Kingdom of Kongo | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1390[1]–1914[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Flag according to Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo, 1650s
 Coat of arms of Afonso I (c. 1528–1541)
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 The "Kingdom of Congo"
(now usually rendered as "Kingdom of Kongo" to maintain distinction from the present-day Congo nations) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | Sovereign kingdom (1390–1857) Vassal of the Kingdom of Portugal (1857–1910) Subject of the First Portuguese Republic (1910–1914) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Capital | São Salvador (today Mbanza-Kongo, Angola)[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Kikongo Portuguese | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Bukongo Catholicism Antonianism (1704–1708) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | Constitutional Elective Monarchy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Manikongo | |||||||||||||||||||||
• c. 1390–1420 (first) | Lukeni lua Nimi | ||||||||||||||||||||
• 1911–1914 (last) | Manuel III of Kongo | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Legislature | Ne Mbanda-Mbanda | ||||||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||||||
• Conquest of Kabunga | 1390[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 May 1491 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1622 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1623 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 29 October 1665 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1665–1709 | |||||||||||||||||||||
• Reunification | February 1709 | ||||||||||||||||||||
• Vassalage | 1857 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1884–1885 | |||||||||||||||||||||
• Abolishment[4] | 1914[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1623[5] | 129,400 km2 (50,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||||||||||
• 1623[5] | appx 790,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Nzimbu shells and Lubongo (Libongo, Mbongo), Mpusu cloth | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Angola Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo | ||||||||||||||||||||
The Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo: Kongo Dya Ntotila[6][7][8] or Wene wa Kongo;[9] 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,[10] Southern of Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.[11] 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 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, the latter two located in what is Angola today.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14][15] The remaining territories of 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.[16]
- ^ Tshilemalema, Mukenge (2001). Culture and Customs of the Congo. Greenwood Press. p. 18. ISBN 0-313-31485-3.
- ^ Alisa LaGamma, Kongo: Power and Majesty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015
- ^ Mbanza-Kongo, named São Salvador in the late-16th century; reverted to the name Mbanza-Kongo in 1975
- ^ Nassoro Habib Mbwana Msonde, A Revised History for Advanced Level and Colleges: Part One, Xlibris Corporation, 2017
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Thornton 2021 201-212was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Laman, Karl Edvard (1953). The Kongo, Volume 2. Statens Humanistiska Forskningsråd. pp. 138–156.
- ^ Balandier, Georges (1968). Daily Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. New York, New York, United States: Pantheon Books. p. 24.
- ^ Schemmel, B. (2008). "Traditional Polities". Retrieved 24 January 2008.
- ^ Thornton, John; Linda M. Heywood (2007). Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585–1660. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-521-77065-1.
- ^ Fryer, Peter (2000). Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil. p. 158.
- ^ M'Bokolo, Elikia (1995). Afrique Noire: Histoire et Civilisations, jusqu'au XVIIIème sicècle. Vol. I. Paris: Hatier. ISBN 2-218-03881-1.
- ^ Thornton, John (2021). "Revising the Population History of the Kingdom of Kongo". The Journal of African History. 62 (2): 201–212. doi:10.1017/S0021853721000451. S2CID 237296222.
- ^ Leander (18 May 2016). "Kingdom of Kongo 1390 – 1914". South African History Online. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
- ^ Alisa LaGamma, Kongo: Power and Majesty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, p. 15
- ^ Jelmer Vos, Kongo in the Age of Empire 1860–1913: The Breakdown of a Moral Order, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2015, p. 151
- ^ "Bundu dia Kongo". Global Security. Retrieved 26 December 2007.