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The Manikongo, or Mwene Kongo, was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The manikongo's seat of power was Mbanza Kongo, now the capital of Zaire Province in Angola. The manikongo appointed governors for the provinces of the Kingdom and received tribute from neighbouring subjects.
The Kongo people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups contain Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo and Lari, Basansala, Bazombo, Musidamba, and others.
Álvaro I Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba was a Manikongo, or king of Kongo, from 1568 to 1587 and the founder of the Kwilu dynasty.
The Kingdom of Kongo was a kingdom located in central Africa in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo. 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 neighbouring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo and Matamba, the latter two located in what is Angola today.
Kwilu, also known as the House of Kwilu, was a kanda or royal lineage of the Kingdom of Kongo.
Mvemba a Nzinga, Nzinga Mbemba, Funsu Nzinga Mvemba or Dom Alfonso., 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.
Nzinga-a-Nkuwu João I, was the 5th ManiKongo of the Kingdom of Kongo between 1470 and 1509. He voluntarily converted to Roman Catholicism. He was baptized on 3 May 1491 and took the Christian name of João. Soon after, ManiKongo Nzinga-a-Nkuwu João I abandoned the new faith for a number of reasons, one of them being the Roman Catholic Church requirement of monogamy. Politically, the king could not afford to abandon polygamy and embrace monogamy, a cultural shift that the king could not contemplate as power in Kongo was elective, rather than hereditary as in Europe. Kongo culture followed a matrilineality structure, where the elder son of the king is not automatically the next king.
The Anziku Kingdom, also called the Teke Kingdom, the Tyo Kingdom or Tio Kingdom, was a pre-colonial West Central African state of modern Republic of Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Água Rosada or Álvaro XIV was ruler in Kongo, Africa, from February 1891 to 1896. His father signed the vassalage of Kongo in 1888.
The Kinkanga, usually known as the Kinkanga a Mvika or House of Nsundi, was a royal kanda formed by King Pedro II, which ruled the Kingdom of Kongo from 1622 to 1631. While King Pedro II and his son Garcia I were the only other member of the faction or kanda to rule, it retained powerful members in provincial offices in the 1650s until its destruction in the 1670s. Despite this loss in prominence, they were remembered in tradition and are evoked in a proverb, still current in the 1920s Nkutama a mvila za makanda "Kinlaza, Kimpanzu ye Kinlaza makukwa matatu malambila Kongo".
Bernardo I of Kongo was a 16th-century manikongo (ruler) of the Kingdom of Kongo, a region encompassing areas in 21st-century Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He came to power after murdering his half-brother Afonso II who was less well-disposed toward the Portuguese.
Álvaro III Nimi a Mpanzu, also known as Álvaro III Mbiki a Mpanzu, ruled as king or manikongo of the Kingdom of Kongo from August 1615 to 4 May 1622. Prior to becoming king, he had served as Duke of Mbamba. Like his predecessor, Bernardo II he was a son of King Álvaro II. King Álvaro III was the fourth ruler from the royal house of Kwilu established by King Álvaro I. In 1622, Álvaro III died while his son, Ambrósio, was too young to become king. The nobles elected the Duke of Mbamba to the post of mwenekongo, ushering the short dynasty of the House of Nsundi.
Henrique II was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo. His rule came after the end of a period of conflict in the kingdom after the death of Afonso V, who was said to have been poisoned. Henrique was able to take the throne as a compromise between the various powerful factions which had been brokered by the Água Rosada house, the descendants of Pedro IV, who had familial ties to branches of both Kinlaza and Kimpanzu houses. Under this peace, Henrique was able to rebuild the nation, and eventually passed the throne on to Garcia V, a member of the Água Rosada house.
Afonso V of the Congo was a Kinlaza manikongo of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1785 to 1787. He succeeded to his brother José I of Kongo without any struggle in April 1785 and was part of the southern faction of the Kanda Kinzala based in Nkondo. He was a king known for his piety and took the pompous title of the powerful Dom Alfonso V, King of Congo, ruler of part of Ethiopia in his letters. It is possible he was poisoned by his successor in order to seize the throne. His sudden death caused a period of turmoil within the nation that would not end until Henrique II took the throne.
Joaquim I was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1793 until 1794, possibly after having seized the throne from his predecessor, Aleixo I, though this is unknown. His reign was very short before it passed on to Henrique II who is credited with the reconstruction of the kingdom after the period of turmoil following the death of Alfonso V.
Henrique III Mpanzu a Nsindi a Nimi a Lukeni was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from the Kivuzi branch of the Kinlaza house, who reigned from 1840 until 1857. Henrique came to power when he overthrew his predecessor, André II. This was with the support of the elector Ntinu Nsaku. Henrique did not manage to kill Andre II and King Andre continued to exercise power from Mbanza Maputu over some of the Kongo realm.
Henrique was a prince of Kongo and a son of Afonso I. He became a priest shortly after the Christianization of the kingdom and dedicated his life to the catechism of the Kongolese, being appointed in 1518 Titular bishop of Utica, in present-day Tunisia. He was the first central African bishop in history.
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- ↑ Oliver, Roland and Anthony Atmore: "Medieval Africa, 1250-1800", page 173. Cambridge University Press, 2001