When they arrived in the Gulf of Guinea and landed at Vaida (in West Africa) the captains were astonished to find streets well laid out, bordered on either side for several leagues by two rows of trees; for days they travelled through a country of magnificent fields, inhabited by men clad in richly coloured garments of their own weaving! Further south in the Kingdom of the Congo, a swarming crowd dressed in `silk` and `velvet`; great States well-ordered, and down to the most minute details; powerful rulers, flourishing industries-civilized to the marrow of their bones. And the condition of the countries on the eastern coast- Mozambique, for example- was quite the same.”Leo Frobenius, `Histoire de la Civilisation Africaine`, quoted in Anna Melissa Graves, `Africa, the Wonder and the Glory,US, Black Classic Press, (originally 1942)
Portuguese missionaries wrote of the Kongo…” a well-organized political system with taxes and rates, there was a brilliant court,(and) a great civil service. The state constructed roads, imposed tolls, supported a large army and had a monetary system-of…shells, of which the Mani Congo…had a monoploly. The Congo Kingdom even had a few satellite states, for example the state of the Ngola (ie Ndongo) in present-day Angola. The original kingdom was about the size of France and Germany put together”
“There is no doubting…the existence of an expert metallurgical art in the ancient Kongo; only the competition of objects from abroad and the slow deterioration brought about its decline. A further proof is provided by recent ethnographic documents. The Bakongo were aware of the toxicity of lead vapours. They devised preventative and curative methods, both pharmacological (massive doses of pawpaw and palm oil) and mechanical (exerting of pressure to free the digestive tract), for combatting lead poisoning, Technology and rational knowledge tried to keep in step
