Mvemba a Nzinga, Nzinga Mbemba, Funsu Nzinga Mvemba or Dom Afonso ( – 1542 or 1543),The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage by Susan Altman, Chapter M, page 181 also known as King Afonso I, was the sixth ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from the Lukeni kanda dynasty and ruled in the first half of the 16th century. He reigned over the Kongo Empire from 1509 to late 1542 or 1543.
Born into the ruling house of House of Kilukeni, Afonso was the son of Nzinga a Nkuwu (Christianized as João I), king of the Kongo. Given political power from a young age, Afonso ruled the province of Nsundi during his father's reign. In an era of increasing relations with the Kingdom of Portugal, Afonso became a fervent convert to Catholicism and sought to embrace Portuguese institutions in his lands. Following the death of his father in 1506, Afonso prevailed in brief civil war against his brother, becoming the sixth king of Kongo.
As king, Afonso centralized governmental power in his capital city at Mbanza Kongo, curtailed the power of the Kongolese nobility, and expanded the kingdom's borders through war. Unlike previous Kongolese kings, he remained a Catholic throughout his life, and worked aggressively to convert his kingdom to Christianity. His reign saw increasing cultural, economic, and religious exchanges between Kongo and Portugal, including an expansion of the Atlantic slave trade. Afonso grew more cautious of Portuguese influence in his later reign, but relations between Kongo and Portugal remained close, with both kingdoms collaborating in war and trade. Keenly interested in diplomacy, Afonso sent Kongolese embassies to Lisbon, Rome, and wrote correspondence with political and religious leaders in Europe. He was succeeded by his son, Pedro I, in either 1542 or 1543.
Afonso is remembered for increasing the power of the Kongolese monarchy, his efforts to convert Kongo to Christianity, and his economic and military expansion of the kingdom.
Biography
Pre-reign Born around 1456 as Mvemba a Nzinga, he was the son of Manikongo (Mwene Kongo) (king) Nzinga a Nkuwu, the fifth king of the Kongo dynasty.
In 1491, Mvemba a Nzinga was in his thirties and was the ruler of Nsundi province in the northeast portion of the kingdom. Mvemba a Nzinga competed for political power and trade revenue with fellow nobles, including members of his extended family, with many seeing him as a prime candidate to become the next king.
1491 saw the arrival of the first Portuguese to the Kingdom of the Kongo's capital at M'banza-Kongo. Mvemba took a fast interest to Christianity, taking the new name Afonso, and he was baptized after his father decided to convert to Christianity. He studied with Portuguese priests and advisers for ten years in the kingdom's capital. Letters written by priests to the king of Portugal paint Afonso as an enthusiastic and scholarly convert to Christianity. Around 1495, his father denounced Christianity and pushed priests out of the royal capital, but Afonso disagreed with his father and welcomed the priests into the capital of his Nsundi province. To the displeasure of many in the realm, he ordered the destruction of traditional art objects that might offend Portuguese sensibilities.
Rise to power
In 1506 King João I of Kongo (the name Nzinga a Nakuru took upon his conversion) died, and potential claimants (including Afonso) rose up to take over the kingdom. Kongo was an elective rather than a hereditary monarchy, and so Afonso was not guaranteed the throne. Afonso was assisted in his attempt to become king by his mother, who kept news of João's death a secret and arranged for Afonso to return to the capital city of Mbanza Kongo to gather his followers. When the death of the king was finally announced, Afonso was already in the capital city and ready to take power.
The strongest opposition to Afonso's claim came from his half brother Mpanzu a Kitima (or Mpanzu a Nzinga). Mpanzu rebelled against his brother, raised an army in the provinces, and made plans to march on Mbanza Kongo. In the ensuing Battle of Mbanza Kongo, Afonso's adherence to Catholicism was seemingly rewarded; his victory was attributed to a miracle described by the chronicler Paiva Manso, who said the army of Mpanzu a Kitima, though outnumbering Afonso's, fled in terror at the apparition of Saint James the Great and five heavenly armored horsemen in the sky.George Balandier "Daily Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo" (1968), p. 49 The story, first recounted in a letter that was not survived by Afonso himself,Akyeampong, Emmanuel K. and Henry Louis Gates Jr "Dictionary of African Biography" (2011), p. 104 is open to many interpretations, and may have been an allegory used to represent a coup launched by Afonso to expel anti-Catholic elements within the royal house.George Balandier "Daily Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo" (1968), p. 50 It is also important to notice the parallels with the miracle of Ourique and battle of Clavijo.
Mpanzu a Kitima was killed during the battle, either by falling into a sort of punji trap during his army's rout, or after being captured and then executed. The Portuguese are not mentioned as participating in the battle either by the missionaries present in the kingdom or by Afonso in his letters to Portugal's king. Afonso capitalized on his victory over his traditionalist brother; Christianity became the royal faith from then on, and the "miracle" resulting in Afonso victory at Mbanza Kongo was immortalized in the kingdom's coat of arms.Linda Heywood " Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora" (2002), p. 84 The coat of arms was in use in Kongo until at least 1860.
