NGOY

former kingdom on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, just north of the Congo River, in an area that is now part of southern Cabinda (an exclave of Angola) and western Congo (Kinshasa). It was founded by Bantu-speaking people about the 15th century. The domestic and foreign slave trade rapidly became a major feature of the economy, with the port of Cabinda serving as the locus of foreign trade. When the Portuguese built a fort in Cabinda in 1783, Ngoy allied with neighbouring Kakongo and with the French to destroy it. Exporting slaves gradually brought wealth and power to the Ngoy nobility at the expense of the king, who was rendered ineffectual. The kingdom finally disintegrated into petty principalities after the nobles failed to elect a new king in the 1830s.