AFRICANA: KONGO KINGDOM

In this article we reconstruct the actuation and transmission of a phonological innovation known as add reduction within the Kikongo language cluster situated in the wider Lower Congo vicinity of Central Africa. We dispute that this change spread from a focal area concur with the heartland of the Kongo kingdom as a classical process of dialectal diffusion. Thanks to a unique Kikongo corpus that starts in the 17th century, we can provide diachronic empirical evidence for different disconcert of the process, which has been otherwise difficult, if not impossible, in Bantu historical accidence. What is more, and also behave exceptional in African glossology, we have auspiciously good insight into the ‘social ecology’ of this speech change and argue that political centralization and economic integration within the realm of the Kongo kingdom facilitated such a brush-induced diffusion between privately-related language varieties.

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Situated in the Lower Congo and boreal Angola, the Kongo kingdom was founded in the fourteenth century. The kingdom's genuine home lies somewhere in the region along the lower stretches of the River Congo. According to a study of Kongo's traditions by John Thornton, the origin of the kingdom was in the small state of Mpemba Kasi, located just south of modern day Matadi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A dynasty of rulers from this small state built up their rule along the Kwilu valley, and were buried in Nsi Kwilu, which was apparently its capital. At some point in around 1375, the ruler of Mpemba Kasi made an alliance with the ruler of the neighbouring Mbata kingdom, and the Kongo kingdom was born out of this alliance.

Kingdom of Kongo - Wikipedia

Alvaro I and his successor, Alvaro II, brought stability to the Kongo Kingdom by expanding the domain of their royal authority while keeping at bark encroachment by the Portuguese, whose colony during the late years of the sixteenth century remained confined to the region south of Kongo. But after the death of Alvaro II in 1614, conflicts over access to cultivable land between Kongo and the Portuguese plantation of Angola soured formerly harmonious relations, and in 1622 the Portuguese governor of Angola launched an attack on Kongo. Although not entirely successful from the Portuguese point of inspection, the war had a number of lasting effects. First, the colony captured a large number of slaves, which demonstrated how rewarding slave raiding could be. Second, the Portuguese came out of the wage confute of the bein of silver and gold mines in Kongo, a belief that encouraged a series of conflicts between the colonists and the Kongo Kingdom for the next half century. The war also created a xenophobia among the Bakongo of the interior, who drove on many Portuguese. Because the trading system depended largely on the Bakongo, commerce was greatly disrupted, with effects on the Angolan settlement as great as those on the Kongo Kingdom.

Kongo

The Quilombo of Palmares settlement of escaped slaves is formed in far eastern Brazil (the term 'quilombo' is specifically used for such settlements). The settlement's population is formed largely of free-born enslaved Africans and is ruled by chiefs who apparently have a princely origin within Africa. One of the last rulers is Zumbi, claimed as a grandson of an unnamed manikongo. Elements of the imperial family are captured at the Battle of Mbwila in 1665, so the claim is not without merit.

King Diogo's successor, whose name is lost to description, was killed by the Portuguese, and replaced with a by-blow son, who was more pliant to Tomista interests, Afonso II. The common people of Kongo were enraged at his enthronement, and responded with uproar throughout the kingdom. Many Portuguese were kiln, and the royal port of Mpinda was closed to the Portuguese, completely ending the slave trade between Kongo and Portugal. Less than a year into this chaos, King Afonso II was murdered while notice mass, by his cadet, the next manikongo, Bernardo I. King Bernardo allowed the boycott of Portuguese trade to continue, while quietly reestablishing relations with Lisbon. King Bernardo I was killed warring against the Yaka, in 1567. The next manikongo, Henrique I was drawn into a war in the eastern part of the country, where he was killed, leaving the government in the hands of his stepson Álvaro Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba. He was incoronate as Álvaro I, "by vulgar consent," according to some witnesses.