The region we call ‘Western Central Africa’ encompasses the region of the Congo forest and the light woodland country to the south of it. Today this area is occupied by Angola and the states of Congo (DR), Gabon, the People's Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. In terms of the older African states, it includes the area of the Luba–Lunda and the lower Congo kingdoms. The Portuguese were the most active external influence in this region, but not the only one. During the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, the northernmost frontier of Angola was at the Loge River, and from here northwards to Mount Cameroun and up both sides of the Congo estuary, there was a kind of commercial no-man's land, the shore dotted with the trading factories of English, Dutch, American, French, and Spanish as well as Portuguese firms. During the second half of the nineteenth century, an even more important source of external influence was that of the Swahili Arabs and Nyamwezi from East Africa. Only during the colonial period was the region as a whole reconnected with its natural ports of exit on the Atlantic coast.

The Pombeiros and the Mwata Kazembe

During the early part of the century, Portuguese influence reached the interior by two main routes, one of which started in Luanda, the other in Benguela. The Luanda route was the older and, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, it led in a sense right across the continent.