M'BANZA CONGO

also spelled Mbanza Kongo, formerly So Salvador do Congo, town, northwestern Angola. It is situated on a low plateau about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Nqui, which is the nearest point on the Congo River. It was the capital of the Kongo kingdom from the 16th to the 18th century and was known as M'banza or Bonza Congo until renamed So Salvador by the Portuguese for a cathedral that was built there in 1534. The idea of a Kongo kingship with a throne at So Salvador survived in the minds of African leaders in Angola and Congo (Kinshasa), even after the destruction of the Kongo domain by Europeans in the 19th century, and it influences modern central African politics. The intermittent rebellion of the area's Kongo peoples because of forced labour and land eviction led to Portuguese reprisals and mass migration of the Kongo from 1961 to 1974 to neighbouring Zaire (now Congo). The town's original name was restored after Angola attained its independence from Portugal in 1975. The town is now a market centre for corn (maize), peanuts (groundnuts), almonds, sesame, and cassava grown in the surrounding area. Pop. (1970 prelim.) 4,000.