The Kingdom of Kongo

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The Kingdom of Kongo (1400-1888) (Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo) was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The kingdom consisted of several core provinces ruled by a monarch, the Manikongo (sixteenth century spelling of 'Mwene Kongo) of the Bakongo (Kongo peoples, also known as the Essikongo), but its sphere of influence extended to the neighboring states such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Ndongo and Matamba as well.
I must add monarchy is evil, it was the Kindgom of Belgum, and Congo free states that failed. And today chiefs help cause some wars. The poorest land in terms if life expectancy in Africa today is the only absolute Monarchy Swaziland. Monarchy is horrific, the most equal lands in the world, have the highest life expectancies and do not have powerful monarchies.
Despite the fact that little archaeological work has been done to define the earliest periods in Kongo's history, it is known that the original home of the Kingdom of Kongo lies somewhere in the region along the lower stretches of the Congo River. People speaking ancient versions of Kikongo probably arrived in the region from the north as part of the larger Bantu migration. They were practicing agriculture by at least 1000 BCE, and working iron by at least 400 BCE, though both these dates may be pushed back by more archaeological work. Presently, excavations at Madingo Kayes along the Atlantic coast to the north have established that complex societies existed in the region since the early centuries of the Common Era. At present, pottery sequences for the region are not yet established, though the style that was prevalent at the time the kingdom is identified in historical records (post 1483) appears to have started around 1100. Archaeological work at Mbanza Kongo in the late 1960s and 1970s by Fernando Batalha resulted in the uncovering of some material that may date to an earlier period.
Oral traditions about the early history of the country were set to writing for the first time in the late 16th century and the most comprehensive ones recorded in the mid-seventeenth centuries including those written by the Italian Capuchin missionary Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo). These accounts may only be the traditions of the dynasty that was ruling in 1483 and not that of earlier dynasties whose traditions are largely forgotten or overlooked. More detailed research in modern oral traditions, initially conducted in the early 20th century by Redemptorist missionaries like Jean Cuvelier and Joseph de Munck do not appear to relate to the very early period, but rather to later periods.
According to John Thornton's study of these traditions, the root of the kingdom was the small state of Mpemba Kasi, located just south of modern day Matadi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A dynasty of rulers from this small polity built up their rule along the Kwilu valley, and were buried in Nsi Kwilu, apparently its capital. Traditions from the 17th century recall this sacred burial ground. According to the missionary Girolamo da Montesarchio of the Capuchin, the site was so holy that even looking at it would cause death. The ruler of Mpemba Kasi in the 17th century was called "Mother of the King of Kongo" in respect to the antiquity of the territory. At some point around 1375, Nimi a Nzima, ruler of Mpemba Kasi, made an alliance with Nsaku Lau, ruler of the neighboring Mbata Kingdom. The alliance guaranteed the succession of each state's ruler over the other in a lasting peace.
The son and heir of this arrangement, Lukeni lua Nimi (often called Nimi a Lukeni) became the founder of Kongo when, around 1400, he conquered the kingdom of the Mwene Kabunga (or Mwene Mpangala), which lay upon a mountain to his south. He moved his capital their and renamed the area Mbanza Kongo. The Mwene Kabunga's descendants would symbolically challenge the conquest annually two centuries later (see Thornton, "Early History"). If the seventeenth century traditions were only those of a dynasty and not of the kingdom itself, it is likely that the Mwene Kabunga represented an earlier dynasty.
The electoral system established by the alliance of Mpemba Kasi and the Mbata Kingdom worked to protect Nimi a Nzima's descendants by arranging for Lukeni lua Nimi's crown to pass not to his son, who was deemed too young to hold it, but to the son of one of Lukeni's brothers named Nanga. Afterwards, it would then pass to another royal nephew named Nlaza before finally passing to Lukeni lua Nimi's son Nkuwu a Lukeni around 1440. Nkuwu a Lukeni's son and immediate successor, Nzinga a Nkuwu, was ruling in 1483 when the first Portuguese arrived.
These early kings gradually added other provinces to the kingdom. Some such as Mpangu, Nkusu and Wandu were annexed voluntarily; others such as Nsundi and Mbamba were conquered. Royal titles of the sixteenth century suggest that the king also held the title of king over Vungu, Kakongo, and Ngoyo (on the north bank of the Congo River) perhaps by arrangements and alliances that went back to the time of Mpemba Kasi. He also claimed territory as lord of the Kimbundu speaking regions to the south including Matamba and Ndongo.
In the early sixteenth century, the kings of Kongo had the right to appoint and dismiss the governors of the provinces that they had conquered and to approve or reject officials proposed by rulers of the provinces that had joined voluntarily. The Mwene Kongos often gave the governorships to members of their family or its clients. As this centralization increased, the allied provinces gradually lost influence until their powers were only symbolic, manifested in the title of its rulers as "Grandfather of the King of Kongo."
