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John K. Thornton | |
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| Born | 3 May 1949 Fort Monroe, Virginia, U.S. |
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| Spouse | Linda Heywood |
| Relatives | Betsy Thornton (sister) |
| Awards | 2008 Herskovits Prize (with Linda Heywood) |
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| Institutions | Boston University |
John K. Thornton is an American historian specializing in the history of Africa,the African Diaspora and the Atlantic world. He is a professor in the history department at Boston University. [1]
Thornton was born 3 May 1949 in Fort Monroe,Virginia. His father,Col. Robert L. Thornton,was then serving in the US Air Force,eventually becoming a professor of Business Administration at Miami University in Oxford,Ohio. His mother,Mary E. (Kelly) Thornton,a classicist,was also later a professor at Miami U. His sister is novelist Betsy Thornton. His daughter Amara Thornton is a historian of archaeology working in the United Kingdom. [2] He was educated at the University of Michigan (1971) and UCLA (1972 and PhD 1979). [1] He is married to fellow Africanist historian and collaborator Linda Heywood.
Thornton held various history faculty positions in the United States and Africa during the 1980s including the University of Zambia,Allegheny College and the University of Virginia. He joined the faculty at Millersville University in 1986 and joined the Boston University faculty in fall 2003. [1]
Thornton focused initially on the history of the Kingdom of Kongo. From the start of this work,Thornton became convinced that the status of Kongo as a Christian country had not been fully recognized through his work on missionary baptismal statistics which he sought to show reflected large scale baptism and used this material to write a treatise on Kongo demography. His work on baptismal records resulted in the publication of the article "Demography and History in the Kingdom of Kongo" (1977), [3] and a contribution on another baptismal document in the First Edinburgh Conference on African Historical Demography (1978). [4]
Thornton's thesis,published as The Kingdom of Kongo:Civil War and Transition,1641–1718 (Madison,1983) advanced the idea that Kongo's centralization was the result of a massive buildup of slave-worked plantations in the vicinity of its capital during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries,and allowed kings to be overwhelmingly powerful. However,he argued,the persistent civil wars of the seventeenth century and the rise of a new population center in the coastal province of Soyo led to the depopulation of São Salvador and the loss of its centralization. In addition to this larger theme,Thornton also tried to integrate a history from below description of daily life and culture in the country by mining carefully the extensive documentation of the Capuchin missionaries in the country. In this work,he deliberately ignored using either earlier or later materials and much of the ethnographic materials so as to determine continuity and change in the kingdom. Thornton would return to this theme in writing the biography of D Beatriz Kimpa Vita in showing the daily life of Kongo in her times (1684–1706). [5]
Thornton's second book,Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World,1400–1650 (Cambridge University Press,1992,the second edition in 1998 extended its framework to 1800) was an examination of the Atlantic portions of Africa and their involvement in the Atlantic slave trade,as well as the impact of Africans in the American countries to which they were carried. In this work,Thornton sought to demonstrate that Africans had been more active participants in the trade that was previously believed,arguing controversially that African economic strength and power were sufficient to force Europeans to deal with them on their own terms.
At the same time,he also argued that Africans were not stripped of their culture in the Middle Passage and retained most of it in the first generation of their captivity. He tried to show how African sensibilities continued to be dominant in the first generation of captives in art,music,and language. He also suggested that resistance in the form of revolts in particular had roots in African military systems,and this last point was pursued in detail in several studies of slave revolts and the Haitian Revolution.
His studies of Africa in the slave trade led him,at the urging of English historian Jeremy Black to write a systematic study of African wars and military culture in the period of the slave trade,which appeared in 1999 as Warfare in Atlantic Africa,1500–1800 (University College of London,1999).
In 2007 he and his longtime collaborator (and wife) Linda Heywood published Central Africans,Atlantic Creoles and the Foundation of the Americas,1585–1660 (Cambridge University Press). This work demonstrated that thanks to English and Dutch privateering on Portuguese vessels,virtually all the first generation of slaves brought to the colonies of these two countries came from Central Africa. They then went on to argue that the long contact between this region and Europe,the conversion of many of the people to Christianity,and the adaptation of various European items of culture,they could be considered "Atlantic Creoles" a term popularized by historian Ira Berlin. Basing themselves of many local archives in the United States,Bermuda,Barbados,England and the Netherlands,they went on to suggest that the Christian background of many early slaves may account for their high manumission rate and their role in cultural foundations of the Americas.
Thornton's work on the African Diaspora had also been accompanied by a growing interest in the indigenous people of the Americas,and their interaction with Europeans. Inspired by this idea,Thornton turned a course he had been teaching since 1995 into a new book,A Cultural History of the Atlantic World,in 2012. This book was an attempt to rethink the heritage of the Americas,and particular North America as owing as much or more to the larger Atlantic World as to the extension of Europe. Thus it sought to have comprehensive coverage of Africa,both American continents and the Caribbean;while at the same time following up the cultural threads he had first explored in Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World. The book was awarded the World History Association's annual prize for 2012.
