1 - THE KINGDOM OF LOANGO
2 - THE KINGDOM OF KAKONGO
3 - THE KINGDOM OF NGOYO
4 - MAP OF THE CABINDA KINGDOMS OF LOANGO, CACONGO, ANGOI
5 - RELATION OF THE KINGDOMS of Loango, Ngoyo with the Kingdom of Kongo
6 - HISTORY OF CABINDA
7 - THE HONORABLE PEOPLE OF CABINDA
8 - ORDERS AND DECORATIONS OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF CABINDA
9 - PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF CABINDA
LINKS
The Loango Kingdom was founded by the People, Bavili, before 1485, it was one of the Oldest an d Largest Kingdoms of the region. By 1600 it was importing ivory and slaves from the interior along well established trade routes that extended as far inland as Malebo Pool. Administration was orderly and decentralized. The men in line for succession to the Crown served as provincial Governors, rotating provinces in a set sequence and ach time a King died. Other territorial officials held office for life.
By the XVIII century, power had become fragmented. A l ong interregnum began in 1786, and when a King was finally enthroned he lacked any real authority.
The term Loango coast describes a historically significant area of West Central Africa. Within T his region, Loango has been the name of a Kingdom, a Province, and a Port functioning as the main city and Capital of the Kingdom.
Once linked to the powerful Kongo Kingdom, the Loango Kingdom was dominated by the Vili, a Kongo peoples who migrated to the coastal region during the 1300s.
Loango became an independent state probably in the late 1300s or early 1400s.
With two other Kongo related Kingdoms, Kakongo and Ngoyo , present day Cabinda , it became one of the most important trading states north of the Congo River.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the Vili Kingdom of Loango , situated on the west coast of Africa between the equator and the mouth of the Congo, was a powerful centralized state. Its ruler, the Maloango, was able to impose his own conditions on European traders, and played the different nations (predominantly Portuguese and dutch) off against one another. Vili brokers acted as middlemen between African traders and European ship captains and Vili officials exacted taxes and duties; both made immense profits. Vili currency (palm cloth) remained in use throughout the whole of southwest Africa for several centuries.
The trade was initially in luxury goods, with ivory, redwood and copper being traded for cloth, guns and other manufactures, but the growing demand for slaves in the New World (America) resulted in the almost completely domination of the slave trade. The volume of slaves exported from the Loango coast reached over 15000 per year, and Vili merchants penetrated far into the African interior in search of new sources.
The primary economic effect of this trade was to create a class of rich Nobles whose wealth did not depend on the Maloango. This resulted in the gradual collapse of centralized authority and the eventual lapse of the office of Maloango. So the final demise of the Kingdom was due to European influence, but only indirectly so.
The main town was Malemba, a port that grew in importance after 1700 as a center for the export of slaves; port facilities were expanded from that time to handle increasing numbers of french, english, and portuguese trading ships. The offices of "governor of the harbor" and "minister of trade and europeans" rivaled the Crown in prestige and authority.
Slavery transformed the social and political structure: status came to depend on the number of slaves owned, and free non nobles either fell into slavery or rose to the Nobility.
The increasingly strong Nobles asserted their autonomy, reducing the King to a figurehead. After the 1830s they dropped any pretense of adhering to a unified state, and the Kakongo Monarchy ceased activity.
The Kingdom finally disintegrated into petty Principalities after the Nobles failed to elect a new King in the 1830s.
When the portugese, in search of a new route to India, arrived in 1482 on the Zaire coast, they entered for the first time in contact with the Kongo Kingdom. Powerful and structured, this Kingdom extended from what today is E astern DRC (ex Zaire), Cabinda, southern Congo (Brazzaville) and a part of Gabon.
Organized into six provinces, the Kongo Kingdom encompassed a large number of ethnic groups. Fruits of military conquest, results of Kongo lineage's, or simply attracted by the splendor of the Kingdom, these other groups adopted a large part of the Kongo culture.
Thus, the Sundis, Bembes, Yombes, Vilis, whose common language is Kikongo, formed this large collection of people still known today as "Bakongo". But far from being a homogeneous group, the Bakongos have kept a part of their original traditions.
T he Kongo and other culturally related ethnic groups - the Yombe, Woyo, Vili, and Solongo Sundi - Lower Zaire inhabit the area between the Atlantic coast and Malebo Pool.
This region, which once constituted the historic Kingdom of Kongo, is at present part of Cabinda, the Congo and Zaïre.
The ancient Kingdom of Kongo, with Mbanza Kongo as its capital, was probably founded at the end of the XIV century.
When the Portuguese reached the Zaïre estuary in 1482-1483, the country was a prospering political and economic center. The King was at the head of a complex system of government, composed of a number of districts and provinces. The districts were governed directly by the King and his next of kin, while the provinces remained under the authority of the long-established aristocracy.
In time, some independent Kingdoms were founded in the area; XVI century sources mention not only the Kingdom of Kongo but also those of Loango, N goyo and Vungu.
The territorial supremacy of the Kongo rulers gradually declined as a result of political intrigues, disputes related to succession, invasions and the slave trade.
By about 1710 the Kongo Kingdom had disintegrated into small Chieftainships.
From the XVIII century and through the XIX century a complete political about-face took place.
The idea of a Kingdom as a political institution become a myth; all that remained was a cultural unity.
The European presence in the region, from the XV century onwards, led to the conversion O f the Kongo court and the establishment of catholicism as the state religion. However, traditional Rituals and Religious institutions were not entirely supplanted; rather, Western elements were selectively integrated into existing traditions.
Head of the Sovereign Family: The portuguese did not want to recognize the qualification of Alteza (HH) since this implied that the King was not a vassal of the king of portugal but acceded to the qualification of Senhor (Lord). .
Mvemba-a-Nzinga, renamed Afonso I on his conversion to Christianity c1491, 7th King of Mbanza Congo 1509-1543, styled: by the grace of God, King of Congo, of Loango , of Kakongo and of N goyo, below and beyond Zaïre, Lord of the Ambundo and of Aquisima, of Musunu, of Matamba, of Mulili, of Musuku and of the Anziques, of the Conquest, of Pangu Alumbu, etc., received a coat of arms from the K I ng of portugal, +1543.