Another critical element in the centralization of Kongo was the high concentration of population around Mbanza Kongo and its outskirts. The capital was a densely settled area in an otherwise sparsely populated region where rural population densities probably did not exceed 5 persons per square kilometer. Early Portuguese travelers described Mbanza Kongo as a large city, the size of the Portuguese town of Évora as it was in 1491. By the end of the sixteenth century, Kongo's population was probably close to half a million people in a core region of some 130,000 square kilometers. By the early seventeenth century the city and its hinterland had a population of around 100,000, or one out of every five inhabitants in the Kingdom (according to baptismal statistics compiled by Jesuit priests). This concentration allowed resources, soldiers and surplus foodstuffs to be readily available at the request of the king. This made the king overwhelmingly powerful and caused the kingdom to become highly centralized.
Kongo's basic unit of life was, as in most of the world, the village, called vata (libata in sixteenth century Portuguese, the language of both travelers' accounts and Kongo documents). Villages were headed by a leader called nkuluntu(or mocolunto in sixteenth-seventeenth century Portuguese). Most villages held about 100-200 people and moved quite frequently, perhaps every ten years, to accommodate soil exhaustion. Land in the villages was held communally, and worked collectively with the product being divided after the harvest by families according to the number of people in each household, according to mid seventeenth century descriptions. The nkuluntu was paid a special premium from this harvest before the division.
Villages were grouped in small provinces, called wene whose leaders were called awene the plural of mwene (mani in sixteenth century Portuguese). Awene lived in larger villages or small towns of somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000, called mbanza. These leaders were typically chosen by the higher nobility, and their lands were regarded by the Kongo administration as revenue assignments, which Kongo administrative documents called renda in Portuguese. Villagers were assessed a basic head tax in money (which may well have been paid in kind as well) which formed the basis for the kingdom's finance. These titles and their incomes, based on a head tax levied on the villagers, were granted by the king or by officials appointed by him on short terms (typically three years) and the holders reported annually to the court of their superior for evaluation and renewal.
Kongo's higher administration was composed of various provinces, some were large and complex, such as Mbamba, which was divided into half a dozen subprovinces, some of which were themselves subdivided. The Mwene Mbamba, or Duke of Mbamba after the 1590s, was appointed by the king and could be dismissed at any time in theory at least, though in practice the complex politics of the country made it difficult for the king to exercise these rights. Large districts like Mbamba and Nsundi were typically designated as Dutchies when European style titles were given out, smaller ones (such as Mpemba, Mpangu or a host of territories north of the capital) were Marquisates. Soyo, a complex province on the coast was a County, as was Nkusu, a smaller and less complex one east of the capital.
A few provinces, most notably the Dutchies of Mbata and Nkusu, were in the control of hereditary families, from whom the king appointed its officers. In the case of Mbata this power, exercised by the Nsaku Lau, was a product of its original history and the alliance that founded the kingdom. In the seventeenth century, political maneuvering also caused some provinces, notably Soyo but also occasionally Mbamba to be held for very long terms by the same person. These provinces still paid income to the crown and their rulers were expected to report to the capital to give account.
The provincial governors paid a portion of the tax returns from their provinces to the king, providing him with one stream of income. Dutch visitors to Kongo in the 1640s reported that this income amounted to some 20 million nzimbu shells. In addition, the crown collected its own special taxes and levies, including tolls on the substantial trade that passed through the kingdom, especially the lucrative cloth trade between the great cloth producing region of the "Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza" (the eastern regions, called "Momboares" or "The Seven" in Kikongo) and the coast, especially the Portuguese colony of Luanda.
Crown revenues supported the church, which was paid by revenue assignments based on royal income, for example, Pedro II detailed the finances of his royal chapel by specifying that revenues from various estates and provincial incomes would support it. Local churches were also supported by fees (a baptismal fee, a burial fee and the like).
Kongo's army was composed of a mass levy of archers, drawn from the general male population, and a smaller corps of heavy infantry, who fought with swords and carried shields for protection. The heavy infantry were considered nobles, and typically referred to in documents as fidalgos or lesser nobles in Portuguese documents. They may have been paid and supported through revenue assignments, though evidence for this is weak. A large number were supported at the capital, perhaps as many as 20,000, and smaller contingents were maintained in the major provinces under the command of the provincial ruler.
In time or war, or in Kongo, civil war, as internal strife was far more common than inter-state warfare after 1600, the entire population was subject to a draft call up, although only a limited number would actually serve. Many who did not carry arms were expected to carry baggage and supplies and thus thousands of women also supported armies on the move. Soldiers were expected to carry two weeks food when they reported for campaign duty. Logistical difficulties probably limited bothy the size of armies and their capacity to operate for extended periods. Well informed sources suggested field armies as large as 50,000 but these were probably exaggerated, and it is likely that few armies larger than about 20-30,000 troops were raised for campaigns.
