Manuel II or Manuel II Mpanzu a Nimi (???-1743) was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo (1718–1743). He ruled in a period of "rotating lineages" as planned by his predecessor and was of the Kimpanzu. [1] He had once fought against Pedro during the recapture of São Salvador. [2]
Manuel was the brother of Daniel I, and when he was killed in the Sack of São Salvador, became the main Kimpanzu claimant to the Kongo throne. He retreated to Mbamba Lovata, where he established himself as the Awenekongo which became one of three main post-civil war states, the other two held by separate Kinlaza claimants to the throne of Kongo. In 1680, King Pedro III was ruling the rival kingdom of Lemba, where he claimed the Kongo throne in opposition to the House of Kimpanzu partisans residing in Soyo's southern province of Luvota. [3] Manuel had sworn vengeance and orchestrated a plot to kill Pedro III. Under the auspice of a truce, treacherously negotiated by the Prince of Soyo, Pedro III was lured into a trap expecting to make peace through marriage to a Kimpanzu noble. Instead, Manuel emerged from the Soyo wedding train dressed as a bride and shot Pedro III to death before escaping. [3] The particular episode in Kongo's history would become one of the sticking points keeping the nobility from finding lasting peace.
After the assassination of Pedro III, Manuel fought to establish his claim over Kongo, which eventually culminated in a Battle for São Salvador, where he allied with Pedro Constantinho da Silva and his partisans who were once subordinates of Pedro IV. The forces of Pedro and Manuel clashed, but eventually, Pedro was victorious, leaving him in control of the capital and therefore de facto Manikongo of Kongo. Manuel did not give up his claim for 6 years and continued to rule a rival administration in Mbamba Lovata until an agreement between Pedro and Manuel in 1715 led to the re-establishment of the throne alternating between the Kinlaza and Kimpanzu houses. [2]
When Pedro died in 1718, the agreement between the houses was honored, and Manuel was crowned as Manuel II of Kongo, moving his royal house to the city. He ruled until his death in 1743, when the throne passed to Garcia IV, who was of the House of Kinlaza.
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.
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".
The Kinlaza were members of the Nlaza kanda or House of Kinlaza, one of the ruling houses of the Kingdom of Kongo during the 17th century. It was one of the main factions during the Kongo Civil War along with the Kimpanzu and Kinkanga a Mvika kandas. They are remembered in tradition and are evoked in a proverb, still current in the 1920s Nkutama a mvila za makanda "Kinkanga, Kimpanzu ye Kinlaza makukwa matatu malambila Kongo".
Pedro III Nsimba Ntamba was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo during its tumultuous civil war period. He was the elder brother of King Joāo II and one of many partisans of the House of Kinlaza. Since 1666, the two royal kandas, or lineages, Kinlaza and Kimpanzu, had been fighting bitterly over the Kingdom of Kongo.
Afonso II of Kongo and Nkondo was a ruler of the kingdom of Kongo in the period following the Kongo Civil War. He was a member of the House of Kimpanzu and may have been supported in his claim for the throne by partisans in Soyo. He took the throne in November 1665 in the first of a series of power grabs for the throne of the kingdom.
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.
Kanda in Kikongo is any social or analytical group, but often applied to lineages or groups of associated people who form a faction, band or other group. In Kongo documents written in Portuguese, or in older Portuguese accounts of Kongo it often is translated by "geração".
The Battle of São Salvador was a military engagement during the Kongo Civil War that pitted the remnants of Dona Beatriz's Antonianism religious movement against the orthodox Catholic followers of King Pedro IV.
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.
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".
Alvaro VIII, of the House of Kinlaza, was king of the Kingdom of Congo, from 1666 to 1669.
Pedro IV Nusamu a Mvemba. King of Kongo, ruled from 1695 to 1718, although his effective reign of Kongo was only from 1709. He is noted for restoring the country and ending the civil war that had raged since 1666. The career of Beatriz Kimpa Vita, the prophetess claimed to be possessed by Saint Anthony, took place during his reign.
Rafael I Nzinga a Nkanga was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo during its civil war. He ruled from 1670 to 1673.
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.
Garcia III Nkanga a Mvemba was a ruler of Kibangu and was one of the two main Kinlaza claimants to the throne of the Kingdom of Kongo during its civil war, the other being the King of Lemba. He ruled the Kingdom of Kibangu from 1669 to 1685.
João II Nzuzi a Ntamba was a ruler of Lemba and was one of the main Kinlaza claimants to the throne of the Kingdom of Kongo during its civil war, the other being the King of Kibangu. He ruled the Kingdom of Lemba from 1680 to 1716.
José I Mpasi a Nkanga, or Zuzi, was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo between 1779 and 1785.
Álvaro XI was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo (1764–1779) from the Kinlaza house.
Ana Afonso de Leão was the queen regnant of the Kingdom of Nkondo between 1673 and 1710. She conquered the territories of Lemba and Matari, as well as those located along the Mbidizi river in the Kingdom of Kongo in the 17th century. She was a decisive figure during the Kongolese civil war.
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