The largest state in central West Africa around 1500 was the Kingdom of Kongo, stretching along the estuary of the Congo River in territory that today lies within Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1483, the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão made contact with Kongo and several years later visited its inland capital. When he sailed home he was accompanied by Kongo emissaries, who King Nzinga a Kuwu dispatched to Lisbon to learn European ways. They returned in 1491, along with Portuguese priests, artisans, and soldiers who brought numerous European goods, including a printing press. In the same year, the king and his son, Nzinga Mbemba, were baptized as Catholics.Around 1506, Nzinga Mbemba, who took the name Afonso after his baptism, succeeded his father and ruled until about 1543. Afonso promoted the introduction of European culture in his kingdom by proclaiming Christianity the state religion (a step that affected few of his subjects), imitating the etiquette of Portuguese royalty, and using the Portuguese language in state business. His son Henrique was educated in Portugal and returned to serve as the region's Roman Catholic bishop. European firearms, horses, and cattle were introduced, and Afonso dreamed of achieving a powerful and prosperous state through cooperation with the Europeans. By the time of his death, however, his kingdom verged on disintegration, in no small measure because of the Portuguese. As many later African rulers were to discover, the introduction of European products and customs caused dissension and social instability. Worse, Portuguese involvement in the slave trade undermined Afonso's authority and made his subjects restive. In 1526, the king wrote the following letters that I would like you to read (you can read them by clicking here) to King John III of Portugal, urging him to control his rapacious subjects. The documents are part of a collection of twenty-four letters that Afonso and his Portuguese-educated, native secretaries dispatched to the kings of Portugal on a variety of issues.
After you have read a sampling of these letters, I would like for you to consider and discuss the following: According to Afonso, what have been the detrimental effects of the Portuguese presence in his kingdom? What do the letters reveal about the workings of the slave trade in the kingdom? Who participated in it? What do the letters reveal about Afonso's attitude toward slavery? Does he oppose the practice as such or only certain aspects of it? What steps had the kings taken to deal with the problems caused by the Portuguese? What do the letters suggest about the effectiveness of these steps? How would you characterize Afonso's attitude toward the power and authority of the king of Portugal? Does he consider himself inferior to the Portuguese king or his equal? How would you characterize King Afonso's conception of the ideal relationship between the Portuguese and his kingdom? Your thoughts...
17 comments:
It seems that the Portugese had little care for the Kongo kingdom by undermining them with the slave trade. The slaves that they bought were Kongo citizens that rival states and vassals captured in return for firearms that would help them overthrow the Kongo Kingdom. Also in the second section disease seems to be a major problem in Kongo due to the lack of learned physicians as well as the conversion to Christianity which limited methods of healing. Local animist religions were relying on ancient practices and plants to help cure illness while Christians firmly believed that their faith would save them and it was not. These diseases might also be coming from Portugal because of Europes increased interaction in the African web.
the king kept constantly repeating words like your highness, we beg u,i kiss ur hand, and many more which show the portugese power in kongo. the king was trying to persuade the portugese king to not trade with the people against whom the kongo king was against and that they shouldn't take all people for slaves. so in a nice way the kongo king is saying "get out!" funny how before the africans had control over their land but now the portugese had the power...the king also mentions things about christianity and promoting it. this shows how he is tryig to persuade the portugese with religion. every change that happened, happened because of trade and power of guns and slavery.
he starts of by saying that the portuguese have basically brought disorder to the Kongo kingdom. The king says that before they had their merchants and ships under control but now that the portuguese have given them more and valuable objects, that they now kind of have their own little power and dont need to follow the king's orders anymore. The king is losing control little by little. Also he recognises the fact that slavery is becoming a problem. No longer is it just a part of trade, it is the heart of Portuguese power. Without slaves, the portuguese wouldnot be able to give their weaponry to all parts of the Kongo kingdom and its enemies. If that wasn't possible, then there would still be order and som equality. The Portuguese show their kindness by saying that they will give the kongolians anything that they need, so they ask for doctors and surgeons essentially to help cure the diseases. They say those who are relying on faith to save them are dying and those who practise old healing methods are too dying.
in the fist letter that the king of kongo sent to king john III sounds very polite and proper, which i dont understand why? he is also a king and his kingdom is falling apart. personally i would be forgetin to use manners and worry more about saving my kingdom
The letters seem to show that the Kongo king is acting infferior. In all letters he is asking the Portuguese for help with problems and in the end of the first he says, "I kiss your hands many times." It also seems that when Kongo asks for help, the Portuguese ignore them. The same problem is brought up more than once which leads me to beleive that Portugal basically doesn't care that they are stealing slaves or is doing it on purpose to try to take down Kongo. It seems that overall Afonso believes that the Portuguese are stronger and have better knowledge.
