Kongo: Political History and Notable People

Kongo Kingdom (All Facts)

• Kingdom in which kings married their sisters, so that over the generations the heir was descended only from the royal spirit and from common mortals

1482 / 1575 - 1899 - (Portuguese) Angola / Luanda (All Facts)

• By the end of King Manuel’s reign, Portugal’s positive relationship with the Congolese and the Kongo Kingdom suffered greatly due to

  • Traders and opportunists having arrived and depopulating vast areas for slave trading

  • White missionaries having behaved like rulers

  • Presumptions of European superiority over Africans having taken over

  • The Portuguese, unable to manipulate it for their own benefit, calling the Kongo “heretical” despite the Papacy saying otherwise

• By 1548, Jesuits began a mission there

• In 1561, the Portuguese crown tried to impose its own choice, Afonso, as King of the Kongo

  • However, there was a coup d’etat as Afonso’s brother Bernardo took over and replaced him and killed some Portuguese along with him

  • For the next 30 years, blood flowed ceaselessly in the namesake colony

• In 1565, King Afonso II was assassinated there during mass

• By 1566, Bernardo was dead and the weakened kingdom was invaded in what became known as the Jaga War, which raged on for the next 5+ years

  • The Jaga were a hard inland people who migrated in their thousands towards the Atlantic

• By 1575, the Portuguese had founded the latter namesake city

• By 1591,

  • Its coastal states tore each other apart on the instigation of Portuguese Catholic missionaries

  • Portuguese adventurers were using slave warriors to carve out private kingdoms for themselves

  • There was famine

  • The Atlantic Slave Trade emerged and was implemented, penetrating deeper into the interior of the namesake colony and the rest of Central Africa

  • The Jaga had taken over much of the native people there

  • Nobody was in control and missionaries and traders raised mercenary armies there

• By 1612,

  • the Portuguese had used the namesake colony to export to Brazil up to 10K of the native inhabitants as slaves

• In 1621, Nzinga of Mbundu, the sister of Ngola Mbandi, the King of Mbundu (in the modern-day namesake), was sent as an envoy to Portugal where she was baptized by the Portuguese as Anne Zingha

• By 1629, Queen Nzinga of Mbundu was victorious in her war against the Portuguese and made her sister queen of the Ndongo, who were previously allies of Portugal

  • However, during this time, the Portuguese planted the first American crops in Africa, maize and cassava, on the coast of the namesake colony

• In 1644, Queen Nzinga and her Dutch slave traders allied to take the namesake latter city from the Portuguese during the Dutch-Portuguese War

• From 1641 to 1648, the Dutch took control of Luanda during the Dutch-Portuguese War until it was recaptured by the Portuguese in 1648 with the help of Brazilian reinforcements

1470 - 1509 - King João I / Nzinga-a-Nkuwu (All Facts)

• King of the Kongo Kingdom

  • He was not like other mortals since he had the superior spirit or “nzambi mpungu”

  • He was baptized and converted to Christianity

• During his reign,

  • A Portuguese embassy to him had arrived in Banza, the namesake’s kingdom’s capital

  • On the namesake’s suggestion; Portuguese priests, scholars, and craftsmen were left behind when their ambassadors left

  • His support for the Portuguese embassy was essential for its success

• By the end of his reign,

  • Portuguese relations with the Kongo Kingdom were strained due to

    • exploitation by Portuguese traders and opportunists

    • depopulation of the Kongo by Portuguese slave traders

    • misbehavior of White Portuguese missionaries as rulers

    • presumptions of European superiority over Africans

1495 - 1531 - Henrique of Kongo (All Facts)

• Bishop of Utica

• He was the son of King Afonso of the Kongo Kingdom

• He built a unique brand of African Catholicism in which he incorporated numerous Pagan elements

  • He did this despite the hostilities of

    • Europeans

    • Indigenous Congolese pagans

  • In response, Portugal called his brand heretical, unable to manipulate it for their own benefit

    • However, the Roman Catholic Church rejected Portugal’s accusations and considered the Catholic Church he built as eccentric but orthodox

    • He was thus consecrated by Pope Leo X

• By the end of his life,

  • Portuguese relations with the Kongo Kingdom were strained due to

    • exploitation by Portuguese traders and opportunists

    • depopulation of the Kongo by Portuguese slave traders

    • misbehavior of White Portuguese missionaries as rulers

    • presumptions of European superiority over Africans

1509 - 1543 - King Afonso / Nzinga Mbemba (All Facts)

• King of the Kongo Kingdom

• He became a Christian and took the throne from his usurping brother

• He helped make the Kongo Kingdom a colony of Portugal

1561 - 1565 - King Afonso II (All Facts)

• He was assassinated during mass

1600s - 1887 - Lunda Kingdom (All Facts)

• Founded by Tshibinda Ilunga

1600 - Tshibinda Ilunga (All Facts)

• Founder and First King of the Lunda Kingdom in Southern Zaire

1583 - 1663 - Queen Nzinga Mbande of Ndongo and Matamba / Princess dona Ana de Souza (All Facts)

• Queen of Ndongo and Matamba (Angola)

  • She was the sister of Ngola Mbandi, the king of Mbundu

  • She succeeded to the throne after poisoning her brother

  • She was initially an ambassador to Portugal, where she was baptized and given the name “Anne Zingha”

  • She made her sister queen of the Ndongo, was who previously an ally of Portugal

  • She was eventually driven from Ndongo and re-established herself in Matamba

• She was defiant and cunning, having

  • stolen her enemies’ tactics

  • divided the Dutch and the Portuguese

  • ruled over the Dutch and the Portuguese

• She and her Kongo forces fought a 30-year war against Portugal

  • She led her forces against the Portuguese

    • first in alliance with the Jaga people as Queen of Ndongo

    • second in alliance with the Dutch as Queen of Matamba

  • She and her Dutch slave traders allied to take Luanda from the Portuguese during the Dutch-Portuguese War

  • She made peace with Portugal after 30 years of fighting

    • Tens of thousands of Angolans died in the fighting

    • Hundreds of thousands of Angolans were taken into slavery

    • Entire kingdoms of Angolans were depopulated

• Under her reign,

  • the Portuguese planted the first American crops in Africa, maize and cassava, on the coast of the namesake colony

1641 - 1648 - (Dutch) Angola (All Facts)

• From 1641 to 1648, the Dutch took control of Luanda during the Dutch-Portuguese War until it was recaptured by the Portuguese in 1648