Manikongo

{{short description|Title of the rulers of the Kingdom of Kongo}} {{about||plant known as {{lang|es|manicongo}}|Vigna subterranea}} {{More references|date=April 2009}} thumb|right|300px|The Manikongo giving audience to his subjects and Portuguese visitors

'''Manikongo''' (also called '''Awenekongo''' or '''Mwenekongo)''' was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The manikongo's seat of power was Mbanza Kongo (also called ''São Salvador'' from 1570 to 1975), now the capital of Zaire Province in Angola. The manikongo appointed governors for the provinces of the Kingdom and received tribute from neighbouring subjects.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

The term "manikongo" is derived from Portuguese {{lang|pt|manicongo}}, an alteration of the KiKongo term {{lang|kg|Mwene Kongo}} (literally "Lord of Kongo"). The term {{lang|kg|wene}}, from which {{lang|kg|mwene}} is derived, is also used to mean kingdom and is attested with this meaning in the Kongo catechism of 1624 with reference to the Kingdom of Heaven. The term {{lang|kg|mwene}} is created by adding the personal prefix {{lang|kg|mu-}} to this stem, to mean "person of the kingdom".{{cn|date=August 2022}}

{{lang|kg|Mwene}} is attested in very early texts, notably the letters of King Afonso I of Kongo, where he writes, to Portuguese kings Manuel I (in 1514) and João III concerning the {{lang|pt|moenipango}} ({{lang|kg|mwene Mpangu}}) and twice concerning the {{lang|pt|moinebata}}. {{lang|kg|Mani}} was used to mean not only "king" but also anyone holding authority, so provincial and sub-provincial officials also were called {{lang|kg|mani}}. Afonso did not entitle himself Manikongo, but rather {{lang|pt|rei de congo}} (king of Kongo).<ref> {{cite book |last=Brásio |first=António |date=1952 |title=Monumenta Missionaria Afriana |location= Lisbon |publisher=Agência geral do Ultramar |page=298 (transcribed incorrectly as Muxuebata), 322 see Arquivo Nacional de Torre do Tombo, Corpo Crónologico, I-16-28}}</ref>

Subjects were required to prostrate themselves before the Manikongo, approaching him on all fours, and when time came for the Manikongo to eat or drink, an attendant would chime two iron rods, cueing them to lay face-down so that they could not see him do so.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hochschild|first=Adam|title=King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa|date=October 1, 1999|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0618001903|location=New York|chapter=Prologue}}</ref>

== See also == * List of rulers of Kongo

== References == {{reflist}}{{Rulers of the Kingdom of Kongo|state=collapsed}}{{Kingdom of Kongo|state=collapsed}}{{Heads of state and government of Africa}}

Category:Manikongo of Kongo Category:Kongolese royalty Category:Kingdom of Kongo Category:Kongo people Category:Monarchy