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108-665: The Chitimukulu is the King or Paramount Chief of the Bemba , the largest ethnic group in Zambia . All Chitimukulus, as well as lesser Bemba chiefs, are members of the Bena Ng'andu (English: Crocodile Clan ). Potential successors to the ruling Chikimukulu are chosen from the various Bemba chiefs. The king's title comes from the first recorded Chitimukulu, who was originally named Chiti Muluba , but changed his name to Chiti Mukulu ( lit.   ' Chiti

216-509: 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 heart of the conflict were two noble houses fighting over the kingship. On one side of the conflict was the House of Kwilu, which counted most of the kings named Álvaro. They were ousted by the opposing House of Nsundi , when Pedro II

324-606: A Dutch attack on Luanda. While relations between Sao Salvador and Luanda were not warm, the two polities had enjoyed an easy peace, due to the former's internal distractions, and the latter's war against the Kingdom of Matamba . The same year of the Portuguese ouster from Luanda, Kongo entered into a formal agreement with the new government, and agreed to provide military assistance as needed. Garcia II ejected nearly all Portuguese and Luso-African merchants from his kingdom. The colony of Angola

432-495: A Dutch fleet under the command of the celebrated admiral Piet Heyn arrived in Luanda to carry out an attack in 1624. The plan failed to come to fruition as by then Pedro had died and his son Garcia Mvemba a Nkanga was elected king. King Garcia I was more forgiving of the Portuguese and had been successfully persuaded by their various gestures of conciliation. He was unwilling to press the attack on Angola at that time, contending that as

540-456: A Kikongo language summary of these traditions in Nkutama a mvila za makanda . Although Cuvelier and other scholars contended that these traditions applied to the earliest period of Kongo's history, it is more likely that they relate primarily to local traditions of clans ( makanda ) and especially to the period following 1750. By the 13th century there were three main confederations of states in

648-567: A Lukeni, led expansion southward into lands ruled by Mpemba. He established a new base on the mountain Mongo dia Kongo and made alliances with the Mwene Mpangala, ruler of a market town then loyal to Mpemba and also with the Mwene Kabunga whose lands lay west of there of uncertain loyalty but the site of a famous shrine. Two centuries later the Mwene Kabunga's descendants still symbolically challenged

756-523: A Nzima , ruler of Mpemba Kasi and Vungu, made an alliance with Nsaku Lau, the ruler of the neighboring Mbata Kingdom . Nimi a Nzima married Lukeni lua Nsanze (Luqueni Luansanze in the text), Nsaku Lau's daughter. This alliance guaranteed that each of the two allies would help ensure the succession of its ally's lineage in the other's territory. Mbata in turn was a former province of the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza whose capital lay farther east along

864-541: 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 nearly one out of every six inhabitants in the Kingdom (according to baptismal statistics compiled by a Jesuit priest in 1623), while the kingdom as a whole numbered some 780,000. The concentration of population, economic activity, and political power in Mbanza Kongo strengthened

972-564: A dead crocodile. After years of wandering in Zambia the Bemba settled in Mungwi District , having found a dead crocodile. The first Chitimukulu to settle in Lubemba was Chilufya Mulenga. Following the death of Chitimukulu Chilufya Mwango Chitapankwa III , Henry Kanyanta Sosola Chitimukulu was formally recognised and confirmed as the 38th King of the Bemba on the 25 January 2015. The current king of

1080-450: A devastating war on Ndongo, and then to raid and pillage some southern Kongo provinces. He was particularly interested in the province of Kasanze , a marshy region that lay just north of Luanda. Many slaves being deported through Luanda fled into this region and were often granted sanctuary, and for this reason, Mendes de Vasconcelos decided that a determined action was needed to stop it. The next governor of Angola, João Correia de Sousa, used

1188-518: A kingdom to rule by their father. According to legend, they then built a tower to help them see approaching enemies from a distance, but the tower collapsed, causing several deaths. The Bemba leaders were called by their father to exculpate themselves but in the end, their elder brother was arrested and blinded to send a message to his young brothers. After the Bemba Kings saw the cruelty of their father, they decided to leave and settle where they would find

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1296-451: A mission of conquest, also under Paulo Dias de Novais, this time to conquer the country and monopolize its slave trade. A common characteristic of political life in the kingdom of Kongo was fierce competition over succession to the throne. Afonso's own contest for the throne was intense, and he had to fight a major battle with his half brother, and probably against lesser enemies in the early years of his reign. Afonso described his ascent to

