Kingdom of Kongo

The Kingdom of Kongo grew from the late 14th century around its capital, Mbanza Kongo, in what is now northern Angola. It was a centralised state with provinces, governors, taxes and a currency of nzimbu shells.

Portuguese ships arrived in the 1480s, and Kongo's rulers dealt with them as equals, exchanging ambassadors and letters. King Afonso I, who ruled from 1509, wrote to the king of Portugal complaining about Portuguese traders kidnapping his people into slavery. His son Henrique became one of the first sub-Saharan Africans made a Catholic bishop.

Kongo also sent envoys to the Pope. Its ambassador Antonio Manuel ne Vunda reached Rome and died there in 1608.

Wars with Portugal, including the Battle of Mbwila in 1665, and civil conflict weakened the kingdom. In the early 1700s the young prophet Kimpa Vita led a movement to reunify it. The Kongo monarchy survived in reduced form until Portugal abolished it in 1914.