Mbemba's Psychological Tactics

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Recommended: Impact of European imperialism in Africa

Portuguese missionaries and trading partners were among the first to meet Africans along the coast of the Atlantic. It was one of these kings, the king of the West African state of Congo, Nzinga Mbemba's father, that provided a coastal settlement for the Portuguese. Adopting Christianity for the nation, including the baptizing of both himself and his son, there seemed to be an alliance between the two nations, as seen in the introduction of Nzinga Mbemba's, “Appeal to the King of Portugal, 1526”. However, after Nzinga Mbemba took the throne, trouble began to arise in Congo due to the Portuguese pushing boundaries that threatened to devastate the nation. This is when the king of Congo wrote a letter to the king of Portugal, which used a variety of psychological strategies that evoke guilt and religious passion, Mbemba establishes a direct linkage between him and the king of Portugal. In consequence, the king of Portugal would become more likely to grant any request that Mbemba would ask for, although Mbemba's true reason for writing the letter was to manipulate the king of Portugal into helping to get part of Mbemba's own power back.

The king of Congo claims that the nation is being “lost” due to the “excessive freedom” allowed to the king of Portugal’s subjects in Congo (Mbemba 634-635). Illustrating that the merchants and individuals from Portugal both destroyed the economic market in Congo, as well as took excessive liberties regarding the people of the nation, Mbemba brings up the issue as these actions being taken as a threat to “the security and peace of” the “Kingdoms and State” (Mbemba 635). In the beginning of the letter, it's brought up about how the market in Congo has been flooded with goods that have been “prohibi...

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...Congo was more of a test run for the Portuguese. It was shown that a slave trade market could be more globally set up, despite the effects that it had upon countries and cultures. Eventually, slave trades would grow to a near worldwide scale, such as illustrated in Captain Thomas Phillips, “Buying Slaves in 1693,” where obtaining slaves was a more complex, legitimate process; there would be more stipulations, agreements, and larger quantities coming from different countries that were affected in similar ways as Congo.

Works Cited

Mbemba, Nzinga. "Appeal to the King of Portugal." Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Third ed. Vol. 2. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 634-37. Print.

Phillips, Thomas. "Buying Slaves in 1693." Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Third ed. Vol. 2. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 637-61 Print.

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