1404-431: A new identity, incomprehensible and groundless; 2) fears of loss of what they had known (politically, socially and economically) about managing their lives; and, 3) new centers of power (political, social, and cultural) that they had to learn to navigate. Insaka and ifibwanse , the long-established centers for educating Bemba boys and girls, respectively, lost their power to Western schools that promised successful learners

1512-425: A part of its culture for the rest of the kingdom's independent existence. King Afonso himself studied hard at this task. Rui d'Aguiar once said Afonso I knew more of the church's tenets than he did. 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 (Kikongo alongi a aleke) were the anchor of this system. Recruited from

1620-425: 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. After a rule marked by rumors of war mobilizations and other disruptions, a great riot at the capital resulted in the death of the king by a mob. Ambrosio was replaced with Alvaro IV by

1728-459: Is Chitimukulu . The Bemba are one of the larger ethnic groups in Zambia, and their history illustrates the development of chieftainship in a large and culturally-homogeneous region of Central Africa . The word Bemba originally meant a great expanse, like the sea. A distinction exists between Bemba-speaking peoples and ethnic Bemba. There are 18 Bemba clans. These clans stopped the northward march of

1836-434: Is matrilineal , and close bonds between women or a mother and daughter are considered essential. Richards (1939, pp. 29–30) says that the Bemba ... are obsessed with problems of status and constantly on the look-out for their dignity, as is perhaps natural in a society in which so much depends on rank. All their human relations are dominated by rules of respect to age and position… Probably this universal acceptance of

1944-598: Is divided into semi-autonomous chieftainships under the reign of the Chitimukulu's brothers, sons, and nephews. Nkula and Mwamba are the senior brothers of the Chitimukulu, and are usually heirs to the Chitimukulu throne; Nkole Mfumu and Mpepo are the younger brothers of the Chitimukulu. Nkole Mfumu usually comes to the Mwamba throne, and Mpepo usually comes to the Nkole Mfumu throne. Occasionally, Mpepo and Nkole Mfumu have ascended to

2052-673: Is regarded as the Bemba ur -ancestor. The Bemba migrated from the Luba Kingdom, crossed the Luapula River , and settled at Isandulula (below Lake Mweru ), at Keleka near Lake Bangweulu , Chulung’oma, and then at Kashi-ka-Lwena. They then crossed the Chambeshi River at Safwa Rapids and settled at Chitabata, Chibambo, Ipunga , Mungu , and Mulambalala. They crossed the Chambeshi River again, moving back west to Chikulu. A royal omen at

2160-717: 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 the Manikongo , the Portuguese version of the Kongo title Mwene Kongo , meaning "lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom", but its sphere of influence extended to neighbouring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo , Kakongo , Loango , Ndongo , and Matamba ,

2268-631: The Kimpanzu lineage of the dead Alvaro V . Garcia II took the throne on the eve of several crises. One of his rivals, Daniel da Silva (who probably received the patronage of the Daniel da Silva who was killed by Garcia II while defending Alvaro IV ), managed to secure the County of Soyo and used 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

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2376-537: The Kingdom of Kongo at the mouth of the Congo River . Much of known Bemba history, particularly their early history, is a synthesis of several sources. It includes Bemba oral traditions, historical texts on early imperial and colonial ventures and post- Berlin Conference European exploration in the region, inferences from mentions of Bemba individuals, associations with historical writings on other Central African kingdoms, and Bemba-focussed historiography of

2484-542: The Kwanza River at Muxima and Masangano. Following this victory, the Dutch once again appeared to lose interest in conquering the 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 from the colony. Thus, to Garcia's chagrin,

2592-515: The Milando River reportedly compelled the Bemba to settle (Mushindo, 1977; Tanguy, 1948; Tweedie, 1966). This settlement, Ng'wena, became the first capital of the Bemba Kingdom. The 19th-century Bemba-Ngoni wars were fought in the region around Ng'wena. The Bemba were said to have been ruled by a single chief or king (Roberts, 1970, 1973; Tanguy, 1948). During the reign of the 22nd Chitimukulu at

2700-530: The Nguni and Sotho - Tswana -descended Ngoni people through Chief Chileshe Chitapankwa Muluba. Bemba history is more aligned with that of East African tribes than the other tribes of Zambia. The reported Bemba arrival from Kola was misinterpreted by the Europeans to mean Angola . Oral Bemba folklore says that the Bemba originated from Mumbi Mukasa, a long-eared woman who fell from heaven. The Kikuyu of Kenya have

2808-505: The state religion of his kingdom. Upon his ascension as king in 1509, 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. 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

