Mwene Muji in the context of "Democratic Republic of the Congo"

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo, or more infrequently Zaire (its official name from 1971 to 1997), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 112 million, the DR Congo is the fourth-most populous in Africa and most populous nominally Francophone country in the world. French is the official and most widely spoken language, though there are over 200 indigenous languages. The capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west; the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika) to the east; and Zambia and Angola to the south. Centered on the Congo Basin, most of the country's terrain is covered by dense rainforests and is crossed by many rivers, while the east and southeast are mountainous.

The territory of the Congo was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in the Bantu expansion about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to the 19th century. In the center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji, Luba, and Lunda ruled between the 15th and 19th centuries. These kingdoms were broken up by Europeans during the colonization of the Congo Basin. King Leopold II of Belgium acquired rights to the Congo territory in 1885 and called it the Congo Free State. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory after international pressure in response to widespread atrocities, and it became a Belgian colony. Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 1960 and was immediately confronted by secessionist movements, the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and the seizure of power by Mobutu Sese Seko in 1965. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a personalist dictatorship.

The Boma Kingdom, Ibar, or Giribuma was a polity in the Congo Basin of the Boma people, around Lake Mai-Ndombe. It split from Mwene Muji in the early-17th century, with tradition holding its founder as Maluma Bieme. It maintained close relations with the Tio Kingdom. In the 1640s, the Boma Kingdom was said to control fifteen "kings" and to be one of the "mightiest kingdoms in Africa". By the end of the 19th century, Boma surpassed Mwene Muji to become the major power in the Lower Kasai region.

According to tradition, the Ngeliboma (Boma king) was elected by the spirits. The Ngeliboma embodied divine virtues and surrounded himself with a royal court. He had to be a mage to become the chief of the community, however he could not remove any village chiefs. Villages north of Lake Mai-Ndombe were run by councils of elders. The Ngeli became the dominant class of the kingdom. They could only marry the Nkumu class, also located in the elite of the kingdom. Free men could also marry the Nkumu, but never the Ngeli. They traded ivory, wood and slaves.