Reign
He was also a partner in several attempts to organize a peaceful settlement to the succession crisis in Kongo brokered by the old Queen Ana Afonso de Leão with the special cooperation of the Capuchin missionary Francesco da Pavia. The concerts did not result in success however as bad blood remained among all the contenders.
Popular discontent with the king rose in the early eighteenth century, for many felt he had not done enough to restore the kingdom by reoccupying the capital, and to this end Pedro led an armed column from Kibangu to São Salvador in 1694 and was crowned there by a priest. But he was threatened immediately by his principal rival, João II of Lemba, who also claimed to be king, and withdrew immediately. He would remain in the mountain for many more years. After 1700, Pedro sought to reoccupy the ancient capital by sending out groups of colonists, one set led by Manuel Cruz Barbosa, his majordomo, and the other by Pedro Constaninho da Silva (known also as Kibenga), a one-time rival who had temporarily joined forces with him. Pedro himself moved down from Kibangu to a smaller mountain, Evululu, nearer to the capital.
The Antonian Movement
There were millennial stirrings among the colonists that had been sent out to resettle the capital. Several prophets emerged, but the final prophet, Beatriz Kimpa Vita, began immensely popular. Claiming to be possessed by Saint Anthony, Beatriz confronted Pedro on his lack of resolution, and he for his part wished to arrest her as a heretic, as the Capuchin priest in his service, Bernardo da Gallo, recommended. However, he did not, and Beatriz left his capital, and eventually began resettling São Salvador herself. In the process she gained the adherence of Pedro Constantinho da Silva, thus setting up a crisis between Pedro IV and his one-time subordinate.
Pedro IV captured Beatriz near his capital at Evululu, and in July 1706 had her executed. In 1709 in turn, he occupied São Salvador, defeating the final partisans of Pedro Constantinho da Silva. In the same year he won a signal victory over João II, thus securing himself the position as king.
According to later accounts, before his death in 1718, Pedro declared that the kingship in Kongo should rotate between the rival lineages.
Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, Kimpa Mvita, Tsimpa Vita or Tchimpa Vita, was a Kongo Empire prophet and leader of her own Christian movement, Antonianism; this movement taught that Jesus and other early Christian figures were from the Kongo Empire. The name "Dona" indicates that she was born into a family of high Kongolese nobility; she was later given the name "Beatriz" after the Catholic Saint. Her teaching grew out of the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo, and caused her to upbraid the Catholic priests for not believing as she did. Dona Beatriz believed the teachings of St. Anthony and used this claim to attempt to restore the ideal of Kongo as a unified Christian Kingdom. Kimpa Vita is seen as an antislavery figure and as anticipating African democracy movements. While the role of Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita is widely overlooked, the years of her movement are some of the best documented in Kongo's history.
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.
The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. 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".
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.
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.
Pedro III Nsimba Ntamba was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo during its tumultuous civil war period.
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 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.
Rafael I Nzinga a Nkanga was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo during its civil war. He ruled from 1670 to 1673.
The House of Água Rosada was the last ruling house of the Kingdom of Kongo during the 19th and 20th centuries. It was also one of the main factions during the Kongo Civil War along with the Mpanzu, Nlaza and Kinkanga a Mvika kandas.
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.
Manuel Afonso Nzinga a Nlenke 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 1685 to 1688.
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.
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. He had once fought against Pedro during the recapture of São Salvador.
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.
Marcellino d'Atri was a Capuchin missionary from Atri in the Kingdom of Naples who spent several years in the Kingdom of Kongo. His memoirs give much valuable information about the region around the end of the 17th century, although they betray the typical prejudices about Africans of a European at the time.
