as is this case today, the Congo River and its tributaries, as well as climatic conditions in general, play a powerful role in shaping the lives of the inhabitants of the Congo. The rivers are and were tremendously important to regional trade and provide a vast natural network for such activities, in addition to providing a source of food and water to the population. It must also be mentioned that the climate is a major force in the Congo, which is made up primarily of tropical rainforest that sees some of the highest annual rainfall in the world. This high amount of rainfall makes it difficult to sustain agriculture, and subsequently a large population because the soil is simply too watered-down and prone to periodic floods to produce large quantities of food. For this reason, the population of the Congo has maintained a low population in addition to an extremely low population density. Also, much has been made about the large number of hunter-gatherer groups that inhabit the Congo, especially the Pygmy population. The reason for this particular life-style being so prominent in the Congo is geographical and climatic: the area is simply not capable of producing a large amount of food from agriculture, and as a result, a portion of the population has continued to hunt and gather because it is a much more sustainable way of life. Cultural practices Religion and Spirituality The Congo region was home to a wide array of ethnicities and communities and therefore differing spiritual and religious practices. Due to the scarcity in precolonial documentation the exact nature and dates of development of some of these practices remain elusive. The religions practised in precolonial Congo were as far as is known animistic in nature. They believed that places, objects and creatures could possess a spiritual essence and practised ancestral worship. According to the religion practised by the Bakongo people the world is split into the world of the living and the world of the dead. Shamans known as Nganga can mediate between these two worlds. A specific characteristic of the Kongo religion is the so-called cosmogram. It is believed the highest god, next to other high gods, resides at the top of the world, the spirits and other deities living below, followed by the physical realm populated by humans and animals, with water existing in the middle where the two worlds meet. When people