Kinlaza facts for kids
| House of Kinlaza Nlaza kanda |
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Quick facts for kids File:Coat of arms of Kongo.svg |
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| Country: |  Kingdom of Kongo
Kingdom of Ngoyo Kingdom of Ndongo |
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| Parent House: | House of Kilukeni | ||
| Titles: |
List
King of Kongo
King of Loango King of Kakongo King of Ngoyo King on this side of the Zaire and beyond it King of Kibangu King of Lemba-Mbula Lord of the Ambundu Lord of Angola Lord of Aquisima Lord of Musuru Lord of Matamba Lord of Malilu Lord of Musuko Lord of Anzizo Lord of the conquest of Pangu-Alumbu |
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| Founder: | Álvaro VI | ||
| Final Ruler: | Pedro V | ||
| Founding Year: | 27 August 1636 | ||
| Cadet Branches: | Água Rosada | ||
The Kinlaza were an important family, or kanda, in the Kingdom of Kongo during the 1600s. They were one of the main groups fighting in the Kongo Civil War. This war also involved the Kimpanzu and Kinkanga a Mvika families. People still remember them today. A old saying from the 1920s goes: "Kinkanga, Kimpanzu ye Kinlaza makukwa matatu malambila Kongo." This means "Kinkanga, Kimpanzu, and Kinlaza are the three stones on which Kongo cooked." It shows how important these three families were to the kingdom.
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What Does Kinlaza Mean?
In the KiKongo language, the family's name is Nlaza. When you add "Ki-" to the beginning, it often means someone belongs to that group. So, "Kinlaza" means "members of the Nlaza family." The Portuguese, who were explorers and traders, called them the "House of Kinlaza." This simply meant the "House of Nlaza."
Where Did the Kinlaza Family Come From?
The exact start of the Kinlaza family is a bit unclear. In the early 1900s, saying someone had a "Nlaza father" didn't mean it was their biological dad. It meant they were part of the Kinlaza family group. Stories say that Lukeni lua Nsanze was the sister of Mpuku a Nsuku. This woman was likely related to Anna, the daughter of King Afonso I. Anna is probably the true ancestor of the Kinlaza family who ruled in a place called Mbata.
We know for sure that the Kinlaza family came from the royal lines of King Afonso I and King Alvaro III. By the 1620s, the royal family of Kongo had split into three main branches. The Kongo nobles traced their family lines through both their mother and father. This led to divisions among those related to King Afonso I. The Kimpanzu family came from the line of Alvaro III. The Kinkanga family came from Pedro II. And the Kinlaza family came from Afonso I's daughter, Anna. The Kinlaza were closely related to the Kimpanzu, but they came from a different set of relatives.
The Kinlaza's Role Before the Civil War
The Kinlaza family started to play a big role in the civil wars with King Garcia II. King Alvaro IV, who was from the Kimpanzu family, gave Garcia and his brother Alvaro control of the areas of Mbamba and Kiova. This was a reward for their strong military help in stopping a rebellion. Later, Alvaro from the Kinlaza family overthrew Alvaro V and became King Alvaro VI. In 1641, Alvaro VI was replaced by his brother, Garcia II.
King Garcia II began to make his family's power stronger. He did this by defeating the Kinkanga and Kimpanzu families. Even the church in Kongo, which had many foreign members, got involved in these family politics. The Kinlaza family sided with the Capuchin missionaries. The Kimpanzu family tended to support the Jesuits.
King Antonio I's Rule
Garcia II's son, Antonio I, became king after him. Antonio I was even tougher on his enemies than his father. He tried to stop the Portuguese from gaining too much power in the Ndembu region. This led to a war with the Portuguese settlers in Angola. The Kinlaza family then fought a civil war against their related families, the Kimpanzu and Kinkanga. This split was so important that even a list of kings from 1758 mentioned these three names together. The saying, "Kinlaza, Kimpanzu, Kinkanga: three stones on which Kongo cooked," survived as a historical memory, even when written records were lost.
The Struggle for the Throne with the Kimpanzu
The tough actions of the Kinlaza family led to many people being enslaved. These enslaved people were mostly sold through the ports of Sonyo. As Portuguese ships focused more on Angola, there were often more enslaved people in Sonyo than could be bought. This meant that these people often had to work in farming to feed themselves. By 1645, Sonyo had grown into a large and wealthy town. It was even a rival to the Kongo capital.
Sonyo began to fight for its independence from the Kinlaza's attempts to control everything. With weapons and support from the Dutch, Sonyo went to war with Kongo for 25 years. This war also reflected the church politics of the time. Sonyo started to have Protestant influences, while Kongo remained strongly Catholic.
Sonyo's Impact on Kongo
Sonyo's fight against Kongo greatly affected the kingdom's stability. The Kinlaza family had made many enemies by trying to take so much power. Since nobles from both countries often married each other, Sonyo became a safe place for unhappy nobles to gather. This weakened the power of the Kinlaza family. Families who had been defeated by the Kinlaza no longer had to make peace with them. They could simply go to Sonyo and plan rebellions.
When Antonio I became king after his father died, he did not keep a good relationship with the Portuguese. This led to an alliance between the Angolans and the Kimpanzu in Sonyo. They launched a successful and destructive attack on the Kongo capital, Sao Salvador. King Antonio himself was killed in battle. This caused an even bigger crisis for Kongo. It was a terrible and humiliating battle, as Kongo lost many of its nobles along with the king. The Portuguese took the king's royal items back to Lisbon as a sign of victory. However, they did not become much stricter in controlling the region than before. But Sonyo, and therefore the Kimpanzu family, could now attack a weakened Kongo.
The Kinlaza's Decline After the Civil War
The civil war between the Kinlaza and Kimpanzu families continued for another 30 years. Finally, in the early 1700s, Pedro IV brought a fragile peace. He was related to both the Kinlaza and Kimpanzu families. He set up a system where the royal office would officially rotate between the two families.
A northern branch of the Kinlaza family, started by João II in Mbula (or Lemba), tried to claim the throne. However, another branch of this family supported Pedro IV. They opposed João's sister Elena in the 1710s. This branch eventually became kings of Kongo when Garcia IV came to power in 1743.
A southern branch of the Kinlaza family, led by Ana Afonso de Leão, did not hold power for a long time. Their main base was in their home area of Nkondo (Mucondo). As the kingdom became less stable, many outer provinces chose to become independent. The central kingdom was becoming less effective. One such province was Wandu, which was ruled by another branch of the Kinlaza family. In 1764, Queen Violante of Wandu invaded Kongo. She temporarily drove King Alvaro IX, another Kinlaza, from the throne. He himself had ended the system of alternating kings by removing "Pedro V" of the Kimpanzu family.
By 1779, the southern Kinlazas came to power with José I. They held power until Afonso V became king after his brother José in 1785. However, a crisis after Afonso's death in 1787 left the southern Kinlazas out of power. The official king Pedro V (1856–85) might have had ties to the southern Kinlazas in the 1800s. His base at Mbembe was near the Nkondo lands, but this connection is not clear. After this time, the Kingdom of Kongo declined even faster. With it, the Kinlaza family's power also faded. The kingdom continued to exist even after the Congress of Berlin (a meeting of European powers) until the Portuguese government finally dissolved it in 1914.
