Mbemba's Psychological Tactics

1300 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of European imperialism in Africa

Portuguese missionaries and trading partners were among the first to meet Africans along the coast of the Atlantic. It was one of these kings, the king of the West African state of Congo, Nzinga Mbemba's father, that provided a coastal settlement for the Portuguese. Adopting Christianity for the nation, including the baptizing of both himself and his son, there seemed to be an alliance between the two nations, as seen in the introduction of Nzinga Mbemba's, “Appeal to the King of Portugal, 1526”. However, after Nzinga Mbemba took the throne, trouble began to arise in Congo due to the Portuguese pushing boundaries that threatened to devastate the nation. This is when the king of Congo wrote a letter to the king of Portugal, which used a variety of psychological strategies that evoke guilt and religious passion, Mbemba establishes a direct linkage between him and the king of Portugal. In consequence, the king of Portugal would become more likely to grant any request that Mbemba would ask for, although Mbemba's true reason for writing the letter was to manipulate the king of Portugal into helping to get part of Mbemba's own power back.

The king of Congo claims that the nation is being “lost” due to the “excessive freedom” allowed to the king of Portugal’s subjects in Congo (Mbemba 634-635). Illustrating that the merchants and individuals from Portugal both destroyed the economic market in Congo, as well as took excessive liberties regarding the people of the nation, Mbemba brings up the issue as these actions being taken as a threat to “the security and peace of” the “Kingdoms and State” (Mbemba 635). In the beginning of the letter, it's brought up about how the market in Congo has been flooded with goods that have been “prohibi...

... middle of paper ...

...Congo was more of a test run for the Portuguese. It was shown that a slave trade market could be more globally set up, despite the effects that it had upon countries and cultures. Eventually, slave trades would grow to a near worldwide scale, such as illustrated in Captain Thomas Phillips, “Buying Slaves in 1693,” where obtaining slaves was a more complex, legitimate process; there would be more stipulations, agreements, and larger quantities coming from different countries that were affected in similar ways as Congo.

Works Cited

Mbemba, Nzinga. "Appeal to the King of Portugal." Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Third ed. Vol. 2. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 634-37. Print.

Phillips, Thomas. "Buying Slaves in 1693." Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Third ed. Vol. 2. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 637-61 Print.

Show More
Related

  • Essay On The Poisonwood Bible

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alas, in 1961 Patrice Lumumba was assassinated by a US- sponsored plot 7 months after independence, and replaced him with a “puppet dictator named Mobutu” (Kingsolver). In her book, Barbara Kingsolver surfaces a forgotten part of our nation’s history in the exploitation of the Congo through her main characters, the Price family, who are missionaries sent to the Kilanga village. Through characters’ narratives that “double as allegories for the uneasy colonial marriage between the West and Africa” (Hamilton, Jones), Kingsolver creates a relatable way for her readers to understand the theme she is trying to convey, which is “‘what did we do to Africa, and how do we feel about it?’” (Snyder). Kingsolver began with this theme and developed the rest of the novel around it, just as she does with her other works, and sticking with her trademark technique, she utilizes her book as a vessel for “political activism, an extension of the anti-Vietnam protests” she participated in college (Snyder).

    Read More

  • Lydia Maria Child's Propositions Defining Slavery and Emancipation

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    Roediger, David and Blatt, Martin H. The Meaning of Slavery in the North. JStor. 1998. Vol. 18

    Read More

  • Queen Nzinga: African Ruler and Slave Trader

    1337 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hailing from the African state of Ndongo and born in 1581 during the start of Luandan disagreement with Portuguese settlers (Toler 265), Queen Nzinga of the African Mbundu tribe stood up for her country and reestablished power over her people. Nzinga came in a time period that needed her. She got her country of Matamba (present day Angola) equal, both economically and socially, to the Portuguese. In order to do this, Nzinga took measures to place herself in the right position to eventually seize rule and steer her country in the right direction, even though it prompted a steady flow of opposition from her enemies. These initial enemies included the Imbangala tribes and irritated Portuguese Settlers, both of which she succeeded in turning into allies. Queen Nzinga's rule was well justified by a legal rise to the throne, and her subsequent role as a skilled ruler counteracted her reputation as a thriving slave trader.

    Read More

  • Nat Turner, An Abolisionist

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Altman, Linda Jacobs. Slavery and Abolition in American History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 1999. Print.

