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A RE-INTERPRETATION OF THE KONGO–PORTUGUESE WAR OF 1622 ACCORDING TO NEW DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2010

JOHN THORNTON  and
ANDREA MOSTERMAN
JOHN THORNTON
Affiliation:
Boston University
ANDREA MOSTERMAN
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Abstract

An important document in the Dutch Archives casts new light on the Kongo–Portuguese War of 1622, usually seen as a signal defeat for Kongo. This document shows that, after the Portuguese victory over Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi, there was a second battle in which Kongo forces were victorious, and they in fact began the process of re-occupying lands the Portuguese had absorbed in earlier expansion. In addition, the document reveals the origins of a plan, conceived in Kongo, to form an alliance with the Dutch in order to attack Luanda and drive the Portuguese from Angola, a plan that was realized not in 1624 but in 1641.

Keywords

Central Africaprecolonialsourceswar
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 235 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 R. Delgado, História de Angola (4 vols., Benguela and Lobita (Angola), 1948–55; 2nd edn, Luanda, n.d.), II, 74–5; J. Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna: A History of Central African States Until European Occupation (Madison, 1966; original French edn, 1965]), 141; D. Birmingham, Trade and Conquest in Angola: The Mbundu and their Neighbours Under the Influence of the Portuguese, 1483–1790 (Oxford, 1966), which unfortunately muddles the details and has the battle take place in Nambu a Ngongo (Birmingham discussed the war of 1622 in greater detail in his chapter in the Cambridge History of Africa vol. 4, published separately as D. Birmingham, Central Africa to 1870: Zambezi, Zaire, and the South Atlantic: Chapters from the Cambridge History of Africa (Cambridge, 1981), 59–61); A. Hilton, The Kingdom of Kongo (Oxford, 1981), 135. The best account in terms of its level of detail and accuracy is found in G. Saccardo, Congo e Angola con la storia dall'antica missione dei Cappuccini (3 vols., Venice, 1982–4), 1.

2 For fuller details, see Saccardo, Congo e Angola, I, 24–45.

3 Ibid.; I. do Amaral, O Reino do Congo, os Mbundu (ou Mbundos), o Reino dos ‘Ngola’ (ou de Angola) e a presença portuguesa de finais do século XV a meados do século XVI (Lisbon, 1996), 91–148.

4 There is a large and controversial literature on the ‘Jagas’, which is summarized succinctly by Michel Chandeigne, in republication of Willy Bal's French translation, as Le royaume de Congo & les contrées environnantes (1591): la description de Filippo Pigafetta & Duarte Lopes présentée, traduite & annotée par Willy Bal (Paris, 2002), of the most important primary sources on them, Filippo Pigafetta's Relatione del Regno de Congo e circunvincinti contrade (Rome, 1591), 291–5 (n. 127). In spite of the title, Bal's notes have been included but modified and amplified by Chandeigne.

5 I. do Amaral, O Consulado de Paulo Dias de Novais: Angola no último quartel do século XVI e primeiro do século XVII (Lisbon, 2000).

6 L. Heywood and J. Thornton, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles and the Foundation of the Americas, 1575–1660 (Cambridge, 2007), 87–92.

7 Ibid. 110–11.

8 Ibid. 114–16, 119–23.

9 Ibid. 41–4.

10 Ibid. 123–35.

11 See Delgado, História, 74–5; Vansina, Kingdoms, 141; Hilton, History, 135; Saccardo, Congo e Angola, I, 177–81. The battle is not mentioned in G. Balandier, Daily Life in the Kingdom of Kongo from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1968; original French edn, Paris, 1965).

12 Mateus Cardoso, attributed to a canon of the cathedral of São Salvador and dated 1624, published in L.-J. de Paiva Manso, História do Congo (Documentos) (Lisbon, 1877), pp. 178–9. E. G. Ravenstein summarized it in appendix 2 to The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell in Angola and Adjacent Regions (London, 1901), p. 123, its first use in modern historiography. The second account was published in F. Rodrigues, História da Companhia de Jesus na Assistencia de Portugal (7 vols. in 3 tomes, Lisbon, 1934–50), tomo 3, II, 425. Both accounts were republished in António Brásio (ed.), Monumenta Missionaria Africana Monumenta Missionaria Africana (1st series, 15 vols., Lisbon, 1952–88), VII, 291–7, Mateus Cardoso to Manuel Rodrigues, 1624, and Mateus Cardoso, ‘Relação do que se passou em Angola no anno de 623…’ (177–9).

