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The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706
Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was a young Kongolese woman who in 1704 claimed to be possessed by St. Anthony, argued that Jesus was a Kongolese, criticized Italian Capuchin missionaries for not supporting black saints, and attempted to stop the devastating cycle of civil wars between contenders for the Kongolese throne. She was burned at the stake in 1706. Background information is supplied on Kongo, the development of Catholicism there, and the role of local warfare in the Atlantic slave trade.
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
John K. Thornton
15 books14 followersA specialist in the history of Africa, the African Diaspora and the Atlantic world, John K. Thornton is professor of African American Studies and History at Boston University.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 8, 2013
For a book ‘about’ the Kongolese Saint Anthony, Thornton’s treatment focuses scant attention on ‘Saint Anthony,’ Dona Beatriz. She doesn’t even appear as a full character until Chapter 4, and even then her appearance is fleeting, on the margins, and specter-like. It made me wonder why Thornton would title his book after a marginal character in what seems to be another story of Kongolese kingdoms and their Christian creolization. That was, until I arrived at the conclusion. More to say about this in a moment.
My recurring sense in ...Saint Anthony was that Thornton was so desperate is he to make Dona Beatriz a creolization of Christian and African practices, that he simply overlooks the amount of complexity represented by her personage, the movement she inspired, and the responses they generated. For example, Thornton hardly touches onto the notions of gender in Dona Beatriz’s transformation, and, as Jim’s article shows, ...Saint Anthony’s analysis seems impoverished for it. As his article demonstrates, once we free ourselves from the individual, biological notions the West has assigned to gender categories, we can understand gender (at least in many African societies) much more productively as fluid performances that varied within social contexts. What would a consideration of Dona Beatriz’s fluid performance of gender have offered Thornton?
But back to Thornton’s conclusions. When it comes to knowing this version of Dona Beatriz’s life, replete with lengthy dialogue and vivid descriptions of court intrigue, Thornton explains that his reconstruction is based in large part (if not entirely) on the statements she and Barro made to Fathers Lorenzo and Bernardo after she has been sentenced to burn at the stake (p. 176). Does it strike anyone else as slightly problematic that Thornton relates Dona Beatriz’s last minute conversion and apology without any sense that his archive (i.e. statements made under likely duress to two European priests and subject to their unfettered reinterpretation) might skew her life narrative in particularly wild directions? Might also the priests' vested interests in the politics of Kongo also call into question all those relayed conversations in which King Pedro and other court members are made to look at turns both prideful and pathetic and that Thornton basically goes along with all of this? Despite all claims to Capuchin neutrality, their interested and ethnocentric perspective makes many of the reconstructed events and dialogues highly suspicious. But Thornton has demonstrated elsewhere (see his more recent Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660), he is not one to let questionable interpretations stand in the way of a good story of Christian creolization.
It would seem that Thornton, in his last chapter, makes the extraordinary leap to argue that it was these creolized, radicalized Christian slaves who, exceptionally, had the agency and knowledge to execute strategic acts of slave resistance in the North American colonies. Lots of reasons to doubt this as we’ve discussed previously, and it’s once again disappointing to see this reduction of a complex African spiritual/political movement reduced to an explanatory principle for slave resistance.
My recurring sense in ...Saint Anthony was that Thornton was so desperate is he to make Dona Beatriz a creolization of Christian and African practices, that he simply overlooks the amount of complexity represented by her personage, the movement she inspired, and the responses they generated. For example, Thornton hardly touches onto the notions of gender in Dona Beatriz’s transformation, and, as Jim’s article shows, ...Saint Anthony’s analysis seems impoverished for it. As his article demonstrates, once we free ourselves from the individual, biological notions the West has assigned to gender categories, we can understand gender (at least in many African societies) much more productively as fluid performances that varied within social contexts. What would a consideration of Dona Beatriz’s fluid performance of gender have offered Thornton?
