An Interesting Story About A Kongolese Warrior King.

Meet Nkanga a Mvika aka Pedro II king of the Kongo, a stalwart defender of his Kingdom from Portuguese encroachment, but this act was not soo special for ancient and medieval African kingdoms and empires as they were certainly no pushovers as nearly all such aggressive contacts ended badly for the aggressors, but what stands out for me was, Nkanga a Mvika was the only African king that I knew of to repatriate his people from the so-called "New world' back to their homeland, from captivity in Brazil.
To be cont.

a reply to: Spider879

In the Beginning .

Pedro II served in the provincial government of Manikongo Álvaro III Nimi a Mpanzu as Marquis of Wembo and later as Duke of Mbamba. Manikongo Álvaro III had no heir apparent as he was a young man with older uncles whom wished to rule. When he died in 1622, Pedro II was elected as a compromise candidate. King Pedro II's father was from the province of Nsundi, where Pedro himself was born, and thus his royal house is known by that name or simply the Kinkanga kanda.
en.m.wikipedia.org...

Before he took to the throne the Portuguese were great friends and traders of which trade in slaves were of minor interest, the Portuguese were looking for friends in a mostly hostile Islamic east, The legend of Prestor John a mythical Christian king, perhaps Ethiopia or even some Asian entity was believed to have existed, they chanced up on the a very large Kingdom in West central Africa and found a people, who were a bureaucratic and well ordered and governed, with urban centers they could recognized, a curious and wealthy people opened to conduct business , embassies exchanged , culture and trade flowed the Kongolese at least the elites took up Christianity even included the King, so this would be no repeat of Oda Nobunaga of Japan ,crushing new Christians and their foreign priest.

But relations would be strained as the demands for slaves grew, the Portuguese were raiding other kingdoms especially in neighboring Angola along with their allies the savage and cannibalistic Imbangala these began to encroached on Kong territories.
The King clapped back and dog walked the Portuguese out of their kingdom.

,200 slaves
a reply to: Spider879

Battle of Mbandi KasiEdit

Pedro II immediately declared Angola an enemy of the state and brought the main army down from Kongo to meet the invaders at Mbanda Kasi. The army of Kongo crushed the Portuguese and the Imbangala and forced them out of Kongo entirely. In the aftermath of this, anti-Portuguese riots broke out all over the kingdom and threatened its long established merchant community. Portuguese throughout the country were humiliatingly disarmed and even forced to give up their clothes.

Pedro II set up camp at Mbana Kasi and wrote numerous letters of protest to Rome and the king of Spain (then also ruler of Portugal). As a result of these letters and protests by Portuguese merchants in Kongo and Angola, João Correia de Sousa was recalled in disgrace, and some ,200 slaves eventually returned from Brazil. Pedro, anxious not to alienate the Portuguese merchant community, and aware that they had generally remained loyal during the war, did as much as he could to preserve their lives and property, leading some of his detractors to call him "King of

Portuguese".

en.m.wikipedia.org...

He died some time after his son and this corrupt ministers reversed his policies, allowing for the trade to increase , the Kingdom would carry on unit the 1800 before being colonized by Portugal.
Imagine if most African leaders acted thus.

a reply to: Spider879

Sorry the highlighted passage above was meant to read 1,200 slaves, repatriated from Brazil, but when you have thousands of captured Portuguese soldiers and merchants paraded through your capital city butt nicked and subject to being turned into slaves themselves...then yeah you may wanna make that deal.