Lari people (Congo)
The Lari is an ethnic group of the Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo and the name of the language they speak. A subgroup of the Kongo people, the Lari live in the communes of Brazzaville, the capital; and Pointe-Noire, within the surrounding Pool Department and the Luozi Territory. This subgroup was born in the 19th century.There are an estimated 1.2 million Lari living in the Republic of Congo.
History
The establishment of the capital Brazzaville by the French colonizer near the Kongo settlements led to the merging of several Kongo subgroups into a new group with a new identity. Indeed, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Ladi are people from different Kongo subgroups : Sundi, Buende, Manianga, Gangala.With the rapid commercial and demographic expansion, Ladi became the Kongo vernacular between the different branches, reshaping the Kongo identity, following the colonial railroad. The clear delimitations between these branches are thus defined not by language but by and region of origin. In addition, there is old neighborhood with the Teke people, which is materialized by matrimonial alliances.
Several hypotheses have been put forward for the origin of the word ladi or lari, but it seems to be taken from the word Nladi, Muladi, M'ladi or from the Luladi or Lulari river, a river near Kimpanzu, the village of Malonga Mi Mpanzu alias Bueta Mbongo or Bweta Mbongo; Boueta Mbongo in French. He was a mfumu kanda and mfumu tsi/nsi, of the Mpanzu and Buende; his people and allies were thus designated bisi Buende, baBuende. Him and Mabiala ma Nganga organized armed resistance against the French colonial settlement from the late 1880s, and then he became the leading figure of the resistance after the death of Mabiala ma Nganga in 1896. After the death of Bueta Mbongo in 1898, the mfumu signed a surrender in 1899, accepting French authority in the region. In these years, the Buende ethnonym gradually disappeared, giving way to that of Ladi. Thus the Ladis are originally the bisi Buende or baBuende, a Sundi stictosensu and lato sensu subgroup. Later, other Kongos from Nsundi were added. Some Tékés who remained in the Pool integrated into the Lari group through marriage alliances, cohabitation...
The term Kilari or Lari has been attested since the 17th century. In 1650, the missionary Joris Van Geel mentioned in his accounts of the Kingdom of Kongo several villages, among them one called "Songa a Kilari".