But back to Thornton’s conclusions. When it comes to knowing this version of Dona Beatriz’s life, replete with lengthy dialogue and vivid descriptions of court intrigue, Thornton explains that his reconstruction is based in large part (if not entirely) on the statements she and Barro made to Fathers Lorenzo and Bernardo after she has been sentenced to burn at the stake (p. 176). Does it strike anyone else as slightly problematic that Thornton relates Dona Beatriz’s last minute conversion and apology without any sense that his archive (i.e. statements made under likely duress to two European priests and subject to their unfettered reinterpretation) might skew her life narrative in particularly wild directions? Might also the priests' vested interests in the politics of Kongo also call into question all those relayed conversations in which King Pedro and other court members are made to look at turns both prideful and pathetic and that Thornton basically goes along with all of this? Despite all claims to Capuchin neutrality, their interested and ethnocentric perspective makes many of the reconstructed events and dialogues highly suspicious. But Thornton has demonstrated elsewhere (see his more recent Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660), he is not one to let questionable interpretations stand in the way of a good story of Christian creolization.
It would seem that Thornton, in his last chapter, makes the extraordinary leap to argue that it was these creolized, radicalized Christian slaves who, exceptionally, had the agency and knowledge to execute strategic acts of slave resistance in the North American colonies. Lots of reasons to doubt this as we’ve discussed previously, and it’s once again disappointing to see this reduction of a complex African spiritual/political movement reduced to an explanatory principle for slave resistance.
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March 8, 2016In 1704, against a backdrop of the spiraling Atlantic slave trade and civil war tearing up her country, a young Kongolese woman asserted Jesus and Mary were African, pronounced herself possessed by Saint Anthony, preached searing messages of religious reform, and launched a peace movement of "little Anthonies" to save her land. A great introduction, in story form, to the Kingdom of Kongo as well as the struggle between the Christianities of the Kongolese and the European missionaries.
December 11, 2013
The following is a short paper I wrote describing some of the inner workings of the Antonian movement as they are related in Thornton's book.
At the turn of the 18th century the Kingdom of Kongo was caught in a series of ongoing civil wars. John K. Thornton’s The Kongolese Saint Anthony explains in detail how members of opposed elite Kongolese families had only regional control and took turns vying for complete rule of the nation. During the conflicts, heads of state and elites were sometimes killed or captured but, more often it was the common people who bore the brunt of ongoing war, famine, loss of property, and loss of freedom. The specter of slavery was a danger for many West Africans and especially for the Kongolese. As a member of elite society, Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was well aware of the inner workings of Kongolese society. Subsequent to her possession by the spirit of St. Anthony, Dona Beatriz used her knowledge of Kongo politics, her Kimpasi training, the Catholic faith, and a genuine nationalistic empathy to galvanize commoners and some elites to her Antonian movement. Although religious in nature, Dona Beatriz’ Antonian message was one of nationalistic unity and Kongolese pride - it eventually played a salient role in Kongolese politics. Dona Beatriz, known to her followers simply as Saint Anthony, almost achieved what no other Kongo leader in her time could; she unified much of Kongolese society, formalized Kongo’s syncretic spiritual life, and she temporarily slowed the outpouring of her countrymen and women into the Atlantic slave trade.
The Antonians aimed for Kongolese unity and religious reformation. Dona Beatriz first began to preach publicly with a sermon that was similar to that of her contemporary prophets - some of who had been sent messages from the divine and others, who like Dona Beatriz, had been possessed. She fashioned her initial message as an expansion to that of Apollonia Mafuta. Thornton writes, “Mafuta was an old woman, and…had a vision of the Virgin. The Virgin told Mafuta that she had thrown herself prostrate at the feet of her son, begging him to be merciful with the Kongolese. Jesus’ anger…was directed especially at King Pedro, the principal cause of the slowed pace of resettlement” (108). The resettlement mentioned here is that of Kongo’s long abandoned capital, São Salvador. A return to the capital was a central idea of Dona Beatriz’ teachings as it was widely believed, by nobility and commoners, that any true king of Kongo, and thereby any chance at an end of the civil wars, could only come about if the ancient city was rebuilt. This message was interwoven with the Antonian’s retelling of the origins of Christianity and a reordering of the saints and important icons of the Church.
