Afonso I of Kongo Writes to the King of Portugal

In 1526, King Afonso I of Kongo dispatched a series of urgent letters to King João III of Portugal, protesting the corrosive effects of unregulated commerce along the southwest African coast. Afonso, who had ruled the Kingdom of Kongo since prevailing in a succession struggle around 1506, described a realm thrown into turmoil by the insatiable Atlantic market for human labor. Kongolese nobles and visiting traders were circumventing the royal monopoly, unlawfully seizing freeborn subjects, and spiriting them off under cover of darkness to be branded and shipped overseas. For a monarch who had systematically cultivated European alliances to modernize his state, the unchecked slave trade now threatened the core fabric of his governance.

Originally named Mvemba a Nzinga, Afonso had embraced Catholicism following the arrival of Portuguese expeditions in 1491, later adopting a Christian name and committing himself to European education. When his father, Nzinga a Nkuwu, renounced the new faith, Afonso sheltered foreign clerics in his home province of Nsundi and removed traditional religious artwork. Upon his father's death, Afonso seized the throne at Mbanza Kongo, defeating his traditionalist brother in a battle later attributed in royal propaganda to the miraculous appearance of Saint James. Once installed as sovereign, Afonso declared Christianity the official faith and incorporated Portuguese titles, heraldry, and aristocratic dress throughout his court.