''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
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 ...
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
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 ...
(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 newspaper ''Kukiele'' in 1944. This second edition was not complete, but contained information and clan names not found in the original edition. A third edition also appeared, although its location and circumstances are not known. Following Cuvelier's death in 1962, his colleague
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 ...
brought out a fourth edition in 1972, which contained all the changes of the earlier ones, as well as a slightly reorganized format.
References
John Thornton, "The Origins and Early History of the Kingdom of Kongo, c. 1350-1550," ''International Journal of African Historical Studies'' 34/1 (2001): 89-120.
External links
''Nkutama a mvila za makanda'' (1934 edition) in PDF format
History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Belgian Congo