13 ‘Relação para o Ill.mo Sñr Collector en que se contaõ as causas que Ioão Correa de Souza que foi de Angola, teue para quebrar com os Pes da Companhia…’ (20 Oct. 1623), Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Biblioteca Corsiniana (Roma), MS 495 (39-B-4), fos. 3–14v (hereafter ‘Jesuits to Lord Collector’), in Brásio, Monumenta, XV, 512–19.

14 Heywood and Thornton, Central Africans, 136–41.

15 Jesuits to Lord Collector, 516–17; Mateus Cardoso gave the size of the Portuguese force as 20,000, and the Duke's as 3,000 archers and 200 heavy infantry, while claiming that 90 heavy infantry were killed: ‘Relação …’, 178.

16 Jesuits to Lord Collector, 517.

17 Cardoso to Rodrigues, 294.

18 The letter was quoted in extenso in Jesuits to Lord Collector, 522–3.

19 António Franco, Synopsis Annalium Societatis Jesu (Augsburg, 1725), 1623 n. 4, 235–6. This account contains many details for the following years not found in contemporary Jesuit documents, and diverges in language and style somewhat from the annual letters written by Mateus Cardoso. The later portions of the text make it clear that at least in part it was based on writings by João de Pavia, the rector of the college of São Salvador until 1642. It is possible that the whole is based on one or more manuscripts of de Paiva that are no longer extant.

20 The exact text of Pedro's letters to Spain is not known but they are mentioned in the Spanish king's reply, Felipe III to Pedro II, 17 June 1623, in Brásio, Monumenta, VII, 116–17; the letter to the Vatican is related in a summary document, Pedro II to Giovanni Battista Vives, 28 Nov. 1623, in Brásio, Monumenta, VII, 161.

21 Some of Pedro's tenor can be discerned from his letter to his ambassador in Rome: see Brásio, Monumenta, VII, 161.

22 V. do Salvador, Historia do Brasil, 1500–1627, ch. 37.

23 Arkveld, L. M. (ed.), ‘Journaal van de Reis van Piet Heyn naar Brazilië en West-Afrika, 1624–25’, Bijdragen en Medelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, 76 (1962), 142Google Scholar; ‘Tguint den Admirael Pieter Heyn Beiegent often weervaren is seeded den. 6 Augustes Anno 1624 tot den 12 Julij Anno 1625’, in K. Ratelband, De Westafrikanse Reis van Piet Heyn, 1624–25 (The Hague, 1959), 7; J. de Laet, Historie ofte Iaerlijck Verhael van de verrichtinghen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie (Leiden, 1644), 66.

24 Hilton, Kingdom of Kongo, 135–6. Klaas Ratelband's account of the Dutch in Central Africa, written in 1943, made use of some of them, but it was not published until 2000: Ratelband, Nederlanders in West-Afrika 1600–1650: Angola, Kongo en São Tomé, ed. R. Baesjou (Zutphen, 2000); in referring to this work, we have preferred the Portuguese translation, Os Holandeses no Brasil e na Costa Africana. Angola, Kongo e S. Tomé (1600–1650, ed. C. Pacheco (Lisbon, 2003), because of its superior annotation.

25 See text below.

26 Jesuits to Lord Collector, 523.

27 Pedro II to Licenciado André de Morais Sarmento, 23 March 1623, in Brásio, Monumenta, VII, 105–6. Heintze, in her careful assessment of documents, presents Pedro as writing this letter from São Salvador, but the letter, which contains no place name in the signature element, does clearly state that at the time Pedro was ‘in the lands of my vassal Nambogongo, where I am [donde fico]’: B. Heintze, ‘O fim de Ndongo como Estado independente,’ in B. Heintze (ed.), Angola nos séculos XVI e XVII (Luanda, 2007), p. 300 (an original German version of this article appeared in 1981, and a revised version without footnotes in 1994; this version is a translation with notes that includes the revisions).

