around 1610, the Dutchman Olfert Dapper, as well as the English trader R.E. Dennett, Njimbe would be the founder of the Kingdom of Loango and his first sovereign with a reign that would have lasted about sixty years.
Initially, the province of the Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo Dia Nthotila – Kongo of the King), the Kingdom of Loango, in the company of the two provinces of Ngoyo and Kakongo, was freed in the sixteenth century and occupied a vast territory ranging from the region of Setté Cama to Gabon, to the current Cabinda to the south, from the Massif of Mayombe to the east to the confines of the Anziku Kingdom and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, where the capital Bwali was located. A proverb clearly illustrates the original community of the three secessionist provinces, as well as the religious role of the king of Ngoyo. This is: "Makongo Nnuni, Mangoyo Nthomi, Maloangu nkasi" which literally means "the Makongo is the husband, the Mangoyo the priest (keeper and officiating of the Tchibila Shrine of the god Bunzi) and the Malwangu the woman".
The ruling family was derived from the Vili ethnic group, specifically the Kondi and Nkata clans. This state had a social and political organization with a king, a government and governors of its seven provinces. The strong political prioritization allowed some chroniclers to establish an analogy with the feudal societies of medieval Europe. At the time Loango was already prevalent an elective mechanism, particularly in the designation of the future sovereign.
In the history of the Kingdom of Loango, there is no visible trace. However, he soon made exchanges with the Europeans, mostly Portuguese, escaped from the bagnes or former ebony traffickers. Germans, Englishmen, Dutch, had opened Factoreries in the vicinity of the larger villages.
European colonization
From 1849 to 1944 – Expansion
The decline of the Kingdom of Loango In 1849, as a favour for the boarding of the Brazilian ship Elizia or Ilizia by the frigate Penelope of the French Navy, some thirty or several hundred slaves from the Vili, Lumbu, Yaka or Bongo ethnic groups, according to the sources, after a three-year stay in Senegal, were permanently installed in the Komo estuary among the Mpongwé villages. This incident marked the birth of Libreville, the political capital of Gabon, like Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The end of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of the decline of the Kingdom of Loango. The latter suffered from the collateral damage of the rivalry of Europeans in Central Africa, notably between Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza and the explorer Henry Morton Stanley. To ensure the unilateral control of the sea front of the Congo and Gabon, France imposed treaties on the traditional authorities.
The Ma Loango Manimakosso-Tchinkosso, which reigned from 1879 to 1885, weakened by the blockade of the coast established by the Sagittaire ship, preventing any contact between the villages, was forced to capitulate. On 12 March 1883, he signed with ship Lieutenant Robert Cordier, a treaty of sovereignty, trade and disposal of the Territory, in the presence of the Portuguese traders Manuel Saboga and French Ferdinand Pichot. Moreover, the central power of the Ma Loango fades to the benefit of local potentates. Some of them, among them André Moe-Loemba (indigenous raised by the Portuguese missions, founder of the village of Tchimbamba), Mamboma Makosso, Mvumvo Lucieno and Matchimbamba initialled, on 21 June 1883, the Treaty of Punta-Negra, with the same ship Lieutenant Cordier, allowing France to take possession of this territory, At the same time, in the Portuguese-speaking perimeter, two years later, on 25 February 1885, the princes and notables of the kingdoms of Kakongo, Loango and Ngoyo signed with Guillerme Auguste de Brito Capello, commander of the Corvette Rainha of Portugal, the Treaty of Simulambuco that puts them under the protection of the Kingdom of Portugal,
The Kingdom of Belgium signed no less than 289 treaties between 1883 and 1884 in the conquest of the valley of Kouilou-Niari, territory ceded to France at the Berlin Conference in 1885. It ratifies all these treaties making France the absolute ruler of the part of Central Africa from the right bank of the Congo River to the confines of Gabon, thus completing the sharing of Africa between the colonial powers. The control of coastal bases also allowed the departure of numerous expeditions which took place to Chad and even Sudan (Fashoda Incident). Loango, the capital, then houses the Government and the official institutions, managing the internal and external trade. This is the only outlet for the caravan trails to the ocean. At Pointe-Noire, the current economic capital, there are a number of fishing villages such as Bou Mvou-Mvou (Novotel hotel's location on Charles de Gaulle Avenue); – literally Mvoumvou would mean what lasts, what is eternal and by extension M;Bou Mvoumvou It is the beach, the eternal Sea-, M'Boukou (current Mouyondzi District).
