Kongo Civil War

Queen Nzinga Mbandi, one of Africa's best documented rulers in the early modern period, has ruled in Matamba from 1631 until her peaceful death, at age eighty, on December 17, 1663.

The Kingdom of Kongo, pressed by an increasingly rapacious Portugal, had begun working for a Spanish alliance, especially following António I's succession as mani-kongo, or king, in 1661.

Although it is not clear what diplomatic activities he engaged in Spain itself, the Portuguese clearly believed that he hoped to repeat the Dutch invasion this time with the assistance of Spain.

António had sent emissaries to the Dembos region and to Matamba and Mbwila attempting to form a new anti-Portuguese alliance.

The Portuguese had been troubled, moreover, by Kongo support of runaway slaves, who had flocked to southern Kongo throughout the 1650s.

At the same time, the Portuguese are advancing their own agenda for the small kingdom of Mbwila, which they claim as a vassal.

Feeling threatened by Portugal's return on Kongo's southern border, António I has sought to renew Kongo's war against the Portuguese with a new alliance similar to the one at the Battle of Kitombo.

Unable to rely on the Dutch for assistance, he has sent emissaries to Spain but failed to procure an alliance.

He has also contacted Kongo's Mbundu allies in Matamba and the semi-independent kingdoms of Dembos and Mbwila.

The deteriorating and increasingly unequal relations between the Kongo and Portugal culminate in 1664 when a long brewing dispute between Angola and Kongo over rights to mining in the area leads to war.

The Portuguese, having heard of António’s plans, are also pressing claims to sovereignty over Mbwila.

When a succession dispute erupts between Mbwila’s adolescent king (supported by Kongo) and his aunt, the regent Dona Izabel, (supported by Portugal), the rivals both come with armies to settle the dispute.

To defend herself, Dona Izabel had signed a treaty of vassalage with Portugal.

António challenging the Portuguese interference, has sent an army down to take Mbwila, personally leading a contingent of 400 swordsmen into the battle.

The Portuguese invade the Kongo from their base in adjacent Angola: the rival armies meet each other on October 29, 1665, at Ulanga, in the valley below Mbanza Mbwila, capital of the district.

Here, the Portuguese forces from Angola score their first victory against Kongo since 1622, defeating the forces under António, killing him and many of his courtiers as well as the Luso-African Capuchin priest Manuel Roboredo (also known by his cloister name of Francisco de São Salvador), who had attempted to prevent this final war.

António is decapitated during or shortly after the battle (his head buried with royal honors by the Portuguese) while his crown and scepter are taken to Portugal as trophies.

In the aftermath of the battle, there is no clear succession, as António died with no heir apparent, and many of the men whom could have taken his place had died or were captured at the battle including his seven year old son.

The power of the mani-kongo broken, the ruling House of Kinlaza and the opposing House of Kimpanzu harden, and partition the country between them as the prelude to what will become a devastating civil war.

The Battle of Mbwila does not have a drastic change on the borders of Central Africa.

Kongo and Angola have no more control over this remote settlement than it had before the battle.

The party that does prosper as a result of Kongo's defeat is the county of Soyo, home to many Kimpanzu partisans.

Soyo, ruled by the Silva kanda, had been refuge to the Kimpanzu hiding out in the Luvota region in its south.With no strong opposition in Kongo to them, the da Silvas are able to impose their will on both Kinlaza and Kimpanzu claimants to the throne.

Alfonso, a member of the House of Kimpanzu, may have been supported in his claim for the throne by partisans in Soyo.

He takes the throne in November of 1665 in the first of a series of power grabs for the throne of the kingdom.

The House of Kinlaza, which had held the throne of Kongo for the last three decades, acts swiftly to remove their rivals from power.

King Afonso II is deposed only a month into his term in December of 1665.

In place of Afonso II, the Kinlaza put Álvaro VII in power.

The deposed king is forced to flee into the mountains of Nkondo where he rulea in opposition to the Kinlaza partisans in Kongo.

A period of tension, punctuated by civil war, had broken out after Queen Nzinga's death.

Her sister Barbara had succeeded her, but is killed by forces loyal to Nzinga Mona in 1666.

King Álvaro VII has turned out to be a tyrant, hated by both political rivals and the common people.

In an unprecedented move, Soyo marches on the capital and assists the people in Álvaro VII's overthrow and murder.

In June, another Kinlaza king is elected.

This time, the election takes place under the auspices of Soyo, and Álvaro VIII is elected to the throne.

Álvaro VIII, who has ruled Kongo for three years, has allowed the Portuguese to search for gold in his kingdom, but no gold or silver is to be found in the realm.

The House of Kinlaza keeps tacit control of the throne, but Soyo proves to be the true master of the kingdom.

King Pedro III, another Kinlaza partisan with less sympathy toward Soyo, comes to power in January of 1669.

Soyo sends a force yet again into Kongo and removes the king from power.

This time, the da Silvas place a Kimpanzu ruler on the throne as King Álvaro IX in hopes that a Kimpanzu might be easier to control.

Pedro flees to Lemba (also known as Mbula or Bula), but this is not the end of his dealings in Kongo.

Even among the Kimpanzu, nobles are beginning to resent Soyo's meddling in Kongo.

Queen Nzinga’s death has accelerated the Portuguese occupation of the interior of South West Africa, fueled by the massive expansion of the Portuguese slave trade.

João Guterres Ngola Kanini, one of the late Queen’s relatives and most important councilors, had managed to temporarily oust Nzinga Mona in 1669, but is defeated and killed in 1670.

His son Francisco Guterres Ngola Kanini will eventually carry on the royal line in the kingdom.

The Portuguese governor, seeking to take over Kongo, now embroiled in a civil war, invades Soyo in 1670.

After a first victory, the Portuguese forces are defeated and utterly routed by Soyo at the Battle of Kitombo, in Nfinda Ngula near the capital, on October 18.

The battles between the Kimpanzu and Kinlaza continue to plunge the Kingdom of Kongo into a chaos not known in centuries.

The fighting between the two lineages leads to the sack of São Salvador in 1678.

Ironically, the capital built by the pact of Mpemba and Mbata is burned to the ground not by the Portuguese or rival African nations but by its very heirs.

The city and hinterlands around Mbanza Kongo are depopulated.

São Salvador becomes the grazing place of wild animals where rival claimants will crown themselves, then retreat before drawing the ire of opposition partisans.

Even after its resettlement, the city will never regain its prominence.