Troops were mobilized and reviewed on Saint James' Day (July 25) when taxes were also collected. This day, which was also a major holiday held in honor of Saint James but also of Afonso I, whose miraculous victory over his brother in 1509 was the principal significance of the holiday in Kongo.
When the Portuguese arrived in Kongo they were immediately added as a mercenary force, probably under their own commander who used their special purpose weapons, like cross bows and the muskets, to add force to the normal Kongo order of battle. Their initial impact was muted, Afonso complained in a letter of 1514 that they had not been very effective in a war he waged against Munza, a Mbundu rebel, the year before. By the 1580s however, a musketeer corps, which was locally raised from resident Portuguese and their Kongo-mestiço (mixed race) offspring was a regular part of the main Kongo army in the capital. Provincial armies had some musketeers, for example they served against the Portuguese invading army in 1622. Three hundred and sixty musketeers served in the Kongo army against the Portuguese at the battle of Mbwila.
By the time of the first recorded contact with the Europeans, the Kingdom of Kongo was a highly developed state at the center of an extensive trading network. Apart from natural resources and ivory, the country manufactured and traded copperware, ferrous metal goods, raffia cloth, and pottery. The Kongo people spoke in the Kikongo language. The eastern regions, especially that part known as the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza (or in Kikongo Mumbwadi or "the Seven") was particularly famous for the production of cloth.
In his travels along the African coast between 1482 and 1483, Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão became the first European to encountered the powerful kingdom of Kongo. During his visit, Cão left his men in Kongo while kidnapping Kongo nobles and bringing them to Portugal. He returned with the Kongo hostages in 1485. At that point the ruling king, Nzinga a Nkuwu agreed to become a Christian.
A number of Catholic priests arrived in 1491 to baptize Nzinga a Nkuwu as well as his principal nobles, starting with the ruler of Soyo (the coastal province). At the same time a literate Kongo citizen returning from Portugal opened the first school. Nzinga a Nkuwu took the name of João I in honor of Portugal's king at the time, João II.

João I ruled until his death around 1509 and was succeeded by his son Mvemba a Nzinga under the throne name Afonso I of Kongo. He faced a serious challenge from a half brother, Mpanzu a Kitima. The king overcame his brother in a battle waged at Mbanza Kongo. According to Afonso's own account, sent to Portugal in 1509, he was able to win the battle thanks to the intervention of a heavenly vision of Saint James and the Virgin Mary. Inspired by these events, he subsequently designed a coat of arms for Kongo which was used by all following kings on official documents, royal paraphernalia and the like until 1860.
King Afonso I worked to create a viable version of the Catholic Church in Kongo, providing for its income from royal assets and taxation that provided salaries for its workers. Along with advisors from Portugal such as Rui d'Aguiar, the Portuguese royal chaplain sent to assist Kongo's religious development, Afonso created a syncretic version of Christianity that would remain a part of its culture for the rest of the kingdom's independent existence. King Afonso himself studied hard at this task. Rui d'Aguir claimed at one point that Alfonso I knew more of the church's tenents than he.
The Kongo church was always short of ordained clergy, and made up for it by the employment of a strong laity. Kongolese school teachers or Mestres were the anchor of this system. Recruited from the nobility and trained in the kingdom's schools, they provided religious instruction and services to others building upon Kongo's growing Christian population. At the same time, they permitted the growth of syncretic forms of Christianity which incorporated older religious ideas with Christian ones. Examples of this are the introduction of KiKongo words for biblic use. The KiKongo word ukisi (an abstract word meaning charm) and nkanda ( word meaning holy) were merged so that the Christian Bible became known as the nkanda ukisi. The church became known as the nzo a ukisi. While some European clergy often denounced these mixed traditions, they were never able to root them out.
Part of the establishment of this church was the creation of a strong priesthood and to this end Afonso's son Henrique was sent to Europe to be educated. Henrique became an ordained priest and in 1518 was named as bishop of Utica (a North African diocese in the hands of Muslims). He returned to Kongo in the early 1520s to take up the task of running Kongo's new church. He died in 1531 as he was about to go to Europe for the Council of Trent.
In the following decades, the Kingdom of Kongo became a major source of slaves for Portuguese traders and other European powers. The Cantino Atlas of 1502 mentions Kongo as a source of slaves for the island of São Tomé. Slavery had existed in Kongo long before the arrival of the Portuguese, and Afonso's early letters show the evidence of slave markets. They also show the purchase and sale of slaves within the country and his accounts on capturing slaves in war which were given and sold to Portuguese merchants.
Despite its long establishment within his kingdom, Afonso believed that the slave trade should be subject to Kongo law. When he suspected the Portuguese of receiving illegally enslaved persons to sell, he wrote in to King João III of Portugal in 1526 imploring him to put a stop to the practice. Ultimately, Afonso decided to establish a special committee to determine the legality of the enslavement of those who were being sold.
