Letters of Afonso I of Kongo on the slave trade
Afonso I of Kongo, a devout Catholic and an ally of Portugal, complained in letters to the Portuguese king that merchants and local nobles were kidnapping free subjects and selling them into slavery, and demanded that the trade in people be placed under royal control.
- Date
- 1526year known
- Place
- Mbanza Kongotoday: Mbanza Kongo, Angola · Africa
- Participants
- Afonso I of Kongo (Mvemba a Nzinga), Kingdom of Kongo, Kingdom of Portugal
- Threads
- Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries
- Also known as
- Мвемба а Нзинга; Афонсу I Конго
Mvemba a Nzinga, who took the name Afonso at his baptism, ruled Kongo from 1509. He zealously spread Christianity, sent young noblemen to study in Portugal and kept up an extensive correspondence with Kings Manuel I and John III; almost everything known about the history of Kongo in this period comes from these letters.
By the mid-1520s the demand for slaves, above all for the Portuguese colony on the island of São Tomé, had got out of control: bypassing the royal monopoly, nobles bought European goods and paid for them in people, even kidnapping the freeborn. In 1526 Afonso threatened to stop the trade altogether unless Portugal reined in its merchants, and he set up a commission to check the legality of every sale of a slave. The trade in captives taken in war continued, however: the king sought only to ensure that it was conducted according to the laws of Kongo and under his supervision.
Connections
Related events
- Ethiopian–Adal WarMarch 1529 – 21 February 1543 · Africatwo Christian kingdoms of Africa looked to Portugal for support: Afonso I corresponded with its kings, and Ethiopia called on the Portuguese for help against Adal
Same participants
- Capture of Malacca25 July – between 10 August and 24 August 1511 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Kingdom of Portugal
Adjacent events in the thread
- First Battle of Panipat21 April 1526 · South Asia
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534 · Middle East and Egypt
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Mohács29 August 1526
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527
- Siege of Vienna (1529)27 September – 15 October 1529
- First circumnavigation of the globe10 August 1519 – 8 September 1522
South Asia
- First Battle of Panipat21 April 1526
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Battle of Mactan27 April 1521
Latin America
- Fall of Tenochtitlan13 August 1521
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec EmpireFebruary 1519 – 13 August 1521