THE AFRICAN ROOTS OF CARIBBEAN AND AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
by Stephen Jennings
Kongo formally became a Christian nation when in 1491 King Nzinga a Nkuwu was baptized by Portuguese tradermissionaries
as Joao I, and took the name of the then King of Portugal, Joao II. It went a step further on this path when
his son, Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga (1506-43), established Christianity as a religion of the state.
The most common Christian symbol found among Kongolese Christians when the Iberians came was the Coptic cross.
These crosses normally had their vertical and horizontal beams of equal length, symbolizing that their love for God (the
vertical) and neighbor (the horizontal) were of equal importance, in contradistinction with that of Western Christianity
whose cross had a longer vertical arm symbolizing that the love for God was more important than the love for neighbor.
During the period 1600-1848, Kongo went from being a regional national power to a colonized state. There were border
disputes with the Portuguese-sponsored breakaway southern kingdom of Ndongo (later called Angola) and with that of
Jaga – the “barbarian” state to the east. Internally there was the beginning of crippling civil wars.
With Kongolese becoming more and more desperate and scattered, several movements sprung up. One was the Antonian
Christian Movement, led by Dona Beatriz (Beatrice) Kimpa Vita, present within Kongolese territorial space in 1684-1706.
It ultimately outlived its founder who was burnt on the stake in 1706 for challenging the Iberian-Christendom hegemonic
order. Though it did not survive as an organized movement within Kongo, it continued in pockets across the region and
across the Atlantic.
Kongolese people and people from the entire Western Central African region, including Antonian Christians, were
exported to Iberian Brazil, the eastern seaboard of the United States - from Maryland to Georgia - Louisiana, and the
entire Caribbean - specifically through the British, French and Spanish regions, including Jamaica.1
It should come as no surprise that Dona Vita’s movement was incarnated by those Kongolese Christians who were
scattered all over the so-called “New World.” There is evidence of such persons leading an uprising in British South
Carolina in 1739. There are also clear linkages between the Antonian movement and the Haitian revolution, as a number
of Haitians who participated in this revolt came from the Kongo as followers of Dona Vita.2 Enslaved Kongolose Antonians
were also sent to Jamaica, but underwent a name change over time. John Thornton