Before the arrival of Portuguese sailors:
I - First Kings
- King Ntinu Nimi-a-Lukeni (14th century)
- King Nanga kia Ntinu Kongo
- ..................................
- ..................................
- King Nkuwu-a-Ntinu
- After the arrivel of the portuguese sailors 1482:
- After the arrival of the Portuguese sailors 1482:
II - First Kings converted to Christianity.
- King Nzinga-a-Nkuwu, João I (1509)
- King Mvemba-a-Nzinga , Afonso I (1509-1540)
- King Nkanga-a-Mvemba, Pedro I (1540-1544)
- King Mpudi-a-Nzinga Mvemba, Francisco I, (1544-1546)
- King Nkumbi Mpudi a Nzinga, Diogo I (1546-1561)
- King Mvemba-a-Nzinga, Afonso II (1561)
- King Mvemba- a-Nzinga, Bernardo I (1561-1567)
- King Mpudi-a-Mvemba Nzinga, Henrique I (1567-1568)
- King Mpangu-a-Nimi Lukeni moon Mvemba, Álvaro I (1568-1574)
- King Mpangu-a-Nimi Lukeni moon Mvemba, Álvaro II (1574-1614)
- King Mpangu-a-Nimi Lukeni moon Mvemba, Bernardo II (+1615)
- King Mbika-a-Mpangu Nimi Lukeni moon Mvemba, Álvaro III (1615-1622)
- King Nkanga-a-Mvika moon Ntumba-a-Mvemba, Pedro II Afonso (1622-1624)
- King Mvemba-a-Nkanga Ntinu, Garcia I (1624-1626)
- King Mvemba-a-Nkanga Ntinu, Ambrose I (1626-1631)
- King Mvemba-a-Nkanga Ntinu, Álvaro IV (1631-1636)
- King Mvemba-a-Nkanga Ntinu, Álvaro V (1636-1638)
- King Mvemba-a-Nkanga Ntinu, Álvaro VI (1638-1641)
- King Nkanga-a-Lukeni, Garcia II (1641-1663)
During the period of power struggles:
In Mbanza, St. Savior:
In Mbanza, San Salvador:
- King Vita-a-Nkanga, António I (1663-1666)
- King Mpangu-a-Nsundi, Alvaro VII, (1666-1667)
- King Alvaro VIII (1667-1678)
- King Rafael I (1669-1675)
- King Mpangu-a-Miyala, Daniel I (1678-1680)
- ............................................
- King Nsaku-a-Mvemba, Pedro IV (1694-1710)
- King Mpangu, Pedro Constantino (+1710)
In Ki-Mpangu:
In Ki-Mpangu:
- King Afonso III Afonso (1667-1669)
- King Nkanga-a-Mvemba, Garcia III (1669-1678)
- King Nlaza, André I (+1679)
- King Nimi-a-Mvemba, Álvaro IX (+1680)
- King Nzinga, Manuel I (+1680)
- King Nsaku-a-Mvemba, Pedro IV (1694-1710)
In Mbula:
In Mbula:
- King Nsuku-a-Ntamba, Pedro III (1667-1679)
- King Nsuku-a-Ntamba, John II (1679-1710)
- King Henrique,
- King NIengi,
- King Kafwasa,
- King Garcia Nkanga-a-Mvemba,
- King André,
- King Henrique Lunga,
- King Pedro V,
- King Kivuzi, (1855-1891)
- King Mfutila, (+1896)
- King Nteve,
- King Kenje. When the Portuguese arrived to the estuary of the Congo in 1482, they found themselves in contact with one of the largest States in Africa south of the Sahara, and with one of the very few large States situated anywhere near the coastline.
This was the Kingdom of the Bakongo, a Bantu People whose King, the Man-i-kongo, had his capital at Mbanzakongo, the modern Sao Salvador. The Kongo Kingdom was a typical 'Sudanic' state, the nucleus of which had been founded, in the late fourteenth or early, fifteenth century, by a conquering group from the small State of Bungu on the north bank of the lower Congo. The founders were sufficiently numerous to introduce the Kongo language and gradually to subject and assimilate an Indigenous Population, most of which previously spoke Mbundu. The Bakongo founders were remembered especially as clever smiths.
On this account they had been formidable both as hunters and as warriors, and in the Kongo kingdom smiths were always afterwards treated to chiefly honors and privileges. Most of the kingdom was directly administered by the Manikongo through a hierarchy of appointed chiefs and sub chiefs. It was bounded by the Atlantic, the Congo, the Kwango and the Dande, and its population was estimated by a seventeenth-century missionary at 2.5 million. Around the directly administered provinces were clusters of smaller states which formed part of the same complex. Between the Congo estuary and the Kwilu Niari, the next big river to the north of it, were the three Kingdoms of Ngoyo, Kakongo and Loango, which had likewise been created by Kongo-speaking conquerors from Bungu, To the east and south were large regions, such as Okango and Matamba, where scores of small indigenous Kingdoms paid fitful tribute to the Manikongo in order to avoid the attention of his raiding armies.
From the end of the fifteenth until the last quarter of the sixteenth century, however, the Portuguese concentrated their efforts upon the main Kongo Kingdom. Missionaries were sent in 1490, with masons, carpenters and other skilled artisans. The Manikongo, most of his family and some of his great Chiefs were converted; the capital was rebuilt in stone; and many young Congolese were removed to europe for education. As was only to be expected, most of the early converts proved not very serious; but concerning one of them, at least, there was never any doubt. Nzinga Mbemba, baptized as Afonso in 1491, succeeded to the throne in 1507 and ruled as an ardent and enlightened Christian until his death in 1543. It was his wholly sincere wish to remodel his Kingdom along the lines of those of western europe, and had the portuguese been able to sustain the partial altruism of their early contacts, he might have gone far towards succeeding.
Unfortunately, the extension of the slave trade soon began to loom larger in Portuguese aims than the creation of a Christian state in Africa.
There had been slavery in Kongo, as in every other part of Africa, long before europeans began to export overseas slaves; and even Afonso, though he made clear his dislike of the trade, was willing to pay in slaves for the european goods and services which he regarded as essential. The demand for labor in portugal's transatlantic colony of Brazil, however, was soon such that it could be supplied only by more warlike means than Afonso and his successors were prepared or able to employ. Though a handful of missionaries continued to work in the Kongo Kingdom, Portuguese 'aid' soon dried up; and in 1575 Paulo Dias de Novais was sent as a conquistador to inaugurate a new phase in portuguese relations with West Central Africa. Paulo Dias made his base at Sao Pedro de luanda, a little to the south of the Kongo frontier.
