Radicare l’attaccamento : le missioni gesuitiche in Congo e in Angola tra civiltà e religione (1548-1594)

Abstract

This paper describes how, according to the Jesuit strategy, the people of the Kingdoms of Kongo and Angola had first to be subjected to a proper civil power and only afterwards be converted. This, however, could not be achieved until the end of the 16th century, since before then the Portuguese did not hold a military force strong enough to take and maintain control of the central African kingdoms. Considering such political imbalance, I show how the Jesuits had to negotiate with African kings and chieftains the place for their mission in the region. My main hypothesis is that in order to be acknowledged by their native interlocutors, Chris- tian missionaries had to identify themselves with local sorcerers, the privileged ritual agents and the controllers of the relations between society and nature. Following an analysis of Jesuits sources on such negotiations, I discuss the intercultural and practical dimension of the concept of religion in the central African context.