A common characteristic of political life in the kingdom of Kongo was a fierce competition over succession to the throne. Afonso's own contest for the throne was intense, though little is known about it. However, a great deal is known about how such struggles took place from the contest that followed Afonso's death in late 1542 or early 1543. This is in large part due to detailed inquest conducted by royal officials in 1550, which survives in the Portuguese archives. In this inquest one can see that factions formed behind prominent men, such as Afonso I's son, Nkanga a Mvemba (crowned Pedro I) and Nkumbi a Mpudi, his grandson who ultimately overthrew Pedro and was crowned as Diogo I in 1545. Although the factions declared themselves in the idiom of kinship (using the Portuguese term geração or lineage, probably kanda in Kikongo) they were not formed strictly by heredity since close kin were often in separate factions. The players included nobles holding appointive titles to provincial governorships, members of the royal council and also officials in the now well developed Church hierarchy.
Diogo Nkumbi a Mpudi skillfully replaced or maneuvered the entrenched noble factions and became manikongo in 1545. He would enjoy a long reign that ended with his death in 1561. He was immediately succeeded by Afonso II whose rule did not last even a year. Manikongo Bernardo II was put on the throne afterwards and reigned until 1566. From 1567 to 1568, Henrique II ruled until being replaced by his stepson Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba.
Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba was crowned Álvaro I and came to the throne in an environment of another contestation over the throne in 1568. There were certainly factions that opposed him, though it is not know specifically who they were. Álvaro immediately had to fight invaders from the east (who some authorities believe were actually rebels within the country, either peasants or discontented nobles from rival factions) called the Jagas. To do this, he decided to enlist the aid of the Portuguese based at São Tomé, who sent an expedition under Francisco de Gouveia Sottomaior to assist. As a part of the same process, Álvaro agreed to allow the Portuguese to establish a colony in his province of Luanda south of his kingdom. In addition to allowing the Portuguese to establish themselves in Luanda, Kongo provided the Portuguese with support in their war against the Kingdom of Ndongo in 1579. The kingdom of Ndongo was located in the interior east of Luanda and although claimed in Kongo's royal titles as early as 1535 was probably never under a firm Kongo administration.
Álvaro also worked hard to westernize Kongo, gradually introducing European style titles for his nobles, so that the Mwene Nsundi became the Duke of Nsundi; the Mwene Mbamba became the Duke of Mbamba or the Mwene Mpemba. The Mwene Mpemba became Marquis of Mpemba, and the Mwene Soyo became Count of Soyo. He and his son Álvaro II Nimi a Nkanga (crowned in 1587]) bestowed orders of chivalry called the Order of Christ. The capital was also renamed São Salvador or "Holy Savior" in Portuguese during this period. In 1596, Álvaro's emissaries to Rome persuaded the Pope to recognize São Salvador as the cathedral of a new diocese which would include Kongo and the Portuguese territory in Angola. However, the king of Portugal won the right to nominate the bishops to this see, which would be the source of tension between the two countries.
The Portuguese bishops throughout the kingdom were often favorable to European interests in a time when relations between Kongo and Angola were tense. They refused to appoint priests, forcing Kongo to rely more and more heavily on the laity. Documents of the time show that mestres were paid salaries and appointed by the crown, and at times Kongo kings withheld income and services to the bishops and their supporters (a tactic called "country excommunication"). Controlling revenue was vital for Kongo's kings since even Jesuit missionaries were paid salaries from the royal exchequer.
Álvaro I and his successor, Álvaro II, also faced problems with factional rivals from families that had been displaced from succession. In order to raise support against some enemies, they had to make concessions to others. One of the most important of these concessions was allowing Manuel, the Count of Soyo, to hold office for many years beginning sometime before 1591. During this same period, Álvaro II made a similar concession to António da Silva, the Duke of Mbamba. António da Silva was strong enough that he decided the succession of the kingdom, selecting Bernardo II in 1614, but putting him aside in favor of Álvaro III in 1615. It was only with difficulty that Álvaro III was able to put his own choice in as Duke of Mbamba when António da Silva died in 1620 instead of having the province fall into the hands of the duke's son. At the same time, however, Álvaro III created another powerful and semi-independent nobleman in Manuel Jordão who held Nsundi for him.
Tensions between Portugal and Kongo increased further as the governors of Portuguese Angola became more aggressive. Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos, who arrived as governor in 1617, used mercenary African groups called Imbangala to make a devastating war on Ndongo, and then to raid and pillage some southern Kongo provinces.