Two of the more important religious features of the Antonian movement were the establishment of black saints and the creation of an alternative Nativity story. Describing Dona Beatriz’ religious doctrine Thornton explains, “…she urged the Kongolese to be happy. Good things were to be delivered to Saint Anthony’s devotees. She told them that her arrival meant the Kongolese could have saints of their own just as Europeans did” (112). In stark contrast to the teachings of Capuchin monks who had descended from Europe as representatives of the Vatican, the Antonians formalized the Kongolese version of Christianity. Dona Beatriz took this reimagining of the faith all the way to its origin. Of the Antonian Nativity Thornton writes, “Jesus had been born in the royal city of São Salvador…. Jesus and Mary were actually Kongolese; Mary’s mother was a slave of the Marquis Nzimba Mpangi when Mary gave birth to Jesus” (114). Through these radical changes in Christian mythology the Antonians set the stage for a confirmation of their syncretic belief system. They were fusing a Catholic tradition imported by the Portuguese and Italians with Kongolese beliefs fostered by the Kimpasi and woven into the daily lives of peasants.
The goals of the Antonian movement might have been broad, encompassing religious and political motives, but they had the very specific goal of goading King Pedro IV to leave Kibangu, his mountain stronghold, and claim São Salvador. Villagers, farmers, cattle herders, and small town dwellers of Kongo paid the heaviest price for the nation’s ongoing civil wars. Most of them believed that Pedro taking his rightful place and rebuilding the capital would bring an end to the blood shed and mass exodus of Kongolese into slavery. Describing the consequences of war, Thornton writes, “Naturally, on the battlefield…opponents were liable to be enslaved, especially the numerous porters who were inadequately armed and whose numbers included many women and even children. Victory in war usually meant the capture and enslavement of thousands of people” (98). The fear and fatigue resulting from unending war must have made Kongolese peasants eager for new hope. The Antonian movement provided that hope through an otherworldly leader that fit the spiritual past of Kongo, offered a solution for it’s tumultuous present, and painted a promise of peace for people most vulnerable to the costs of war.
Although the gospel of the Antonians was not explicitly anti-European, it did cause a fierce reaction from the Capuchins stationed in Kongo. On more than one occasion, Father Bernardo, a member of the Capuchin impressed upon King Pedro that Dona Beatriz and her followers must be dealt with severely. After an interview with Dona Beatriz, Father Bernardo concluded that she was indeed possessed; but not by Saint Anthony, rather the Devil or one of his demons (124). The problem for the Capuchins was that Pedro felt he was already fighting on too many fronts and did not want to upset a movement that was spreading like wildfire across his territory. Of the Capuchins’ dilemma Thornton writes, “As much as Father Bernardo might have wanted to seize Dona Beatriz and bring her to the kind of justice the Church reserved for anyone who trafficked with the Devil, he was acutely aware that he had no ability to enforce his will” (125). Pedro felt he needed the support of the Capuchins to legitimately rule Kongo but he was careful not to create any more enemies unnecessarily, so his initial reaction to the Antonians was one of indifference.
King Pedro’s attitude towards the Antonian movement began to change once Dona Beatriz and her followers settled São Salvador on their own. After being turned away by Pedro and his opponents, the Antonians moved into the dilapidated old capital of Kongo to rebuild and restore the city to its past glory. Having arrived mostly on faith alone, they fell on hard times and had to accept help from one of King Pedro’s adversaries - a Kimpanzu leader named Pedro Constantinho da Silva Kibenga. This connection between the Kimpanzu and the Antonians was mutually beneficial. The Kimpanzu faction received legitimacy in the eyes of the large peasant following of the Antonians while the movement received the food and supplies it needed for a permanent settlement in São Salvador. Expressing the degree of support the Antonians received from the rebels, Thornton writes, “She (Dona Beatriz) was in command of São Salvador, and thanks to Kibenga and his Kimpanzu allies, she was secure in her position. Now Kimpanzu nobles crowded around her” (156). This kind of explicit support began to change the Antonian movement. Dona Beatriz’ sermons began to include more political aspects and she began to directly talk about who the next king of Kongo would be and how his coronation would come about (159). Her bold advance into the political climate set events in motion that would ultimately be her undoing.
