1 / 14

The Kingdoms of the Kongo and Mwene Mutapa

The Kingdoms of the Kongo and Mwene Mutapa. Aim: Describe the major political, economic and social achievements of the Kongo Empire?. http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/05/pre-colonial-african-kingdom-of-kongo.html.

flavio
Télécharger la présentation

The Kingdoms of the Kongo and Mwene Mutapa

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Kingdoms of the Kongo and MweneMutapa Aim: Describe the major political, economic and social achievements of the Kongo Empire? http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/05/pre-colonial-african-kingdom-of-kongo.html

  2. 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

  3. 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 'MweneKongo', 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. 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. • Kongonot 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.

  7. The Portuguese and Christianity • When Nzingaa Nkuwu converted to Christianity. • Cãoreturned 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. • Nzingaa Nkuwu took the name of João I in honor of Portugal's king at the time, João II.

  8. AfonsoMvemba a Nzinga. • João I ruled until his death around 1506 and was succeeded by his son AfonsoMvemba a Nzinga. • He faced a serious challenge from a half brother, Mpanzu a Kitima. • The king overcame his brother in a battle waged at MbanzaKongo. • 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.

  9. 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 Ruid'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. Ruid'Aguir once said Afonso I knew more of the church's tenets than he did.

  10. 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.

  11. 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 nkandaukisi. 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.

  12. 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.

More Related