Nkangi Kiditu

Crucifix from the early 17th century Kingdom of Kongo, in what is now the Congo and Angola. I believe this is from the Brooklyn Museum. The kingdom's ruler converted to Catholicism in the early 1490s, and Christianization permeated in other social classes beyond the elite of the centralized polity in West Central Africa. John Thornton and others have written extensively on Christianity and the general history of this kingdom, which would in a few centuries splinter due to the chaos wrought by the trans-Atlantic slave trade and Portuguese meddling, many of the BaKongo ending up enslaved in places such as Haiti, Cuba, and Brazil. From an amazing book, Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora, edited by Linda Heywood, I learned that forms of popular Catholicism practiced in this region of Central Africa likely shaped Haitian popular Catholicism in the 19th century, which can be seen in specific forms of Marian devotion and syncretistic practices. In addition, these crucifix objects show local styles fusing with Portuguese and European Catholic ritual art, with a Kongolese Christ. This reminds me of an earlier post I did on Beatriz Kimpa Vita, a self-proclaimed prophet who claimed to be possessed by Saint Anthony, who was of great importance to local Catholics, and proclaimed Jesus Christ was indeed black and from the Kongo, another example of Christianity's importance and following among the populace of the Kingdom of Kongo.