|
Early Missionaries
THE KONGO
In 1490 the first missionaries came to
Sub-Saharan Africa at the request of King Nzinga of Kongo (also known
as the Manikongo). They came with craftsmen who rebuilt the Manikongo's
capital in stone at Mbanza Kongo (in the North of modern Angola), and
baptised the King. King Nzinga's son Afonso (born Nzinga Mbemba) was sent
to Portugal to study and amazed the catholic hierarchy with his intelligence
and intense piety.
"It seems to me from the way he speaks as
though he is not a man but rather an angel, sent by the Lord into this
kingdom to convert it; for I assure that is he who instructs us, and that
he knows better than we do the Prophets and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the lives of the saints and all the things concerning out Holy
Mother the Church鈥or he devotes himself entirely to study, so that it
often happens that he falls asleep over his books, and often he forgets
to eat and drink in talking of the things of Our Lord."
The
Franciscan missionary, Rui d'Aguiar, writing to King Manuel of Portugal about
the piety of the Mani Kongo, King Afonso of the Kongo, 25th May 1516.
Afonso's son, Henrique, subsequently became the
first black African bishop in the Catholic church. But the kingdom of the Kongo
was ruined by the slave trade, which caused a massive drain on manpower.
THE SOYO
The Soyo people were initially junior partners
in an alliance with the Manikongo, but this changed in the 17th century.
The Soyo traded with the Dutch from whom they bought firearms in exchange
for slaves, ivory and copper. The Soyo eventually usurped the Manikongo
and laid waste Sao Salvador, the Kongo seat of power. The Soyo set up
their capital in Mbanza Soyo (now modern Porto Rico on Zaire river in
northern Angola). By 1665 the Kongo empire had largely disintegrated.
THE SOYO ELITE
Capuchin missionaries from Portugal established
themselves as crucial intermediaries between the Soyo and Europe. They were
helped by eight or ten interpreters, many related to the ruler, bound by a vow
of secrecy and governed by many rules. The interpreters were a privileged group
and did not pay tax or do military service. Their job was to translate during
confession, prepare the altar and teach. By the late 17th century the ruler
of Soyo was attending mass three times a week, carried in a hammock, wearing
a cross of solid gold.
However, there was conflict between the Capuchins and the Soyo over the issue
of monogamous marriage and traditional religious practices. The Capuchins did
not want the Soyo to sell baptised slaves to the English or other non-Catholic
traders. They insisted that baptised slaves could only be sold to the Portuguese.
POSSESSION
At the beginning of the 18th century there was
an attempt to revive the fortunes of the Kongo empire. In 1704, Dona Beatriz
Kimpa Vita, a young Kongolese woman, born to a noble Catholic family, claimed
to be possessed by the spirit of St. Anthony. Inspired by this visitation she
set about fighting to reestablish the preeminence of the old Kongo empire. She
led a crusade of a thousand followers to Sao Salvador in 1704. Two years later
she was burnt at the stake for heresy.
Christianity persisted in the region, although it evolved in its own way, specific
to the area. Missionaries who turned up in the 19th century, expecting
to convert the local population, found people practising their own Africanised
form of Christianity. All Souls Day had merged with the veneration of
ancestors (a fusion repeated in many other parts of Africa), and the Virgin
Mary had become something of a fertility symbol.
In the rest of Africa, Christianity made little headway in the 18th century.
Rulers in West Africa were mildly interested at first, seeing Christianity
as something to add on to their own religions. But they grew hostile when
told they had to make a choice: it was either Christianity or traditional
religion. South Africa was the site of greater Christian missionary activity. The Moravian Brethren (closely linked to the Lutherans) of Eastern Europe, established a mission in 1737. In 1799 the London Missionary Society (LMS) followed suit.
|
 |
 |
|
