Pedro I Nkanga a Mvemba (1478 – 1566) was

manikongo Manikongo (also called Awenekongo or Mwenekongo) was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and th ...

of the

Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( or ''Wene wa 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 Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. At its gre ...

from 1543 until being deposed in 1545.

Background

Pedro I was the son of King

Afonso I Dom Afonso IOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' ( Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French influence ...

and became his immediate successor in 1543. He was part of a splinter kanda known as the Kibala (Portuguese: ''Quibala'') or court faction or house in Kongo which had its roots in the House of

Kilukeni The Kilukeni were members of the Lukeni kanda or House of Kilukeni, the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Kongo from its inception in the late 14th century until the 1567 with the rise of the House of Kwilu.Thornton, John: "Elite Women in the Ki ...

. He ruled only briefly before being overthrown by his nephew and Afonso I's grandson, Diogo I. Records of the events leading up to and following his dethronement were preserved in the inquest after Pedro's failed attempt to regain power.

Asylum and conspiracy

During his overthrow, Pedro I managed to seek asylum in one of the churches of

M'banza-Kongo Mbanza Kongo (, , or , known as São Salvador in Portuguese language, Portuguese from 1570 to 1976; ), is the capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province with a population of 148,000 in 2014. Mbanza Kongo was the capital of the Kingdom of K ...

. King Diogo I was reluctant to attempt removing him, allowing Pedro to plot Diogo's overthrow from within the church. The details of his plot are well known because Diogo launched an inquest into them in 1550. A copy of the inquest has survived in the Portuguese archives and was published in 1877 by Paiva Manso.Paiva Manos's text left a line out, however, and it has now been fully published with the original text, English translation and commentary by Linda Heywood and John Thornton as "The Treason of Dom Pedro Nkanda a Mvemba against Dom Diogo, King of Kongo, 1550," in Kathryn McKnight and Leo Garofalo, eds., ''Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1550-1812'' (Hackett, 2009), pp. 2-29 The inquest showed that Pedro had many friends in the kingdom and that there were confederates who wished to help him. Many held junior offices, many of the senior officials were reluctant to offer any help because they feared that Diogo would remove them from office. His most important confederate and cousin, Rodrigo de Santa Maria, fled to

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álv ...

, where he perhaps owned a plantation and tried to get assistance in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and even in Rome. It was an intercepted letter that Pedro sent to his cousin to seek assistance that led Diogo to conduct the inquest and to send a copy to Portugal demanding that Santa Maria be extradited.

Background

Asylum and conspiracy

References

Further reading

See also