Comments on: Kimpa Vita - a profile of courage http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html black looks Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:03:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Scholars and Rogues » Blog Archive » Nota Bene - new S&R feature http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-90845 Scholars and Rogues » Blog Archive » Nota Bene - new S&R feature Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:12:10 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-90845 [...] Larisa Alexandrovna: Impeachment is back on the table … Black Looks recalls the obscure Kimpa Vita … A firebomb-launching blogger mellows out … Thirty percent of Americans abuse alcohol [...] […] Larisa Alexandrovna: Impeachment is back on the table … Black Looks recalls the obscure Kimpa Vita … A firebomb-launching blogger mellows out … Thirty percent of Americans abuse alcohol […]

]]> By: Sokari http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58308 Sokari Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:44:13 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58308 BRE@thanks for the link to the painting and Susan@ I like the sound of the anthology so will try to find it and the others. Thanks for these links BRE@thanks for the link to the painting and Susan@ I like the sound of the anthology so will try to find it and the others. Thanks for these links

]]> By: susan http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58302 susan Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:48:21 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58302 Not so much about Kimpa Vita specifically, and perhaps you know of these texts, but if not... There is an excellent anthology edited by Flora Edouwaye Kaplan called Queens, Queen Mothers, Priestesses and Power: Case Studies in African Gender (1997 New York Academy of Sciences) And also, a bit of a tangent, but still relevant to understanding the positions of power African women held historically... I think Oyeronke Oyewumi's The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (1997 University of Minnesota Press)is one of the best books around in analyzing the ways gender as a marker of difference did not exist pre-colonially (at least in parts of what is now Nigeria). Not so much about Kimpa Vita specifically, and perhaps you know of these texts, but if not…

There is an excellent anthology edited by Flora Edouwaye Kaplan called Queens, Queen Mothers, Priestesses and Power: Case Studies in African Gender (1997 New York Academy of Sciences)

And also, a bit of a tangent, but still relevant to understanding the positions of power African women held historically… I think Oyeronke Oyewumi’s The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (1997 University of Minnesota Press)is one of the best books around in analyzing the ways gender as a marker of difference did not exist pre-colonially (at least in parts of what is now Nigeria).

]]> By: Black River Eagle http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58291 Black River Eagle Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:40:53 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58291 I've read about the warrior queen Ndona Nzinga and the fits she gave the Portuguese garrisons and Vatican envoys who were stationed in the Kingdom of Kongo during the 17th Century. This is the first time I have heard anything about Kimpa Vita so thanks for the Heads Up. The first 24 black Africans to arrive in what is today the U.S.A. were traded by Dutch slavers for food and water at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. They were of course slaves taken from the Kingdom of Kongo (the Angola sector). There is an excellent watercolor drawing of Queen Nzinga and her entourage by the Italian Antonio Cavazzi (1621-1678), a Catholic priest who was part of the Capuchin mission in what is today northern Angola. His drawings are some of the earliest eye witness accounts of life in the Kongo during the 17th century. You can find this work at the "Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas" online project at the Digital Media Lab of the University of Virginia. This is what probably got the prophet priestess Kimpa Vita in trouble with "the Church in Rome": "Beatrice wasted no time in putting her revelations into practice: she led thousands to repopulate the capital city of Mbanza Kongo ( or as the Portugese called it - San Salvador ), claimed that Jesus and his entire family were of African descent, incorporated traditional African drumming and dancing into the Roman Catholic liturgy, and discarded both crosses and traditional Congolese amulets as "unnecessary fetishes." She claimed to die each Friday, spend the weekend "dining with God," and return to the mortal plain each Monday with new decrees from Heaven." Hell, Catholics and Protestants alike will burn you at the stake for talking like that today! Serious. I’ve read about the warrior queen Ndona Nzinga and the fits she gave the Portuguese garrisons and Vatican envoys who were stationed in the Kingdom of Kongo during the 17th Century. This is the first time I have heard anything about Kimpa Vita so thanks for the Heads Up.

The first 24 black Africans to arrive in what is today the U.S.A. were traded by Dutch slavers for food and water at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. They were of course slaves taken from the Kingdom of Kongo (the Angola sector).

There is an excellent watercolor drawing of Queen Nzinga and her entourage by the Italian Antonio Cavazzi (1621-1678), a Catholic priest who was part of the Capuchin mission in what is today northern Angola. His drawings are some of the earliest eye witness accounts of life in the Kongo during the 17th century. You can find this work at the “Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas” online project at the Digital Media Lab of the University of Virginia.

This is what probably got the prophet priestess Kimpa Vita in trouble with “the Church in Rome”:

“Beatrice wasted no time in putting her revelations into practice: she led thousands to repopulate the capital city of Mbanza Kongo ( or as the Portugese called it - San Salvador ), claimed that Jesus and his entire family were of African descent, incorporated traditional African drumming and dancing into the Roman Catholic liturgy, and discarded both crosses and traditional Congolese amulets as “unnecessary fetishes.” She claimed to die each Friday, spend the weekend “dining with God,” and return to the mortal plain each Monday with new decrees from Heaven.”

Hell, Catholics and Protestants alike will burn you at the stake for talking like that today! Serious.

]]> By: Nota Bene - new S&R feature « Scholars and Rogues http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58127 Nota Bene - new S&R feature « Scholars and Rogues Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:47:09 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/kimpa_vita_-_a_profile_of_courage.html#comment-58127 [...] Larisa Alexandrovna: Impeachment is back on the table … Black Looks recalls the obscure Kimpa Vita … A firebomb-launching blogger mellows out … Thirty percent of Americans abuse alcohol [...] […] Larisa Alexandrovna: Impeachment is back on the table … Black Looks recalls the obscure Kimpa Vita … A firebomb-launching blogger mellows out … Thirty percent of Americans abuse alcohol […]

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