The Rise & Fall of the Kingdom of Kongo
Season 2 of the Black History Unveiled podcast is here!
Season 2 of the Black History Unveiled podcast is here! And the first episode is about a Central African kingdom that dominated its region during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. This kingdom initially enjoyed a close relationship with Portugal, a relationship that eventually devolved into horrific scenes. This kingdom's fate had profound consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere. Today's episode is about the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Kongo.
Black History Unveiled is found wherever you get your podcasts.
Sources used in the episode:
Books:
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience by Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr (1999)
Medieval Africa, 1250–1800 by Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore (2001)
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild (2001)
The History of Congo by Didier Gondola (2002)
Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa by Paul E. Lovejoy (2012)
Africa’s Development in Historical Perspective by Emmanuel Akyeampong, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James Robinson (editors) (2014)
The Fortunes of Africa: A 5000 Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor by Martin Meredith (2014)
The Color Line: A History: The Story Of Europe And The African, From The Old World To The New by Ethan Malveaux (2015)
Kongo: Power and Majesty by Alisa LaGamma (2015)
Scholarly articles:
”Early Kongo-Portuguese Relations: A New Interpretation” by John K. Thornton in History in Africa (vol. 8, 1981)
”The Art of War in Angola, 1575–1680” by John K. Thornton in Comparative Studies in Society and History (vol. 30, nr 2, 1988)
"The Origins and Early History of the Kingdom of Kongo, c. 1350-1550" by John K. Thornton in The International Journal of African Historical Studies (vol. 34, nr. 1, 2001)
”Kongo Slavery Remembered by Themselves: Texts from 1915” by Wyatt MacGaffey in The International Journal of African Historical Studies (vol. 41, nr 1, 2008)
"Slavery and Its Transformation in the Kingdom of Kongo" by Linda M. Heywood in The Journal of African History (vol. 50, nr. 1, 2009).
”The Kingdom of Kongo and the Thirty Years’ War” by John K. Thornton in The Journal of World History (vol. 27, nr 2, 2016).
Articles:
"Art historian Cécile Fromont uncovers Kongo’s Christian visual culture" by Mike Cummings for Yale News (March 5, 2019).