Manikongo

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The Manikongo was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Manikongo's seat of power was M'banza-Kongo, (also São Salvador from 1570-1975) the present-day capital of Zaire Province in Angola, from where he would appoint govenors for the provinces in the Kingdom and receive tribute from neighbouring subjects.

The term "Manikongo" probably derives from mwene Kongo a term that means essentially ruler, or one who exercises judgement in Kikongo. The term wene, from which mwene derived is also used to mean kingdom, and is attested with this meaning in the catechism of 1624 with reference to the Kingdom of Heaven. Mwene is created by adding the personal prefix (Class 1) Mu- to this stem, making it "a person who performs the functions of the kingdom".

Mani is a spelling deformation of this original term, which is attested in very early texts, notably the letters of King Afonso I, where he writes, in his letter to King of Portugal in 1514 concerning the "moinepango" (mwene Mpangu, a provincial authority), in which the orthography reflects its actual pronunciation. Mani was not only used to mean "king" it was also applied to anyone holding authority, so provincial and sub-provincial officials also were called "mani". In spite of the spelling problem, virtually all writers, both Kikongo speaking and Portuguese including the kings of Kongo themselves, used the term in regular correspondence.