Christianity in the Kingdom of Kongo

    

      Profit or Piety? Or Both

      

      The initial contact between the Portuguese and the people of Kongo resulted in a somewhat mutually beneficial relationship, between the two groups. In general, the relationships between western and central African peoples and European explorers during the late 15^th century through the 16^th century were relatively peaceful. There was a commercial tie that kept both groups friendly towards each other. Some scholars have described this trade relationship as exploitative, stating that the Europeans had forced African groups into a colonial trade that resulted in the Africans giving up valuable resources in the forms of slaves and raw materials, for less valuable European manufactured goods they would soon become dependent on. Africanist J.K Thornton suggests that African manufacturing was more equipped at dealing with the competition of manufactured materials coming in from preindustrial Europe. Thornton argues that the Atlantic trade was not as essential to the African economy as scholars had once believed. In the case of the Portuguese and the Kingdom of Kongo, Portugal’s initial interest in the Kingdom of Kongo was not to dominate the people administratively or economically, but to form a simple trade connection and to continue the crown’s mission of spreading spread Christianity .

   

The conversion of the Kingdom of Kongo to Christianity is unique to the history of forced conversion by Europeans across the Atlantic. While many indigenous nations and communities around the Atlantic world were brought to Christian conversions by violent means, the arrival of Christianity in the Kingdom of Kongo was lead in part by Kongolese leadership. In the case of Kongo, piety and profit came hand in hand. When Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão sailed up the Congo River in 1483 he left some of his men in the Kingdom of Kongo capital Mbanza Kongo and in turn took 5 Kongo nobles with him in his 1485 return to Portugal. These nobles were treated as such in Portugal and received education in the Portuguese language, cultural customs, and the Catholic religion. When they returned to Kongo they described the friendship they had received in Portugal and brought with them expensive gifts for the king, Nzinga a Nkuwuw. Nzinga sent another small group of nobles back to Portugal for training and requested Portuguese architects and missionaries be sent to Kongo. In 1491 Diogo Cão returned with a group of Portuguese soldiers, Kongo men trained in Portuguese masonry, and Roman Catholic priests. Under his free will, Nzinga asked to baptized. His nobles were also baptized. King Nzinga adopted the name João I after the Portuguese ruling King João II. Towards the end of his reign João I turned away from Christianity returning to his native beliefs, but his son Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga would remain a Christian. After the death of João I around 1506, Afonso would become the new king. King Afonso extended Christianity from the court to the people and established Christianity as Kongo’s state religion. Along with Portuguese advisors, Afonso created a syncretic version of Christianity that combined Roman Catholic doctrine with traditional Kongo cosmology. The use of Kongo cosmology regarding religious terms (God= Nzambi Mpungu, holy= nkisis, and sprit= moyo) allowed for a smooth adaption of Christian ideology into Kongo thought. The syncretic nature of Kongo Christianity did not portray Christianity as a foreign religion but as a supplement to traditional spirituality. Opposed to many parts of the Atlantic world, Christianity in Kongo was viewed as inclusive instead of exclusive, because of this there was little tension between the Christian Kongo peoples and the Catholic Church. Catholic priests who arrived in  Kongo felt that the people knew the one true God but had not been exposed to Jesus Christ.

Capuchin Missionary Celebrating Mass, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s Paola Collo and Silvia Benso ,Sogno Bamba, Pemba, Ovando

Christianity in Kongo was not purely a form of European enforced colonization. Since Kongo conversion to Christianity was not forced but an act of freewill, the formation of the Christian Church in Kongo was equally as Kongolese as it was European.  It has been argued that the Kongo Kingdom’s Court conversion to Christianity was a façade to maintain trade relations with the Portuguese. In this sense, the trade agreements between the Portuguese and the Kongolese fostered the growth of Christianity in the kingdom. Whether it began as a façade or as genuine spiritual interest, this form of Christianity would exist until the Kingdom’s dismantling at the end of the 19^th century. Trade was the true connector between the Portuguese and the people of Kongo, but a shared religion reinforced this bond.  Tensions would arise between the Kongo and Portuguese but religion would not be the main cause. A main instigator of tension would be repercussions from the Trans Atlantic slave trade, which I will discuss, in a future post.


Bongmba, Elias Kifon, ed. Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa. Routledge, 2015.

Lewis, Thomas. 1908. “The Old Kingdom of Kongo”. The Geographical Journal 31 (6). [Wiley, Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)]: 589–611. doi:10.2307/1777621.

Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Thornton, John. "Demography and history in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1550–1750." The Journal of African History 18, no. 04 (1977): 507-530.

Thornton, John. 1984. “The Development of an African Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1491-1750”. The Journal of African History 25 (2). Cambridge University Press: 147–67. http://www.jstor.org.libdata.lib.ua.edu/stable/181386.