The next governor of Angola, João Correia de Sousa, used the Imbangala to launch a full scale invasion of southern Kongo in 1622, following the death of Álvaro III. João Correia de Sousa claimed he had the right to choose the king of Kongo. He was also upset that the Kongolese electors chose Pedro II of Kongo, a former Duke of Mbamba. João Correia de Sousa also contended that Pedro II had sheltered runaway slaves from Angola.
The governor of Angola sent a large force of some 20,000 soldiers into southern Kongo. The Portuguese forces scored a victory at the Battle of Mbumbi in November of 1622. There they faced a quickly gathered local force led by the new Duke of Mbamba. The Duke of Mbamba and the Marquis of Mpemba were killed in the battle. According to Kongolese accounts, they were eaten by the Imbangala allies of the Portuguese.
Following the defeat at Mbumbi, King Pedro II declared Angola an official enemy, and personally led a royal army to Mbamba. He defeated Portuguese forces and drove them out of Kongo. In the aftermath of this, anti-Portuguese riots broke out all over the kingdom and threatened its long established merchant community. Portuguese throughout the country were humiliatingly disarmed and even forced to give up their clothes.
As a result of Kongo's victory, the Portuguese merchant community of Luanda revolted against the governor hoping to preserve their ties with the king. Backed by the Jesuits, who had also just recommenced their mission there, they forced João Correia de Sousa to resign and flee the country. The interim government that followed the departure was led by the bishop of Angola. They were very conciliatory to Kongo and agreeed to return some of the slaves captured by Correia de Sousa, especially the lesser nobles captured at the Battle of Mbumbi.
Irregardless of the new governement in Angola's overtures, Pedro II had not forgotten the invasion and planned to remove the Portuguese from the realm altogether. The king sent a letter to the Dutch Estates General proposing a joint military attack on Angola with a Kongo army and a Dutch fleet. He would pay the Dutch with gold, silver and ivory for their efforts (NA Neth, Staten Generaal 5157 Session 27 Oct 1623). As planned, a Dutch fleet under the command of the celebrated admiral Piet Heyn arrive in Luanda to carry out its attack in 1624. The plan failed to come to fruition as, at that point, Pedro had died and his son Mvemba a Nkanga had come to power under the throne name Garcia I. King Garcia I was more forgiving of the Portuguese and had been successfully pursuaded by their various gestures of concilation. He was unwilling to press the attack on Angola at that time, contending that as a Catholic, he could not ally with non-Catholics to attack the city.
The end of the first quarter of the 17th century saw a new flare up in Kongo's political struggle. At the hear of the conflict were two noble houses fighting over the kingship. On one side of the conflict was the House of Kwilu, which counting most of the kings named Álvaro. They were ousted by the opposing House of Nsundi, when Pedro II was placed on the throne by powerful local forces in São Salvador, probably as a compromise when Alvaro III died without a heir old enough to rule.
As the interrum power, the House of Nsundi worked earnestly to place partisans in king-making positions throughout the empire. Either Pedro II or Garcia I managed to secure Soyo in the hands of Count Paulo, who held it and supported the House of Nsundi from about 1625 until 1641.
Meanwhile, Manuel Jordão, a partisan of the House of Kwilu managed to force Garcia I to flee and placed Ambrósio I of the House of Kwilu on the throne. King Ambrósio either could not or did not remove Paulo from Soyo, though he did eventually remove Jordão.
Count Paulo of the House of Nsundi played an important role in the civil war that matched Nimi a Lukeni a Nzenze a Ntumba and his brother Nkanga a Lukeni against partisans the rest of the House of Nsundi. As a result of these wars, Nimi a Lukeni a Nzenze a Ntumba was crowned Álvaro VI in 1636. Following his death in 1641, his brother took over and was crowned Garcia II. Together they founded the Kinlaza lineage, while the former House of Nsundi consolidated into their House of Kwilu rivals as the Kimpanzu lineage.
Garcia II took the throne on the eve of several crisis. One of his rivals, Daniel da Silva, managed to secure the County of Soyo and would use it as a base against Garcia II for the whole of his reign. As a result, Garcia II was prevented from completely consolidating his authority. Another problem facing King Garcia II was a rebellion in the Dembos region, which also threatened his authority. Lastly, there was the agreement made by Pedro II in 1622 promising Kongo's suport to the Dutch in an offensive to oust Portugal from Luanda.
In 1642, the Dutch sent troops to help Garcia II put down an uprising by peoples of the southern district in the Dembos region. The rebellion was quickly put down re-affirming the Kongo-Dutch alliance. King Garcia II paid the Dutch for their services in slaves taken from ranks of Dembos rebels. These slaves were sent to Pernambuco, Brazil where the Dutch had taken over a portion of the Portuguese sugar producing region.
