Battle of Mbumbi

Battle of Mbumbi
Part of the Kongo-Portuguese War of 1622
Date 18 December 1622 Location Bumbi, Angola Result Decisive Portuguese victory
Belligerents
Portuguese Angola	Kingdom of Kongo
Commanders and leaders
Captain Major Pedro de Sousa Coelho	Duke of Mbamba Dom Paulo Afonso  † Marquis of Mpemba Dom Cosme  †
Strength
20,000 Mbundu archers 10,000 Portuguese infantry and Imbangla mercenaries	2,000-3,000 archers 200 heavy infantry.
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Heavy losses including much of the light infantry and 90 heavy infantry

The Battle of Mbumbi was a military engagement between forces of Portuguese Angola and the Kingdom of Kongo.

Portuguese Angola was established in 1575 as a reward to the Portuguese for helping the Kingdom of Kongo defeat the Jagas whom invaded the realm in 1568. After a disastrous attempt at conquering the Kingdom of Ndongo, the Portuguese governor Mendes de Vasconcellos made an alliance with the Imbangala, a people described by European and Kongo sources as rootless, cannibal mercenaries originating south of the Kwanza River. The governor used them to destroy the Ndongo while Portuguese Angola reaped the slaves that emerged from the chaos. In 1621, Vasconcellos was succeeded by João Correia de Sousa. Correia de Sousa hoped to reap the same benefits as his predecessor by unleashing the Imbangala into Kongo territory. He first targeted the forest land of Kazanze, a Kongo vassal that had been a haven for runaway slaves from Portuguese Angola. Correia de Sousa then ordered Captain Major Pedro de Sousa Coelho and 20,000 Mbundu and Portuguese with an Imbangala contingent into Nambu a Ngongo inside the Kongo province of Mbamba. The area fell but not before its lord could flee to the commercial town of Bumbi.

Captain-Major Sousa Coelho marched on Bumbi with 30,000 men, most of which were Mbundu archers supplemented by Portuguese heavy infantry and the all-important Imbangala mercenaries. Inside the town, the Duke of Mbamba Paulo Afonso and the Marquis of Pemba Cosme led the Kongo forces. They had gathered about 3,000 men as light infantry (bowmen) augmented by 200 nobles fighting as traditional heavy infantry (sword and shield). Before giving battle, the Duke of Mbamba made Confession and received the Holy Sacraments before arming himself with sword, shield and relics of various saints.

At the start of the battle, both sides gave the battle cry "Santiago" before engaging. The Kongo forces, seeing this coincidence, remarked that if the Portuguese saint was white, theirs was black. The Duke's forces initiated the battle routing the Mbundu archers whose ranks had swollen to some 30,000 by the time of the battle. But just as in Ndongo, the Imbangala mercenaries would not yield and destroyed the Kongo force with a counterattack. The duke, marquis, 90 lesser nobles and thousands of common soldiers were all slain. According to Jesuit accounts of the battle, the Portuguese succeeded in taking many slaves from the battle and sacked the whole settlement, not sparing the possessions of the Portuguese established there. The Imbangala, as was their custom, cannibalized many of their prisoners including the bodies of the Duke of Mbamba and the Marquis of Pemba.

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