Manikongo
From Free net encyclopedia
The Manikongo was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Manikongo's seat of power was M'banza-Kongo, the present-day capital of Zaire Province in Angola, from where he would appoint govenors for the six provinces in the Kingdom and receive tribute from neighbouring subjects.
The Kingdom of Kongo and rule of the Manikongo became ever more threatened once the Portuguese had established their colony Luanda during the 1570s. Eventually, in 1665, both the Kingdom and position of Manikongo were ended after the Kingdom's army was defeated by the Portuguese at the Battle of Mbwila. During the subsequent Portuguese rule, M'banza-Kongo was known as São Salvador.