Vita, Dona Beatriz Kimpa 119the country was divided into major factions ruled by rival
pretenders to the throne. Th e Capuchin missionary Fra
Bernardo da Gallo reports that Dona Beatriz had her fi rst
vision when she was about eight years old. In her vision,
two nkitas (white children from the Other World) played
with her and gave her a beautiful glass rosary. She started to
get a strong inclination toward religion.
As Kimpa Vita grew older, her interest in the spiri-
tual side of life increased, and it became obvious that she
was specially gift ed. She was trained to become a nganga
(meaning “knowledge” or “skill” in Kikongo), a person said
to be able to communicate with the Other World. Dona
Beatriz became a particular kind of medium called nganga
marinda, whose special ability was to address social prob-
lems as well as individual ones. Th is very respected offi ce in-
volved helping people who had problems originating from
the Other World. As a miranda nganga, she was also linked
to the so-called Kimpasi society (kimpasi means “suff ering”
in Kikongo). Young initiates were chosen from the commu-
nity, like in the case of Kimpa Vita, and put inside a secret
and isolated enclosure. Th ey were taught new languages as
well as occult knowledge and had to swear an oath of se-
crecy. Th e Capuchin missionaries considered the Kimpasi
societies as devils incarnate and declared all initiates ex-
communicated. Around 1699, Dona Beatriz concluded that
her practice as nganga marinda was too close to evil kindoki
(meaning “religious power”). She renounced her offi ce and
focused more on the beliefs of the Catholic Church.
Aft er leaving her life as nganga behind, Dona Beat-
riz got married, but she could not adjust to married life.
It was hard for someone who had lived the life of spiritual
freedom and independence to adapt to a husband. Her
fi rst marriage did not last long, to be followed by a second
one that did not survive the initial phase of living together.
Both times, she moved back to her parents’ house and re-
funded the bride wealth.
In 1703, Dona Beatriz and her neighbors left the
Mbidizi Valley and joined the new colonists dedicated to
restoring the former capital, São Salvador. King Pedro IV,
one of the rival rulers of Kongo, encouraged the restora-
tion of the abandoned city, together with his vows about the
restoration of Saint James’s Day and the involvement of the
Capuchins in the peace process. Th e colonists were tired of
the endless civil wars in the country and were full of reli-
gious fervor. Many had become followers of an old woman,
Apollonia Mafuta, who had visions of the Virgin Mary. Th eBibliography
Kea, Ray A. Settlements, Trade, and Polities in the Seventeenth-
Century Gold Coast. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press, 1982.
Rucker, Walter. “Th e African and European Slave Trades.” In Th e
Blackwell Companion to African American History, edited by
Alton Hornsby Jr., 48–66. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publish-
ers, 2005.
Th ornton, John K. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlan-
tic World, 1 400– 1800 , 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
Vita, Dona Beatriz Kimpa
Kimpa Vita (1684–1706) was baptized as Beatriz and was
therefore also known under her Christian name, Dona Be-
atriz. She was a Congolese prophet and the founder of a
Christian movement that became known as Antonianism.
Her teaching was rooted in the traditions of the Roman
Catholic Church in Kongo. Her movement recognized the
papal primate but was hostile against the European mis-
sionaries in Congo. Due to the great number of documents
found in the archives of Italian Capuchin missionaries, the
years of Kimpa Vita’s life are some of the best documented
in Kongo’s history. Th e missionaries in the eastern part of
Congo produced detailed diaries about their lives in Africa
in general and about Donna Beatriz.
She was born around 1684 in a small provincial town
near Mount Kibangu at the banks of the Mbidizi River in
the eastern end of the Kingdom of Kongo (today part of
Angola). As all Kongolese, who had been Catholics for
nearly two centuries, she was baptized as soon as a priest
passed her town. She was given the Christian name Beatriz
by her parents, and as a local feature the Portuguese title
“Dona” was given to every female. Her name in Kikongo
was Kimpa (her given name) Vita (her father’s name). Dona
Beatriz’s family were members of the highest group of Kon-
golese nobility, the Mwana Kongo or “Child of Kongo.” Th is
circumstance was a source of pride but it implied neither
wealth nor political power. Th e Mwana Kongo clans were
those who claim a king of Kongo somewhere in their past.
At the time of Kimpa Vita’s birth, the Kingdom of
Kongo was torn by armed turbulences. A period of civil
war followed the death of King Antonio I at the battle of
Mbwila (1665). As a result, the former capital of São Sal-
vador (today Mbanza Kongo) was abandoned in 1678, and