The current peripheral areas of Pointe-Noire at this time are only villages: Loandjili, Siafoumou, Tchimbamba, Mpita, Tchimani ... In 1888, the Vili of Gabon occupied Mayumba and exchanged with the Lumbu located along the Banio Lagoon. These two peoples of the Kongo group understand each other without an interpreter.
King Lumbu Mayombe Ignondrou, the oldest in the region, commanded the Mayombe, Mayumba and part of Setté Cama. He settles the discussions between the clan leaders Vili and Lumbu. The Vili of Mayumba are commissioned by Goufila, and have emancipated themselves from the Ma Loango. The Vili traders of Loango who went to Setté Cama by the coast, are also often stripped of their bundles of cloths.
Decline of the city of Loango and emergence of Pointe-Noire In 1897, the completion of the Matadi-Leopoldville railway, and especially the foundation of Pointe-Noire in 1922, and the construction of a deep-water port and a railway line, precipitated the decline of the Loango Capital. Indeed, its bay with its low draught does not allow the landing of ships for the traffic of persons and goods. Loango then only welcomed the burials of the nobles Vili and the settlers. Moreover, the shipyards of the new port and the Congo Ocean Railway pushed the men to emigrate to Pointe-Noire. Except for the small fishing village of Ndjindji, it is the workers of these two shipyards which constituted the bulk of the indigenous Pointe-Noire population. The city also sees the arrival of people attracted by the induced jobs. These include traders from Gabon, Dahomey, Togo and Ghana.
The French colonizers, anxious to avoid conflicts with the natives, reserve the areas of swamps, unfit for agriculture and empty of population. They also recognize customary law: the non-fertile land belongs to the whole community. But this rule is not always respected. Thus, in 1910, the village Koùmbi Bouilika was removed from the map. Its inhabitants, headed by the chief Louissi Sakala, said the elder son of the patriarch Nfouk'-Lassy, were expelled and expropriated from this land by the will of the settlers in the yardstick of the development of Pointe-Noire. The latter, having not found any suitable sites other than this plateau to build a runway that could accommodate aircraft, have therefore unfortunately relocated to this village which was on the current location of the Agostinho Neto airport of Pointe-Noire. It stretched between the current air base and the Tchinouka River, and was adjacent to the villages of Ntié-Tié, Mboukou, Mpaka, Mpolo, Tchimani, Ngoyo, Tchibambouka, Mpita, Tchinouka, Malala and Tchimbamba.
In 1924, Hervé Mapako-Gnali, father of Mambou Aimée Gnali and Jean-Félix Tchicaya became the first teachers of the Middle Congo to get out of the William Ponty school on the island of Gorée in Senegal. The need for manpower causes the massive influx of people from the interior (which the natives call Bilanda Lail, "rail followers"); Their housing needs contribute to the development of the city. The Vilis, which were hitherto the majority inhabitants of the region, must now share the land and work with the allochthonous populations. They see their habitat area diminishing according to the atomization of the kingdom.
The Kouilou, in addition to being a land of immigration, is also a land of emigration and expatriation during colonization. The creation of coffee and cocoa plantations in Fernando Po and Sao Tomé, Portage, schooling and the prospect of receiving a salary cause a significant departure from the local labour force towards Brazzaville, Gabon and Ubangi-Shari. Moreover, the Vili, as opposed to the Yombe people, are less attached to the land because of their commercial vocation and their positioning as intermediaries between the populations of the hinterland and the European traffickers. All these migratory flows will provoke an important rural exodus, accentuating the ageing and gender imbalance. The continuous depopulation of Bwali, the capital of the former Kingdom of Loango is illustrated.