The Dutch had seized the city of Luanda in 1641 but either could not or would not press foward against the Portuguese without Kongo's support. In 1643, Kongo finally followed up on the promise of Pedro II and moved their forces to the border. They assisted the Dutch in their attack on the Portuguese position on the Bengo River. The venture was a success and forced the Portuguese to withdraw to Massangano even further into the interior. Following this victory, the Dutch lost interest in conquering the entire colony of Angola. As in their conquest of Pernambuco, the Dutch West India Company was content to allow the Portuguese to remain inland. The Dutch sought to spare themselves the expense of war, and instead relied on control of shipping to profit form the colony. Thus, to Garcia's chagrin the Portuguese and Dutch signed a peace treaty in 1643 ending the brief albeit successful war. With the Portuguese out of the way and an end to Dutch pursuits of of troops, Garcia II could turn his attention to the growing threat posed by the Count of Soyo.
The Count of Soyo was one of the most important offices in Kongo. In the past, the counts had determined the very succession of Kongo's throne. The rival houses had fought hard to put partisans in the position, and the last holder of the office had been Paulo. Count Paulo was influential in the ascent of the House of Kinlaza. In 1641, Daniel da Silva became count and could mean the end of Kinlaza control of Kongo.
In 1645 Garcia II sent a force against Daniel da Silva under the command of his son Afonso. The campaign was a failure due to Kongo's inability to take Soyo's fortified position at Mfinda Ngula. Worse still, Afonso was captured in the battle depriving Garcia II of an heir.
King Garcia II sent another force in 1646. This time the army of Kongo would be fighting not only to take Soyo but free Afonso from captivity. Again, Kongo was defeated by the powerful Count of Soyo. They couuld not take the position or free the heir to the kingdom.
In 1641, the Dutch invaded Angola and immediately sought to renew their alliance with Kongo, which had had a false start in 1624 when Garcia I refused to assist their attack on Luanda. Altough Kongo immediately sent an army to southern Kongo to assist the Dutch, and it participated in the attack on the Portuguese camp at the Bengo, the Dutch directors were reluctant to committ their forces to any further wars. Since Njinga had been active against the Portuguese the Dutch felt secure, but when her forces were defeated by Portuguese reinforcements, the Dutch felt obliged to be more aggressive. In 1647, some Kongo troops assisted in the battle of Kombi, in which the Nzinga and the Dutch soundly defeated the Portuguese field army and forced them to fight defensively.
As the Dutch had predicted, further reinforcements from Brazil in 1648 forced the Dutch to withdraw. The new Portuguese governor, Salvador de Sá sought terms with Kongo, and demanded that the Island of Luanda, the source of Kongo's money supply of nzimbu shells, be handed over. Although a treaty was never ratified, the Portuguese appeared to have taken the island over. They also pressed claims over southern provinces of Kongo, especially the country of Mbwila. Mbwila was a nominal vassal of Kongo, but had also signed a treaty of vassalage with Portugal in 1619. It divided its loyalty between the colony of Angola and Kongo in the intervening period. Though the Portuguese often attacked Mbwila they never brought it under their authority.
Kongo began working for a Spanish alliance, especially following Antonio I's succession as king in 1661. He sent emissaries to the Dembos region and to Matamba and Mbwila attempting to form a new anti-Portuguese alliance. The Portuguese had been troubled, moreover by Kongo support of runaway slaves, who flocked to southern Kongo throughout the 1650s. At the same time, the Portuguese were advancing their own. In 1665 both sides invaded the country and their rival armies met each other at Ulanga, near Mbwila's capital.
At the Battle of Mbwila in 1665, the Portuguese forces from Angola had their first victory against the kingdom of Kongo since 1622. They defeated the forces under António I killing him and many of his courtiers as well as the Luso-African Capuchin priest Manuel Roboredo (also known by his cloister name of Francisco de São Salvador), who had attempted to prevent this final war.
In the aftermath of the battle, there was no clear succession. The country was divided between rival claimants to the throne. The two factions of Kimpanzu and Kinlaza hardened, and partitioned the country between them. Pretenders would ascend to the throne then be ousted.
During this chaos, Kongo was still in a state of war with Portugal. While both royal houses were fighting each other for control of Mbanza Kongo, the Portuguese tried to capitalize on their victory at Mbwila. They invaded the county of Soyo, still independent of Mbanza Kongo, in 1670 on their way to the capital. They met with no more success than Garcia II being roundly defeated by Soyo's forces at the Battle of Kitombo on 18 October 1670. The kingdom of Kongo was saved by the very force it had fought so long to destroy. This Portuguese defeat was resounding enough to end all Portuguese ambitions in Kongo's spear of influence until the end of the nineteenth century.
