Kimpa Vita: Black Catholic Prophetess of the Congo

One of the founding members of St. Anthonyism was a Black woman prophetess of the Kongo Kingdom. For those of us who study the way religion is used to oppress/liberate people, please look into her life, her trial, and her death. The death of Kimpa Vita played a pivotal role in the Kongo falling to Portugal.

Dear Reader, as much as I have enjoyed posting articles about Black people in the professions, I have decided to take my amateur Industrial Organizational Psychologist hat off and put my African American Studies Professor hat on. I will be back into jerks in the workplace shortly. Recently, I have fallen down this rabbit hole of African people’s role in the Catholic church. DO NOT ask me why. I just fall down these holes and keep going!

Many well-meaning people say that Christianity is not an African religion. They teach and preach that, like Islam, Christianity began in the Middle East and spread throughout the region, reaching as far as the Kongo. Well, they may be well-meaning as they link African Americans’ conversion to Christianity with slavery and continued internal colonialism, but this is simply not true. There are many, MANY historical relics and writings that link African nations to the birth of Christ. But I won’t go deeply into this, because that warrants another posting altogether! Some African nations have been Christian longer than some European nations. In fact, the only African country that never suffered colonialism is the Christian nation of Ethiopia. The rock churches of…