The political system within the Kingdom of Kongo was very advanced for its time and size. The villages, were referred to as libata in Kongo documents and by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, they served as Kongo's basic social unit after the family. Nkuluntu, chiefs headed the villages. The one to two hundred citizens per village migrated about every ten years to accommodate soil exhaustion. Communal land-ownership and collective farms produced harvests divided by families according to the number of people per household. The nkuluntu received special premium from the harvest before the division.
Villages were grouped in wene, small states, led by awene. Awene lived in mbanza, larger villages or small towns of somewhere between 1,000 to 5,000 citizens. Higher nobility typically chose these leaders. The king also appointed lower-level officials to serve, typically for three year terms.
Various provinces made up Kongo's higher administrative divisions, with some of the larger and more complex states, such as Mbamba, divided into varying numbers of sub-provinces, which the administration further subdivided. The king appointed the Mwene Mbamba. The king technically had the power to dismiss the Mwene Mbamba, but the complex political situation limited the king's exercise of his power. When the administration gave out European-style titles, large districts like Mbamba and Nsundi typically became Duchies.
Hereditary families controlled a few provinces, most notably the Duchy of Mbata and Country of Nkusu, through their positions as officers appointed by the king. In the case of Mbata, the kingdom's origin as an alliance produced this power, exercised by the Nsaku Lau. In the seventeenth century, political maneuvering also caused some provinces, to be held for very long terms by the same person. Provincial governments still paid income to the crown and their rulers reported to the capital to give account.
The kingdom of Kongo was made up of a large number of provinces. Various sources list from six to fifteen as the principal ones. Duarte Lopes' description, based on his experience there in the late sixteenth century, identified six provinces as the most important. These were Nsundi in the northeast, Mpangu in the center, Mbata in the southeast, Soyo in the southwest and two southern provinces of Mbamba and Mpemba.
Senior officials chose the Mwene Kongo or king who served for life following their choice. Electors varied over time, and there was probably never a completely fixed list; rather, senior officials who exercised power did so. Mbata was often held to be an elector because of the original constitutional position that province held. Many kings tried to choose their successor, not always successfully. One of the central problems of Kongo history was the succession of power, and as a result the country was disturbed by many rebellions and revolts.
