VITA, NKANGA
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Vita Nkanga (16?-October 29, 1665), also known as Antonio 1, ruled over the Kongo kingdom for a short time in a period when the state was being destroyed by internal revolt and Portuguese aggression. His death, in a battle against rebellious vassals and Portuguese adventurers, marked the beginning of a long period of unrest and instability in the once-powerful kingdom.
Vita Nkanga, the son of the Mani Kongo (king of the Kongo) Nkanga Lukeni, or Garcia II, served as governor of Mpangu, a territory about 100 km (60 mi) northeast of the capital, San Salvador. Wishing to make royalty hereditary in his family, and to assure Vita Nkanga’s succession Nkanga Lukeni killed potential pretenders to the throne. Unfortunately for Vita Nkanga, the hostility of his father toward the Portuguese had troublesome consequences during his reign. Wishing to put an end to Portuguese meddling in the internal affairs of the Kongo, Nkanga Lukeni allied himself with the Dutch who had expelled the Portuguese from Luanda in August 1641.
In 1649, after the reconquest of Luanda by the Portuguese, Nkanga Lukeni was asked to cede the territory south of the Kongo, where he obtained the shells that served as money, and to give up the kingdom’s reputed silver mines. To the great dissatisfaction of the Portuguese, Nkanga Lukeni refused to sign such a treaty. Problems with the Portuguese continued after Vita Nkanga came to the throne in 1661 as Antonio I. He too did not wish to transfer the sovereignty of his country and reclaimed, from the Portuguese, lands that had been lost in war. When the Portuguese demanded possession of the mines, Vita Nkanga refused, further angering them.
Only four years after Antonio acceded to power, Wandu and Ambuila provinces, about 150 km (94 mi) south of San Salvador, revolted. When they called on the Portuguese at Luanda for help, Vita Nkanga mobilised his army of 70,000 men and prepared to fight on the side of his soldiers. The two armies confronted each other at Ambuila on October 29, 1665.
Although the battle lasted several hours, the Kongolese, who had only traditional weapons to oppose the Portuguese artillery, were defeated. Vita Nkango, more than 100 Kongolese nobles, and a large part of the population died in defense of the country. Vita Nkanga’s head was taken to Luanda where the Portuguese governor buried it with much pomp. After the king’s defeat, an era of division began in the Kongo; rival kings arose in several different places and fought each other mercilessly. A great part of the Kongolese nobility was decimated by these wars.
The reign of the unfortunate Vita Nkanga was catastrophic for the Kongo, but the damage resulted from errors committed by his predecessors. Not only had his father lacked political acumen, but earlier, in the 1520s or 1530s, Mvemba Nzinga (Afonso I) inadvertently had given the Portuguese the notion that mines existed in the Kongo by sending silver manacles to the Portuguese king. Nevertheless, he set an example of patriotism, since he resisted relinquishing any part of his country’s sovereignty.
TSIMBA MABIALA
