2

THE DIOCESE OF SÃO SALVADOR:

CONGO AND ANGOLA

2.1 Early evangelization of Congo

King João Nzinga Nkuwu (? - 1506)

In his first voyage to the mouth of the Zaïre (Congo) river in 1482 Diogo Cão made contact with representatives or vassals of the king of Congo and was allowed to take four young Congolese men back with him to Portugal. These were educated and baptized in Portugal and returned with Diogo Cãõ on his second voyage in 1490. Their relatives in Congo had given up all hope of ever seeing them again and were overjoyed at their return. As a result, the Portuguese and their religion were heartily welcomed. A number of Franciscans and a few Dominicans came with Diogo Cão and set to work teaching the faith with the help of the Congolese young men who returned with them.^[1]

Mpinda, the town at the mouth of the Zaïre river where Diogo Cão landed, was in the land of Sonyo, whose Mani (king) was a vassal of the Mani-Congo further in the interior. On Easter Sunday 3 April 1491 Fr. João, the Franciscan prefect of the mission, baptized the Mani-Sonyo, who took the name Manuel, and his son, who took the name António. Although his many followers wanted to be baptized at the same time the Mani-Sonyo would not permit it because he thought the Mani-Congo might be offended if others were baptized before him. Since the Mani-Sonyo was the uncle and senior to the Mani-Congo, he had no hesitation in being baptized along with his son before him. An embassy accompanied by Fr. João then went on to the Congo capital, later named São Salvador, which resulted in the baptism on 3 May 1491 of the Mani-Congo Nzinga Nkuwu, who took the name João, and later his wife, who took the name Leonor, after the king and queen of Portugal respectively.^[2]

Shortly afterwards the King’s son Mvemba Nainga, who was the Mani of Nsundi, was baptized and took the name Afonso. Around 1493 King João, resenting the preaching that he should keep to one wife, turned more and more to his former spiritualistic practices and conspired with his non-Christian son Panso Akitimo to oppose Christianity. Christianity, however, continued to spread in Sonyo and Nsundi, whose manis remained faithful. The King died around 1560 and Queen Leonor concealed his death until her son Afonso could come from Nsundi and secretly enter the capital. There he rallied his supporters and, calling on the name of Jesus and the Apostle James (Santiago), defeated his brother Panso Akitimo, who had surrounded the town with a large army, and became king.

Afonso I (1506-43)

During the reign of Afonso I more priests came, notably some Franciscans in 1504, 1509, 1511 and 1514, some Canons of St. John the Evangelist of Azuis in 1508 and some Augustinian Canons of Santo Eloi in 1514. A school for boys was planned but not immediately realized. A number of boys were sent to Portugal for education. When some of them were careless about studying Afonso wrote to King Manuel of Portugal telling him to punish the boys but not send them away.^[3] On the other hand Afonso often had to complain of Portuguese officials and traders in Congo and on São Tomé who were overstepping themselves and claiming a monopoly in certain areas of trade.^[4] He also complained of the avarice of certain missionaries.^[5]

In 1512 Afonso sent an embassy to Pope Julius II. In 1518 Pope Leo X granted his request to have his son Henrique ordained a bishop. Henrique had been educated with the Augustinian Canons of Santo Eloi in Lisbon and was 24 years old. Pope Leo emphasised that his ordination as a bishop at that early age was exceptional and that some theologians and canon lawyers should be provided to advise him. Ordained in 1520, bishop Henrique returned to work in his country in the capacity of auxiliary to the bishop of Funchal and titular bishop of Utica, a town a little north of Carthage in Tunisia which once was the seat of a bishop. Bishop Henrique had too much work to do and in 1526 Afonso wrote several times to King João III of Portugal asking for 50 priests and 6 Augustinian Canons of Santo Eloi to help him.^[6] Little Portugal did not have so many priests to dispose of, and the same year Afonso wrote again to João III telling him that Bishop Henrique was not well and asking to have two nephews of his ordained bishops to help Henrique and to ordain Congolese priests.^[7] Bishop Henrique died in 1530, and Afonso’s request was not granted. In fact no other African was ordained a bishop until Joseph Kiwanuka was made bishop of Masaka, Uganda, in 1939. Instead, in 1533 São Tomé was made a diocese and given a bishop the next year. But the new bishop, Diogo Ortiz (1534-40), a diocesan priest from Vilhegas, Portugal, never came to his diocese. Neither did his successor Bernardo da Cruz OP (1540-53), although the latter had an auxiliary sent to replace Bishop Henrique.

