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The Kingdom of Congo. The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. The Portuguese left several of their own number and kidnapped a group of Kongo including at least one nobleman, Kala ka Mfusu, taking them to Portugal where they stayed a year, learned Portuguese and were converted to Christianity.
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 ]
Dona Beatriz (the Baptismal name of Kimpa Vita) was a young indigenous noblewoman born around 1684 in the Kongo. [3] The Kingdom of Kongo was the largest and most powerful kingdom in Central Africa, but its influence was waning; during the 17th century, Portugal became the region's dominant military and economic force.
During this time, the kings of Kongo converted to Christianity. The Portuguese heavily influenced the customs of the Kings of Kongo that would eventually become a permanent way of living. In the Afro-Latino Voices text on page three it states, “As a Christian kingdom, Kongo built schools and started literacy in Portuguese”.
The earliest history of Kakongo is unknown, and oral traditions collected in the region in the 19th and 20th centuries do not do much to elucidate. [2] In its present state, archaeology can only attest that the region was already in the Iron Age by the 5th century BC, and that complex societies were emerging in the general vicinity by the early centuries CE.
Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the traditional religious practices across the Congo Basin. [1] As a result, many other ethnic groups and kingdoms in West-Central Africa, like the Chokwe and Mbundu, adopted elements of Bakongo spirituality. [2] [3]
For earlier history see Catholic Church in Kongo.. The church's penetration of the country at large is a product of the colonial era. [4] The Belgian colonial state authorized and subsidized the predominantly Belgian Catholic missions to establish schools and hospitals throughout the colony; the church's function from the perspective of the state was to accomplish Belgium's "civilizing mission ...
The Kongo kingdom disintegrated into smaller kingdoms, each controlled by nobles considered friendly by the Portuguese. [7] One of these kingdoms was the kingdom of Loango. Loango was in the northern part, above the Congo River, a region which long before the war was already an established community of the Kongo people. [26]