Battle of Mbwila - The Battle

The Battle

The core of the Portuguese force, commanded by Luis Lopes de Sequeira, was 450 musketeers and two light artillery pieces. There were soldiers from the Portuguese colony of Brazil, including some of African and Native American origin, as well as Imbangala and other African forces numbering about 15,000. The Kongo army included a large number of peasant archers, probably about 15,000, some 5,000 heavy infantry equipped with shields and swords, and a musket regiment of 380 men, 29 of them Portuguese led by Pedro Dias de Cabral.

Both armies were operating at some distance from their main bases. They had marched for days to reach the battlefield, along the valley of the Ulanga River just south of the capital of Mbwila. Steep hills and the river defined the east side of the battlefield, and lower ridges the west. The Portuguese forces took up positions between the two, with their African forces deployed on the flanks and the musketeers forming a diamond shaped formation in the center, anchored by their artillery. The Imbangala forces were held in reserve.

António's army advanced into the Portuguese formation with a vanguard, followed by three divisions of his heavy infantry and the archers on the flanks. The Duke of Bengo commanded the reserve. In the initial stages of the battle, the Kongolese archers swept most of the African archers of the Portuguese forces from the field and then launched attacks against the Portuguese musketeers, supported by their own heavy infantry and musketeers. In spite of heavy fighting, the Kongolese were unable to break the Portuguese formation and António was killed in the final attempt. Most of the Kongo forces broke following the king's death. The survivors were only able to withdraw thanks to skillful rearguard action by the Duke of Bengo and the reserves.

More than 400 of Kongo's heavy infantry were killed in the encounter and many more of the archers. Along with these losses was the royal chaplain, the mixed race Capuchin priest Francisco de São Salvador (Manuel Robrerdo in secular life). King António's young son of seven years was captured. After the battle, the head of the king or Manikongo was buried with ceremony by the Portuguese in the chapel of Our Lady of Nazareth situated on the Bay of Luanda, and the crown and sceptre of Kongo were sent to Lisbon as trophies.

Portugal obtained an act of vassalage from D. Isabel, the regent of Mbwila, but was unable to exercise any real authority over the region once their forces had withdrawn. In 1693 they had to return to attempt to subdue the region again. The primary result in Kongo was that the absence of an immediate heir spun the country into civil war. This civil war, which raged for half a century, led to Kongo's decentralization and fundamental changes, leading to Kongolese historians, even in 1700, regarding the battle as a decisive turning point in their country's history.