1. Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, known as Kimpa Mvita, Cimpa Vita or Tsimpa Vita, was a Kongolese prophet and leader of her own Christian movement, Antonianism; this movement taught that Jesus and other early Christian figures were from the Kongo Kingdom.
Kimpa Vita's teaching grew out of the traditions of the Catholic Church in Kongo, and caused her to upbraid the Catholic priests for not believing as she did.
Kimpa Vita is seen as an antislavery figure and as anticipating African democracy movements.
Beatriz Kimpa Vita, referred to as Beatrice of Congo, was born near Mount Kibangu in Angola, Kongo Kingdom, around 1684.
Kimpa Vita was born into a family of the Kongo nobility, probably of the class called Mwana Kongo, and her father was a regional commander of the King's army.
Kimpa Vita was baptized Dona Beatriz at her father's behest, following the Catholic beliefs of the Kings.
Kimpa Vita forbade her people to let the Portuguese in because they were going to enslave them.
Kimpa Vita kept proclaiming the message until King Pedro IV, after consulting with Italian Capuchin priests, burned her at the stake.
Kimpa Vita proclaimed that Jesus was a Kongo and that there will be slavery if they trusted the Portuguese.
Kimpa Vita was ordered to unite the Congo under one king.
King Pedro IV listened to the words of Kimpa Vita, but did not act upon them.
Kimpa Vita then went to visit his rival Joao II at Mbula, who refused to hear her.
Kimpa Vita's movement recognized the papal primate but was hostile towards the European missionaries in Congo.
Three months later, Kimpa Vita led her followers to the abandoned capital of Sao Salvador where they would call to the people in the countryside and rapidly repopulate the city.
Kimpa Vita believed that this sin had stripped her of virtue and is what led to her eventual downfall.
Kimpa Vita kept the pregnancy a secret from her followers and soon returned to her hometown with the child.
Kimpa Vita's teachings stated that Kongolese Catholicism was the true form of Catholicism and that the teachings and practices of white and Capuchin Catholics were incorrect and elitist.
Kimpa Vita believed that black people originated from the skin of a fig tree, and thus many followers of the Antonine Movement wore cloth spun from the bark of these trees.
Kimpa Vita believed that black was the true color of humanity and that white was the color of death, and thus taught that the principal characters in Christianity, including Jesus, Mary and Saint Francis, were all born in Kongo and were in fact Kongolese.
Kimpa Vita held a weekly rite of rebirth wherein she reenacted her reincarnation as Saint Anthony, ceremoniously dying each Friday and resurrecting each Saturday.
Kimpa Vita was captured near her hometown by Kinlaza envoys who had heard the crying of her child.
In 1706, Kimpa Vita was burned as a heretic at the temporary capital of Evululu by forces loyal to Pedro IV.
Kimpa Vita was tried under Kongo law as a witch and a heretic, with the consent and counsel of the Capuchin friars Bernardo da Gallo and Lorenzo da Lucca.
Kimpa Vita's followers continued to believe that she was still alive, and it was only when Pedro IV's forces took Sao Salvador in 1709 that the political force of her movement was broken, and most of her former noble adherents renounced their beliefs and rejoined the Catholic church.
Historian Scholastique Dianzinga has praised the statue commemorating Kimpa Vita for expanding the representation of women on African public monuments.