The Pool Malebo (formerly Stanley Pool), also known historically as Mpumbu, Lake Nkunda, Lake Nkuna, Lake Ntamo, or Lake Ngobila, is a broad, lake-like widening of the lower Congo River in Central Africa that forms a natural basin where the river expands before descending downstream into the Livingstone Falls. However, Father Albert Le Gallois, a Holy Spirit missionary, stated in his Contribution à la cartographie du Congo français (Stanley Pool Region) that although early explorers referred to the large island of Bamu as Nkouna, he never encountered this name among the Téké people of the right bank.
Pumbo, Pumbu, or Mpumbu
The name Pumbo (Pombo, Pumbu, or Mpumbu) is also mentioned in explorers' accounts and historical literature to designate the Pool region. In Description of Africa, the Dutch scholar Olfert Dapper describes Pombo as a province under the authority of the Macoco (Makoko), ruler of the Téké. Belgian historian Jan Vansina interprets the term as referring to the northern shore of Stanley Pool, which constituted the political center of the Téké kingdom. The Congolese researchers Pamphile Mabiala Mantuba-Ngoma and Mathieu Zana Aziza Etambala also attributes the meaning of "market" to the term Mpumbu. In their article La société congolaise face à la modernité (1700-2010): Mélanges eurafricains offerts à Jean-Luc Vellut, he writes: "The zone where the river widened and passed through Mpumbu was the principal slave market of Central Africa. This market, located at the terminus of the navigable stretch of the Congo River, encompassed the former villages of what is now Pool Malebo (formerly Stanley Pool). These villages received all products coming from the upper reaches of the river, from the Kasai Basin and the Mai-Ndombe region. It was here that merchants from the south came to obtain goods for resale to Europeans along the Atlantic coast. This commercial zone was called the Congo River zone".
Stanley Pool and Pool Malebo
In 1887, it was renamed Stanley Pool in tribute to Stanley, the first European explorer to "discover" it and record its surface area at 400 km<sup>2</sup>. Following national independence of Congo-Léopoldville, the name was changed in January 1972 to Pool Malebo. The toponym Malebo, the plural of lilebo in Lingala, refers to the palm trees (Borassus aethiopum Mart., syn. Borassus flabellifer), which are widespread along the pool's banks, islands, and the surrounding alluvial plains of Kinshasa. Thus, the name Pool Malebo is a botanical designation and literally translates to "Lake of Borassus". Maluku is located at the upstream entrance to the basin, from which Pool Malebo marks the start of the navigable Congo River toward Mbandaka, Makanza, Bangui, and as far as Kisangani, while downstream of Ngaliema Bay, the river plunges through a succession of rapids known as the Livingstone Falls, descending approximately 300 meters on its way to the port of Matadi. <!-- Why talk about altitude? Because of river valley? -->
History
Early history
European contact with the Congo River region began in 1483, when the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão reached the river's mouth and established relations between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Kongo. This encounter ended Central Africa's relative isolation from intercontinental networks and marked the beginning of written documentation on the region. Archaeological and linguistic research, particularly on Bantu languages, indicates, however, that human settlement in the Congo Basin long predates European contact, with evidence for agriculture and iron and copper metallurgy extending back "roughly two thousand years". From the sixteenth century onward, the region became integrated into Atlantic commercial systems, particularly through the transatlantic slave trade. The aquatic vegetation is largely composed of hydrophytes, geophytes, and chaméphytes adapted to permanently or seasonally flooded environments.