2916-400: The 17th century allude to this sacred burial ground. According to the missionary Girolamo da Montesarchio , an Italian Capuchin who visited the area from 1650 to 1652, the site was so holy that looking upon it was deadly. These rocks may be the rugged uplands of Lovo where there is extensive cave and rock art that dates from at least the fifteenth century. At some point around 1375, Nimi

3024-474: The Bemba Kingdom is King Kanyanta Manga II Henry Sosola. This Zambia -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bemba people Living in villages of 100 to 200 people, they numbered 250,000 in 1963. The ethnicities known today as the Bemba have a ruling clan known as Abena Ng'andu . This clan traces its ancestry to Mbemba Nshinga who ruled the Kingdom of Kongo from 1509 to 1543. The traditional ruler of ethnic Bemba

3132-402: The Chitimukulu throne. Since the establishment of the protectorate in the early 20th century, during the reign of Mutale Chikwanda (1911-1916), the Chitimukulu throne is now more cultural and ceremonial than executive and administrative. However, this has not removed the chief's political importance. Chitimukulu, Chitimukulu Kanyanta-manga II, is the 38th on the Chitimukulu throne. He ascended to

3240-497: The Christian Bible became known as the nkanda ukisi (holy book). The church became known as the nzo a ukisi (holy house). 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

3348-594: The DRC, and Nsenga and Chewa in Zambia and Malawi. In Zambia, Bemba is primarily spoken in the Northern , Luapula , and Copperbelt Provinces . It is not an indigenous language in the Copperbelt region. Bemba are slash-and-burn agriculturists, with manioc and finger millet their main crops. Many Bemba also raise goats, sheep, and other livestock. Some Bemba are also employed in the mining industry. Traditional Bemba society

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3456-547: The Duke of Mbamba, Daniel da Silva. King Alvaro IV was only eleven at the time and easily manipulated. In 1632, Daniel da Silva marched on the capital in order to "rescue his nephew from his enemies". At the time, he was under the protection of the Count of Soyo, Paulo, Alvaro Nimi a Lukeni a Nzenze a Ntumba and his brother Garcia II Nkanga a Lukeni . After a dramatic battle in Soyo, the young king

3564-467: 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. A Dutch-Kongo force attacked Portuguese bases on the Bengo River in 1643 in retaliation for Portuguese harassment. The Dutch captured Portuguese positions and forced their rivals to withdraw to Dutch forts on

3672-513: The Europeans, the Kingdom of Kongo was sited at the centre 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 , were particularly famous for

3780-668: The Great ' ). In the 18th century, he led the Bemba out from their original lands in the Luba Empire of Mukulumpe in DR Congo to eventually settle the country around Kasama in Zambia's Northern Province . The original Bemba Kings are said to have been descendants of King Mukulumpe and his last wife Mumbi Mukasa who belonged to the Crocodile Clan. Together, they had four children: Katongo, Nkole, Chiti and Chilufya Mulenga. The Bemba were given

3888-631: The Imbangala to launch a full-scale invasion of southern Kongo in 1622, following the death of Álvaro III. 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 , a former Duke of Mbamba. Pedro II was originally from the duchy of Nsundi, hence the name of the royal house he created, the House of Nsundi . Correia de Sousa also contended that Pedro II had sheltered runaway slaves from Angola during

3996-551: The Jagas drove him from the capital to refuge on an island in the Congo River, Alvaro appealed to Portugal for aid, and was sent an expedition under Francisco de Gouveia Sottomaior governor of São Tomé . As a part of the same process, Álvaro agreed to allow the Portuguese to establish a colony in Luanda , the source of the nzimbu shell money used by the kingdom. In addition, Kongo provided

4104-479: The Kongo Kingdom"). Nzinga (known as Nshinga) was Mwene Kongo VII. Nkuwu , with the prefix a , is a patronymic ; Mwene Kongo Nzinga was a son of Nkuwu. Primarily through the efforts of Catholic missionaries , Portugal influenced the internal politics of the Kongo Kingdom; Mwene Kongo VII Nzinga a Nkuwu was baptized in 1491 as João I (John I), the name of a Portuguese king. Mwene Kongo Nzinga died in 1506 and

4212-532: The Kongo became increasingly politically active. New markets for slaves such as Mpanzalumbu (a rebel Kongolese province conquered by Afonso in 1526) and the Mbundu Kingdom of Ndongo also harmed the Kongolese monopoly on the slave trade. In 1526, Afonso complained in correspondence to King João III of Portugal about merchants' violation of his end of the monopoly, claiming that Portuguese officials had not regulated them sufficiently, and threatened to stop

