Thinkers Timeline

Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was a Kongolese Christian prophetess and political leader. She founded the Antonian movement, which imagined Christianity in Kongolese terms. She was born around 1684 near the mountain of Kibangu, in the Kingdom of Kongo (in what is now northern Angola and the western Democratic Republic of the Congo). Her family was of Kongolese nobility, though not wealthy. She was baptised Beatriz, following the Catholic faith of the Kongolese kings, but her Kikongo name was Kimpa Vita. The Kingdom of Kongo in her time was in deep crisis. A civil war that had begun in 1665 was still going on. The ancient capital, São Salvador, lay abandoned. Rival families fought for the throne. The wars produced thousands of captives, many of whom were sold into the Atlantic slave trade. Kongo had been officially Christian since 1491, but the Italian Capuchin missionaries often dismissed local religious practices as witchcraft. As a young woman, Kimpa Vita was trained as a nganga marinda, a Kongolese religious medium who consulted the spirit world for community healing. In August 1704, when she was about 20, she fell seriously ill. She said she died and came back to life. Now, she said, she was possessed by Saint Anthony, the popular Italian Catholic saint. Through her, Saint Anthony preached. She led a remarkable movement that reoccupied São Salvador in 1705. She won thousands of followers, including peasants and some nobles. In 1706, she was captured by King Pedro IV with help from the Capuchin missionaries. A church tribunal condemned her. She was burned at the stake on 2 July 1706, aged about 22. Her infant son, born just weeks before her capture, was spared.