people. They had a habit of eating their fallen enemies, and were said to consider human meat a delicacy. These warrior cultures were also used by both the Leopoldian forces as well as the Arab slavers during the Congo-Arab war. During the 1892–1894 war between the Congo Free State and the Swahili-Arab city-states of Nyangwe and Kasongo in Eastern Congo, there were reports of widespread cannibalization of the bodies of defeated Arab combatants by the Batetela allies of Belgian commander Francis Dhanis. After the defeat of the Arab slavers, many militias were incorporated into the colonial army of the Congo Free State, including the Zappo Zap. The African-american missionnary William Henry Sheppard wrote an first-hand account of a Zappo Zap attack on a number of villages, including descriptions of cannibalism. Although cannibalism was indeed practiced in the (eastern) Congo region, some of contemporary accounts were the result of exaggeration and miscommunication. Communities could use the accusation of cannibalism as a tool to dehumanize enemy tribes, and uncritical missionaries may have written down these second-hand accounts as truth. Certain Congolese cultures considered certain internal diseases as a form of cannibalism, as they believed an evil spirit was consuming the victim from the inside. When these people died, their bodies were put down at a safe distance from the village and cut open to examine the internal organs for irregularities. The combination of the word "cannibalism" and the eviscerated remains may have led missionaries with a poor understanding of local languages and racialised bias to prematurely conclude that these communities practised cannibalism. Kingdom of Kongo (1390–1914) The dominant political force of the Congo region prior to and during the initial arrival of Europeans was the Kingdom of Kongo. The Kongo was a state located primarily in the southwest portion of the modern Congo, and also occupying portions of northern Angola and Cabinda. At its greatest extent, the kingdom reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Point Noire in the north to the Loje River in the south. The kingdom was headed by a king known as the Manikongo, who exercised his authority over the six provinces that constituted the Kongo kingdom and the Bakongo (Kongo peoples). When the Kongo Kingdom was at its political apex in the 15th and 16th centuries, the King, who had to be a male descendant of