Nzinga Mbemba
I believe that the African rulers had very little control over the fate of their subjects in the Kongo, Mbande, and Ndongo. The letter written by Nzinga Mbemba of Kongo on “The Evils of the Slave Trade” to the king of Portugal (October 18, 1526) explains it all. The letter was mainly aimed at pleading to the Portuguese king to stop the slave trade. This means that the African rulers had very little power to end the slave trade (the subject) and therefore sought the intervention of the Portuguese ruler (Brinkman, 267). They saw this as the only means in which they could liberate themselves from the chains of slavery because of their limited control over what they wanted.
Additionally, in this letter by Nzinga Mbemba, the king uses a pleading tone to the King of Portugal not do agree nor accept the slave trade in his service (Brinkman, 257). This shows how desperate king Nzinga Mbemba was on the situation which triggered him to seek intervention from the Portuguese king. In a nutshell, according to me the letter by King Nzinga Mbemba clearly shows that the African rulers had little control over the fate of their subjects.
One of the factors that allowed Portugal to take control of Kongo and Angola in the slave trade was because of the inadequacies in Kongo. Kongo lacked drugs and medicines and physicians to treat her people. In the letter, the king begs the Portuguese king to send two physicians and two apothecaries and a surgeon to come with their drugstores because they were in great need of them (Thornton, 1128). There were no doctors and physicians to cure the people and thus there was a need for the Portuguese king to send such people to cure diseases properly. Most of the population was using herbs and other traditional methods of curing diseases, and this was a big problem for the people of Kongo. This, therefore, created an avenue for the Portuguese to demand slaves in exchange for the services. The king was determined to make use of Portuguese teachers, doctors, and artisans to train his people and offer services such as medication to them. He also allowed the Catholic missionaries to work among his people and he even converted to Christianity. He turned to Christianity and changed his name to Afonso (Dominique, 215).
Another factor that allowed Portugal to take control of Kongo and Angola in the slave trade was the fact that Afonso had allowed slave trade for specific people- the war captives and criminals. When these categories of people were not enough to satisfy the rising demand of slaves by the Portuguese, other people apart from these categories were as well sold as slaves. This prompted Afonso to write a letter pleading with the Portuguese ruler to stop the indiscriminate slavery.
Also, due to the many resources found in Congo and Angola such as rubber, gold, and other valuable minerals the Portuguese wanted to gain from these materials. The slaves provided cheap labor for the Portuguese nation. The Portuguese settlers used slaves bought from the Kongo and Ndongo traders to work in these plantations (Dominique, 115).
Christianity helped to strengthen the relationship between King Nzinga Mbemba of Kongo and Queen Nzinga Mbande of Ndongo (present-day Angola) and the Portuguese. The two African monarchs made allies with the Portuguese rulers and converted to Christianity. Afonso is known for his vigorous attempt to turn Kongo to a Catholic country. He established the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo and provided for its finances and creating Catholic schools. This helped to introduce the Portuguese culture to the Kongo (Dominique, 112).
The Portuguese culture became to manifest as a result of this relationship. For example, the Kongolese aristocracy adopted Portuguese names, coats of arms, titles, and modes of dressing. Youths were sent to Europe for education especially those from elite families. By introducing Christianity as the state religion, Afonso promoted the introduction of European culture in Kongo. Afonso dreamed and anticipated achieving a prosperous and powerful state through cooperation with the Europeans. Henrique, Afonso’s first son, became the first bishop of Kongo in 1518.
Similarly, the queen Ana Nzinga (Njinga Mbande) OR Ana de Sousa Nzinga Mbande of the Ndongo in Angola. Even after a long resistance to the Portuguese, she later gave in and allowed Christianity in the country (Kim, et al., 29).
Dr. John Thorton of Millersville University contends that Afonso’s correspondence is essential it is one of the most important sources for all knowledge about the sixteenth century Kongo. His commentary has many teachings on the history of Kongo and Afonso. According to John’s analysis, Afonso never opposed the institution of the slave trade in Kongo. He never fought the slave trade but what mattered for him is who was being taken as a slave. Afonso allowed for slave trade for war captives and criminals to be sold as slaves to Portuguese. However, the demand for slaves increased more than these categories of people could offer and this lends to other people being sent out as slaves. Afonso then wrote a series of letters to the Portuguese kings Manuel 1 and Joao 3 (Kim, et al., 29).
Secondly, from John’s commentary, we learn that the actual capture of people (slaves) was done by the Kongolese themselves and not the Portuguese merchants. We also learn that the Afonso proposed the radical step of banning all Portuguese merchants and merchandise in his letter dated July 6, 1526, but subsequently decided a different strategy of appointing his inspectors to ensure that people who were sold for slavery had been legally enslaved. This was in his second letter dated 18th October 1526 (Thornton, 1144).
Furthermore, John adds that Kongo’s history during this period and the subsequent one is highly misrepresented in most textbooks. In the books, Afonso is often presented as an isolated example of an African leader who seeks to westernize his own country and is deceived by the slave traders who eventually ruin the place (Thornton, 1134). Kongo was not lost or depopulated in the subsequent years, probably because of his policies of abating internal robbery were fruitful. By the end of the sixteenth century, Kongo had come close to ending the export of slaves. John argues that despite the failure is frequently represented as being, Afonso’s reign was of great success. Almost all of Afonso’s policies such as Christianity and contacts with Portugal and the Vatican were all continued by his successors and were still a mark of Kongolese identity at the end of the nineteenth century.
Works Cited
Brinkman, Inge. “Kongo interpreters, traveling priests, and political leaders in the Kongo Kingdom (15th-19th century).” International Journal of African Historical Studies 49.2 (2016): 255-276.
Dominique, O. b. a. “the opening of the Congo Basin to Western influences xvi-xix centuries.” european journal of research in social sciences vol 4.1 (2016).
Kim, Kwang-Su. “The Historical Contextualisation of the Kongo Kingdom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s History.” The Democratic Republic of the Congo. La République Démocratique du Congo 55 (2016): 29.
Thornton, John K. “The Process of Enslavement and the Slave Trade.” Critical Readings on Global Slavery. BRILL, 2017. 1125-1154.