Nsundi was a province of 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 ...
. Its capital was located on the
Inkisi River
The Inkisi River is the last (closest to the rivermouth) of the larger tributaries of the great Congo River, being the first south bank (left side) tributary, located in Western Central Africa.
The township of Zongo is situated close to the conflu ...
, near the present-day village of Mbanza Nsundi in
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
.
History
According to traditions retold by Duarte Lopes, Kongo's ambassador to Rome, and published by
Filippo Pigafetta Filippo Pigafetta (1533–1604) was an Italian mathematician and explorer.
Pigafetta's ''Relatione del reame del Congo'' (A Report of the Kingdom of Congo and of the Surrounding Countries) 1591 was translated into English, Latin (as ''Regnum Congo ...
in 1591, Nsundi was formerly an independent small kingdom. It was extensive and had a number of small sub-provinces under it. It was originally one of several small kingdoms that formed part of the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza.
It was conquered by Kongo probably in the early to mid-fifteenth century.
Nsundi was often given to the king's chosen successor to rule. The earliest known ruler of Nsundi was
Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga
Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
. A son of Nzinga a Nkuwu, who reigned in the late fifteenth century, Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga became king in turn in 1507. But the subsequent history of the country does not support the idea that the heir apparent always held this post, and kings of Kongo came from many different provinces.
Nsundi was a royal province, meaning that the king appointed its high official on a limited term, often three years. When King
Álvaro II Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrio ...
renamed the provincial nobility along European lines in the late sixteenth century, Nsundi was declared a Duchy. One of the more powerful of its dukes, Manuel Jordão, served as something of a king-maker in the period 1624-28. He was humiliated and removed by King
Ambrósio I in 1628.
During the civil wars that followed the
Battle of Mbwila
Battle of Mbwila (also the Battle of Ambuila, Battle of Mbuila, or Battle of Ulanga) was a battle that occurred on 29 October 1665 in which Portuguese forces defeated the forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitated king António I of Kongo ...
in 1665, Nsundi gradually became more or less independent under a line of dukes from the
Kimpanzu
The Kimpanzu were members of the Mpanzu kanda also known as the House of Kimpanzu, one of the lineages from which the kings of Kongo were chosen during the 17th century and following Kongo's reunification under Pedro IV. They are remembered in ...
branch of the royal family.
Archaeological work
In 2015-2018 an archaeological team called KongoKing began excavations at the site of Kinkoki and subsequently discovered enough material evidence to identify the site as the mbanza (capital) of Nsundi from the late seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. According to W. Holman Bentley, a British Baptist Missionary in Kongo in 1879, the last Duke of Nsundi had not been buried for want of a successor, and thus the body was retained, carefully mummified and protected from about 1835 until Bentley reported it.
This date conforms quite closely to the date of the last burials at Kindoki.
References
{{reflist
Former monarchies of Africa
History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Former countries in Africa