The people whose language forms the subject of this article live in the Belgian Congo, on the sandy plateau immediately to the north-east of Léopoldville. Known to the neighbouring Kongo-speaking tribes as Bamfununga or Bamfunika, they call themselves Bamfinu, and their language Emfinu. Following the usual practice of referring to Bantu languages in English by means of the stem of the vernacular name, this particular language is termed Mfinu.

Although a Bantu language, Mfinu displays a number of features that are not found elsewhere in the Bantu family, except to a certain extent in some of the neighbouring languages.