Garcia I Mvemba a Nkanga was a

manikongo The Manikongo, or Mwene Kongo, was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republ ...

Kongo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

who ruled from April 27, 1624 to March 7, 1626.

Early Reign

Garcia I was the son of King Pedro II.Heywood, Linda M. and John K. Thornton: "Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660", page 141. Cambridge University Press, 2007 He was the second and last king from the

House of Nsundi The Kinkanga, usually known as the Kinkanga a Mvika or House of Nsundi, was a royal kanda (lineage), kanda formed by King Pedro II of Kongo, Pedro II, which ruled the Kingdom of Kongo from 1622 to 1631. While King Pedro II (ruled 1622–24) and ...

begun by his father in 1622. When Pedro II died in 1624, Garcia succeeded peacefully to the throne. Prior to his reign, his father had arranged for an anti-Portuguese alliance with the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...

. When the Dutch arrived in 1624 ready to seize

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

, António da Silva intercepted the fleet's delegation at

Soyo Soyo (formerly known as ''Santo António do Zaire'') is a city, with a population of 200,920 (2014 census), and a municipality, with a population of 227,175 (2014 census), located in the province of Zaire in Angola, at the mouth of the Congo riv ...

.Heywood, Linda M. and John K. Thornton: "Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660", page 140. Cambridge University Press, 2007 Acting against the wishes of the House of Nsundi, Silva feigned ignorance of the Dutch-Kongo plan and insisted that since Pedro II's death all Garcia I wanted was peace between Kongo and Portugal.

Overthrow

There were those within Kongo's nobility unwilling to allow the House of Nsundi to continue on the throne. At the behest of the royal ladies at court, the Duke of Nsundi Manuel Jordão marched an army on the capital of São Salvador.Thornton, John: "Elite Women in the Kingdom of Kongo: Historical Perspectives on Women's Political Power", page 450. The Journal of African History, Vol. 47, 2006 Garcia was forced to flee to Soyo with his wife and grandmother, and the House of Kwilu regained the throne of Kongo.

Early Reign

Overthrow

References

See also