Featuring: Philip Brooks and Gerardo Duran
Editor: Lilija Stevenson
Introduction: Today, Phil and Gerardo will discuss the Kongo Empire. Enjoy!
Phil: Okay, so today we're going to discuss the Kongo Empire. The empire was officially founded in 1390 on the Congo River by Nimi a Lukeni. Lukeni and his successors conquered much of Central Africa during their reigns, and the empire grew fairly wealthy as a result of easy transportation via the Congo River and the extensive copper mines within the region. For the early part of the Kongo Empire's history, they worshipped a syncretic religion that combined Islam and their own unique Bantu culture.
Gerardo: We discussed Bantu culture in a previous episode relating to the Bantu migration, and it has to do with some of the traditional tribal practices, but in this instance it also incorporates some new traditions. So the first element is oral traditions, which reflect the Bantu origin. School teachers also play a big role in religious teachings. We also have a syncretic version of Christianity, which comes with ideas such as the black Jesus, which was more popular because of the region. There’s also something called the Nkanda, which was a version of the Christian Bible that incorporated some of their own traditions into it. They continued the European tradition of establishing an organized clergy, and that played a role in the traditions of the Kongo people because they venerated the religious figureheads.
Phil: In 1483, a Portuguese explorer entered the Kongo Empire with a desire to trade and convert people to Christianity. He was successful, as the Kongo king at the time actually converted to Christianity and renamed himself João I. After João I died, his son Afonso I took power and was forced to deal with a war against his brother. After his victory, he declared Christianity the state religion and continued amicable relations with Portugal. As time went on, the Portuguese continued to exploit those in Angola and Ndonga by illegally capturing slaves. These states became Portuguese colonies, despite their territory status within the Kongo Empire. This conflict started a series of wars against Portugal, but they were yet to receive an outright victory because of their refusal to ally with non-Catholics. In the 1640s, Queen Nzinga of Ndonga rose to fight the Portuguese, as the Dutch convinced her and Kongo to ally with them against Portugal. So now the Portuguese are in a war against Ndonga, Kongo, and the Dutch.
Phil: As more conflict arose, the Portuguese in Kongo ended with a stalemate, although the Kongo Empire was left with no succession to King Antonio I, who was killed in the conflict. This began a civil war that marked the beginning of the end of the empire. During the Civil War, Europeans exploited the slave trade in the region, and many Congolese citizens ended up as slaves in Brazil. By 1704, the Antonian movement had begun with an aristocratic woman named Dona Beatrice, who claimed to be possessed by St. Anthony of Padua. This movement created the idea that Jesus was African, and Heaven was for Africans; this strengthened Christianity in Central Africa. However, charity was disliked by African leaders because if the common people had any money at all, it would be harder for the leaders to sell them into slavery. This led to more conflicts with the European powers: eventually, Congo became a vassal state for the Portuguese in the mid 19th century, but we'll discuss African history more in later episodes.
Gerardo: The Kongo Empire had a very interesting political structure because they had a Royal Council, composed of bureaucrats, electors, and matrons. Matrons were really important because they were women that had massive influence in the Royal Council. Women were given so much power because the Kongo had a matrilineal system, which means that people traced their lineage through their mother, and the society placed a great emphasis on the mother’s line (for example, rights to property were determined through the mother). The empire also had very established agriculture and slaves, an important component of their economy. One final interesting aspect of their economy is that the Kongo king supported the church with revenue and royal income.
Phil: So yeah, next, we’ll discuss Congo as it relates to the European powers because realistically, the rest of their history revolved around Europe, Portugal, and eventually Belgium, but we'll talk about that later. So if you've ever listened to “We Didn't Start The Fire” then you get that reference.
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Editor’s Note: Thank you for reading about The Kongo Empire! We hope you learned and enjoyed this episode!