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African History 4: Kongo and Portugal 305 Views


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Description:

Today we'll learn about how people in Kongo were total Portugeeks...at least until Portugal started enslaving them. Yeah, that alliance didn't turn out too well.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Not all African rulers were down with the slave trade.

00:07

A major rebellion actually fired up in Kongo. [Explosion occurs and rebellion appears]

00:10

It was sort of a shocker when it happened, since the kings of Kongo were BFFs with the

00:15

Europeans for a while. [Kongo king with European man]

00:17

The early kings of Kongo were actually full-on obsessed with Portuguese language and culture. [King reading portuguese for dummies]

00:22

It was like how modern anime fans get super into Japan.

00:26

Though nobody in Kongo was walking around dressed like a tweaked-out space princess. [Man wearing blue space dress]

00:29

As far as we know…

00:31

The kings of Kongo also hoped that an alliance with Portugal would bring them wealth and

00:35

power.

00:36

Which it did for a while.

00:37

Portugal responded by sending hordes of missionaries, and by 1506 Kongo had a Catholic ruler. [Missionaries transfer to Kongo]

00:44

As the 16th century dragged on and Portugal founded a colony in the Americas, the Portuguese

00:50

became less interested in talking about God and more interested in buying slaves. [Portugal man in room with a slave]

00:55

Guess they didn't wear any “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets…

00:59

The Portuguese first bought slaves directly from the Kongo government, including POWs

01:03

and criminals convicted of serious crimes. [Portuguese man buying slaves]

01:06

But the Portuguese just couldn’t get enough.

01:08

So they hired bandits to kidnap people and take them to the slave trading posts. [Bandits kidnapping a slave]

01:12

This became so common that some areas of the Kingdom of Kongo became regular ghost towns.

01:17

Seems like the Portuguese weren’t too concerned with diplomatic relations at this point… [People stood by hut and tumbleweed blows past]

01:21

In 1526, one of the kings of Kongo couldn’t take it anymore.

01:25

His name was Afonso I.

01:28

Nobody called him the Fonz, but… maybe they should have.

01:31

Afonso’s first tactic was to write a strongly worded letter to the Portuguese on the subject [Afonso writing a letter]

01:36

of illegal slavery.

01:38

But this was the equivalent of a snippy post-it-note on the fridge, so… it wasn’t too effective. [Afonso puts sticky note on fridge door]

01:43

Next, Afonso formed a committee to examine the problem.

01:47

Like most committees that have ever existed, this committee, uh… didn’t accomplish

01:51

much.

01:52

It did, however, design a slew of treaties to restrict Portuguese slavery to a few hundred [Slaves stood behind bars]

01:55

prisoners chosen each year by the government.

01:58

But this… “just take the ones we don’t like” approach… also failed.

02:03

Almost immediately, slavers were back to nabbing whoever they wanted. [Bandits kidnapping a slave]

02:06

A century of political scheming followed.

02:09

The Portuguese tried to support different candidates to the throne who were more on

02:13

board.

02:14

But the Portuguese scheming mostly failed, and the kings of Kongo got sick of the “selling [Kings pointing to portuguese man]

02:19

civilians” plan.

02:21

In 1622, the Kongolese put their bullets where their mouths were.

02:25

Okay, that might have been misleading.

02:26

Meaning… they started a war.

02:28

The First Kongo-Portuguese War was from 1622-1623.

02:30

The Portuguese came out as losers on that one and slave-trading activity was reduced. [Soldiers waving white flag]

02:36

So that was good.

02:38

Álvaro I was the king at the time, and he had a lot to be proud of.

02:42

He’d defended his people and shown the Portuguese that the Kongolese weren’t going to be total [Alvaro outside door and man laying on the floor]

02:46

doormats.

02:48

But all this came with a high cost.

02:49

Álvaro’s victory didn’t just tick off Portugal; it made every other slave-trading

02:54

nation hopping mad. [Slave trade nations hopping]

02:56

You know rulers are really angry when they start to hop...

02:59

Kongo spent the 17th century under near-relentless attack by Portugal and nearby African slaver

03:04

kingdoms.

03:05

Finally, Kongo cracked. [Kongo cracking]

03:07

In 1665, it lost a major battle against the Europeans.

03:11

In the battle, the king and a ton of the upper nobility were killed. [Soldiers lay dead on the floor]

03:13

So that was… not good.

03:16

The Kongo government collapsed, civil war broke out, and the great kingdom fell apart.

03:20

The scary thing about standing up to a bully is that bullies like to make examples of the [People bullying a boy on the bus]

03:25

people who stand up to them.

03:27

And when the bully is an entire society that’s making a ton of money be enslaving your people… [Giant portuguese king stomping on people]

03:33

… you’d better believe they’ll have more in their arsenal than…doling out swirlies… [King pushing mans head into toilet]

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