Officially, relations with the Manikongos remained peaceful. But the new portuguese method of colonization, aimed principally at supplying the slave trade, was to train and arm bands of native, allies to make war on the peoples all round the slowly expanding frontier of the colony; and naturally it was not long before the Kongo Kingdom's southern provinces became a favorite target for such forays. Early seventeenth-century Manikongos, all of whom were still Christian in name, and some so in practice, addressed pitiful appeals to the Holy See through their missionaries. Several Popes showed a personal concern in the situation, and stem letters passed from Rome to Lisbon, but the Portuguese government declared itself powerless to control its subjects in Africa. Finally, in 1660 the Bakongo turned to war with disastrous results. Defeated by the portuguese and their allies in a series of battles, the Manikongos were left too weak to maintain the internal unity of their Kingdom. Peripheral provinces broke away, rival dynasties competed for the throne, even the missionary contacts with the outside world broke down; so that by the end of the eighteenth century Christianity was but a memory, and the former Kingdom had shriveled to a few villages around Sao Salvador.
According to a very next version named "Cabinda" would have derived by an agglutination of Mafuka words (name that identified the position of superintendent of the King of ngoyo to trade and, as such, the man of relations with the Europeans) and Binda first name of one of them.
We will address the historical trajectory of the presence of Portugal on the central-west coast of Africa where, in the century. XIX, to draw the current geographical and political configuration of the Cabinda problem , created by the Portuguese and their Angolan pals.
In fact, and as a former foreign minister of Portugal, Durão Barroso stated, at the opening of the IV Congress of Academies of Ibero-American History, held at Torre do Tombo, in Lisbon, in November 1994, " a political decision that does not respect the past will have no vision of the future ". This finding takes on the greatest significance if we take into account that it was produced by a politician (and politicians are not always very committed to the historical support of their proposals and decisions) who was, at the same time, the minister responsible for conducting the policy Portuguese foreign market at a particularly sensitive time for Cabinda , whose population is also experiencing the drama of an endless war of which it cannot be held responsible and which is forced to feed with the income from the oil extracted from its maritime platforms ". (55)
The history of Portugal's relations with the Bakongo peoples of the former Kingdom of Congo (57) is very long and "a unique case" (57), of which the current State of Cabinda was already an integral part of its territorial domain. Only much later would the Portuguese come into contact (official) with the Ambundo of the "Kingdom" of Ndongo, located in the territory between the Bengo and Dande rivers.
Indeed, it was in the distant year of 1482 that Diogo Cão, at the behest of the king of Portugal D. João II, solemnly placed his first pattern on the left bank of the river Nzadi or Nzari (Zaire) (the S. Jorge Pattern) (58 ) and sent the first emissaries in charge of taking the honors and gifts of the king of portugal to the manicongo (59), lord of a vast territory, designated in the relations of European travelers and missionaries of the 16th and 16th centuries as Kingdom of Congo, extending up the two banks of that river to the north to the Ogoué river (Gabon), to the south to the Cuanza river and far inland to the Cuango river, where Mbanza Congo (São Salvador) was located, located at the angle formed by the Kwilu river and its tributary, the river Twa (60).
The privileged geographical situation of Mbanza Congo justified the migration, at the end of the century. XV, of a group or groups of Yombe from the region of Vungu to the north of the river Zaire and its fixation in this place that the mythical Nimi to Lukeni, invested in the power by the ancestor "Nzaku"
("taata") the mythical authority of the group that preceded him (and his group) in this territory, chose for his residence. Lukeni ("mwana" of Nzaku) would in turn invest other Chiefs ("mwanas") with whom he had lineage connections, granting them dominions ("nsi") and powers.
Thus, a hierarchy was established between the original Headquarters of Mbanza-Kongo, residence of Ntotila (Rei) and an important point of confluence of the peoples of the Atlantic Coast and the interior of the Continent and the remaining Chiefs and the different lineage groups distributed by the new territories that Europeans have dubbed "provinces", much more a division of lineages than regions. In fact, Mpemba, Mbata, Mbamba, Nsongo, Nsundi and Mpangu were not real administrative divisions, but successive areas for the expansion of the prestige and authority of the Chief of Mbanza Kongo (61).
The strength of the central power depended on the personality of Ntotila (Rei), but the system of his election constituted the main point of conflict for the regime. The coexistence of two dialectical coordinates for succession to the throne, matrilinality and patrilaterality, although in a way complementary and balanced through the game of alliances, created opposing factions and political and social instability. The first, a rule associated with the cult of maternal ancestors, constituted the origin of authority and ensured the historical continuity of the group. According to "De Cleene", who studied the Maiombe (Lower Congo) closely, this ancestral cult played a pivotal role in the ritual and religious imagery of this people, just as it did among the Kongo in general (62). The second, patrilaterality, served as the foundation of power (63).
The constant redistribution of the power and authority of currents of this matrilineal succession regime would have led, later in the century. XVI, Ntotila Mvemba to Nzinga (D. Afonso I) to adopt the formalism of the European administrative apparatus and the Christian religion as a way to structure a centralized, hereditary and territorialized power, capable of integrating, subordinating, the autonomous powers of the different groups and Headquarters.
Beyond those "provinces", the supremacy of the manicongo extended, at the end of the century. XV, to several tributary kingdoms, with emphasis on those of Ngoyo and Kakongo located to the north of the Zaire River and in whose territories the modern State of Cabinda would be configured .
This socio-political organization would be extremely segmented and conflictual, but with sufficient cultural unity and homogeneity to preserve its identity that the Portuguese "strangers" touched for the first time and most likely, in the privileged Almadias bay of Ngoyo , on the date already mentioned 1482 (64 ). In fact, the excellent shelter conditions of this bay and the abundance of fresh water on this coast suggest that Diogo Cão approached these territories right after his first trip.
