Mangbetu

Information about the Mangbetu

The Mangbetu or Monbuttu are a negroid people of Central Africa living to the south of the Azande in the Welle district of Congo-Kinshasa. Their country is a table-land at an altitude of 800 to 900 meters. Despite its abundant animal life, luxuriant vegetation and rich crops of plantain and oil-palm, the Mangbettu used to be cannibals, but since the Congo State established posts in the country (c. 1895) considerable efforts have been made to stamp out cannibalism.

Physically the Mangbettu differ greatly from their negro neighbours. They are not so black and their faces are less negroid, many having quite aquiline noses. The beard, too, is fuller than in most negroes. They appear to have imposed their language and customs on the surrounding tribes, the Mundu, Abisanga, etc. Once a considerable power, they have practically disappeared; their language and culture, however, remain, maintained by their subjects, with whom they have to a large extent intermixed.

Their huts, with pointed roofs, were not only larger and better built, but were cleaner than those of their neighbours, and some of their more important buildings were of great size and exhibited some skill in architecture.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclop�dia Britannica, which is in the public domain.

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