History of Africa - Kongo and the Scramble for Africa

Good morning, good afternoon, or good mid-morning depending on when you are reading this blog post and doing your planning.  I am looking at the History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi and the episode is called Kongo and the Scramble for Africa.  The run time for this episode is 44:56.

Zeinab Badawi travels to central Africa, focusing on Angola and the Congo.  She is exploring the great Kongo Empire.  She learns about the role played by women in African History particularly learning about Queen Nzinga.  Queen Nzinga was a leader who battled the Portuguese for a quarter of a century in the 1600s.  Decades later Kimpa Vita was burned alive after her failed resistance.  One woman also shares her memories from when the Belgians ruled the Congo.

Zeinab kicks off this episode in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  She begins in the capital city where millions of people live, work, and play.  This is a city where she will kick off her exploration of the Kingdom of Kongo.  The Congo River flows through this territory and is the deepest river in the world.  It supported the people of the Kingdom of the Kongo, an empire that would eventually fall to the ambitions of outsiders.

The Kingdom of Kongo was established in 1390.  Many of the people were found along the southern part of the Kongo River before moving up north.  Zeinab learns about the founder of this empire from a local historian.  M’Banza Kongo was the capital of this empire and it had a large population.  There were clear divisions in labor and the communities that surrounded the capital each had a specialized trade.

Eventually, the Portuguese arrived to the Kingdom of the Kongo and things started to change for the people.  The Kongo King was persuaded to embrace Christianity.  He and both his son were converted.  The Transatlantic slave trade was started.  The King of the Kongo protested this to the Portuguese king saying that slavery was incompatible with Christianity.  When he died, the Kongo Kingdom started fracturing and the kingdom was torn apart by internal strife. 
The Portuguese continued with the slave trade and turned their attention towards the Ndongo people.  More and more slave forts were built and the Portuguese made inroads to local communities.  However, there were communities that opposed the slave trade and they would find ways to protest.  In this section, Zeinab talks about Queen Nzinga.  I remember hearing about her in the Royal Diaries series.

Queen Nzinga fought against the Portuguese for decades.  She was a skilled diplomat and had powerful alliances.  She lived a long life and continued to sharpen her skills.  She was one of the greatest figures in African History.  Nzinga was baptized as Anna Nzinga.  Her father recognized her special skills and was trained by her father to rule.  The most famous story of her involves her trying to negotiate with the Portuguese.  The official tried to make her sit on the floor, but she compelled one of her male servants to go to the floor and she at on his back.  She employed brilliant tactics to keep the Portuguese at bay and they were eventually forced to sign a peace treaty with her.  Unfortunately, power shifted and the Portuguese became even more powerful.

Zeinab then talks about the famous woman who would follow in the footsteps of Nzinga.  Her name was Kimpa Vita and she would try to restore the glory of Congo after years of civil war.  She would lead a revolt against the Portuguese.  She would act on visions she received from St. Anthony of Padua.  She was known as a prophetess and was a member of a noble family.  Eventually she would sacrifice her life to restore the Empire of Kongo. 

Dang it, after an episode that was carefully divided into chapters, this was an episode that was not divided into chapters.  This practice of dividing each episode into chapters should have been carried on throughout the series.  I know I repeat myself often with that line but it is true.  Anyway, I loved the mention of Nzinga, and learning about Kimpa Vita was very cool as well.   What happened in the Congo was horrific.  I would consider showing this to a college history class because of the disturbing images that were shown in the documentary.