1390–1914 state in Central Africa; Portuguese vassal from 1857
For other uses, see Congo (disambiguation).
Kingdom of Kongo
Wene wa Kongo or Kongo dya Ntotila(Kongo) Reino do Congo(Portuguese)
1390[1]–1914[2]
Flag (c. 17th century)
Coat of arms (c. 1528–1541)
The "Kingdom of Congo"
(now usually rendered as "Kingdom of Kongo" to maintain distinction from the present-day Congo nations)
Status
Sovereign kingdom (1390–1857) Vassal of the Kingdom of Portugal (1857–1910) Subject of the First Portuguese Republic (1910–1914)
Capital
São Salvador (today Mbanza-Kongo, Angola)[3]
Common languages
Kikongo Portuguese
Religion
Bukongo
Catholicism Antonianism (1704–1708)
Government
Monarchy
King
• c. 1390–1420 (first)
Lukeni lua Nimi
• 1911–1914 (last)
Manuel III of Kongo
Legislature
Ne Mbanda-Mbanda
History
• Conquest of Kabunga
1390[1]
• Battle of Mbumbi
1622
• Battle of Mbanda Kasi
1623
• Battle of Mbwila
29 October 1665
• Kongo Civil War
1665–1709
• Reunification
February 1709
• Vassalage
1857
• Berlin Conference
1884–1885
• Abolishment[4]
1914[2]
Area
c. 1650[5]
129,400 km2 (50,000 sq mi)
Population
• c. 1650[5]
appx 500,000
Currency
Nzimbu shells and Lubongo (Libongo, Mbongo), Mpusu cloth
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Mpemba Kasi
Mbata Kingdom
International Congo Association
Portuguese West Africa
French Congo
Today part of
Angola Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo
The Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila[6][7] or Wene wa Kongo;[8] 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,[9] Southern of Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.[10] At its greatest extent it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The kingdom consisted of several core provinces ruled by the Manikongo, the Portuguese version of the Kongo title Mwene Kongo, meaning "lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom", but its sphere of influence extended to neighboring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo, and Matamba, the latter two located in what is Angola today.[5]
From c. 1390 to 1862, it was an independent state. From 1862 to 1914, it functioned intermittently as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal.[11] In 1914, following the Portuguese suppression of a Kongo revolt, Portugal abolished the titular monarchy. The title of king of Kongo was restored from 1915 until 1975, as an honorific without real power.[12][13] The remaining territories of the kingdom were assimilated into the colony of Angola, the Belgian Congo, and the Republic of Cabinda, respectively. The modern-day Bundu dia Kongo sect favors reviving the kingdom through secession from Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[14]
^Tshilemalema, Mukenge (2001). Culture and Customs of the Congo. Greenwood Press. p. 18. ISBN 0-313-31485-3.
^Alisa LaGamma, Kongo: Power and Majesty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015
^Mbanza-Kongo, named São Salvador in the late-16th century; reverted to the name Mbanza-Kongo in 1975
^Nassoro Habib Mbwana Msonde, A Revised History for Advanced Level and Colleges: Part One, Xlibris Corporation, 2017
^ abThornton, John (1977). "Demography and History in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1550–1750". The Journal of African History. 18 (4): 526. doi:10.1017/s0021853700015693. S2CID 162627912.
^Can also be written as Kongo dia Ntotila and Kongo dia Ntotela. The Kongo empire can be called Kintotila kia Kongo.
^Schemmel, B. (2008). "Traditional Polities". Retrieved 24 January 2008.
^Thornton, John; Linda M. Heywood (2007). Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585–1660. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-521-77065-1.
^Fryer, Peter (2000). Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil. p. 158.
^M'Bokolo, Elikia (1995). Afrique Noire: Histoire et Civilisations, jusqu'au XVIIIème sicècle. Vol. I. Paris: Hatier. ISBN 2-218-03881-1.
