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Kongo King Afonso 1 Summary

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The “Kongo King Afonso I (Nzinga Mbemba) Letters to the King of Portugal” document includes a set of 2 letters written in 1526 by the ruler of the Kongo Kingdom of West and Central Africa describing the damaged state of his kingdom and people, as a result of the influx of the king of Portugal’s officials, men, and merchants. The document is both objective and subjective in that King Afonso explicitly states the necessary remedies needed from Portugal to maintain his kingdom from the corruption of officious merchants involved in slave trade of free men, but does so with respect and reference to his newfound religion of Christianity- being the first Kongo King to convert after the arrival of the Portuguese. Afonso’s diction suggests that he is …show more content…

It is suggested that he believes the interconnection of the justifiable acts of Christianity with the wellbeing of his state is critical in keeping the Kongo Kingdom name alive. However, there is a strong implication that Afonso views slave trade as situational, because he regards the Portuguese officials caught with free men with no punishment but rather states that he does not want them offended. The second letter focuses on the trade’s expansion into kidnapping more and more “noblemen and sons of noblemen”. His stance against the trade has noticeably intensified and shows greater frustration as he results to harsher descriptions of the merchants as beasts, who seized free men in order to “satisfy their voracious appetite…” and ironed and branded these captives. This is most likely due to the fact that the lines of men entering slavery were being blurred. When the majority of slaves were war captives and indentured servers, it was now extending to nobles, whom were closer in ranking to the king of Kongo, Afonso I, himself. Afonso did not seek merely to express his displeasure, but to ask the king of Portugal to send priests, a few for education, and goods of wine and flour for holy sacrament, and stop the sending of merchants or wares that would be susceptible to the unlawful slave

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