On a new trip to Zaire and, this time, accompanied by religious from the São Francisco Tertiary Order of the Santarém convent (65), Diogo Cão went up the river to the rapids of lelala, 160 km from the mouth, on whose rocks he left an inscription (66) and the arms of portugal, disembarked and followed by land to the residence of Ntotila (King) of Mbanza Kongo, Nzinga to Nkuwu, where he was received festively. "And after, with much grace and fervor, showing a desire to be a Christian, he dismissed Diogo Cão and ships" (67).
On their return, the Portuguese navigator was accompanied by an Embassy of Manicongo to D. João Il headed by one of his relatives, named Cacuta (68). Diogo Cão had managed to gain his trust and friendship, leading him to accept Christianity and to establish commercial relations with Portugal.
On March 29, 1491, and following a request from the local authorities, a large Portuguese expedition under the command of Rui de Sousa disembarked in Zaire, in Santo António (or Soyo), integrating missionaries, workers and settlers with the purpose of initiating Christian evangelization (69) and definitively affirming Portuguese sovereignty at a point on the West African Coast that is particularly sensitive both to penetration into the interior of the continent - the access route to the mythical, but real, King Abexim '' Zara Jacob "(Prester João, for Westerners) to whom D. João II had sent a few years earlier, in 1487, the experienced Afonso de Paiva and Pero da Covilhã - as for the progress of navigation in the South Atlantic, as India was, already then , the mirage.
The success of these first contacts would be substantiated, some years later, in a singular act that would constitute the foundation of the long history of communications between Portuguese and Congolese: the recognition by Ntotila D. Afonso I Mvemba-a-Nzinga, King of Congo de 1507 to 1543, of the Portuguese monarch D. Manuel I as his "much loved brother" (70).
Progressively, he would introduce the style of the Portuguese chancellery in terms of organization and protocol in San Salvador, and with the objectives already mentioned, and adopt for his Kingdom some aspects of the political and social organization of European states.
However, the formal adoption of these exogenous elements and completely foreign to the traditional concepts and practices of Congolese society would not fail to unleash strong resistance in indigenous culture and in regional socio-political structures. Indeed, for a long time, the impact of this acculturation effort would have become insularized in the Court of Mbanza Kongo, (71) and it was the source of rebellions such as that carried out by Mpanzu-a-Kitina and the "revolt of the big house of idols ", led by D. Jorge Muxueta (72).
It was a natural reaction of one of the traditional Chefs in defense of the original culture, its values and representations in the face of a different and even opposite culture in multiple aspects. The Bakongo, as we have already said, had a decentralized political organization where transversal relations prevailed over the pyramids but, despite the tensions and conflict that it generated, this fact was never an impediment to the preservation of a certain structural and dynamic balance.
Therefore, this act of rebellion can only surprise a certain ethnocentric perspective of "civilization" that fed the Development paradigm in the eighties (with extensions until at least the 1960s of the 20th century) for whom pre-colonial Africa was a " no man's land 'or "a continent without history" (73). It certainly didn't surprise the Portuguese of four hundred and five hundred who immediately realized the strong cohesion and cultural identity of these peoples and the development of their material culture translated into ironwork , copper, wood and ivory as well as in weaving, where the Bakongo had reached a higher level than most of the Bantu peoples (74) J. Van. Wing shares this conviction in stating, referring to a particular aspect of the reforms tested by that Ntotila (King), who "the artificial creation of a European nobility and a heraldic apparatus in no way changed the organization of the Bakongo people" (75).
It should be clarified, however, that the assimilation of Christianity and the integration of other elements of European culture resulted - and this is a fact that we consider important for the economy of this work - of the very will of King Congolese D. Afonso I who for that had to overcome important internal resistances and to insist with the king of Portugal D. João III that he send fifty priests to him because "for forty years God had taken him out of the darkness, but it happens that we are 5 to 6 months without mass or sacrament, because the officers of V A. want it that way "(76).
Christianity also became a matter of state for Manicongo and Senhor dos Ambundo (77) who, in the year 1512, in a letter sent to Pope Julius II, would request the protection of the Holy See. Committed to centralization and personalization of power, D. Afonso I found in the new religion an opportunity to reinforce his prestige and authority, adopting the religion of the Europeans and exploring the mythical golden that the Portuguese navigators carried. Pigafetta says, in this regard, that these "were highly esteemed and respected almost as gods descended to earth from heaven" (78).
The foundations were laid for the peaceful penetration in Congo, a Kingdom that, without imposition and on the basis of reciprocity of treatment (79), became a tributary of the king of Portugal (80) and was integrated by the express will of its King D. Afonso I in the Portuguese "Padroado" (81).
At this time, the bay of Cabinda was inhabited by some villages integrated in the Kingdom of Ngoyo (some time separated from the Kingdom of KaKongo) that extended from this bay to the river Zaire (82).
With maritime connections to the south hampered by the force of the northeast flow at the mouth of Zaire (83) whose estuary was swarming with crocodiles, sprinkled with islets and sand banks (84), the inhabitants of the small villages that dispersed along this coastal line, made the exploitation of maritime resources (fishing and saliculture), zealously guarded, and the construction of Almadias or canoes (raw material was not lacking in the dense Mayombe equatorial forest) their fundamental economic activities.
In 1612, a Dutch merchant wrote, regarding fishing activity on the Loango coast (adjacent to Cabinda bay ): "The inhabitants are good fishermen and they fish large quantities. In the morning, they go to the sea in canoes, which can arrive to three hundred, and return at noon "(85).
From the middle of the century. In the 17th century, the slave trade attracted even more European ships to its port, making Cabinda an important anchorage for the drainage of slaves from the central-west African interior.
The slave trade has since become widespread and conflicts between the chiefs of the villages and the chiefs of the clan or tribal have intensified, between them and the King of Congo. Indeed, the slave trade was not an exclusive activity of Europeans. Among other testimonies, see the letter that D. Afonso, King of the Congo, sent to the king of Portugal D. Manuel, on May 26, 1517, asking him for a ship to do that trade. On the other hand, a part of this trade was done against the official authorities by adventurers, known at the time for being launched or even for tangomangos (86).
Also the struggles for power in the 16th and 17th centuries and the attack of the wandering and very aggressive Yagas, which Pierre Bertaux called "a system in progress" made this Kingdom a complex political mosaic, despite its strong cultural unity. After the death of D. António I, in 1665, all six provinces that composed him gained their independence by taking advantage of the dispute for royalty by two rival families: that of Quipanzos, the most legitimate, and that of Quimulaços, coming from that by bastardy (87). As a result, the hostility of the tribes, the insecurity of the roads, the isolation of the villages was accentuated (88).