4320-412: The Kongo's early campaigns of expansion brought new populations under the kingdom's control and produced many war captives. Starting in the 14th century (and reaching its height in the 17th century), the kings of the Kongo forcibly relocated captured peoples to the royal capital at Mbanza Kongo . The resulting high concentration of population around Mbanza Kongo and its outskirts played a critical role in

4428-401: The Kongolese monarchy and allowed for a centralized government. Captives taken in war were enslaved and integrated into the local population, producing a food and labor surplus, while rural regions of the kingdom paid taxes in the form of goods the capital could not produce itself. A class of urban nobility developed in the capital, and their demand for positions at court and consumer goods fueled

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4536-522: The Lungu west and south to the Kalundu region. Chitimukulu Chilyamafwa created a vassal Mpanda kingdom over which his son, Nondo-mpya, would reign as Makasa I; Mwamba Kashampupo created a vassal Kalundu kingdom over which his son would rule as Munkonge I (Tanguy, 1948). Bemba kings continued the conquests, with Chileshe Chepela (1810-1860) and Mutale Chitapankwa (1866-1887) bringing nearby tribes under their rule. By

4644-550: The Mwamba Kingdom was a tributary state of the Bemba Kingdom (Mushindo, 1977; Tanguy, 1948). Chitundu became Mwine Tuna, Mwamba I. Under the 23rd Chitimukulu Chilyamafwa AbaBemba, expansion continued until 1808. Chitimukulu pushed the Mambwe people north to a region which would be called Mpanda. Chitimukulu Chilyamafwa’s young brother, Mubanga Kashampupo, who had ascended to the Mwamba throne as Mwine Tuna Mwamba II, continued pushing

4752-609: The Mwene Mbamba became the Duke of Mbamba. The Mwene Mpemba became Marquis of Mpemba, and the Mwene Soyo became Count of Soyo. In 1607, 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

4860-548: The Paramount's (sic, should read "King") court is apt to make a European observer's manners seem crude and boorish by contrast (pp. 139-140). Mukuka (2013, pp. 139–140), writes that With the introduction of the English polity in the (Northern Rhodesia) colony, the long-established Bemba civilization and its intrinsic psychological realities were disrupted. For many abaBemba, the arbitrary amalgamation of 70-plus ethnic groups meant 1)

4968-598: 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 became a source of tension between the two countries. Portuguese bishops in the kingdom were often favourable 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

5076-405: 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 pursuit of troops, Garcia II could finally turn his attention to the growing threat posed by the Count of Soyo. While Garcia was disappointed that his alliance with the Dutch could not drive out the Portuguese, it did free him to turn his attention to

5184-611: The Portuguese archives. In this inquest, one can see that factions formed behind prominent men, such as Afonso I's son, Pedro Nkanga a Mvemba and Diogo Nkumbi a Mpudi , his grandson who ultimately overthrew Pedro in 1545. Although the factions placed themselves in the idiom of kinship (using the Portuguese term geração or lineage, probably kanda in Kikongo) they were not formed strictly along heredity lines since close kin were often in separate factions. The players included nobles holding appointive titles to provincial governorships, members of

5292-472: The Portuguese with support in their war against the Kingdom of Ndongo in 1579. The kingdom of Ndongo was located inland 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;

5400-602: The Portuguese, primarily through Christian conversion, slavery, trade, and European education. The rebels broke away from the Kongo Kingdom, migrated eastward from their settlements in Kola, and became part of the Luba Kingdom in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. A 17th-century anti-Portuguese rebellion in the Kingdom of Luba led to another eastward movement of the Bemba. The rebels were led by two of Luba King Mukulumpe’s sons: Nkole and Chiti. The mother of Nkole and Chiti

5508-609: The army attacked his country and killed him. Following its success in Nambu a Ngongo, the Portuguese army advanced into Mbamba in November. The Portuguese forces scored a victory at the Battle of Mbumbi . There they faced a quickly gathered local force led by the new Duke of Mbamba, and reinforced by forces from Mpemba led by its marquis. Both the Duke of Mbamba and the Marquis of Mpemba were killed in

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5616-506: The battle. According to Esikongo accounts, they were eaten by the Imbangala allies of the Portuguese. However, Pedro II, the newly crowned king of Kongo, brought the main army, including troops from Soyo, down into Mbamba and decisively defeated the Portuguese, driving them from the country at a battle waged somewhere near Mbanda Kasi in January 1623. Portuguese residents of Kongo, frightened by

5724-415: The centralization of Kongo. The capital was a densely settled area in an otherwise sparsely populated region where rural population densities probably did not exceed 5 persons per km . 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 over half a million people in