Referring to King Pedro’s attitude toward the Antonians, Thornton writes, “As the Antonian movement’s political character became more manifest, so too, did the strength of the reaction against it by rival sections of the nobility” (162). With the power of the Antonians growing, and their relationship with the Kimpanzu more interwoven, Pedro and his followers felt cornered into action. It is at this point that Pedro decided the Antonians must be driven out of São Salvador as a prelude to all out war against Kibenga’s forces. Interestingly, Pedro consults with Father Bernardo of the Capuchin about this action against the Antonians and the Kimpanzu and is disappointed with the monk’s response on both counts. Despite agreeing that Pedro is the rightful king of Kongo, Father Bernardo refuses to publicly show support for his side of the conflict. In the matter of Dona Beatriz and the Antonians, for fear of negatively reflecting on the Vatican, Bernardo once again admits that action must be taken but states in clear terms that it must be seen publicly as the sole responsibility of Pedro and the Kongolese state to end the Antonians.
Dona Beatriz and her movement represented another risk for the nobles of Kongo and the Capuchin monks in that they presented a path for peasants to walk away from imported Catholic orthodoxy and away from blind submission to the elites. Of this dimension of danger to the establishment, Thornton explains, “As much as it (the Antonian movement) was feared because of its political dimensions and its alliance with the Kimpanzu, it had the potential to become a social movement that would upset the nobility as a group, which added a sense of urgency to the nobles’ attack” (162). This revolutionary component made the dismantlement of the Antonians and the capture and execution of Dona Beatriz of absolute importance to the Kinlaza.
Dona Beatriz created a movement in 18th century Kongo that spoke to the peasant class while putting fear in the hearts of that country’s elites and imported religious zealots. Her Antonians, if successful in the long term, might have created a peace that could have stemmed the export of thousands of Kongolese into the Atlantic slave trade. Despite mistakes, both in her personal life bearing a child, and in inadvertently becoming a pawn of the Kimpanzu rebels, Dona Beatriz was able to bring together the common people of Kongo in a grassroots effort that no other king, queen, duke, or general could. At a time when the Kongolese nobles were fighting over the support of condescending foreigners, Dona Beatriz preached about nationalistic and spiritual pride and self love. Her politics, even if imperfect, were informed by a genuine caring for her fellow Kongolese and the degree to which the Capuchins and the Kinlaza feared and loathed her Antonians stands as testament to the success of her efforts. The Antonian’s belief in the Kongolese concept of intent is telling of the movement. Whereas the Capuchins emphasized the importance of Church prescribed ritual, the Antonians held the belief that what is in one’s heart and one’s intent that truly marks the path of goodness and righteousness. This flexibility in thought is exactly what Dona Beatriz was celebrating in creating and nurturing her movement. Saint Anthony’s vessel was reacting to the terrible predicament of her people by creating a story that could heal Kongo’s past, unite her present, and safeguard her future.
At the turn of the 18th century the Kingdom of Kongo was caught in a series of ongoing civil wars. John K. Thornton’s The Kongolese Saint Anthony explains in detail how members of opposed elite Kongolese families had only regional control and took turns vying for complete rule of the nation. During the conflicts, heads of state and elites were sometimes killed or captured but, more often it was the common people who bore the brunt of ongoing war, famine, loss of property, and loss of freedom. The specter of slavery was a danger for many West Africans and especially for the Kongolese. As a member of elite society, Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was well aware of the inner workings of Kongolese society. Subsequent to her possession by the spirit of St. Anthony, Dona Beatriz used her knowledge of Kongo politics, her Kimpasi training, the Catholic faith, and a genuine nationalistic empathy to galvanize commoners and some elites to her Antonian movement. Although religious in nature, Dona Beatriz’ Antonian message was one of nationalistic unity and Kongolese pride - it eventually played a salient role in Kongolese politics. Dona Beatriz, known to her followers simply as Saint Anthony, almost achieved what no other Kongo leader in her time could; she unified much of Kongolese society, formalized Kongo’s syncretic spiritual life, and she temporarily slowed the outpouring of her countrymen and women into the Atlantic slave trade.
The Antonians aimed for Kongolese unity and religious reformation. Dona Beatriz first began to preach publicly with a sermon that was similar to that of her contemporary prophets - some of who had been sent messages from the divine and others, who like Dona Beatriz, had been possessed. She fashioned her initial message as an expansion to that of Apollonia Mafuta. Thornton writes, “Mafuta was an old woman, and…had a vision of the Virgin. The Virgin told Mafuta that she had thrown herself prostrate at the feet of her son, begging him to be merciful with the Kongolese. Jesus’ anger…was directed especially at King Pedro, the principal cause of the slowed pace of resettlement” (108). The resettlement mentioned here is that of Kongo’s long abandoned capital, São Salvador. A return to the capital was a central idea of Dona Beatriz’ teachings as it was widely believed, by nobility and commoners, that any true king of Kongo, and thereby any chance at an end of the civil wars, could only come about if the ancient city was rebuilt. This message was interwoven with the Antonian’s retelling of the origins of Christianity and a reordering of the saints and important icons of the Church.
