Historical Figures

Kimpa Vita, prophetess

Kimpa Vita, also known as Kimpa Mvita, Dona Beatriz or Beatriz du Congo (between 1684 and 1686 – 1706) was a Kongo prophetess and the founder of a religious and political current, the Antonianist movement.

A Kongo nobleman

Kimpa Vita was born between 1684 and 1686 into a noble family of the Kingdom of Kongo (in present-day Angola). As a child, she was baptized and given the Christian name of Dona Beatriz. At the time, a large part of the Kongo people was indeed Catholic. Portuguese missionaries settled in the area at the end of the 15th th century and, from 1491, the manikongo (political leader) Nzinga a Nkuvu converts and takes the name Jean I er from Congo.

In the XVI th century, relations between Portugal and the Kingdom of Kongo soured. Portugal launches into the slave trade, deals directly with the vassals of the manikongo and weaken its power. At the same time, conflicts with neighboring peoples in 1568 forced the Manikongo Alvaro I st to ask for the support of Portugal, which is strengthening its grip on the region. In 1665, Portuguese settlers mounted a military expedition to monopolize the mines of the kingdom. The Kongo army is defeated and the Manikongo Antoine I st was beheaded, but the Portuguese settlers did not have sufficient forces to occupy the country and the kingdom of Kongo remained.

Kimpa Vita thus grew up in a weakened Kongo, divided by rivalries between pretenders to the throne, threatened by conflicts with Portugal as well as with neighboring peoples.

Nganda marinda

From adolescence, Kimpa Vita reports visions and shows a particular affinity for the spiritual life. She is considered nganga marinda , a person capable of communicating with the spirit world and acting as an intermediary between humans and the spiritual universe. She is initiated into the kimpasi cult , which conducts exorcism ceremonies.

In the early 1700s, Kimpa Vita approached the Catholic religion. Like many, in this kingdom of Kongo torn by internal struggles, she is influenced by Appolonia Mafuta, an elderly prophetess who says she has received a vision from the Virgin Mary and announces that God will punish the kingdom. In 1704, following an illness, Kimpa Vita says he received visions from Antoine de Padoue, a saint of the 13th th Catholic Church. century. According to her, she died and the spirit of Antoine de Padoue was incarnated in her. In turn, she announces that God will punish the people of the Kingdom of Kongo, if they are not reunited around their former abandoned capital São Salvador du Congo (today Mbanza-Kongo).

The Antonianist movement

Kimpa Vita preaches his religious but also political message. Anchoring the biblical story in the heart of the kingdom of Kongo, whose unity and independence she claims loud and clear, she maintains that Jesus and his disciples, in particular, are from Kongo. She recognizes the authority of the pope, but shows hostility towards European Christian missionaries, whom she wishes to expel. She adapts the prayer Salve Regina in Salve Antoniana , which teaches that God is not concerned with the sacraments but only with the intentions of his faithful. Its syncretic movement, mixing Kongo spirituality and Catholic religion, is called Antonianism; Kimpa is the founder as well as the leader.

Kimpa Vita approaches King Pierre IV Alphonse of Kongo, King of Kibangu, and his rival for the Kongo throne João II Nzuzi a Ntamba, but the two keep their distance from her. However, she rallies many faithful, including among the Kongo nobility and in particular Hipolyta, the own wife of Pierre IV who abandons her husband to join the prophetess. With his followers, Kimpa settles in the abandoned capital São Salvador of Congo, within the ruins of the old cathedral. She built her quarters there, gathered around her thousands of people and sent missionaries to carry her prophecies.

Heretic

While Kimpa Vita develops his movement, Pierre IV du Kongo seeks to be crowned manikongo . In his quest for the throne, he wants to take possession of the old capital and sends there his captain-general Pedro Constantinho da Silva, uncle of Hipolyta and member of the royal family. But, having arrived in São Salvador, Pedro joins the Antonians and proclaims himself king.

Furious at this betrayal and worried about the rising influence of Kimpa Vita, Pierre IV decides to have her arrested. In 1706, when she had just given birth to a child, the prophetess was arrested; her new motherhood brings grist to the mill of her detractors, shattering her image of virginity. Accused of being a heretic, whose teachings go against those of the Catholic Church, and of being an enemy of the king, she was condemned by a civil court supported by two Portuguese missionaries. In July 1706, Kimpa Vita and the father of her child, João Barro, were burned alive at the stake in the town of Evolulu.

Pedro Constantinho da Silva will be defeated in 1709 by Pierre IV who restores the royalty, and partially reunifies the kingdom. The Kimpa Vita movement survived him until the
XIX th century.