Portuguese influence in the Kingdom of Congo would decline, but the regular presence of the Portuguese on its maritime coast remained despite the fact that foreigners - namely Dutch, English and French - started to trade with great freedom on the Loango coast, in Cabinda , in mouth of Zaire (Congo) to Ambriz (89). In fact, when it considered it opportune, and despite not having carried out its effective occupation, Portugal never exempted itself from practicing acts of sovereignty in those territories. Two examples only, among others to which we will return in due course:
- in 1723, D. João V, invoking the historical right of portugal to the possession of these territories, did not hesitate to protest with the Mani do Ngoyo and ordered captain José Semedo da Maia to destroy the stronghold that English corsairs had built in Cabinda , in a land they had bought, in the previous year, from the local Soba (90),
- in 1784, it was the turn of the French, through a naval officer, Bernard de Marigny, to attack and evict the Portuguese from the fortress of Santa Maria de Cabinda, whose construction had begun the previous year and whose main purpose was to manifest the effective possession of that sovereign domain "(91). The protests and the action of Portuguese diplomacy led France, by the Convention of 30 January 1786 and under the mediation of Spain, to officially recognize Portuguese sovereignty over the coast of Cabinda (92).
Notwithstanding the aforementioned facts, the decline of the Portuguese presence on the coasts north of the Zaire River, from the last quarter of the century. XVI, the Marquis of Pombal himself had become a reality, in view of the impossibility of maintaining the monopoly of that trade, by the license of 11th January 1758, declared "the free trade of Congo, Loango, ports and hinterlands free" adjacent to each and every one of my vassals from these kingdoms and their domains, who have done so far and for the future want to do it "(93).
The weakening of Portugal's position in this trade on the northern coast dominated by slave trade and the shift further south of its center of gravity would result in increased difficulties for the defense of Portuguese theses when implementing the international colonial law defined by the Berlin Conference ( 1884-85). In fact, this same fact would not go unnoticed by the English government, which, in 1853, through the Count of Clarendon, and despite expressly recognizing the rights of Portugal acquired by the priority of the discovery, it was warning that this right was "impaired by abandonment" (" suffered to lapse ") (94). What are the reasons for this lower interest in Congo, especially since it was a region where the European powers sought, instead, to strengthen their positions? Perhaps for a number of pertinent reasons that can be highlighted:
- the constant political instability in the Kingdom of Congo;
- the demand for new products, namely silver;
- the greater response capacity of the regions south of the Zaire river (Ambriz, basins of the Dande and Cuanza rivers ...) to the increase in demand for slaves as a result of their higher population density;
- the economic benefits provided by the reduction of human losses resulting from the approximation of the resale locations to the shipping points;
- greater possibility of evading fiscal control either from the Portuguese crown or from Manicongo through direct trafficking with its vassals;
However, this lack of definition would not affect commercial-maritime activity in this region and would even serve as a first demonstration of the Cabindas ' loyalty to Portugal when, in 1723, the King of Ngoyo supported the Portuguese in expelling the English privateers who wanted to settle there. and build a blockhouse. The slave trade, although increasingly controlled by foreigners, continued to be very active in Cabinda Bay and on the Loango Coast, as illustrated by the delight of Governor Caetano de Albuquerque in a letter sent to King D. João V in 1728: "(...) to the ports of Loango, Cabinda have not been visiting foreign ships for more than eight months, nor have they come to this one after I am here; I appreciate it very much" (99).
This lucrative trade would continue, albeit in a clandestine situation, long beyond the conclusion of abolitionist treaties in the first half of the century. XIX. The slave trade would be eradicated in the Portuguese colonies in 1847 but, stimulated by the maintenance of slavery in the New World, it remained relatively flourishing on the north coast, for some more years, on the coast of Loango, Cabinda , Molembo and Ambriz (100).
The Ntotila (Kings) of the Congo in the enumeration of their titles, was entitled, for example: "D. Afonso by grace of God, King of the Congo, and Ibungo (Vungu) and Ngoyo, d'áquem and d'além de Zaire , (..) ". The entrance to the last quarter of the century. XVII, north of the Zaire River, the bay of Cabinda integrated in the small and Independent Kingdom of Ngoyo - divided its daily life, until its inclusion in the Enclave configured by the agreements resulting from the Berlin Conference (1884-85), between episodic demonstrations of fidelity to Portuguese sovereignty and options that had to do, fundamentally, with the defense of their own interests.
Not being a "res nullius", the coast of Cabinda , and instead of the lands of Ndongo, was, however, far from constituting a totally overwhelmed territory.
GRADES :
55 - The Angolan government forced itself to invest annually in Cabinda a sum corresponding to 10% of the income earned from the export of the oil extracted there, in Jan. 1995, the daily Jornal de Noticias reported a significant protest in Cabinda Angola against the government for breach of this commitment.
56 - Cfr. AL Alves Ferronha, The Letters of the King of Congo D. Afonso, Working Group of the Ministry of Education for the Celebrations of the Discoveries, 1992, p. 11.
57 - It is an expression adopted after the establishment of relations with Europeans to designate a socio-political organization whose mechanisms of authority and power seemed to it to a true state (Cfr. A. Custódio Gonçalves, Kongo, le Lignage Contre lEtat , lICT, 1985, p. 29),
58 - On this trip by Diogo Cão, for the first time, and in place of the tall wooden crosses, a new process was used to demarcate and mark the possession of the places reached: the stone patterns, in whose capitals the shield was sculpted of arms of portugal and a chronological legend. In the Pattern of S. Jorge it can be read: "Age of Creation of the Mute of Six Thousand Bjc Lxxxjj Years of the Birth of Our Lord Jeshu of a ThousandPCLLxxxjj Years the Muj Alto Muj Eicelete Poderoso. Prince ELRey Dó Joam Segundo de portugal Mãdou Discover This Terra e Poer These Patterns by Diogo Cão Escudeiro de Sua Casa ".
59 - "Lord of the Congo" or "King".
