{{Short description|13th century Bantu confederation in the Congo Basin}} {{other uses|Mpemba (disambiguation)}} thumb|States of the western Congo Basin, c. 1350 '''Mpemba''' was a confederation in the western Congo Basin, at least from the 13th century. Its northernmost territory, Mpemba Kasi, was incorporated into the founding of the Kingdom of Kongo in the 14th century, and it was conquered. It neighboured the confederations of Vungu and Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza. Its capital and southernmost tip was on the Loze River in Angola, and it reached northwards 150 kilometres to the Congo River. It had sub-kingdoms, such as Mpemba Kasi, and Vunda which was complex enough to have its own sub-units which included Mpangala.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Samuel |first=isaac |title=The kingdom of Kongo and the Portuguese: diplomacy, trade, warfare and early Afro-European interactions (1483-1670) |url=https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-kingdom-of-kongo-and-the-portuguese |access-date=2024-09-28 |website=www.africanhistoryextra.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thornton |first=John K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyXiEAAAQBAJ&dq=mpemba+kongo&pg=PP1 |title=Afonso I Mvemba a Nzinga, King of Kongo: His Life and Correspondence |date=2023-11-22 |publisher=Hackett Publishing |isbn=978-1-64792-141-5 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=2}}<ref>{{Citation |title=The Development of States in West Central Africa to 1540 |date=2020 |work=A History of West Central Africa to 1850 |pages=16–55 |editor-last=Thornton |editor-first=John K. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/history-of-west-central-africa-to-1850/development-of-states-in-west-central-africa-to-1540/CE71122CF8DFD7B4B188BA34F8F65BFC |access-date=2024-09-21 |series=New Approaches to African History |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-56593-7}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=24-25}}
Writing in 2025, John Thornton has proposed that Mpemba was a very large kingdom, roughly a third of the size of Kongo's greatest extent, and was Kongo's main predecessor, though he says that archaeological research at Mpemba's capital is needed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thornton |first=John |date=2025 |title=The Emergence of Social and Political Complexity in West Central Africa |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/emergence-of-social-and-political-complexity-in-west-central-africa/14513EEB16AF860BED4159D78223E2B8 |journal=The Journal of African History |language=en |volume=66 |pages=e25 |doi=10.1017/S0021853725100662 |issn=0021-8537|doi-access=free |hdl=2144/52852 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Former countries in Africa Category:Kingdom of Kongo Category:Former monarchies of Africa Category:Countries in medieval Africa Category:Countries in precolonial Africa Category:Former kingdoms