African History Lecture Notes - 15th January

subject: The Kingdom of the Kongo - 1480s-1650s

this period saw some of the very first European/African interaction, between the Kingdom of Kongo and the Kingdom of Portugal

while we must remember that archaelogy is difficult to practise in this region, due to the hot and wet conditions, we know that the Kingdom emerged somewherre between 1000 and 1400. It became progressively more centralised, and by the 15th century it was a complex kingship with 6 provinces

It grew up around the Kongo river, along with the bordering states of Tio (which was further inland) and Loango (which was further south). The river provided a very efficient form of transport; and they were therefore essentially trading states. The river, through processes of silt etc, also provided excellent land for agriculture

The cultures were very materially artistic, in terms of sculpture and oral poetry, but especially music. The religions of the area were to become highly significant. They were essentially nature based ones, and polytheistic, in that they combined different beliefs together. These 'spirit cults' had different aspects, and were adaptable to circumstances, i.e, as different parts of the environment became important, religions became associated with them.

The Portugese were the first Europeans to visit Africa, and were suprised by what they found. Unlike previous encounters, the Africans were not simple fisherman etc. Instead, they found the society to be advanced and well-organised.
- Furthermore, the King of Kongo, Nzinga, was welcoming when the first met in 1483. There were several reasons for this. 
Firstly, his was an incorprative kingdom, that is to say its strength is based on expanding and involving new people. 
Secondly, the Portugese brought new goods to trade (although the trade was often inbalanced - high quality goods exported, yet relatively inexpensive European things imported) 

Also brought by the Portugese was Catholocism. Nzinga was happy to add this to his pluralised set of 'spirit cults', and so he and his court were baptised. The Portugese and Kongolese enjoyed a brief 'honeymoon period' of good relations, however, it was soon clear that there had been a fundmental misunderstanding.
- This misunderstanding emerged from Christianities nature as a monotheisic religion; i.e, it is exclusive and cannot co-exist with other religions.

Other things also mitigated the good relations: The Portugese demonstrated their firearms in front of Nzinga, who immeadiately saw their potential for expanding his state. The Portugese were also disapointed with the lack of significant, accessible gold deposits. They decided to provoke warfare by giving Nzinga guns. The purpose of this was to create an environment where the slave trade could grow; a profitable alternative to mineral wealth.

By his death in 1506, Nzinga had a very sour relationship with the Portugese; and he had taken issue with Christianity. Another factor was the involvement of rebel Portugese merchants, essentially pirates, who were themeselves seizing slaves in large numbers, including some of Nzinga's own citizens. The high population density of the Kongo made the renegades see the Africans as a 'pagan crop'.

- Nzinga decided to abandon Christianity, but as discussed in the previous semester, once entrenched, well-armed and present in large numbers, external powers are difficult to enforce.
- The Portugese wanted to control the Kingship after Nzinga's death, so they helped one of his younger sons, Affonzo (baptized with Catholic name) come to power, instead of his eldest, who led a so-called 'pagan' faction.

This development saw the expansion of permenant Portugese settlements, architecture (in the form of churchs and a cathedral), and importation of more people and artillary.
- the decided that it was less efficient to attack Tio and Loango for slaves, instead they could just help themselves to Kongolese subjects.
- the Portugese also wanted to Catholocise the royal family, two of which became bishops, so the dynasty supported would them.

However, like Nzinga, Affonzo too became disenchanted with Portugese as they were undermining his state. Privately he abandoned Christianity, empathising with his own people, who were becoming increasingly angry with the monarchy.

- In 1545, Diogo was made king, a captive monarchy.While he was intelligent and disliked what was going on he was relatively powerless to act. He feared an insurrection based on the schism between the capital/royal family and the pesantry. So, he tried to rationalize Christianity, take the parts he wanted, the parts he thought he could use to help his people, epecially literacy.

In response to the this the Portugese, over time, replaced the Capuchin (Italian) monks with Jesuits as leaders of the church. They took a much harsher line on education had to be wholly Christian to get education; not just 'day schooling'.

With hindsight, these developments seem inevitable - the demand for slaves was seeming inexhastable, and the Portugese expanded slave extraction through violence.

When Diogo died, the Portugese again imposed a sucessor, and this triggered an uprising, and two short-reigning kings, who both died in suspicious circumstances.

In 70 years, the state had gone from relative peace to violence incoherence. In 1556, a wholesale peasant rebellion began, largely created by the slave trade. Eventually this led to the even larger Jaga rebellion, in 1568, where the landless, desperate peasants to to violence, which was reflected in the extreme cultic region. Many Kongolese simply left, either inland or south.

In is interesting to note that the term 'Jaga' has come to be used to refer to uncivilised Black chaos, as in Angola by the Portugese to describe the anti-colonial insurrection. 

After this period, the Kongo, to an extent, recovered, but later the Dutch replaced the Portugese in the exploitative role, and by 1710, the Kongo Kingdom had completely vanished.