The Kingdom of the Kongo is known for its fragmented history. It is as if the Kongo did not have a written or oral history before they made contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century. There are a list of different reasons why there is little known about the Kongo. Artifacts and documents in African were destroyed by "cannibals" and fires. Most sources that refer to the Kongo before it became a republic contradict each other. Finally, the descriptions of their history are very vague and contradictory.
Different sources from the Kongo's history include: contemporary European accounts, private letters, church correspondence, missionary memoirs, slavery propaganda, oral histories, ethnographic fieldwork, and few autobiographies. Many researchers have combined information about the Kongo from documents of the Vatican, Rome, Sao Tome and many other historic places. Anthropologists have sat down together, trying to explore through the many memories of this ethnic group. Despite their efforts, there is still little known about the Kongo before the transatlantic slave trade.
The Kingdom of the Kongo is known for its fragmented history. It is as if the Kongo did not have a written or oral history before they made contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century. There are a list of different reasons why there is little known about the Kongo. Artifacts and documents in African were destroyed by "cannibals" and fires. Most sources that refer to the Kongo before it became a republic contradict each other. Finally, the descriptions of their history are very vague and contradictory.
Different sources from the Kongo's history include: contemporary European accounts, private letters, church correspondence, missionary memoirs, slavery propaganda, oral histories, ethnographic fieldwork, and few autobiographies. Many researchers have combined information about the Kongo from documents of the Vatican, Rome, Sao Tome and many other historic places. Anthropologists have sat down together, trying to explore through the many memories of this ethnic group. Despite their efforts, there is still little known about the Kongo before the transatlantic slave trade.