The battles between the Kimpanzu and Kinlaza continued plunging the kingdom into a chaos not known in centuries. The fighting between the two lineages led to the sack of São Salvador in 1678. Ironically, the capital built by the pact of Mpemba and Mbata was burned to the ground not by the Portuguese or rival African nations but by its very heirs. The city and hinterlands around Mbanza Kongo were depopulated. The population dispersed into the mountain top fortresses of the rival kings. These were the Mountain of Kibangu east of the capital and the fortress of the Agua Rosadas, a line founded in the 1680s from descendents of Kinlaza and Kimpanzu, the region of Mbula or Lemba where a line founded by the Kinlaza pretender, Pedro III ruled; and Lovota a district in southern Soyo that sheltered a Kimpanzu lineage whose head was D Suzanna de Nóbrega. Finally, D Ana Afonso de Leão founded her own center on the Mbidizi River at Nkondo and guided her junior kinsmen to reclaim the country, even as she sought to reconcile the hostile factions.
In the interim, however, tens of thousands fleeing the conflict or caught up in the battles were deported as slaves to English, French, Dutch and Portuguese merchants every year. One stream led north to Loango, whose merchants, known as Vili (Mubires in the period) carried them primarily to merchants from England and the Netherlands, and others were taken to Luanda where they were sold to Portuguese merchants bound for Brazil. By the end of the seventeenth century, several long wars and interventions by the now independent Counts of Soyo (who restyled themselves as Grand Princes) had brought an end to Kongo's golden age.
For nearly forty years, the kingdom of Kongo wallowed in decline. With São Salvador in ruin, the rival houses had retreated to bases in Mbula (also known as Lemba) and Kibangu.
In the midst of this crisis, a young woman named Kimpa Vita appeared under the name Dona Beatriz claiming that she was possessed by the spirit of Saint Anthony. She tried to win recognition for a reunification of the country. At first, in 1704 she tried with King Pedro IV (alias Nusamu a Mvemba) who ruled from Kibangu, east of the old capital. When he rebuffed her, she went to his rival Nzuzi a Ntamba ruling under the name João III at his fortified mountain of Lemba (also known as Mbula) just south of the Congo River. Failing there she went to the abandoned capital and was joined by a vast popular movement of thousands, who informally restored the kingdom in the name of the "False Saint Anthony". Beatriz later declared that Jesus, Mary and St Francis were all alias in Kongo, Nsundi was Bethlehem and São Salvador was Jerusalem in the Nativity story. Some of her followers made tin statues of Saint Anthony in honor of the saint that possessed her. These claims may have made her vulnerable to attack by factions hungry for the throne of Kongo. When she became pregnant, Pedro IV was able to capture her and quickly put her on trial for witchcraft and heresy. She was later burned at the stake in 1706.
After his persecution of Dona Beatriz, Pedro IV reoccupied São Salvador and reunited the country in February of 1709. By 1716 he had the nominal support of the other pretenders and agreed that the kingship would rotate between the Kimpanzu and Kinlaza factions. The Kongo Kingdom was finally restored after fifty-one years of chaos, the state was reestablished under much of the same auspices as it had been formed 315 years earlier. Still, the movement of Donna Beatriz' cannot be marginalized as part of the important changes that were taking place within Kongo in the late seventeenth century leading to the kingdom's restoration.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Kongo artists began making crucifixes and other religious objects that depicted Jesus as an African. Such objects produced by many workshops over a long period (given their variety) reflect that emerging belief that Kongo was a central part of the Christian world, and fundamental to its history. A story of the eighteenth century was that the partially ruined cathedral of São Salvador, originally constructed for the Jesuits in 1549 and eventually elevated to cathedral status, was actually built overnight by angels. It was called affectionately, Nkulumbimbi. Pope John Paul II would eventually say mass at this cathedral in 1992.
Pedro VI's successor, Mpanzu a Nimi was crowned Manuel II in 1718. He ruled over a restored and restive kingdom until his death in 1743. While the kingdom was restored, there were still powerful and violent rivalries. At least one major war took place in the 1730s in the province of Mbamba. His next successor, Nkanga a Mvandu, was crowned Garcia IV and ruled from 1743 to 1752. He was from the rival Kinlaza faction, as Pedro IV's restoration had required. But the system broke down in the 1760s, when Alvaro XI drove out Pedro V and took over the throne. Civil war resumed, and was only partially settled with the succession of two Kinlaza brothers, José I (1779-85) and Afonso V (1785-87). In the confused aftermath of Afonso's death the throne passed through several hands, finally ending up in the possession of Henrique I, who arranged for three parties to divide the succession. This was abrogated however by Garcia V who intervened and had himself proclaimed king in 1805 and would rule until 1830.