60 - On the origins of this Kingdom, see: G. Balandier, La vie quotidienne au Royaunne de Kongo du XVI au XVIII siècle, Hachette, Paris, 1965; J. Cuvelier, L'Ancien Royaunne de Congo, Desclée de Brouwer, Braxelles, 1946; L. Paiva Manso, History of Congo - Documents 1492-1722, Tip. the Academy, Lisbon, 1877; R. Ravenstein. The strange adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh, london, 1901 - J. Van Wing, op. cit.
61 - Cf A. Custódio Gonçalves, op. cit. P. 98 See also J. Cuvelier, op. cit., pp. 37 -51; Andrew Battel, op. cit., pp. 102-4 Philippo op. , it - 39
62 - Cfr. Les Chiefs indigenous to Mayombe, in Africa, VIII, 2, Jan. 1935, pp. 63-75.
The succession within this line - extraordinarily important for maintaining kinship ties - proceeds according to "uterine filiation", ie, from brother to brother, to uterine nephew and then to uterine grandchild.
63 - Cfr. A. Custódio Gonçalves, op. cit., p. 63.
64 - M. Fidalgo (Cfr. The socio-labor evolution of the district of Cabinda after 1885, Portugal and Cabinda , 1884-1885, in Pinheiro Chagas (Cfr. História de Portugal, vol. IV, p. 203), It should be noted, however, that other authors date back to 1491, the date of the third trip of the Portuguese to the Kingdom of Congo, the first contact of the Portuguese with the bay of Almadias ( Cabinda ) established by Rui de Sousa , commander of the caravel "Nossa Senhora da Atalaia", who was returning the Ambassador and family member of the King of the Congo, a hunter who had accompanied Diogo Cão on his return to Portugal after his second trip to that Kingdom.
For Father Dom Joaquim Martins, this tradition was responsible for the attribution of the names "Rui de Sousa" and "Nossa Senhora da Atalaia" to many other streets in Cabinda
(See op. Cit p, 18).
65 - Their names: João da Costa, António do Porto, João da Conceição and António Sepúlveda (Cfr. J, Cuvelier, op. Cit., P. 37, information extracted from manuscript no. 473 of the Library of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, "Memories of the Convent of São José for Frei Vincente Salgado").
66 - "Here came the ships of enlightened king Dom João II of Portugal, Diogo Cão, Pedro Anes, Pedro da Costa, Alvaro Pires, Pedro Escobar, João de Santiago, dead of illness, Antão, Diogo Pedro, Gonçalo Alves '' ( See Gastão Sousa Dias, Judge which is more excellent ..., 1948, p. 7
67 - Cfr. Garcia de Resende, Chronicle of EI-Rei D. João II, ch. CLVI.
Nzinga a Nkuwu would be baptized (1491) and would adopt the name, very Portuguese, of D. João I (Cfr. J. Van Wing, op. Cit., P. 32).
68 - Cfr Gastão Sousa Dias, op. cit., p. 8.
69 - Cf. ld., Ibid., Pp. 11 - 15.
70 - See J. Cuvelier, op. cit., p. 183. This surprisingly friendly relationship certainly contributed to the support of the Portuguese in the struggle he had with his brother for the seizure of power.
71 - Cfr. A. Custódio Gonçalves, op. cit., p. 131.
72 - See, Letter from D. Afonso, King of the Congo, to D. Manuel, (Oct. 5, 1514), in ANTT, Chronological Body, Part 1, M. 16, Doe. 28.
73 - Cfr. Adelino Torres, op. cit., p. 184.
74 - Cfr. Radchffe-Brown and Daryll Forde, African Political Systems, Kinship and Marriage, 2- 'ed., Fund. Lime. Gulbenkian, 1982, p. 290.
75 - See J. Van Wing, op. cit., p. 39.
76 - Cf. Letter from D. Afonso, King of the Congo (March 18, 1526), ANTT, C. C-, Part 1, M. 33, Doe. 121.
77 - Cfr. Damião de Góis, Chronicle of the Blissful King D. Manuel, Lisbon, 1619, Part III, ch. 39, University of Coimbra, 1949.
78 - Cf. Philippo Pigafetta, op. cit., p. 80.
79 - The detailed regiment that the king of Portugal D. Manuel entrusted to Simão da Sílveira, his ambassador to Manicongo (undated, but before 1511) is, in this regard, a very exemplary document.
80 - According to A. 0. Cadornega, the tribute contained a certain number of pieces and a few cats from Algalia (see op. Cit., Pass.).
81 - "Padroado" means the set of agreements established between the Holy See and Portugal in order to ensure collaboration between the Church and the State, in the companies of discovery and evangelization of the territories overseas.
It was during the reign of D. Afonso V that Pope Nicolau V granted the kings of Portugal the right to "invade, conquer, expel and subdue the unfaithful domains existing anywhere in the world", thus ensuring their possession " de jure "of those domains. The bulls and apostolic letters authorized the use of ecclesiastical income and tithes to achieve those objectives, but imposed the obligation to provide the conditions necessary for the exercise of Religion (building and maintaining places of worship, sending priests, etc.).
82 - Cf. Letter from Ia Côte de Loango reproduced by L. Proyart, Histoire de Loango, Cacongo et autres Royaumes d 'Afrique, vol. 1, pass., CP Berton-N. Crapart, Paris, 1776 and by Joaquim Martins, op. cit., p. 16.
83 - These jolting tides, called calemas, are referenced in almost all accounts of navigation on the coast between the Cape of Santa Catarina and the Zaire River. Still in the century. XVIII, even the largest European slave ships often preferred the longer route, although more predictable and safer than the Guinea / São Tomé / Cabinda route , which took them, via Brazil, to the southern coast of southern Africa, to then proceed north, pushed by favorable Southwest winds and currents.
84 - Cf. Plhyllis Martin, op. cit pp. 47-48.
85 - Cf. K. Ratelband- Reizen naar West Afrika van Pieter van den Broecke, 1605-1614 ,, The Hague, 1950, p. 69, ap. Phyllis Martin, op. cit., p. 46. See also Abbé Prévost, op. cit., vol. VI, pp. 228-43.
86 - See ANTT, Chronological Body, Part 1, M. 21, Doc. 109.
In 1517, a letter from D. Manuel I, refers to the goods "of the Christians who launch themselves in Guinea with blacks", like another one by D, João III, from 1542, evokes the measures decreed by his father against those "who are lost in Guinea" (Cfr. Jean Boulègue, Les Luso-Africains de Sénégambie, lICT, 1989, pp. 11-2).