Two of the more important religious features of the Antonian movement were the establishment of black saints and the creation of an alternative Nativity story. Describing Dona Beatriz’ religious doctrine Thornton explains, “…she urged the Kongolese to be happy. Good things were to be delivered to Saint Anthony’s devotees. She told them that her arrival meant the Kongolese could have saints of their own just as Europeans did” (112). In stark contrast to the teachings of Capuchin monks who had descended from Europe as representatives of the Vatican, the Antonians formalized the Kongolese version of Christianity. Dona Beatriz took this reimagining of the faith all the way to its origin. Of the Antonian Nativity Thornton writes, “Jesus had been born in the royal city of São Salvador…. Jesus and Mary were actually Kongolese; Mary’s mother was a slave of the Marquis Nzimba Mpangi when Mary gave birth to Jesus” (114). Through these radical changes in Christian mythology the Antonians set the stage for a confirmation of their syncretic belief system. They were fusing a Catholic tradition imported by the Portuguese and Italians with Kongolese beliefs fostered by the Kimpasi and woven into the daily lives of peasants.
The goals of the Antonian movement might have been broad, encompassing religious and political motives, but they had the very specific goal of goading King Pedro IV to leave Kibangu, his mountain stronghold, and claim São Salvador. Villagers, farmers, cattle herders, and small town dwellers of Kongo paid the heaviest price for the nation’s ongoing civil wars. Most of them believed that Pedro taking his rightful place and rebuilding the capital would bring an end to the blood shed and mass exodus of Kongolese into slavery. Describing the consequences of war, Thornton writes, “Naturally, on the battlefield…opponents were liable to be enslaved, especially the numerous porters who were inadequately armed and whose numbers included many women and even children. Victory in war usually meant the capture and enslavement of thousands of people” (98). The fear and fatigue resulting from unending war must have made Kongolese peasants eager for new hope. The Antonian movement provided that hope through an otherworldly leader that fit the spiritual past of Kongo, offered a solution for it’s tumultuous present, and painted a promise of peace for people most vulnerable to the costs of war.
Although the gospel of the Antonians was not explicitly anti-European, it did cause a fierce reaction from the Capuchins stationed in Kongo. On more than one occasion, Father Bernardo, a member of the Capuchin impressed upon King Pedro that Dona Beatriz and her followers must be dealt with severely. After an interview with Dona Beatriz, Father Bernardo concluded that she was indeed possessed; but not by Saint Anthony, rather the Devil or one of his demons (124). The problem for the Capuchins was that Pedro felt he was already fighting on too many fronts and did not want to upset a movement that was spreading like wildfire across his territory. Of the Capuchins’ dilemma Thornton writes, “As much as Father Bernardo might have wanted to seize Dona Beatriz and bring her to the kind of justice the Church reserved for anyone who trafficked with the Devil, he was acutely aware that he had no ability to enforce his will” (125). Pedro felt he needed the support of the Capuchins to legitimately rule Kongo but he was careful not to create any more enemies unnecessarily, so his initial reaction to the Antonians was one of indifference.
King Pedro’s attitude towards the Antonian movement began to change once Dona Beatriz and her followers settled São Salvador on their own. After being turned away by Pedro and his opponents, the Antonians moved into the dilapidated old capital of Kongo to rebuild and restore the city to its past glory. Having arrived mostly on faith alone, they fell on hard times and had to accept help from one of King Pedro’s adversaries - a Kimpanzu leader named Pedro Constantinho da Silva Kibenga. This connection between the Kimpanzu and the Antonians was mutually beneficial. The Kimpanzu faction received legitimacy in the eyes of the large peasant following of the Antonians while the movement received the food and supplies it needed for a permanent settlement in São Salvador. Expressing the degree of support the Antonians received from the rebels, Thornton writes, “She (Dona Beatriz) was in command of São Salvador, and thanks to Kibenga and his Kimpanzu allies, she was secure in her position. Now Kimpanzu nobles crowded around her” (156). This kind of explicit support began to change the Antonian movement. Dona Beatriz’ sermons began to include more political aspects and she began to directly talk about who the next king of Kongo would be and how his coronation would come about (159). Her bold advance into the political climate set events in motion that would ultimately be her undoing.
