Aim: Describe the major political, economic and social achievements of the Kongo Empire?

The Kingdoms of the Kongo and Mwene Mutapa

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PRE-COLONIAL AFRICAN KINGDOM OF KONGO: ONCE A GREAT COLOSUS

Located in southwest Africa.

Present day it consists of northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The empire consisted of six provinces ruled by a monarch, the Manikongo of the Bakongo (Kongo peoples).

Image: BANZA KONGO, Capital of the Kingdom of Kongo

Map of the Kingdom of Kongo 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 Portuguese version of the Kongo title 'Mwene Kongo', meaning lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom, but its sphere of influence extended to neighboring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Ndongo and Matamba.

It was an agricultural society whose people were skilled in weaving, pottery making, blacksmithing, and carving.

There was a sharp gender division of labor: women dominated crop cultivation

and domestic tasks men cleared the forest, hunted, and

traded.

Portuguese When the leader of the first

Portuguese expedition, the navigator Diogo Cao, landed in 1483 , he was astonished to discover the existence of a centralized political state(an African replica of the Portuguese kingdom).

The Portuguese first dealt

with this kingdom accordingly, on a more or less equal basis, exchanging ambassadors. Portuguese audience bowing

before the King of Kongo

Missionary Efforts The king of Kongo was baptised

in 1491 by the Portuguese who gave him the name of their king, Joao.

Under his successor, Afonso, Christianity spread even further throughout the kingdom.

However, instead of becoming a religion of the masses, it was adopted by a small ruling elite who made it a royal cult, reinforcing their political authority.

One of Afonso’s sons was even ordained a bishop as early as 1518, the first black bishop ever.

The Kongo Kingdom (1400 – 1914)

The missionaries left behind a vivid description of the development of the kingdom which permitted a detailed reconstruction of the daily lives of its inhabitants at a time when their civilization was at its peak.

They acquired a mastery of metallurgy, law, weaving and textiles. The art of the Kongo remains, even today, one of the most elaborate in Africa, making use of wood, cloth, terra cotta and even stones.

Kongo not only survived contact with the Portuguese but continued expansion and development into a centralized state until the start of the civil wars in the late seventeenth century.

The memory of this magnificent kingdom which proclaimed very early the achievements of black men, is still present in the minds of many intellectuals and leaders of Africa today.

The Portuguese and ChristianityWhen Nzinga a Nkuwu

converted to Christianity. Cão returned to the kingdom

with Roman Catholic priests and soldiers in 1491, baptizing Nzinga a Nkuwu as well as his principal nobles.

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.

Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga. João I ruled until his death around 1506 and

was succeeded by his son Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga.

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 1506, 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 that was used by all following kings on official documents, royal paraphernalia and the like until 1860.

While King João I later reverted to his traditional beliefs, Afonso I established Christianity as the state religion of his kingdom.

King Afonso I Worked to create a viable version of

the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo, providing for its income from royal assets and taxation that provided salaries for its workers.

Along with advisers 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 once said Afonso I knew more of the church's tenets than he did.

Kongo Church and Education 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.

Catholic Priest Burning Idol House

Introduction of KiKongo words to translate Christian concepts.

The KiKongo words ukisi (an abstract word meaning charm, but used to mean "holy") and nkanda (meaning book) 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.

Strong Priesthood 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 run Kongo's new church.

He died in 1531 as he was about to go to Europe for the Council of Trent.