87 - Cf. Ralph Delgado.
88 - See J. Van Wing, op. cit., pp. 127-128.
89 - Cfr, UNESCO, 0 Trafficking in Black Slave W-, YIX, Library of African Studies, Ed. 70, 1979, pp. 164-6.
90 - See M. Fidalgo, op. cit., p.35, Pinheiro Chagas, op. cit ,, vol. IX, p. 478 and Ralph Delgado, op. cit., vol. IV, pp. 324-7.
91 - Cfr, "Regiment" of the commander of this mission, the sea and war captain António Januário do Vale, ap. Visconde de São Januário, et al., Memorandum, in Lisbon Society of Geography Bulletin, series 102 ', Jan. - Jun., 1884, p.34),
93 - It should be noted that this liberalization did not include the slave trade. Another permit, from Jan. 26, of the same year, set the rights to be paid for slaves: 8,700 kings if they were four spans high and 4,350 kings if they did not reach that measure.99 - Cf. AHU, ex. n. 17, ap. Augusto Nascimento, op. cit., in International Journal of African Studies, No. 14-15, cit., p. 182,100 - Of all the great slave powers, Britain was the only one to consider fighting the slave trade more advantageous than participating in it, but for reasons of its own interest (the colonial priorities had then shifted to East India and its factories demanded increasing quantities of raw materials and new markets).
It was certainly not due to Cabindas ' natural incapacity for these tasks, but because the work related to the sea constituted for Cabindas both an element of differentiation and defense of their condition in relation to "servants" and a factor of segmentation and social hierarchy . Thus, at the end of the century. XIX, in the popular colonial phraseology, the expression " Cabinda of salted water" translated a Higher Level of value and social consideration in relation to the Cabinda of the interior designated, pejoratively, by "black of the bush".
Moreover, the written testimonies left by merchants and missionaries, who lived closely with the Cabindas , are coincident in the finding that they, even when in the condition of slaves and isolated from their reference social group, try to maintain and make their own recognizable. Clanicos "Treasures" and its previous Bylaws, namely if the Power and Prestige of a Genealogical Origin correspond to them, which distinguish them from the common man.
The examples of the resistance of the collective memory of this people in the diaspora are not lacking. Pierre Verger, narrating a slave revolt in Bahia (Brazil), in 1821, reports on a collection of "two drums, one large and one small, three brass bells found in the house of a slave Cabinda , named Francisco José Cabinda , who justified the possession of these musical instruments in order to "have fun with his Cabindas compatriots , on festival days, such as those of Senhor de Bonfim where they were going to dance" (39)
In 1916, a French traveler, named LF de Tollenare, traveling through Ipojuca, in Pernambuco, narrates another curious episode concerning a black Cabinda named "Teresa Rainha" who was condemned to slavery in a Brazilian slave quarters. This attentive observer writes that this woman "when she arrived she had gilded copper rings on her arms and legs" ( Cabindas insignia of nobility) and that "her companions showed her a lot of respect. She was imperious and refused to work. (. .) They used it, however, usefully, to watch their companions, and to know how to be feared and obeyed "(40).
From an ethnic point of view, the Cabindas belong to the ethnic group (41) of the Bakongo (42), coming from the territories inland beyond the Cuango River, (43) and to the Kikongo Ethnolinguistic group (44).
This group is part of the large and anthropologically heterogeneous linguistic and somewhat ethnic family of the Bantos (Zindj or Zendj, as they were called by the Arabs), a People who, about five thousand years ago, would have settled in East Africa, between higher education from the Nile and the Ocean, for a millennium later being expelled by new waves Banto (45).
At the end of the first millennium of our era, the Bantu have will be disseminated throughout the conguesa basin driving away, destroying or assimilating indigenous peoples, constituting the large population background not only of Cabinda as the whole of Africa south of the Equator.
José Redinha distinguishes, in Africa, nine ethno-linguistic groups of that family: Kikongo, Kímbundo, Umbundo (or Ovimbundo), Lunda-Kioko, Ganguela, Nhaneca-Humbe, Ambó, Herero and Xindonga.
It should be noted that this list refers exclusively to ethno-linguistic groups. Ethnographic differentiation is even more complex.
In the Kikongo group, for example, that author indicates no less than 15 sub-groups, in addition to a few more dozen smaller elements (46).
The other non-Bantu ethnic groups are made up of the Koisan or Hottentot-Bosquímano group and the Vátua or pre-Banto group.
Despite the difficulty and complexity, repeatedly highlighted by ethnologists, in identifying and circumventing ethnic spots in Africa territorially (a phenomenon that extends to the rest of the African continent), we think that the Cabindas (distributed by the Vili, Iombe, KaKongo and Oio tribes, belonging to the Bakongo ethnic group and the Kikongo ethnolinguistic group) constitute today, despite the extreme difficulty in defining boundaries between genetic and cultural heritage, between innate processes and acquired processes - an ethnic fraction with a significantly historical-cultural identity more pronounced and defined than others.
The work of anthropologists, ethnologists and historians are consistent with the emphasis given to the specificity and exceptional perpetuity of the Bakongo's spiritual and material culture compared to that of other peoples of the Midwest and South Africa (48).
Secondly, because the Cabindas ' ethnic-cultural heritage founded on a common identity origin (Bakongo ethnicity) and on a great density of collective relations and ethnic solidarities has been historically reinforced and fidelized by the use and perception of space as a specific cultural product. Indeed, the vast geo-economic potentialities of its coastline - fishing, saliculture, trade, hydrocarbons - and the generous forest and mining resources of its interior have been combined in a happy relationship of complementarity and autonomy, rooting and social mobility (49) . In 1895, a letter from the governor of Congo addressed the difficulty in getting the Cabindas to leave their homeland: "(..) This request of mine results from the reluctance that all natives of this enclave have to die outside it, being, as it is, the main reason for disgust that exists among them, in abandoning the land of their birth (..) "(50). It is these factors that give the societies that hold them in the highest degree the awareness of the political community and the objective orientation that lead them to demarcate themselves and even to try to impose their dominance over other social groups.