Referring to King Pedro’s attitude toward the Antonians, Thornton writes, “As the Antonian movement’s political character became more manifest, so too, did the strength of the reaction against it by rival sections of the nobility” (162). With the power of the Antonians growing, and their relationship with the Kimpanzu more interwoven, Pedro and his followers felt cornered into action. It is at this point that Pedro decided the Antonians must be driven out of São Salvador as a prelude to all out war against Kibenga’s forces. Interestingly, Pedro consults with Father Bernardo of the Capuchin about this action against the Antonians and the Kimpanzu and is disappointed with the monk’s response on both counts. Despite agreeing that Pedro is the rightful king of Kongo, Father Bernardo refuses to publicly show support for his side of the conflict. In the matter of Dona Beatriz and the Antonians, for fear of negatively reflecting on the Vatican, Bernardo once again admits that action must be taken but states in clear terms that it must be seen publicly as the sole responsibility of Pedro and the Kongolese state to end the Antonians.
Dona Beatriz and her movement represented another risk for the nobles of Kongo and the Capuchin monks in that they presented a path for peasants to walk away from imported Catholic orthodoxy and away from blind submission to the elites. Of this dimension of danger to the establishment, Thornton explains, “As much as it (the Antonian movement) was feared because of its political dimensions and its alliance with the Kimpanzu, it had the potential to become a social movement that would upset the nobility as a group, which added a sense of urgency to the nobles’ attack” (162). This revolutionary component made the dismantlement of the Antonians and the capture and execution of Dona Beatriz of absolute importance to the Kinlaza.
Dona Beatriz created a movement in 18th century Kongo that spoke to the peasant class while putting fear in the hearts of that country’s elites and imported religious zealots. Her Antonians, if successful in the long term, might have created a peace that could have stemmed the export of thousands of Kongolese into the Atlantic slave trade. Despite mistakes, both in her personal life bearing a child, and in inadvertently becoming a pawn of the Kimpanzu rebels, Dona Beatriz was able to bring together the common people of Kongo in a grassroots effort that no other king, queen, duke, or general could. At a time when the Kongolese nobles were fighting over the support of condescending foreigners, Dona Beatriz preached about nationalistic and spiritual pride and self love. Her politics, even if imperfect, were informed by a genuine caring for her fellow Kongolese and the degree to which the Capuchins and the Kinlaza feared and loathed her Antonians stands as testament to the success of her efforts. The Antonian’s belief in the Kongolese concept of intent is telling of the movement. Whereas the Capuchins emphasized the importance of Church prescribed ritual, the Antonians held the belief that what is in one’s heart and one’s intent that truly marks the path of goodness and righteousness. This flexibility in thought is exactly what Dona Beatriz was celebrating in creating and nurturing her movement. Saint Anthony’s vessel was reacting to the terrible predicament of her people by creating a story that could heal Kongo’s past, unite her present, and safeguard her future.
February 3, 2017
The early Christianization of the so-called Kongo kingdom produced a dynamic of religious syncretism that could not fail to affect Congolese politics and society as a whole. One of the most striking episodes to which it gave rise was the extraordinary prophetic-messianic movement that some called "the antonian heresy". Although the movement was rapidly disarticulated, it had a strong impact in America, where some of its manifestations remain valid today, centuries after the sacrifice of Beatriz-Kimpa Vita. This was mainly due to the Congolese authorities' eagerness to get rid of as many of the legions of Antonionists as possible by massively selling them as slaves and shipping them to America. It is known that Antonian militants were exported with the trafficking not only to Brazil, but also to what is now Suriname, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, the state of Virginia in the United States, and especially to Haiti and later to Louisiana. Thornton argues that many of the Haitian revolutionaries who fought for the independence of their country had been initiated in Antonianism, which he deduces from songs that are attributed to them and that appear within the Salve Antoniana, particularly the verses kanga mundele, kanga ndoki. But every culture is dynamic: it gradually abandons indigenous elements and assumes those of other cultures with which it interacts, otherwise it would stagnate and die. What is really remarkable about the Antonian movement is the way in which the dominated appropriated an important element of the dominant culture, they re-elaborated it and struggling against infinitely superior forces, succeeded in leaving a deep imprint in a space and time frame that was certainly extensive.
