KOLA NGBANDI

Kola Ngbandi, or Great Ngbandi, (who may have flourished in the 17th century), was a renowned folk hero who today is viewed as the incarnation of the Ngbandi people who live along the Ubangi River between Mobayi Mongo and Yakoma. 

According to tradition, Kola Ngbandi is one of seven children of Bangalapumba, the mythical ancestor of all the Ngbandi, who flourished when they still lived in Darfur or Kordofan in the southern part of what is now Sudan. Allegedly, during the southwestern migrations of the Sudanese people who came to live in what is now northwestern Zaire in the 1600s, Kola Ngbandi and his brother Gboma settled at Mongo, in the present zone of Mobayi Mongo, after crossing the Ubangi River near the place where it joins the Bomou and Bili rivers.

Although Kola Ngbandi and his men distinguished themselves in a series of wars with other groups, they were unable to gain political hegemony, Nevertheless, Kola Ngbandi won the respect of many people from the area. Since that time, people have been proud to associate themselves with Kola Ngbandi by claiming him as their ancestor.

Thus, a group which in the beginning was small grew considerably through the progressive assimilation of neighbouring peoples. By the time the Europeans reached the Upper Mongala River area in 1886, the people who live in the present zone of Busing were called Ngbandi, and the name Mongwandi was given to the ruler of the polity founded at the confluence of the Mongala and the Ebola rivers where Businga is located.

From that time on, for historical, cultural, and linguistic reasons, the name Ngbandi has been extended to the other groups scattered below the northwest loop of the Ubangi River. Although Kola Ngbandi was not the originator of the whole Ngbandi people as many Ngbandi believe, his name and personality are symbols of the unity linking people who have not lived under a single, centralised political authority.

MUMBANZA BAWELE, NYABAKOMBI ENSOBATO.