Joseph de Munck was a Belgian

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Priest of the

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 brother ...

Order noted for his historical research relating to the Old

Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( kg, Kongo dya Ntotila or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' pt, Reino do Congo) was a kingdom located in central Africa in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the ...

. In many ways de Munck was the successor to

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 ev ...

, 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 The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

and

Republic of Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

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 ''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 Cu ...

'' (originally compiled by Jean Cuvelier in 1934

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and more significantly '' Kinkulu kia Nsi eto'' (Matadi, 1971), which was a short overview of Kongo history from earliest times to independence. ''Kinkulu kia Nsi eto'' made use of some of his oral tradition research, especially for the nineteenth century, and thus contains historical accounts which are nowhere else in print.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Munck, Joseph 20th-century Belgian Roman Catholic priests Redemptorists