^Leander (18 May 2016). "Kingdom of Kongo 1390 – 1914". South African History Online. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
^Alisa LaGamma, Kongo: Power and Majesty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, p. 15
^Jelmer Vos, Kongo in the Age of Empire 1860–1913: The Breakdown of a Moral Order, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2015, p. 151
^"Bundu dia Kongo". Global Security. Retrieved 26 December 2007.
The KingdomofKongo (Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo; Portuguese: Reino do Congo) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day...
The Kongo people (Kongo: Bisi Kongo, EsiKongo, singular: Musi Kongo; also Bakongo, singular: Mukongo or M'kongo) are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined...
Look up Kongo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Kongo may refer to: KingdomofKongoKongo cosmogram Kongo language or Kikongo, one of the Bantu languages...
sixth ruler of the KingdomofKongo from the Lukeni kanda dynasty and ruled in the first half of the 16th century. He reigned over the Kongo Empire from...
Mbata Kingdom is the traditional name of a Bantu kingdom to the north of the Mpemba Kasi, until merging with that state to form the KingdomofKongo around...
The Kongo Civil War (1665–1709) was a war of succession between rival houses of the KingdomofKongo. The war waged throughout the middle of the 17th and...
The Kongo cosmogram (also called yowa or dikenga cross, Kikongo: dikenga dia Kongo or tendwa kia nza-n' Kongo) is a core symbol in Bakongo religion that...
Council of the KingdomofKongo (Kongo: Ne Mbanda-Mbanda or Mbanda Mbanda meaning "the top of the top") was the governing body of officials and nobles of the...
the western part of the Republic of the Congo, Southern Gabon and Cabinda. Situated to the north of the more powerful KingdomofKongo, at its height in...
Kingdomof Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of multiple vassal states to Kongo, though Ndongo was the most powerful of these...
Due to the highly centralized position of the KingdomofKongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the traditional religious practices across the...
Manuel III Afonso ofKongo, previously Manuel Martins Kiditu, was the last Mwenekongo (ruler) of the KingdomofKongo, ruling as a vassal of the Portuguese...
the KingdomofKongo, the hegemonic state of a number of other Kikongo-speaking kingdoms that flourished in and after the 14th century. The Kingdomof Kongo...
a submarine canyon KingdomofKongo (1390–1914) Kingdomof Kakongo (15th century–1885) Congo Free State (1885–1908) Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)...
first documentary mention of the Kingdomof Matamba is a reference to it giving tribute to the King ofKongo, then Afonso I ofKongo, in 1530. In 1535 Afonso...
traditional name of a large Bantu kingdom to the south of the Mbata Kingdom, until merging with that state to form the KingdomofKongo around 1375 AD....
the KingdomofKongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the northeast, center, and east, the kingdomsof Azande...
present-day Nigeria) and in the Kingdom ofKongo and was brought over by the enslaved Africans, who (in the early history of the art form) used it to sing about...
Mwenekongo) was the title of the ruler of the KingdomofKongo, a kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries and consisted of land in present-day...
The Kingdomof Luba or Luba Empire (1585–1889) was a pre-colonial Central African state that arose in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in...
Beatrice of Congo, was born near Mount Kibangu in Angola, ancient KongoKingdom, around 1684. She was born into a family of the Kongo nobility, probably of the...
In the KongoKingdom and its vassals (Loango, Kakongo, Ngoyo), the woven arts were emblematic of kingship and nobility. The coarse filament stripped from...
1380–1420) was the traditional founder of the Lukeni kanda dynasty, first king ofKongo and founder of the KingdomofKongo Dia Ntotila. The name Nimi a Lukeni...
Bundu dia Kongo (Kikongo; lit. "Gathering ofKongo"), known as BDK, is a new religious movement with a political and cultural agenda that is associated...
(secondary coordinates) Kongo Central (Kongo: Kongo dia Kati), formerly Bas-Congo, is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital...
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