May 22, 2023
The book focuses quite a bit on political and social life of 18th century Kongo. Dona Beatriz is rarely mentioned until chapter 4, the preceding chapters largely building up the political, religious, and social situation her movement was about to burst into.
Dona Beatriz suffered a serious illness and came through believing she was possessed by the spirit of Saint Anthony, who called on her to restore peace to a kingdom in the midst of a bloody civil war. Her movement spread across the region and the book really picks up past that point. She reoccupied their ruined capital city and sent missionaries of her own across the land, competing with the Capuchins and other Catholic priests. Before she was unfortunately arrested and burned at the state when she was still a young woman in the prime of her movement.
The writing can switch between dry to rather lively. Sections recounting what the priests personally experienced and wrote down being quite intriguing. While the intrigue of politics across a varied landscape and multiple dynasties can be hard to follow at times.
Dona Beatriz suffered a serious illness and came through believing she was possessed by the spirit of Saint Anthony, who called on her to restore peace to a kingdom in the midst of a bloody civil war. Her movement spread across the region and the book really picks up past that point. She reoccupied their ruined capital city and sent missionaries of her own across the land, competing with the Capuchins and other Catholic priests. Before she was unfortunately arrested and burned at the state when she was still a young woman in the prime of her movement.
The writing can switch between dry to rather lively. Sections recounting what the priests personally experienced and wrote down being quite intriguing. While the intrigue of politics across a varied landscape and multiple dynasties can be hard to follow at times.
February 17, 2024
this book was actually so fascinating! it took me a little while to get into it and figure out which of the four pedros was which, but the story of dona beatriz is fascinating, and the way that religion is manipulated in and mixed into kongolese society, and how that affects the slave trade is really complex and interesting. john thornton's narrative style also made this feel more like a story than a history book, which made the reading of it really pleasant.
June 27, 2023
This definitely felt more like a history of the Kingdom of Kongo in the late seventeenth and early eighteen century rather than a biography of Beatriz Kimpa Vita.
I knew very little of the time before reading this book, and I enjoyed learning a lot. I think a second edition would be strengthened by some family trees or charts outlining the major dynastic players.
I knew very little of the time before reading this book, and I enjoyed learning a lot. I think a second edition would be strengthened by some family trees or charts outlining the major dynastic players.
October 31, 2025
very interesting book, however there is so much extraneous information that complicated my understanding of the story of Dona Beatriz. she is much less of a central figure in this book compared to male ruling figures, which disappointed me as I was quite excited to learn more about a female historical figure.
July 11, 2017
Personally, I felt like it was a bit of a misnomer. Dona seemed to be a minor character in Thornton's telling of the politics in the early 1700s.
July 15, 2018
2.5 stars
July 25, 2016
A bizarre story of a cult leader in the African Kongo. John Thornton's narrative of Dona Beatriz's life is inexplicably romanticized and seemingly incoherent. His claim that the Antonian movement can be called a "Christian" movement is absurd even with the loosest definition of what qualifies. His arguments that Dona Beatriz was some how opposing the slave trade is also shaky at best and heavily relies on inferences and arguing from silence.
December 8, 2013
I was not impressed with this book what so ever. It was assigned to my Pre-Colonial African class as an insight to some of the issues in the Kongo however, it didn't turn out to be that great of a read. The book jumped everywhere on topics and it was very difficult to follow. It was not all about Beatriz but more about the political themes of the era. Unless you have to read it, don't.
March 10, 2015
One of the most intriguing historical and theologically-driven books I've read concerning a person unknown to most. The life of Dona Beatriz is depicted in narrative format with historical context, but the book is self-reported to rely on sources of bias from Capuchin missionaries and oral tradition.
October 5, 2008
Not that great. It is an interesting story but the history is poorly presented and rather jumbled. Not sure if it is worth reading unless you are very interested in this area...
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews