Kimpa Vita

 Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, Kimpa Mvita, Tsimpa Vita or Tchimpa Vita (1684 – 2 July 1706), was a Kongo Empire prophet and leader of her own Christian movement, Antonianism;, which taught that Jesus and other early Christian figures were from the Kongo Empire. The name "Dona" indicates that she was born into a family of high Kongolese nobility; she was later given the name "Beatriz" after the Catholic Saint. Her teaching grew out of the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo, and caused her to reproach the Catholic priests for refuting her beliefs. Dona Beatriz believed the teachings of St. Anthony and used this claim to attempt to restore the ideal of Kongo as a unified Christian Kingdom. Kimpa Vita is seen as an antislavery figure and is known as a prefigure to modern African democracy movements. While the role of Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita is widely overlooked, the years of her movement are some of the best documented in Kongo's history.

Beatriz Kimpa Vita, also referred to as Beatrice of Congo, was born near Mount Kibangu in Angola, ancient Kongo Kingdom, around 1684, when the country was torn by civil war. She was born into a family of the Kongo nobility, probably of the class called Mwana Kongo, and was baptized as a Christian.

According to her testimony, given at an inquest on her life, Kimpa Vita had visions by God Kongo and was considered to be a prophetess to the Kongolese, declaring that Jesus, Yissa’Yah Kongo, came from the Kongo kingdom. She believed that the Portuguese would only enslave her people and forbade her people from welcoming them. She was probed correct.

Beatriz went to live among colonists sent out by King Pedro IV, one of several rival rulers of Kongo, to reoccupy the ancient and now abandoned capital of São Salvador. There was a great deal of religious fervour among these colonists who were tired of the endless civil wars in the country, and many had become followers of an old prophet, Appolonia Mafuta.

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During a period of illness in 1704, Kimpa Vita claimed to have received visions of God. She began to preach, supported by Appolonia Mafuta, claiming that she was the real voice of God. She proclaimed that Jesus was a Kongo and that there would be slavery until the Portuguese were banished. She urged Kongo to reunite under a new king, for the civil wars that had plagued Kongo since the battle of Mbwila in 1665 had angered Christ. She destroyed "idols", the various Kongo Nkisi or charms inhabited by spiritual entities, as well as Catholic paraphernalia. When she took her message to King Pedro IV, he refused to hear her. She then approached his rival, João II, but he also failed to heed her words. However, in short time she was able to gather a significant number of followers and key figure in the power struggles of the time. Her movement recognized the papal primate but was hostile against the European missionaries in Congo. Kimpa Vita led her followers to the abandoned capital of Sao Salvador where they would call to the people in the countryside and rapidly repopulate the city. This was recognized by the Italian Priest Bernardo de Gallo, who claimed Kimpa Vita to be possessed by the devil. However, to her devoted followers Vita was seen as a restorer of Kongo.

While she was in São Salvador, which she and her followers occupied in 1705, she built a special residence for herself in the ruined cathedral. She repopulated the city with thousands of her peasant followers. Soon, she also won noble converts as well, including Pedro Constantinho da Silva Kibenga, the commander of one of Pedro IV's armies sent to reoccupy the city and Pedro’s own wife, Hipolita. Thus, Pedro IV swore revenge on Vita, who had not only stolen his resources but also his own valued subjects.

Beatriz sent out missionaries of her movement to other provinces. While some rejected their beliefs out of hand, they won important converts such as Queen Suzana de Nobrega. Much of Vita’s teaching is known from the Salve Antoniana, a prayer she adapted from the Catholic prayer Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) into an anthem of the movement. Among other things, the Salve Antoniana taught that God was only concerned with believers' intentions, not with sacraments or good works, and that Saint Anthony was the greatest one - in fact, a "second God." In addition, she taught that the principal characters in Christianity, including Jesus, Mary and Saint Francis, were all born in Kongo and were in fact Kongolese.

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Eventually Pedro caught up with her and Kimpa Vita was captured near her hometown and burned at the temporary capital of Evululu as a heretic in 1706, She was tried as a witch and a heretic with the consent of the Capuchin friars Bernardo da Gallo and Lorenzo da Lucca.

While Kimpa Vita died, her movement lived on. Her followers continued to believe that she was still alive, and it was only when Pedro IV's forces took São Salvador in 1709 that the political force of her movement was broken, and most of her former noble adherents renounced their beliefs and rejoined the Catholic church. Some hint of the strength of her teaching may be glimpsed by the fact that eighteenth century Kongo religious art often shows Jesus as an African (which is radical even today where people remain obsessed with the historically-incorrect image of the white Jesus), and that Saint Anthony, known as "Toni Malau" was very prominent. More recently, some see present day Kimbanguism, Matswanism and Tokoism as its successors. Traditions circulating in Mbanza Kongo (formerly São Salvador) in 2002 also place great significance in the role of Beatriz' mother as an inspiration for the prophet Simon Kimbangu and also as playing a role in its continuation, and in fact, her mother was present in the aftermath of her death.

Finding any information on Kimpa Vita was difficult, having only heard a brief mention of her in a lecture I attended this week – and even the Wikipedia page is not necessarily to be trusted so take this post with a  pinch of salt. However, what she shows again is that for centuries, African women have taken powerful roles socially, politically, and spiritually. Whether or not you believe in her visions, she had the guts to stand up not only to colonial powers but to the entire Catholic church. Thus, she should be hailed as another example of a black woman who refused to roll over and let herself be bound by European chains – intellectually or physically.