5832-501: The conquest in an annual celebration. He furthered this with a second more important alliance with Vunda, another of Mpemba's subordinate rulers. To cement this alliance, as with the one with Mbata, Lukeni lua Nimi allowed him to be an elector to the kingdom. After the death of Nimi a Lukeni, the rulers that followed Lukeni claimed relation to his kanda , or lineage, and were known as the Kilukeni . The Kilukeni Kanda — or "house", as it

5940-460: The consequences for their business of the invasion, wrote a hostile letter to Correia de Sousa, denouncing his invasion. Following the defeat of the Portuguese at Mbanda Kasi , Pedro II declared Angola an official enemy. The king then wrote letters denouncing Correia de Sousa to the King of Spain and the Pope. Meanwhile, anti-Portuguese riots broke out all over the kingdom and threatened its long-established merchant community. Portuguese throughout

6048-435: The country were humiliatingly disarmed and even forced to give up their clothes. Pedro, anxious not to alienate the Portuguese merchant community, and aware that they had generally remained loyal during the war, did as much as he could to preserve their lives and property, leading some of his detractors to call him "king of Portuguese". As a result of Kongo's victory, the Portuguese merchant community of Luanda revolted against

6156-508: The current border of Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo . Mbata may have been the senior partner in the original alliance, as he had the title of "Nkaka andi a Mwene Kongo," or grandfather of the king of Kongo. Nimi a Nzima and Lukeni lua Nsanze's son Lukeni lua Nimi (circa 1380–1420) began the expansion that would found the Kingdom of Kongo. The name Nimi a Lukeni appeared in later oral traditions and some modern historians, notably Jean Cuvelier, popularized it. Lukeni lua Nimi, or Nimi

6264-551: The development of a successful sugar-growing colony on the Portuguese island of São Tomé , Kongo became a major source of slaves for the island's traders and plantations. The Cantino Atlas of 1502 mentions Kongo as a source of slaves for the São Tomé colony, but notes they were few. Correspondence by Afonso 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. Afonso continued to expand

6372-519: The end of the 18th century, they became more expansionist; Chitimukulu Mukuka wa Malekano began pushing the Lungu people out of the present-day Kasama area. When he forced the Lungu to move west and settle on the western side of the Luombe River, the Bemba Kingdom had become too large to manage from UluBemba. Chitimukulu Mukuka wa Malekano gave the newly-acquired Ituna area to his young brother, Chitundu, and

6480-486: The external slave trade. However, as the slave trade grew in size, it came to gradually erode royal power in Kongo. Portuguese traders based in São Tomé began violating the royal monopoly on the slave trade, trading instead with other African states in the region. Portuguese merchants also began to trade goods with powerful Kongolese nobles, depriving the monarchy of tax revenue, while Portuguese priests and merchants living in

6588-461: 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 agreed to return over a thousand of the slaves captured by Correia de Sousa, especially

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6696-449: The growing threat posed by the Count of Soyo. The Counts of Soyo were initially strong partisans of the House of Nsundi and its successor, the House of Kinlaza . Count Paulo had assisted in the rise of the Kinlaza to power. However, Paulo died at about the same time as Garcia became king in 1641. A rival count, Daniel da Silva from the House of Kwilu, took control of the county as a partisan of

6804-462: The king had the right to appoint their own clients to lower positions, down to villages who had their own locally chosen leadership. As this centralization increased, the allied provinces gradually lost influence until their powers were only symbolic, manifested in Mbata, once a co-kingdom, but by 1620 simply known by the title "Grandfather of the King of Kongo" ( Nkaka'ndi a Mwene Kongo ). The kingdom of

6912-405: The kingdom of Kongo into the 1540s, expanding its borders to the south and east. The expansion of Kongo's population, coupled with his earlier religious reforms, allowed Afonso to centralize power in his capital and increase the power of the monarchy. He also established a royal monopoly on some trade. To govern the growing slave trade, Afonso and several Portuguese kings claimed a joint monopoly on

7020-672: The kingdom were assimilated into the colonies of Portuguese Angola , the Belgian Congo , and the Republic of Cabinda , respectively. The modern-day Bundu dia Kongo sect favours reviving the kingdom through secession from Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Oral traditions about the early history of the country were set in writing for the first time in

7128-426: The kingdom's economy. Rural development was intentionally discouraged by the Kongolese king, ensuring the capital remained the economic and political center of the kingdom. This concentration allowed resources, soldiers and surplus foodstuffs to be readily available at the request of the king and made the king overwhelmingly powerful when compared to any potential rival. By the time of the first recorded contact with

