Beatriz Kimpa Vita Essay

Beatriz Kimpa Vita was born “near Mount Kibangu in the Kingdom of Kongo, now a part of modern Angola around 1684. She was born into a family of the Kongo nobility, probably of the class called Mwana Kongo, and was probably baptized soon after, as Kongo had been a Catholic kingdom for two centuries.”
“She was the daughter of a Nobel Kongo family from the region right around Kibangu, a flat-topped mountain that lays some distance east of the capital of Mbanza Kongo.”
When beatriz was born kongo was plagued by a terrible civil war. The wars in the kongo started shortly after the death of António I and ended up with the ancient capitol São Salvador being completely abandoned in 1678 and the country became divided by rival pretenders to the throne.

Beatriz should that she possessed spiritual gifts even as a youth. It is said that she had dreams of playing with angels and had vivid visions as a youth. Having possessed these spiritual gifts, she turned to religious pursuits, becoming a nganga Marinda, which is a “spiritual person whose role the Catholic missionaries did not like, but was widely accepted in the Kongo as legitimate.” Beatriz became extremely engulfed in her spirituality and was considered by most to be too spiritual and independent to be married. She actually had two failed marriages by the time she first embarked on her prophecy.
Dona Beatriz is mostly known for her acts beginning in 1704 when she fell ill and claimed to be possessed by the spirit of Saint Anthony, who used her as a human vessel to address the kingdom’s problems through her.

“Speaking as a medium for Saint Anthony, Dona Beatriz called for the revitalization of the kingdom through adherence to a vision of Catholicism that was set firmly within Kongo history and geography. This divine communication with Heaven revealed an African Holy Family. According to this vision, Jesus was born in Mbanza Kongo and baptized not at Nazareth but in the northern province of Nsundi, while Mary’s mother was a slave of the Kongo nobleman Nzimba Mpangi. Dona Beatriz also disclosed new versions of the Ave Maria and Salve Regina that were more relevant to Kongolese modes of thought. Although the movement recognized papal authority, it was hostile to European missionaries, whom it considered corrupt and unsympathetic to the spiritual needs of Kongolese Catholics. Dona Beatriz and her followers briefly occupied Mbanza Kongo, from which she sent emissaries to spread her teachings and urge rulers of the divided Kongo territories to unite under one king. In 1706, however, she was captured by King Pedro II and burned as a heretic at the behest of Capuchin

monks.”

I believe that Beatriz was trying spread the “visions” and prophesies of what she believed to be a religion that could bring peace to the land as well as attempting to end the vicious civil wars going on at that time. There was a lot of changes and cruel things happening at the time of Beatriz’s rise prophesies. The slave trade was at its peak and thousands of people were being picked up and exported all around the world against their will on a daily basis.
“The slave trade was just one of the byproducts of war, and because slavery was lucrative, it helped to continue the wars in a vicious cycle. As Beatriz understood it, the solution was to end the civil war and restore the kingdom. None of the pretenders to the throne seemed able to do that.”