Kiyaka love poem
Ilunsi kiaku muna ipelu
Nkendama wama wa mboti mboti
Mani sala kuanga kuanga po buta salama
Kena kimakie suka nzoledi kiawu
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Kiyaka language and the Yakas
Kiyaka love poem (Yaka, Iaca, Iyaka, Ngoongo, Iaka), in the language of the Yaka people from Popokabaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Bandundu), and in Angola (Uige).
This poetry is in Yaka, the Bantu language of a Congolese girl. 1 million people will understand it.
The Kiyaka, whose linguistic zone is located between the rivers Wamba and Kwango, has above all a role of vernacular language.
The Yakas (Bayaka, Mayaka, Ayaka) are less numerous than the number of speakers of their language, and are an important part of the inhabitants of Kinshasa.
Their ancestors have surely a Jaga origin from Angola who entered to the Congo in the 15th century. With the Lundas, they formed an important kingdom in the 17th century. In the twentieth century a large number will move to Kinshasa.
Often hunters and farmers, their organization is patrilineal, and their culture, even impregnated by modernity, remains active. Death, spirits, ancestors, disease, art and magic are an inherent part of it. There is a rite of circumcision among them.
The Yakas are less numerous than the number of speakers of their language, and are an important part of the inhabitants of Kinshasa.
The plastic creation of the Zaire River basin is so abundant and varied that it is customary to study it in groups.
We can distinguish several categories: that of the Kongos, which favors human representations, that of the Koubas, where one finds a large quantity of prestige objects, that of the Lunda-Tchokwés, where one finds domestic objects with a tendency of The statuary with portrait.