7236-399: The kingdom. The export of female slaves was also prohibited. Afonso's early letters show evidence of domestic slave markets. As relations between Kongo and Portugal grew in the early 16th century, trade between the kingdoms also increased. Most of the trade was in palm cloth, copper, and ivory, but also increasing numbers of slaves. Although initially Kongo exported few slaves, following

7344-512: The kings of Portugal eventually determined the best way to deal with the trade through the Kwanza to Ndongo was to establish their own base there. In 1560, again responding to a request from Angola, the Portuguese crown sent Paulo Dias de Novais as ambassador to Ndongo with the idea of settling relations with the country. Ngola Kiluanji was not interested in this mission, however, as it offered only baptism and diplomatic relations, while he hoped for military support. In 1575, Portugal would follow with

7452-421: The laity. Documents of the time show that lay teachers (called mestres in Portuguese-language documents) 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. At

7560-552: The late 16th century, and especially detailed versions were recorded in the mid-17th century, include those written by the Italian Capuchin missionary Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo . Traditions about the foundation changed over time, depending on historical circumstances. Modern research into oral tradition , including recording them in writing began in the 1910s with Mpetelo Boka and Lievan Sakala Boku writing in Kikongo and extended by Redemptorist missionaries like Jean Cuvelier and Joseph de Munck . In 1934, Cuvelier published

7668-449: The latter two located in what is Angola today. From c.  1390 to 1862, it was an independent state. From 1862 to 1914, it functioned intermittently as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal . In 1914, following the Portuguese suppression of a Kongo revolt, Portugal abolished the titular monarchy . The title of King of Kongo was restored from 1915 until 1975, as an honorific without real power. The remaining territories of

7776-470: The latter's governorship of Mbamba. The First Kongo-Portuguese War began in 1622, initially because of a Portuguese campaign against the Kasanze Kingdom , which was conducted ruthlessly. From there, the army moved to Nambu a Ngongo, whose ruler, Pedro Afonso, was held to be sheltering runaway slaves as well. Although Pedro Afonso, facing an overwhelming army of over 20,000, agreed to return some runaways,

7884-502: The lesser nobles captured at the Battle of Mbumbi . Regardless of the overtures of the new government in Angola, 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. As planned,

7992-571: The midst of the crisis caused by the Jaga invasion marked the beginning of a new royal line, the House of Kwilu . There were certainly factions that opposed him, though it is not known specifically who they were. Álvaro's rule began in war with the Jagas , who may have been external invaders or rebels from within the country, either peasants or nobles from rival factions fighting against the profound changes and instability introduced by European trading and slaving. As

8100-412: The most important of these concessions was allowing Manuel, the Count of Soyo, to hold office for many years beginning some time 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 to decide the succession of the kingdom, selecting Bernardo II in 1614, but putting him aside in favor of Álvaro III in 1615. It

8208-420: The newly formed Kimpanzu faction. He would claim that Soyo had the right to choose its own ruler, though Garcia never accepted this claim, and spent much of the first part of his reign fighting against it. Garcia did not support da Silva's move, as Soyo's ruler was one of the most important offices in Kongo. In 1645, Garcia II sent a force against Daniel da Silva under the command of his son, Afonso. The campaign

8316-524: 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 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

8424-556: The over twenty documented Bemba factual novels ... Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( Kongo : Kongo Dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo; Portuguese : Reino do Congo ) was a kingdom in Central Africa . It was located in present-day northern Angola , the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Southern of Gabon and the Republic of the Congo . At its greatest extent it reached from

8532-541: The past century. Around 1484, Diego Cam crossed the Congo River on the Atlantic Central African coast. He explored the river and came into contact with the Bantu Kongo Kingdom , which covered large portions of present-day Angola , Democratic Republic of Congo , and Congo-Brazzaville . The ruling monarch of Kongo was Nzinga a Nkuwu . The monarchical title was Mani Kongo or Mwene Kongo ("owner of

8640-403: The plot, the text of which was sent to Portugal in 1552 which shows the way in which plotters hoped to overthrow the king by enticing his supporters to abandon him. King Diogo's successor, Afonso II , was killed by the Portuguese days after his succession, and an uprising occurred which killed the Portuguese candidate, allowing King Bernardo I of Kongo to be enthroned. However, King Bernardo I

8748-547: The political influence of the Chitimukulu covered much of the area marked by four African Great Lakes (Mweru, Bangweulu, Tanganyika, and Nyasa) and extended south into the Lala country in present-day Central Province, Zambia . Despite colonial rule and later independence, many Bemba political institutions remain similar to their old forms. The Chitimukulu is the Mwine Lubemba (owner of the Bemba kingdom) and paramount chief; UluBemba

