Reading the American Past: Printed Page 15

DOCUMENT 2–1

The King of the Congo Writes to the King of Portugal

In 1481, a Portuguese explorer happened upon the mouth of the enormous Congo River, and within a decade Portuguese soldiers, traders, and missionaries had made their way inland to Mbanza Congo, the capital of the powerful Kingdom of Congo, establishing a European presence that persisted for centuries. The king of the Congo welcomed the Portuguese intruders who traded European items of all kinds — particularly guns — for such local goods as ivory and, especially, slaves. Portuguese missionaries converted some young Congolese to Christianity, including Mzinga Mbemba Afonso, who became king in 1506 and ruled the Congo for almost forty years. In 1526, concerned about the disastrous consequences of Portuguese trade for both his kingdom and his rule, Afonso wrote King João III of Portugal. Afonso's letters, excerpted here in an English translation of the original Portuguese, are among the very few surviving documents written by an African in the sixteenth century. The letters reveal Afonso's difficult dilemma: how to take advantage of certain features of contact with the Portuguese while avoiding the undesirable — and ultimately destructive — consequences.

King Afonso to King João III

Correspondence, 1526

Mbanza Congo, July 6, 1526

My Lord,

On June 26 we heard of the arrival in our harbor of one of Your Highness' ships. This made us truly glad for it had been a long time since any of your ships had docked in our kingdom bringing with it news of Your Highness which, as one would expect, we had often desired to hear. Moreover we are almost entirely lacking wine and flour for the holy sacrifice. ...

My Lord, Your Highness must know that our kingdom's end is drawing near, so much so that we must find the appropriate remedy to this situation. What causes so much looseness is the fact that the head of your mission and your officers grant merchants the authorization to establish themselves in this kingdom, to open shops and to sell goods, even those [such as guns] which we forbid. They spread them across our kingdoms and provinces in such great amounts that many of our vassals which, until now, obeyed us are beginning to claim their independence. These days they are able to acquire, in larger quantities than us, those very things with which we kept them subdued and satisfied with our vassalage and governance. This causes great loss for God's service as well as for the safety and peace of our kingdoms and ourselves.

We are not even able to measure the extent of this loss because of the merchants constantly taking away our subjects, children of this land, sons of nobles and vassals, even members of our family. Those thieves and remorseless men take them to trade on the country's wealth which they covet. They kidnap them and sell them. This corruption and depravity are so common that our land is entirely deserted. Your Highness must not consider this favorable neither in itself nor for his service. To avoid this abuse this kingdom only needs priests and some people to teach in schools and not goods with the exception of wine and flour for the holy sacrifice. That is why we ask Your Highness to help us and grant us our wish to demand from the heads of your missions that they no longer send goods and merchants here. It is indeed our wish that this kingdom be neither a place of trade nor a place of transit for slaves for the reasons I just explained.

Once again we ask Your Highness to make it so because we do not have any other means of preventing such obvious damages.

May the Lord in His mercy always protect Your Highness and allow you to serve Him. I kiss your hands many times.

King Afonso to King João III

Mbanza Congo, August 25, 1526

My Lord,

. . . We often spend five to six months without any mass or sacrament because Your Highness' officers wish it so; this hinders God's service and causes great confusion among our subjects. Some say that Your Highness no longer remembers us or christianity which your father, God bless his soul, had kept for so long in these regions thanks to all the visits he requested, and thanks to his exhortations and encouragement which brought constancy and faith to all and great comfort to us.

Now Your Highness is putting all of this in jeopardy by showing so little interest in us. The [Portuguese ship] pilots' disregard for us is clear when they leave, as they often do, without even waiting for our messages. They pretend to be obeying the orders of Your Highness' officers. When our letters arrive at the harbor they have already left. Then they accuse us of being careless to cover their own errors and to put us in a unfavorable position with regards to Your Highness. Thus they give you an excuse to forget us completely. We beg you not to believe these liars and these men whose sole purpose is to make profit and sell their ill-gotten goods. Through this trade of theirs, they damage and corrupt our kingdom as well as christianity which has been flourishing here for so many years and which cost so much to your ancestors. Yet it is a very precious treasure. The most christian and most catholic kings and princes like Your Highness strive to attract and maintain new peoples into God's service for the increase of the holy catholic faith, to which we all have held on. One can do a lot of damage with so many goods and through such anarchic means. These goods prove themselves so attractive to the simple minded and the ignorant folks that they forget to believe in God in order to believe in them. We must remedy this situation for it is a trick of the devil which could lead to the damnation of all. In addition to this, my Lord, our people fall victim of a monstrous greed which causes them to act like thieves and take their own relatives as well as ours, even christian ones, to trade them and sell them as captives. This corruption is such that our troops are no longer able to put an end to it without frequently conducting numerous and large scale executions among our subjects. This way the innocent will die for the sinner.

It would not be so, my Lord, if Your Highness cared to help us and grant us the favor of sending spiritual medicine, as your father, the King, had done. We cannot do without many priests to celebrate the sacrifice, to conduct preaching, religious education, and confessions. They should visit in pairs all the regions of our kingdom, which is very large and populated. Together with the bishop, our son, we would command them to plant the word of God in the hearts of our subjects. This way, it would remain so deeply engrained that even if they attempted to practice devilish deeds for their damnation the virtue of such remedies would cure them.

