Pedro I of Kongo
| Pedro I Nkanga a Mvemba of Kongo | |
|---|---|
| Mwene Kongo | |
 Dom Pedro I | |
| Reign | 1543 to 1545 |
| Predecessor | Afonso I |
| Successor | Diogo I Nkumbi a Mpudi |
| Dynasty | Lukeni kanda |
| Father | Afonso I |
Pedro I Nkanga a Mvemba was manikongo of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1543 until being deposed in 1545.
Background
Pedro I was the son of King
Asylum and conspiracy
During his overthrow, Pedro I managed to seek asylum in one of the churches of M'banza-Kongo. King Diogo I was reluctant to attempt removing him, allowing Pedro to plot Diogo's overthrow from within the church. The details of his plot are well known because Diogo launched an inquest into them in 1550. A copy of the inquest has survived in the Portuguese archives and was published in 1877 by Paiva Manso.[3]
The inquest showed that Pedro had many friends in the kingdom and that there were confederates who wished to help him. Many held junior offices, many of the senior officials were reluctant to offer any help because they feared that Diogo would remove them from office. His most important confederate and cousin, Rodrigo de Santa Maria, fled to São Tomé, where he perhaps owned a plantation and tried to get assistance in Portugal and even in Rome. It was an intercepted letter that Pedro sent to his cousin to seek assistance that led Diogo to conduct the inquest and to send a copy to Portugal demanding that Santa Maria be extradited.
References
- ^ Thornton, John: "Elite Women in the Kingdom of Kongo: Historical Perspectives on Women's Political Power", page 445. The Journal of African History, Vol. 47, 2006
- ^ Thornton, John: "Elite Women in the Kingdom of Kongo: Historical Perspectives on Women's Political Power", page 444. The Journal of African History, Vol. 47, 2006
- ^ Paiva Manos's text left a line out, however, and it has now been fully published with the original text, English translation and commentary by Linda Heywood and John Thornton as "The Treason of Dom Pedro Nkanda a Mvemba against Dom Diogo, King of Kongo, 1550," in Kathryn McKnight and Leo Garofalo, eds., Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1550-1812 (Hackett, 2009), pp. 2-29
Further reading
- Thornton, John (2001). "The Origins and Early History of the Kingdom of Kongo, c. 1350-1550". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 34 (1): 89–120. JSTOR 3097288. Published by Boston University.