Afonso of Kongo writes to the king of Portugal

In 1526 Afonso I (Nzinga Mbemba), the Christian king of Kongo, began a series of letters to João III of Portugal complaining that Portuguese merchants, with some of his own vassals, were kidnapping free people, even nobles and his own relatives, to sell as slaves, and that the trade was emptying his kingdom. The two kingdoms had traded since the 1480s; by 1526 the trade centred on slaves.

The mechanism

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How it was checked

• EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
• Letter eraTHE RELEASES, AND THE ENCLOSURE THAT FOLLOWS EACH 1382 to 1694
• SourcesRECORD — World History Commons (George Mason University), 'Excerpt of letter from Nzinga Mbemba to Portuguese King João III' · checked 19 September: World History Commons (George Mason University), excerpt of Nzinga Mbemba's letter (the row's source); Wikipedia, 'Afonso I of Kongo' (citing John Thornton)