8856-425: The production of cloth. In 1483, the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the coast of the Kongo Kingdom. Cão left some of his men in Kongo and took Kongo nobles to Portugal. He returned to Kongo with the Kongo nobles in 1485; such commissioning, hiring, or even kidnapping of local Africans to use as local ambassadors, especially for newly contacted areas, was by then an already established practice. At that point

8964-519: The rights of rank makes the Bemba appear so submissive and almost servile to the European… Arrogant towards other tribes, and touchy towards their fellows, they seem to endure in silence any treatment from a chief (sic, should read "monarch") or a European. To my mind, their most attractive characteristics are quick sympathy and adaptability in human relationships, an elaborate courtesy and sense of etiquette, and great polish of speech. A day spent at

9072-438: The royal capital was key to the power of the Kongolese king, and it was the same mechanism of enslavement and transfer of population that made Kongo an efficient exporter of slaves. Kongolese laws and cultural traditions protected freeborn Kongolese from enslavement, and so most of the enslaved population were war captives. Convicted Kongolese criminals could also be forced into slavery, but were initially protected from sale outside

9180-455: The royal council and also officials in the now well-developed Church hierarchy. King Diogo I skillfully replaced or outmaneuvered his entrenched competitors after he was crowned in 1545. He faced a major conspiracy led by Pedro I , who had taken refuge in a church, and whom Diogo in respect of the Church's rule of asylum allowed to remain in the church. However, Diogo did conduct an inquiry into

9288-495: The ruler of Soyo , the coastal province. Nzinga a Nkuwu took the Christian 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 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

9396-489: The ruling king, Nzinga a Nkuwu, decided he would become Christian and sent another, large mission headed by Kala ka Mfusu, the noble who had earlier gone to Portugal as a hostage. They remained in Europe for nearly four years, studying Christianity and learning reading and writing. The mission returned with Cão along with Catholic priests and soldiers in 1491, baptizing Nzinga a Nkuwu as well as his principal nobles, starting with

9504-477: The same folklore and similar traditions, including the way traditional huts were built. Bemba vocabulary includes deserts and camels, about which they would not have known if they were from Angola. AbaBemba (the Bemba people) of Zambia in Central Africa are Bantus . Their documented history begins with the 1484-1485 Portuguese expedition led by Diego Cam (also known as Diogo Cão ), when Europeans first contacted

9612-637: The same time as this ecclesiastical problem developed, the governors of Angola began to extend their campaigns into areas that Kongo regarded as firmly under its sovereignty. This included the region around Nambu a Ngongo , which Governor João Furtado attacked in the mid-1590s. Other campaigns in the vicinity led to denunciations by the rulers of Kongo against these violations of their sovereignty. 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

9720-516: The seventeenth century, the kingdom's origin was in Vungu , which had extended its authority across the Congo to Mpemba Kasi , which was itself the northernmost territory of Mpemba whose capital was located about 150 miles south. A dynasty of rulers from this small polity built up its rule along the Kwilu Valley, or what was called Nsi a Kwilu and its elite are buried near its center. Traditions from

9828-456: The slave trade altogether. Afonso noted that some unscrupulous nobles were resorting to kidnapping their fellow Kongolese to supply the slave trade. To reform the trade, Afonso reiterated the need to follow Kongolese law and not enslave Kongolese freemen, while also establishing a board to better regulate the slave trade. Afonso also established a special committee to determine the legality of the enslavement of those who were being sold. However,

9936-511: The social status next to that of the "white" colonisers. Bemba cultural practices and ideals were harshly judged by both colonisers and Christian missionaries. Consequently, abaBemba asked: "who are we" in Northern Rhodesia? What is "our place" in this new amalgam? How do we "fit in"? Taking advantage of the written text, questions of "who we are, where we are" and "how we fit in" found expression in Bemba literature – particularly

10044-557: The throne in August 2013, and was crowned on 31 July 2015. Chitimukulu Kanyanta-manga II wrote a 2016 article, "The Illusive Role of the Chitimukulu", reflecting on the institution he had assumed and setting out the leadership roles he sought to assume. The Bemba language (Ichibemba) is most closely related to the Bantu languages Kiswahili in East Africa, Kaonde in Zambia and the DRC, Luba in

10152-516: The throne, representing it as specifically a war by pagans against the Christian ruler. But this was probably more propaganda on his part, and succession struggles were probably normal even in the early years of the kingdom. 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 a detailed inquest conducted by royal officials in 1550, which survives in