    Read More

  • Africa's View on Their People

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the 17th century, slavery was a widely used commodity with the Europeans, little do people know however that African kings also had and accepted slavery in their own nations. King Nzinga Mbemba of Congo and the King of Ouidah had similarities on the issue of slavery; they tolerated the use of slaves. Congo’s king had no contingency with slavery; in fact, he had slaves in his country. When the Portuguese were purchasing goods in Congo, the king had men “investigate if the mentioned goods are captives or free men” (NZ, 622). The fact that the king differentiates the men between ‘free’ and ‘captives’ illustrates that not all people in Congo are free. Whether these captives are from the country of Congo or not, they are still caught and held all across the nation against their will. King Mbemba kept slaves because the population of Congo was vastly declining due to the slave trade. In his letter, he pleads with the king of Portug...

    Read More

  • Leopold II Research Paper

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ermore established imperial rule in the Congo. The Force Publique was Leopold’s governing army. They were to oversee the work of the now colonized people of the Congo. Another of Leopold’s objectives was to gain wealth from his acquired colony. With the Force Publique, he would force the Congolese to gather ivory from the land. Those who refused had their elders, women and children held hostage until they complied. Leopold’s International African Association was to be a humanitarian project that would help to end slavery, however, by forcing the people to work for him, he was enslaving those he supposedly sought to help. When the popularity of the bicycle rose in the late 19th, manufactures were in need of rubber for their tires. Leopold saw this as an opportunity to gain more wealth and quickly had the Force Publique force the people into harvesting rubber.

    Read More

  • The Extreme Cruelty of the Middle Passage

    1719 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship A Human History. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.

    Read More

  • Life in Early America

    1243 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Conscience of a Slave Trader,” in Kennedy, David M. and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Spirit: United States History as Seen by Contemporaries. Vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

    Read More

  • Slavery In Colonial America

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    Davis, Thomas J. “The New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741 As Black Protest.” Articles on American Slavery. Ed. Paul Finkleman. Vol.5. New York: Grand, 1989. 33-46.

    Read More

  • Slavery in American Society: Impact and Evolution

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.

    Read More

  • Abolishing Slavery in America

    1262 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, 2008. Web. 03 May 2014. West, Elizabeth J. "Slavery."

    Read More

  • The Congo Free State

    1971 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... attention allowed economic exploitation in the Congo and its people devastated by human rights abuses, and even today the lack of international attention has caused many conflicts in and around the Congo. The economic exploitation of the Congo during colonial times robbed the country of wealth which could have been used to develop the land, and the lack of wealth has contributed to Congo’s poor standing in the world today. Lastly, the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State contributed to economic and political troubles during the colonial period and has continued into the present day, as human rights abuses are still prevalent in that region of Africa. Due to the lack of international attention, economic exploitation, and human rights abuses, the Congo Free State was harmful to the Congo region of Africa and its legacy continues to harm that region of Africa.

    Read More

  • The Brass Plaques of the Benin Palace

    2152 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Portuguese arrived in Benin, in modern Nigeria, between 1472 and 1486 to find an established and ancient kingdom with remarkable social and ritual complexity, with art that was comparatively naturalistic, and with a political system that was, on the surface, recognizable to the Europeans: monarchy. Even more importantly, they found a land rich in pepper, cloth, ivory, and slaves, and immediately set out to establish trade (Ben-Amos 35-6). Though we often imagine "first contacts" between Europeans and Africans as clashes of epochal proportions, leaving Europeans free to manipulate and coerce the flabbergasted and paralyzed Africans, this misjudges the resilience and indeed, preparedness, of the Benin people. The Benin were able to draw on their cultural, political, and religious traditions to fit the European arrival in an understandable context. Indeed, as the great brass plaques of the Benin palace demonstrate, the arrival was in fact manipulated by the Benin to strengthen, not diminish, indigenous royal power.

    Read More

  • Slavery and Abolition

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    Knowles, H. J. (2007). The Constitution and Slavery: A Special Relationship. Slavery & Abolition, 28(3), 309-328. doi:10.1080/01440390701685514

    Read More

  • Imperialism in Heart of Darkness

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Marlow passes through the waters of the Congo, it is easily visible the trouble of the natives. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth half coming out, half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” (20) Show that the holding of these colonies has started. The soldiers have come in and taken the inhabitants and are destroying them and taking from them the one thing they deserve over everything, life. The imperialists seem to not care about the Africans and are just there for their land.

    Read More

More about Mbemba's Psychological Tactics

Open Document