He shared the 2008 Herskovits Prize for his book (co-authored with Linda Heywood) Central Africans,Atlantic Creoles,and the Foundation of the Americas,1585–1660. [6] In 2012,he was awarded the World History Association's annual prize for the best book in world history. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020 [7]
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Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande, Nzinga was a southwest African ruler who ruled as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, her grandfather Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda was the king of Ndongo.
The Kongo people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others.
The Kingdom of Kongo was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern of Gabon 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.
Antonianism, or Antonine sect, was a syncretic Bakongo Catholic movement formed in the Kingdom of Kongo between 1704 and 1708, as a development out of the Catholic Church in Kongo, yet without denying the authority of the Pope. Its founder was a young charismatic woman named Beatriz Kimpa Vita, who said she was possessed by Saint Anthony of Padua. Beatriz became known for healing and other miracles. It was eventually suppressed by King Pedro IV of Kongo, and Dona Beatriz was burned at the stake as a heretic.
Álvaro II Nimi a Nkanga was king of Kongo from 1587 to 1614. He was one of Kongo's most powerful and important kings, who succeeded his father Álvaro I, but not until resolving a dispute with his brother. Both sides brought armies to M'banza-Kongo but to avoid bloodshed they agreed to single combat, won by Álvaro.
The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. The Portuguese left several of their own number and kidnapped a group of Kongo including at least one nobleman, Kala ka Mfusu, taking them to Portugal where they stayed a year, learned Portuguese and were converted to Christianity. The group was returned to Kongo in 1485 and Kala ka Mfusu led a royal mission from Kongo's manikongo, Nzinga a Nkuwu to Portugal. Following their arrival in late 1486 the embassy stayed nearly four years in Lisbon with the monks of Saint John the Baptist. There they studied Christianity and Portuguese with Vicente dos Anjos, and began the start of a Kongolese version of Christianity.
The Kimpanzu were members of the Mpanzu kanda also known as the House of Kimpanzu, one of the lineages from which the kings of Kongo were chosen during the 17th century and following Kongo's reunification under Pedro IV. They are 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".
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.
Lukeni lua Nimi was the traditional founder of the Lukeni kanda dynasty, first king of Kongo and founder of the Kingdom of Kongo Dia Ntotila. The name Nimi a Lukeni appeared in later oral traditions and some modern historians, notably Jean Cuvelier, popularized it. He conquered the kingdom of Mwene.
Atlantic Creole is a cultural identifier of those with origins in the transatlantic settlement of the Americas via Europe and Africa.
The Battle of Kitombo was a military engagement between forces of the BaKongo state of Soyo, formerly a province of the Kingdom of Kongo, and the Portuguese colony of Angola on 18 October 1670. Earlier in the year a Portuguese expeditionary force had invaded Soyo with the intention of ending its independent existence. The Soyo were supported by the Kingdom of Ngoyo, which provided men and equipment, and by the Dutch, who provide guns, light cannon and ammunition. The combined Soyo-Ngoyo force was led by Estêvão Da Silva, and the Portuguese by João Soares de Almeida. Both commanders were killed in the battle, which resulted in a decisive victory for Soyo. Few, if any, of the invaders escaped death or capture.
The Kongo Civil War (1665–1709) was a war of succession between rival houses of the Kingdom of Kongo. The war waged throughout the middle of the 17th and 18th centuries pitting partisans of the House of Kinlaza against the House of Kimpanzu. Numerous other factions entered the fray claiming descent from one or both of the main parties such as the Água Rosada of Kibangu and the da Silva of Soyo. By the end of the war, Kongo's vaunted capital had been destroyed and many Bakongo were sold into the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
The Battle of Mbidizi River was a military engagement in June 1670 between forces of the County of Soyo and those of the Portuguese colony of Angola during the Kongo Civil War. The engagement was part of a military campaign to break the power of Soyo in the region. The Portuguese won a decisive victory, inflicting heavy casualties and killing the Soyon leader.
Ambrósio I Nimi a Nkanga was a mwenekongo of the Kingdom of Kongo who ruled from
Garcia I Mvemba a Nkanga was a manikongo of Kongo who ruled from April 27, 1624 to March 7, 1626.
The Portuguese colony of Angola was founded in 1575 with the arrival of Paulo Dias de Novais with a hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers. Luanda was granted the status of city in 1605. The fortified Portuguese towns of Luanda and Benguela.
Daniel I Miala mia Nzimbwila was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo during its civil war between the various royal houses. He ruled from 1674 to 1678.
The Battle of Mbumbi was a military engagement between forces of Portuguese Angola and the Kingdom of Kongo in 1622. Although the Portuguese were victorious, the battle served as the impetus for the Kingdom of Kongo to expel the Portuguese from their territory.
The Imperial Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or simply the Order of Christ, is an order of chivalry continued by King Álvaro II of Kongo in 1607 after the Portuguese brought the Order of Christ to the Kingdom of Kongo. Álvaro I was given permission by the King of Portugal to grant knighthoods for the Order of Christ and his successors, approved by the Holy See, continued to serve as the fons honorum for the Order of Christ.
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