My Lord, avoid sending us merchants who engage in vicious trade as well as evil goods. This impedes the salvation of the souls and spoils the good results we had obtained. ...

Furthermore, we need three or four good grammarians to complete the instruction of our subjects who have begun their education. We have with us many of your and our subjects who can teach reading and writing, but we need men capable of showing and explaining the truths of the holy faith and of judging on thorny matters, which our other subjects generally cannot do. Yet it is very necessary.

Moreover, my Lord, some churches have already been started. We would need five or six masons and ten carpenters to finish them for the service and praise of God, our Lord. This is mainly about [the church] Our Lady of Victory. We have started it in a very dense forest where, according to pagan customs, kings used to be buried. We have cut down the trees of this forest which was very difficult as much due to the roughness of the terrain as to the important men of our kingdom; we feared that they would not even agree to it. However, they were so prompt to accept it and be helpful that they cut down tall and large trees with their own hands and brought construction stones on their own backs. This indeed seems to be a consequence of the divine grace. ...

Therefore, we ask Your Highness, for the love of Jesus Christ, to be so good as to help us and grant us all that we have said and all that we have often requested. It is as much for the service of God as it is for yours and everything relies on your conscience; as for us, we cannot do much more than what we continuously do. As far as the remedies that we can provide without external help are concerned, we have done our part. But for what we cannot achieve without Your Highness' help and assistance, we ask you for the cure as one rightfully entitled to it. We should not request this either from the king of Castile, or the king of France, or any other Christian king, and we do not wish to be obliged to them due to the numerous reasons we were given. This duty is not their responsibility particularly due to the little contact they have with this kingdom. This kingdom is as Portuguese and loyal to your service as the one Your Highness rightfully inherited and, moreover, there is no room among us for ingratitude. At this very moment we are aware of the great spiritual and temporal benefits we were granted. These will not be forgotten so as to take more into consideration the flaws of our true mother than the deceitful caresses of a stepmother, even though we all are under the same law and faith. I will say no more for Your Highness is aware of what he can expect from us and it is certain that our kingdoms and provinces will always serve you. ...

May Our Lord, through his holy mercy, always protect Your Highness and may he bless you with a long life and the strengthening of your royal possessions for his holy service.

King Afonso to King João III

Mbanza Congo, October 18, 1526

My Lord,

Your Highness wrote to have us ask him in our letters everything that we need. He would provide us with everything. The peace and well-being of our kingdoms lie, after God, on our life. However we are old already and we have often been affected by various diseases which weaken us to our last resources. The same diseases also strike our sons, relatives and countrymen. Yet in this kingdom we have neither doctors nor surgeons who would know how to administer the appropriate treatment to such infirmities. Also, we have neither pharmacies nor the most efficient medicines. Thus, because we have nothing, many of those who are already educated in the truths of Our Lord Jesus Christ's holy faith die! Most of the inhabitants cure themselves with herbs and various woods or turn to traditional rites. If they survive their faith in those herbs and rites grows and if they die they believe that they are saved which does not favor God's service.

To prevent such damageable erring, since, after God, it is from Your Highness that we receive in our kingdoms all the cures for health, we ask Your Highness to send here two doctors, two pharmacists and one surgeon. Let them come and stay in our kingdoms with all their medicines and tools for we need each of them very much. We shall grant them many favors, because they will be sent by Your Highness; should Your Highness agree to have them work here. We beg Your Highness in urgency to accept to send them to us because this matter is not simply about granting a particular favor but also about serving God for all the reasons we just gave you.

There is, my Lord, yet another great obstacle to the service of God in our kingdoms. Many of our subjects greatly covet the goods which your men bring in our kingdoms from Portugal. To quench this uncontrolled thirst they kidnap many of our free or freed black subjects even nobles, sons of noblemen and even our relatives. They sell them to the white men who are in our kingdom after having delivered their prisoners in secret or during the night in order not to be recognized. As soon as the captives are under the white men's power they are branded. This is how they are found by our guards when they board the ships. The white men then explain that they were bought but they cannot say from whom. Yet it is our duty, as the prisoners claim, to do justice and set them free. To prevent such incidents we have decreed that all white men buying slaves in our kingdoms, however it may happen, should first inform three noblemen and officers of our court to whom I entrusted this control. ... They will check whether the slaves are not actually free men. If they are found to be slaves nothing will prevent anyone from having them and taking them on board. However, should the opposite be true, the captives will be taken away from the white men. We gave our consent to this favor and these services because of Your Highness' participation in this trade. Indeed we know that it is for your service that these slaves are taken from our kingdoms. If it were not so, we would not agree to it for the reasons we have already given you.

We inform Your Highness of all this so that your subjects will not come to you and say it is otherwise. Indeed they tell Your Highness many lies to keep your mind from remembering the obligations you have towards us and our kingdom for God's service. It seems to us that it would be a great favor if you could let us know through one of your letters what you think of these dispositions.

We kiss Your Highness' hands many times my Lord.

From Louis Jadin and Mireille Decorato, Correspondance de Dom Afonso, roi du Congo, 1506–1543 (Brussels: Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, 1974), 154–62, 166–69. English translation by Marianna Dantas.

Questions for Reading and Discussion