10260-721: The time the first European presence began to make itself known in Zambia at the end of the 1800s, the Bemba had pushed out many earlier immigrants (including the Tabwa , Bisa, Lungu, and Mambwe) to the Tanganyika plateau . They extended to varying degrees as far north as Lake Tanganyika , south-west to the swamps of Lake Bangweulu , eastwards to the Muchinga Escarpment and Luangwa Valley , and west to Lake Mweru . The Bemba were subdivided into over fifteen chieftainships under Chitimukulu’s brothers, sons, and nephews. Richards (1939) writes that

10368-470: The western Congo Basin. In the east were the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza , considered to be the oldest and most powerful, which likely included Nsundi , Mbata , Mpangu , and possibly Kundi and Okanga . South of these was Mpemba . It included various kingdoms such as Mpemba Kasi and Vunda . To its west across the Congo River was a confederation of three small states; Vungu (its leader), Kakongo , and Ngoyo . According to Kongo tradition in

10476-449: Was Mumbi Lyulu Mukasa of the Bena-Ng'andu clan, which has become the royal Bemba clan. A crocodile ( ing'wena in modern Bemba; ing'andu in old Bemba) is the clan's totem . In the royal archives ( babenye ) at the palace of the Chitimukulu are four Christian statues obtained 600 years ago from early Catholic missionaries in the Kongo Kingdom. Mwene Kongo VIII Mvemba a Mzinga (Alfonso Mubemba)

10584-468: 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, forcing Garcia to engage in humiliating negotiations with da Silva to win back his son's freedom. Italian Capuchin missionaries who had just arrived in Soyo, in the aftermath of the battle, assisted in the negotiations. In 1646, Garcia sent a second military force against Soyo, but his forces were again defeated. Because Garcia

10692-492: 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 support to the Dutch in an offensive to oust Portugal from Luanda. In 1641, the Dutch invaded Angola and captured Luanda, after an almost bloodless struggle. They immediately sought to renew their alliance with Kongo, which had had a false start in 1624, when Garcia I refused to assist

10800-461: Was able to win the battle thanks to the intervention of a heavenly vision of the cross 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

10908-583: Was declared an enemy once again, and the Duke of Mbamba was sent with an army to assist the Dutch. The Dutch also provided Kongo with military assistance, in exchange for payment in slaves. 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 government quickly put down the Nsala rebellion, reaffirming the Kongo-Dutch alliance. King Garcia II paid

11016-411: Was killed by the "Jaga" Yaka , invasion in 1567. And was replaced by Henrique I who was also killed while fighting in the east, leaving the government in the hands of his stepson Álvaro Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba . He was crowned Álvaro I, "by common consent," according Duarte Lopes, Kongo's ambassador to Rome. Álvaro I was not directly descended from a previous king, and so his seizure of the throne in

11124-455: Was named as titular bishop of Utica (a North African diocese recently reclaimed from the Muslims). He returned to Kongo in the early 1520s to run Kongo's new church. He died in 1531. Slavery had existed since the Kingdom of Kongo's founding, as during its early wars of expansion the nascent kingdom had taken many captives. Kongo's tradition of forcibly transferring peoples captured in wars to

11232-630: 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

11340-513: Was placed on the throne by powerful local forces in São Salvador, probably as a compromise when Álvaro III died without an heir old enough to rule. As the reigning 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,

11448-425: Was recorded in Portuguese language documents written in Kongo — ruled Kongo unopposed until 1567. The 16th-century tradition contended that the former kingdoms "in ancient times had separate kings, but now all are subjects and tributaries of the king of Congo." Tradition noted that in each case the governorship was given to members of the royal family or other noble families. Governors who served terms determined by

11556-411: Was succeeded by his son, Mvemba a Nzinga (Mvemba son of Nzinga). Mwene Kongo VIII Mvemba (also known as Muhemba, Mbemba, or Mubemba) also underwent Christian baptism and received a Portuguese regal name as his baptismal name: Alfonso I. Shortly after the 1543 death of Mwene Kongo VIII Mvemba, a Nzinga (Alfonso Mubemba), the Bemba rebelled against the Kongo Kingdom. The kingdom was becoming dominated by

11664-445: Was successfully restored only to be later poisoned by Alvaro V , a Kimpanzu . After waging a second war against his cousins, Nimi a Lukeni and Nkanga a Lukeni, Alvaro V was killed, and replaced by Alvaro VI in 1636, initiating the House of Kinlaza 's rule over Kongo. Following his death in 1641, Alvaro VI's brother took over, and was crowned Garcia II . The former House of Nsundi was consolidated with their House of Kwilu rivals as

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