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Nkutama A Mvila Za Makanda
''Nkutama a mvila za makanda'' is a "Catalogue of Praise Names of Clans" in the Kikongo language compiled and edited by Father Jean Cuvelier comprising a list of about 500 Kongo people, Kongo clans in alphabetical order. The list was compiled by Cuvelier between 1926 and 1934 when he was inspector of schools for the Redemptorist Order in the Belgian Congo. The entries typically give the name of the clan, its praise name or ''mvila'', as well as its traditional itinerary and sometimes additional information drawn from its traditions. Often Cuvelier specified the village where he collected the tradition as well. Cuvelier's personal papers, now housed at the Catholic University at Leuven (or Louvain) in Belgium, contain a considerable number of his original manuscripts from which the book was published, normally in school notebooks entitled "Mvila". The book was first published in 1934 at the mission's press, and a second edition was brought out under the same name in the missionary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kikongo
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from the region and sold as slaves in the Americas. For this reason, while Kongo still is spoken in the above-mentioned countries, creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It is also one of the sources of the Gullah language and the Palenquero creole in Colombia. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kongo, with perhaps two million more who use it as a second language. Geographic distribution Kongo was the language of the Kingdom of Kongo prior to the creation of Angola by the Portuguese Crown in 1575 and the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) that balkanized the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Cuvelier
Jean Cuvelier (1882–1962) was a Belgian Redemptorist missionary and bishop of Matadi in Belgian Congo from 1930 until his death in 1962. Cuvelier was notable for his interest in the history of the Kingdom of Kongo, which he saw as a route to evangelization in his time. By stressing the Christian nature of the old kingdom, he hoped to increase the attachment of Kongo parishioners to the Catholic Church as opposed to Protestantism or traditional religions. Cuvelier started the Kikongo language missionary newspaper '' Kukiele'' in 1928 with a mixture of missionary news, cultural articles and especially historical accounts of the old kingdom. In his articles, which initially bore the title "Lusansu" Cuvelier began writing a history of Kongo using oral traditions that he collected combined with increasingly detailed historical documentation. His inspiration came from reading a manuscript written in 1913 by two catechists, Mpetelo Boka, and Lievan Sakala Mboku, for Cuvelier's manu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kongo People
The Kongo people ( kg, Bisi Kongo, , singular: ; also , singular: ) are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others. They have lived along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, in a region that by the 15th century was a centralized and well-organized Kingdom of Kongo, but is now a part of three countries. Their highest concentrations are found south of in the Republic of the Congo, southwest of Pool Malebo and west of the Kwango River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, north of Luanda, Angola and southwest Gabon. They are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of the Congo, and one of the major ethnic groups in the other two countries they are found in. In 1975, the Kongo population was reported as 4,040,000. The Kongo people were among the earliest indigenous Africans to welcome Portuguese traders in 1483 CE, and began converting to Catholicism in the late 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Redemptorist
The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brothers). It was founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scala, Italy, for the purpose of labouring among the neglected country people around Naples. It is dedicated to missionary work and they minister in more than 100 countries. Members of the congregation are Catholic priests and consecrated religious brothers The Redemptorists are especially dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and were appointed by Pope Pius IX in 1865 as both custodians and missionaries of the icon of that title, which is enshrined at the Redemptorist Church of St. Alphonsus Liguori in Rome. Many Redemptorist churches are dedicated to her under that title. However, the Patroness of the Congregation is the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title "Immaculate Conception," of wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. King Leopold II of the Belgians attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexploited Congo Basin. Their ambivalence resulted in Leopold's establishing a colony himself. With support from a number of Western countries, Leopold achieved international recognition of the Congo Free State in 1885. By the turn of the century, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did by creating the Belgian Congo in 1908. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leuven
Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic city and the former neighbouring municipalities of Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, a part of Korbeek-Lo, Wilsele and Wijgmaal. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants. KU Leuven, Belgium's largest university, has its flagship campus in Leuven, which has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. The city is home of the headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest beer brewer and sixth-largest fast-moving consumer goods company. History Middle Ages The earliest mention of Leuven (''Loven'') dates from 891, when a Viking army was defeated by the Frankish king Arnulf of Carinthia (see: Battle of Leuven). According to a legend, the city's red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph De Munck
Joseph de Munck was a Belgian Catholic Priest of the Redemptorist Order noted for his historical research relating to the Old Kingdom of Kongo. In many ways de Munck was the successor to Jean Cuvelier, whose work with documents and oral traditions made him one of the great historians of the kingdom. De Munck was particularly fond of the Kikongo languages, at times even keeping his personal notes in that language. He was very active in doing research in oral traditions, for example, he sent catechists attached to the mission all over the Kikongo speaking parts of the Belgian Congo (and subsequently in the independent Republic of Congo and Republic of Zaire as well as much of northern Angola (both before and after independence) to collect tradition. He published relatively little of his work, the most famous product being the production of a fourth, augmented edition of ''Nkutama a mvila za makanda'' (originally compiled by Jean Cuvelier in 1934972 Year 972 ( CMLXXII) was a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo
Discovered in the 1990s, human remains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated to approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards. The Kingdom of Kongo controlled much of western and central Africa including what is now the western portion of the DR Congo between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. At its peak it had many as 500,000 people, and its capital was known as Mbanza-Kongo (south of Matadi, in modern-day Angola). In the late 15th century, Portuguese sailors arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo, and this led to a period of great prosperity and consolidation, with the king's power being founded on Portuguese trade. King Afonso I (1506–1543) had raids carried out on neighboring districts in response to Portuguese requests for slaves. After his death, the kingdom underwent a deep crisis. The Atlantic slave trade oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