Reign Having consolidated his power as king, Afonso began a campaign of border expansion and government centralization. Similar to his father's rule, Afonso developed the royal capital at Mbanza Kongo, increasing the influence of the monarchy while also curtailing the power of the rural noble class. Throughout his reign, Afonso launched military campaigns of expansion to the south and east of the Kongo. These campaigns brought new peoples under Kongolese control. Captives taken in the wars were enslaved and forcibly relocated to Mbanza Kongo, while conquered lands paid tribute to Kongo in the form of valuable trade goods (such as iron, palm cloth, and ivory). The resulting surplus of food and labor allowed Afonso to fuel his plans to centralize governmental power in his capital and secure his throne against any potential rivals from the Kongolese noble class. Afonso also strengthened ties with provincial kingdoms (most notably Sonyo and Mbata) ruled by his kin, helping to secure Kongo's position as the leading power in the region.
As Afonso's reign continued, Kongo's relationship with Portugal continued to evolve. During the final years of his predecessor's reign as king, Portuguese missionaries had begun to play an increasingly important role as educators and diplomats in the Kongolese capital, while a number of Kongolese notables had been sent abroad to reside in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Trade and religious exchange between the two kingdoms grew after Afonso's rise to the Kongolese throne, as the Portuguese supported his pro-catholic policies.Newitt, M. D. D. "8." The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670: A Documentary History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 151–153. Print.
Trade between Portugal and Kongo at the start of Afonso's reign mainly consisted of ivory, copper, and palm cloth, but also an increasing trickle of slaves. Afonso and the king of Portugal established a shared monopoly on trade in the "Five Rivers of Guinea" – modern day Benin and the Niger Delta. Trade between Portugal and Kongo continued as Portugal continuously expanded into the area; most notably, the establishment of a Portuguese colony on the island of São Tomé led to an increased Portuguese demand for slaves.
Afonso saw benefits from the strengthening ties with Portugal, as his efforts to convert Kongo to Catholicism were aided by the Portuguese. In 1512, Afonso received an official embassy from Portugal and send Kongolese ambassadors to Lisbon. Increased trade led to a flourishing economy centered around the highly-productive royal capital at Mbanza Kongo, which also benefited Afonso's government. Kongo's history of military expansion made it an efficient exporter; the tribute of raw materials sent to Mbanza Kongo by its tributaries could be processed into exportable goods, while captured peoples could be sold to the Portuguese by royal representatives. By the 1510s, Afonso entered an arrangement in which the Portuguese provided him with military assistance in exchange for a share of slaves taken captive during Kongo's wars of expansion. In 1512, Afonso led a military campaign against the Kingdom of Ndongo to the south; in correspondence with King Manuel of Portugal, Afonso mentioned that he had sent him 410 slaves captured during the war. Slaves not sold to the Portuguese were retained as royal property or sold into the domestic slave market of Kongo.
As the slave trade grew, Afonso and Kongo's relationship with Portugal grew increasingly complex. Slaves became increasingly used as currency in the Kongo, with Afonso sending slaves to Portugal to pay for the education of Kongolese notables and to buy trade goods, such as firearms. Kongo had traditions in place that regulated the slave trade—the sale or enslavement of Kongolese freemen was prohibited, as was the export of female slaves. Kongolese criminals could be condemned to slavery, but could not be exported. However, as the Portuguese demand for slaves grew, these laws were increasingly subverted. By the mid-1520s, members of the Kongolese nobility had begun to illegally import goods directly from Portuguese merchants, thus bypassing the royal monopoly on trade held by Afonso and the Kongolese monarchy. To pay for these imports, some Kongolese nobles illegally exported slaves to the Portuguese, with some going so far as to kidnap and enslave freeborn Kongolese. These developments worried and angered Afonso, who issued a letter protesting the circumvention of Kongolese law in 1526. Writing in a letter to the king of Portugal,
To counter the trade in illegally-exported Kongolese slaves, Afonso threatened to end the slave trade if Portugal did not intervene and better regulate its merchants. To reform the trade, Afonso reiterated the need to follow Kongolese law and not enslave Kongolese freemen, while also establishing a board to better regulate the slave trade. Afonso also established a special committee, made up of Kongolese and Portuguese merchants, to determine the legality of the enslavement of those who were being sold.John Thornton, "African Political Ethics and the Slave Trade," in D. R. Peterson, ed. Abolitionism and Imperialism in Britain, Africa and the Atlantic. (Oxford, OH: Ohio University Press, 2009), pp. 58-93. These regulatory efforts greatly slowed or ended the enslavement of free Kongolese in the near term, though sources debate on whether or not the issue resulted in the longer-term erosion of the power of the Kongolese kingdom.
Afonso continued to expand Kongo's borders into the 1540s, conquering lands on the Zaire river, launched raids into northern Angola, while also forcing the rival kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba to become Kongolese tributaries. Seeking to better tie Kongo into the growing Portuguese empire in Africa, he continued to encourage trade with Portugal; by the 1540s, he had royal representatives present in Sao Tome, and had also (unsuccessfully) petitioned Portugal to cede the island colony to the Kongo. Afonso had to navigate the changing priories of his kingdom, the Portuguese crown in Europe, and the increasingly influential Portuguese community in Africa, which often had different motivations.