Finally, because, and contrary to what happened in the neighboring Kingdom of Congo, which was part of the territory of the present State of Cabinda and where the Portuguese were able to establish, from the beginning, peaceful relations based on the principle of equal treatment.
In Cabinda, the diversity and complementarity of the geographic-natural characteristics of its territory will be brought together and the cohesion and ethnocultural specificity of its population, tempered by a long history of intense communications between its members and with the outside, constitute, in our understanding, the " identification "equipment, necessary and sufficient to integrate the Cabindas into the concept of People as defined by Karl Deutsch (51). It is Cabindas in the concept of "equipment" that ultimately determines the success or failure of a community's political aspirations.
The Cabindas seem to have understood it. In the absence of political autonomy, that is, of institutions that ensure and represent the political unity of a community, only the defense of its socio-cultural values (Myths, Dogmas, Rites, Mystical Powers, etc.) can preserve solidarity between different social segments and conflicting sectional interests. More than anything else, we think that it was the Cabindas' historical adherence to these values externalized (and updated) by symbolic rituals that allowed them to think and act as a community, which gave them cohesion and continuity.
The explanation for phenomena that would justify much more attention on the part of scholars will reside here, in great part: the survival of these Bakongo to the disarticulation of the ancient "Kingdom" of Congo at the end of the century. 17th and early 20th century. XVIII; the peculiarity of its historical relations with portugal; the singularity and the affirmative sense of the choices adopted by Cabindas both in the 19th century process of "sharing Africa" and in the more recent phenomena of "Decolonization".
Grades :
29 - " Cabindas ", a term commonly used in official documentation, means those born in the Territorial Enclave and dominantly defined when Africa was shared in the 19th century. XIX.
30 - Cfr. J. da Silva Cunha, 0 Cabinda's Problem - Subsidies for its Interpretation, in Revista, Africana, Center for African Studies, Univ. Portucalense, Porto, N. 12, Mar., 1993, p. 5.
31 - Cfr. João Falcato, 3rd ed., Editorial Notícias, lisboa, 1961, p. 26
32 - Cfr. José Redinha, Distribuição Étnica, 1971, p. 9.
About the peculiarities of his character see: João de Matos e Silva, Contribution to the Study of Cabinda Region, Lisbon, 1904; Augusto Nascimento, op. cit., pp. 171-197; José Martins Vaz, Traditional Philosophy of Cabindas ., Pass., Agência Geral do Ultramar, Lisbon, 1969.
33 - C &. Joaquim Martins, Sabedoria Cabinda (Symbols and Proverbs), Overseas Investigation Board, Lisbon, 1968.
34 - Cfr. Almada de Negreiros, Ethnographic history of the island of S. Tomé, 1895, p. 260, ap. Augusto Nascimento, op. cit., p. 172.
35 - João de Matos e Silva transcribes an 1884 record of a trip between Benguela and Lobito aboard a heavy whaling boat where he explicitly alludes to the great physical strength of the Cabindas rowers (cf. op. Cit., Pp. 159-160 ).
36 - In International Journal of African Studies, cit., Pp. 171-197.
See also, PhyIlis Martin, op. cit., pp. 45-57
37 - In the cities, the immigrant Cabindas lived in separate neighborhoods and, on feast days, met to dance and sing their music and practice their Rites (Cfr. J- Matos e Silva, op.cit., P. 13 ).
38 - See Id., Ibid., P. 20).
39 - Cfr. Pierre Verger, Flux et reflux de la traite des nègres between Le Golf de Bénín et Bahia de Todos os Santos du XVII au XIX siècle, Ed Mouton, Paris, 1968, p. 346, ap. Carlos Moreira Henriques Serrano, Power, symbols and social imaginary, the symbols of power in traditional society, Center for African Studies, Institute of Anthropologist, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 1983, p. 52.
40 - Cfr. L. Câmara Cascudo, Made in Africa, Ed. Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, 1965, p. 127, ap. Carlos Moreira Henriques Serrano, op. cit., p. 53.
41 - Ethnicity (of ethnos: people) is made up of a group of individuals, belonging to the same culture and who recognize themselves as such. More than a possible psychosomatic homogeneity, its essential element is the collective conscience that ensures its cohesion. From a social point of view, ethnicity is a larger unit than the family, clan and tribe.
42 - Some authors prefer the simplified Kongo phonetic form without the prefix Ba. We opted for Bakongo, which is the term most commonly used by the documentary sources that we have relied on and keeping it invariable.
43 - See J. Van Wing, Etudes Bakongo, Sociologie - Religion et Magie, Desclée de Brouwer, Léopoldville, 1959, p. 28.
44 - See José Redinha, op. cit., p. 8.
45 - It is a word created by W. Bleek, in 1826, formed from the junction of the prefix "Ba" to form the plural of "ntu" (person). Thus, with the designation "Bantu" (Ias people) it is intended to identify a people who spoke the same language (Cfr. B. Duarte, Traditional Literature, Editora Didáctica 1975, p. 75).
The first known references to this people date from 943 BC and are attributed to Mas'0udi, in his descriptions of the Golden Meadows (Cfr. Maria Paula da Costa et. Al, Black Africa, Contribution to Historical Geographic Knowledge, Editors, lisbon - 1987 pp. 84-85).
46 - 47 - It should be noted that there are some discrepancies regarding the classification criteria used by some authors.
48 - Such finding was not due, certainly only to better knowledge resulting from the existence of a greater quantity and quality of research work on the Bakongo.
49 - Mobility is not, in this context, antagonistic to the idea of rootedness, as both reflect the fundamental dualism that characterizes, both historically and today, the social space the coastal / interior (sea / land) and interior / exterior relations; exterior mobility has as its essential objective the creation of conditions for interior rooting.50 - Cfr. AHSTP, c. 210, p. 4, M. unique, ap. Augusto Nascimento, op. cit., p, 188.51 - Karl Deutsch considers that "a community comprises people who have learned to communicate with each other, beyond the simple exchange of goods and services" and has no doubts that "the community that, with a common history, it allows to be experienced as such and a community of complementary habits and communal facilities "," requires equipment to carry out a task "and" the equipment consists of recorded features, symbols, habits, effective preferences and complementary facilities "concluding that" we can call people to a vast group of people linked by these complementary habits and these communications facilities ", Nationalism and Social Communication, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1966, p. 91