Despite violent rivalries and the fracturing of the kingdom, it continued to exist independently well into the 19th century. In 1855 or 1856, Portuguese forces intervened in yet another Kongo civil war and helped to put Pedro V on Kongo's throne. They left a fort at São Salvador, which they maintained until 1866. At the Conference of Berlin in 1884-1885, European powers divided most of central Africa between them. Portugal claimed the lion's share of what remained of independent Kongo, though in actuallity the manikongo still controlled the realm. King Pedro V ruled twenty-two more years using the Portuguese to strengthen his control. King Pedro V voluntarily became a Portuguese vassal in 1888 ending the kingdom's sovereignty forever. After a revolt against the Portuguese in 1914, Portugal abolished the title of king of Kongo ending even symbolic rule,
Manikongos during the Civil War After the Battle of Mbwila or Battle of Ulanga, the kingdom Kongo was emersed in a brutal civil war which resulted in the destruction of São Salvador in 1678. Both the Kimpanzu and Kinlaza lineages held separate capitals in Lemba and Kibangu, respectively. The factions would launch offensives from these bases siezing the throne from each other sporadically. Although many did not recognize the others, their numbers were considered by later generations in deciding their own numbering (that is Alvaro X, Pedro III, etc.)
Rival Manikongos after the destruction of São Salvador in 1678)
The next kings come from a kinglist compiled by Francisco das Necessidades. He created this list based on oral traditions and documents found in São Salvador in 1844.
The Portuguese abolished the title of King of Kongo following the revolt of 1914.
Kongo's history is known to us both from oral tradition and from written documents. Oral tradition was already being set to writing as early as the sixteenth century, and there have been modern ones as well. The most important collection of modern traditions were published by Jean Cuvelier in Nkutama a mvila za makanda (1st edition, 1934, 4th edition, 1971) with the traditions of some 500 clans. Cuvelier's original notes, in small notebooks entitled "Mvila" and numbered can be found in the Katolieke Universiteit Leuven. A summary of a few with interpretations were published by Cuvelier in French, "Traditions Congolaise" Congo 1930. Tradition also figured in the short history of Kongo written by Joseph de Munck, Kinkulu kia Nsi eto (Matadi, 1971). De Munck's own substantial field notes and traditions are also found in the Katolieke Universiteit Leuven.
Documentation in European languages comes from two sources: letters and documents of Kongo origin, since the country was literate after 1500, and visitors reports from missionaries and Portuguese travelers and officials. After the formation of the colony of Angola there were also documents from that source. A very large collection of such materials was published by António Brásio in Monumenta Missionaria Africana 1st series, 15 volumes, Lisbon, 1952-88.Tehe!
Despite violent rivalries and the fracturing of the kingdom, it continued to exist independently well into the 19th century. In 1855 or 1856, Portuguese forces intervened in yet another Kongo civil war and helped to put Pedro V on Kongo's throne. They left a fort at São Salvador, which they maintained until 1866. At the Conference of Berlin in 1884-1885, European powers divided most of central Africa between them. Portugal claimed the lion's share of what remained of independent Kongo, though in actuallity the manikongo still controlled the realm. King Pedro V ruled twenty-two more years using the Portuguese to strengthen his control. King Pedro V voluntarily became a Portuguese vassal in 1888 ending the kingdom's sovereignty forever. After a revolt against the Portuguese in 1914, Portugal abolished the title of king of Kongo ending even symbolic rule.
Manikongos during the Civil War After the Battle of Mbwila or Battle of Ulanga, the kingdom Kongo was emersed in a brutal civil war which resulted in the destruction of São Salvador in 1678. Both the Kimpanzu and Kinlaza lineages held separate capitals in Lemba and Kibangu, respectively. The factions would launch offensives from these bases siezing the throne from each other sporadically. Although many did not recognize the others, their numbers were considered by later generations in deciding their own numbering (that is Alvaro X, Pedro III, etc.)
The next kings come from a kinglist compiled by Francisco das Necessidades. He created this list based on oral traditions and documents found in São Salvador in 1844.
The Portuguese abolished the title of King of Kongo following the revolt of 1914.
Kongo's history is known to us both from oral tradition and from written documents. Oral tradition was already being set to writing as early as the sixteenth century, and there have been modern ones as well. The most important collection of modern traditions were published by Jean Cuvelier in Nkutama a mvila za makanda (1st edition, 1934, 4th edition, 1971) with the traditions of some 500 clans. Cuvelier's original notes, in small notebooks entitled "Mvila" and numbered can be found in the Katolieke Universiteit Leuven. A summary of a few with interpretations were published by Cuvelier in French, "Traditions Congolaise" Congo 1930. Tradition also figured in the short history of Kongo written by Joseph de Munck, Kinkulu kia Nsi eto (Matadi, 1971). De Munck's own substantial field notes and traditions are also found in the Katolieke Universiteit Leuven.
Documentation in European languages comes from two sources: letters and documents of Kongo origin, since the country was literate after 1500, and visitors reports from missionaries and Portuguese travelers and officials. After the formation of the colony of Angola there were also documents from that source. A very large collection of such materials was published by António Brásio in Monumenta Missionaria Africana 1st series, 15 volumes, Lisbon, 1952-88.Tehe!

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