In Easter time of 1541 six or eight Portuguese men burst in on King Afonso while he was attending Mass and tried to kill him. He beat them off, killing one and wounding two others, as he himself describes in one of his letters.^[8] Afonso died in 1543, and was succeeded by his son Pedro, who was overthrown the next year by his nephew Diogo.

Diogo I (1545-61)

Diogo I received the successor of Bishop Henrique, the Portuguese Dominican João Baptista, who in September 16542 was appointed auxiliary bishop of São Tomé and titular bishop of Utica. Bishop João Baptista began a priory in São Salvador for African Dominicans,^[9] but soon fell out of the King’s grace. In 1546 and 1547 King Diogo complained to Fr. Diogo Gomes, a Portuguese priest born in Congo and serving as King Diogo’s confessor and ambassador to Portugal, that the Bishop was arrogant and possibly writing bad reports about King Diogo to Portugal.^[10] In 1547 King Diogo wrote to King João II of Portugal informing him that he had expelled the Bishop.^[11]

In 1548 Diogo’s ambassador to Portugal, Fr. Diogo Gomes, returned to Congo with four Jesuits who opened a school in São Salvador for 600 students.^[12] The Jesuits, however, were only there a year before they had their own troubles with the King. Fr. Cristóvão Ribeiro blamed diocesan priests in Congo for stirring up a persecution against the Jesuits as they had against Bishop João Baptista.^[13] Letters of complaint came from King Diogo that the Jesuits were insulting him in their preaching,^[14] and from the Jesuits that the King curtailed their preaching and would not allow them to teach women or to have Masses celebrated for the late King Afonso.^[15] These first Jesuits left along with Fr. Diogo Gomes, who entered the Jesuit novitiate taking the name Cornelio. In 1552 Cornelio Gomes SJ informed St. Ignatius of Loyola that King Diogo would be deposed and the king of Portugal would install another king more favourable to the Jesuits,^[16] but nothing came of this plot.

In 1553 Cornelio Gomes returned to Congo with other Jesuits and plans for another school for 600 students, but they complained of renewed troubles with the King.^[17] King Diogo, on the other hand, asked for Jesuits to be sent to help Cornelio establish the school and also requested 300 copies to be printed of Cornelio’s catechism in Bantu.^[18] Later King Diogo wrote again for more priests and at the same time expelled some older priests, including some Jesuits.^[19] In 1554 Cornelio Gomes had a dispute with the King over his marriage. The Jesuit report of 1548 said that in the whole Congo only the King and a few notables were “married for Church”.^[20] But Cornelio found out that the King was related to his wife within a degree which required a dispensation from the Church for his marriage. No one had issued the dispensation and Cornelio began refusing the King communion. He was overruled by the pro-episcopus Manuel Figueira and other priests, but the controversy must have been the origin of Cornelio’s final departure in 1555 and the failure of the school before it ever took off. The failure of this second Jesuit mission led Fr. Diogo Mirão to report to St. Ignatius the renewed possibility that the Portuguese might intervene and depose King Diogo.^[21]

In 1557 two Franciscans, with a supply of Cornelio Gomes’ catechisms, arrived in Congo to replace the Jesuits. The first bishop of São Tomé to come to Africa, Gaspar Cão OSA (1554-74), toured Congo in 1560 and was well received by Diogo. When the difficult King Diogo died in 1561 the Portuguese declared his son Afonso II king. But a few days later this king was assassinated and succeeded by his half-brother Bernardo I.^[22] Bernardo died in 1567 fighting the Yakas who were threatening Congo territory from the east. His successor Henrique I died the same way in the following year. He was succeeded by his son Álvaro I.

«-- Back

Contents

Ahead --»

^[1]Brásio (1944) gives this conclusion to the conflicting evidence of who were the first missionaries.

^[2]MMA, I, 83-5, giving the text of João de Barros. I assume that the “Joham” who Rui de Pina says is a Franciscan and the “João” who De Barros says is a Dominican are the same person.