Vili people

Vili

A Vili young boy photography from circa 1910
Total population
100 000
Regions with significant populations
Republic of the Congo Gabon Democratic Republic of the Congo Angola
Languages
Vili, French
Religion
Christianity, African Traditional Religion and religious syncretism
Related ethnic groups
Kongo people, Woyo people, Lindji people, Kotchi people, Yombe people, Punu people, Lumbu people and Kugni people

The Vili people are a Central African ethnic group, established in southwestern Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's a subgroup of Bantu and Kongo peoples.

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 Matrilineality society which is the foundation of a Vili language full of nuances where proverbs have a prominent place; of an original measurement system,^[1] of a spirituality whose Nkisi,^[2] 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.^[3]

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.