Well it looks like the king of Kongo was either sucking up to the king of Portugal, or just had A LOT of respect for him. He kept saying things like "I kiss your hands many times" and "Your Highness." It's obvious that the Portugese were the ones in real control. The king og Kongo was trying to say "stop taking our people and use them for slaves and stop trading with others we don't like." I also noticed that the king was using a lot of terms toward Christianity. Maybe he was trying to reach out and get a eraction from the Portugese by doing so. Like you said Mr. Prill, the Portugese converted the Kongo king to Christianity to get better trade and commerce out of it, so maybe the Kongo king was trying to influence Portual into agreeing with him by using the same sort of tactics. It makes the most since.
This document shows that the Portuguese sorta know what they are doing when entering and trading guns for slaves. They show little caring for the fact that they are also arming the enemies of kongo's government. but in the end the main goal of the portuguese is to obtain slaves and they end up willing to do it for anything not caring really who they are affecting (their "allies" of kongo)
The kings seem very cordil(sp?) in their interactions. Neither king seems to really oppose or have an issue wit the idea of slavery. and these letters really do show how the Portugese came in as trying to form a business relationship but then change to slowly sneakily trying to take over the empire.
It seems like he his against slavery, but understands that for his kingdom to be powerful they would have to do business with the europeans. I think that he's mainly concerned that nobles and people of high rank are being seized, not just captives from their enemies and poor people.
from these letters you can trell the portugese are really the ones in control. in the first letter the king of kongo is very polite, if i were him i wouldnt have been so nice. i mean you are trying to save your kingdom for crying out loud. he tried to use some christianity in the letters, i think it was to try and relate.
from these letters you can trell the portugese are really the ones in control. in the first letter the king of kongo is very polite, if i were him i wouldnt have been so nice. i mean you are trying to save your kingdom for crying out loud. he tried to use some christianity in the letters, i think it was to try and relate.
Afonso,the King of Kongo, wrote these letters in dire need of help. He is begging for the Portugese to pull out of his kingdom. He claims that the Portugese are supplying his nobles and merchants with things that they don't need from them. He is implying that people are becoming self sufficient and no longer need protection from the king. At this point the conflict has been going on for some time and will lead to the downfall of the kingdom. This display of greed and selfishness by the Portugese is certainly not the last.
okay, so in short, the Portugese are dominating the Kongolese in every way, shape, and form. common phrases that the Kongolese king uses, such as "I kiss your hand" show this inferiority. The Portugese start off telling they are in control, and this leads to the king bowing to every will the Portugese have. The Kongolese converted to Christianity in an attempt to appease their Portugese suppressors, but it was all in vain. eventually, Kongo falls due to Portugese colonies in Angola (i think it was in Angola) deciding to uproot this society. The Portugese kill everything they come in contact with. Period.
wow you can really see this power from the portugese come through in these letters. Like Alex Bullock said the king of Kongo was way to nice. Seemed to me like he was trying to say in a polite manner GET OUT but that clearly didnt go over so well.. haha
The power of Portuguese is definitely shown in this letter. As Nidhi mentioned, he kept using words of respect. Even though he was a king of a state. ANd also, the king of kongo disagreed with the act of slave trading (right?). This is shown in the italics in the first letter. The last part of this letter shows how desparate the Kongo kingdom was in need of physicians.
The king of Kongo seems to be begging for the Portuguese to see their ways and not to trade with their "enemies" nor take up obsurd amounts of humans to be forced into slavery. The main reason he could be "kissing up" to the Portuguese rather than trying to state his authority in the letter would be because he realizes just as much as the next guy that the Portuguese are the ones with the ample amount of weapons. If they refuse to trade weapons for slaves with Kongo, Kongo then falls to the clashing areas around the region. Not only this, but if the Portuguese become angry over this, they can act with brute force.
Alfonso sounds very worried about his kingdom and the impact of the Portugese and their slave raids. He knows they are lying and staling and it is because of the merchants. He decides to not be apart of the mercantile business at all and to not buy slaves. He is asking the other king for some help with getting preists, teachers, and some simple goods, but I think it is more of an alliance he is trying to create against the Portugese.
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