28 Cardoso to Rodrigues, 295. Engombe is likely to be Ngombe a Mukiama, located west of Cahenda in the Dande river valley.

29 Biblioteca Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, Manoscritos, I-33, 33, 11 (Códice Severim de Faria), [M. Cardoso], ‘Relação dos successos de Angolla de 623 & 24 a[nnos]’, fol. 1v.

30 Heywood and Thornton, Central Africans, pp. 124–7.

31 Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU), Caixa 2, documento 14, Consulta of the Overseas Council, 6 April 1623 (concerns writing to the governor of Brazil seeking the captives), documento 18, 7 July 1623 (on giving satisfaction to the king of Kongo through their return).

32 AHU Caixa 2, documento 20, Consulta of 31 Aug. 1623.

33 Simão de Mascarenhas, 3 Feb. 1624, in Brásio, Monumenta, VII, 200.

34 Ratelband, Holandeses, 59–70.

35 Ibid.

36 Fernão de Sousa to Governo, 15 Aug. 1624, in B. Heintze, (ed.), Fontes para a história de Angola: A colectêana documental de Fernão de Sousa (2 vols., Lisbon, 1985–8), I, 84 (also in Brásio, Monumenta, VII, 248).

37 Ratelband, Holandeses, 70–83.

38 Arkveld ‘Journaal van de Reis’, 143–5.

39 Cardoso to Rodrigues, 295.

40 Fernão de Sousa to Governo, 15 Aug. 1624.

41 Heywood and Thornton, Central Africans, 145–53.

42 A. de Oliveira de Cadornega, História geral das guerras Angolanas (Lisbon, 1942), II, 132–4.

43 I would like to thank both John Thornton and Janny Venema for their help with the transcription and translation, though any errors in the transcription and translation are my own.

44 Francis J. Sypher (ed. and transl.), Liber A: 1628–1700, of the Collegiate Churches of New York (Grand Rapids, 2009), xxvi.

45 In the original text, the subject of the sentence, ‘oorloghe’, is singular, while the predicate, ‘aanwiesen’, is plural. This could mean that the author refers to one war instead of several wars. Because the text keeps using the plural when referring to the wars, I chose to use the plural in this instance as well.

46 In the translation, we have rendered Kikongo toponyms into modern Kikongo.

47 Although the Dutch used the title Prins, in fact, until the elevation of Daniel da Silva in 1641, the rulers of Soyo bore the title count.

48 The count of Soyo in those days was António Manuel: see ‘Morte de D Alvaro III ElRei do Congo e eleição de D. Pedro Affonso’, 1622, in Brásio, Monumenta, XV, 483.

49 The literal translation of the Dutch word ‘broodmessen’ would be ‘bread knives’. According to the Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal (WNT), a bread knife was a large knife used to cut bread, which could also be used as a weapon. Since in the English language ‘bread knife’ does not hold the same meaning, we chose to use the word ‘dagger’ instead.

50 The Dutch word ‘quartieren’ could also mean ‘quarters’ or ‘residencies’. In this instance, however, ‘regions’ appears to be the most accurate translation.

51 The Dutch word ‘Hooggemelte’ can be translated as either ‘aforementioned’ or ‘noble’. In both instances, it refers to someone of high status.

52 The word ‘daar’ can mean either ‘there’, ‘where’, or ‘that’.

53 In fact, the number of slaves never reached this level, but was much closer to 15,000 per year: Heywood and Thornton, Central Africans, pp. 159–67.

54 Only the ‘c’ at the beginning of the word and the ‘s’ at the end are legible in the original, but the context indicates that the full word would have been ‘commies’.

55 Though I chose to use ‘still’, ‘als noch’ can also mean ‘as yet’.

56 A literal translation of the Dutch word ‘coppen’ would be ‘heads’ but, considering the context, ‘soldiers’ appears the most appropriate translation.