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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 Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. [11]
This is a list of the rulers of the Kingdom of Kongo known commonly as the Manikongos (KiKongo: Mwenekongo). Mwene (plural: Awene) in Kikongo meant a person holding authority, particularly judicial authority, derived from the root -wene which meant, by the sixteenth century at least, territory over which jurisdiction was held.
The Kingdom of Kongo controlled much of western and central Africa including what is now the western portion of the DR Congo between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. At its peak it had many as 500,000 people, and its capital was known as Mbanza-Kongo (south of Matadi , in modern-day Angola ).
[3]: 24–25 This polity or region was first mentioned in texts of the Kingdom of Kongo in the late 16th century, although it probably existed much earlier. It was only then being incorporated into Kongo, through the kingdom's eastern province of Mbata. It is unclear what the Seven Kingdoms were, though perhaps they included Kundi and Okanga.
Kongo oral tradition suggests that the Kingdom of Kongo was founded before the 14th century and the 13th century. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] The kingdom was modeled not on hereditary succession as was common in Europe, but based on an election by the court nobles from the Kongo people.
There were many kingdoms and empires in all regions of the continent of Africa throughout history. A kingdom is a state with a king or queen as its head. [1] An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant centre and subordinate peripheries".
The capital of this Kongolese kingdom, Mbanza Kongo, later baptized as São Salvador by the Portuguese, is a town in northern Angola near the border with the DRC [clarification needed]. [ 1 ] From the capital they ruled over an empire encompassing large parts of present-day Angola, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Prior to the rise of the Kwilu kanda, the Kilukeni kanda or House of Lukeni had ruled Kongo since its inception around the end of the 14th century. [1] After the death of King Henrique I, power passed into the hands of Álvaro I. Álvaro I was Henrique I's stepson, which probably explains why a new kanda was formed when he managed to inherit the throne. [2]