Luanda — The Ministry of Culture will organise on September 19-21, in the northern Zaire Province, an international round table on the city of "Mbanza Kongo", meant to get contributions so that Unesco recognises it as a cultural heritage of humanity.

According to a press note delivered to ANGOP, with the holding of this event, the authorities intend to get data and results of the researches carried out by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and sociologists on the history of that city.

The sector has been doing its best so that Mbanza Kongo be the first patrimony of the country to be considered as a world heritage.

Mbanza Kongo was in the XVII century the greatest village at the western coast of central Africa, with a population estimated at 40,000 aboriginals and 4,000 Europeans. With its decadence, the city, that was in the centre of the Kongo Kingdom at a golden age, became a mystical and spiritual village belonging to the Kikongo linguistic group.

The Kongo Kingdom comprised the present states of Angola (north), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville and Gabon.