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Not all African rulers were down with the slave trade.

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A major rebellion actually fired up in Kongo. [Explosion occurs and rebellion appears]

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It was sort of a shocker when it happened, since the kings of Kongo were BFFs with the

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Europeans for a while. [Kongo king with European man]

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The early kings of Kongo were actually full-on obsessed with Portuguese language and culture. [King reading portuguese for dummies]

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It was like how modern anime fans get super into Japan.

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Though nobody in Kongo was walking around dressed like a tweaked-out space princess. [Man wearing blue space dress]

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As far as we know…

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The kings of Kongo also hoped that an alliance with Portugal would bring them wealth and

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power.

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Which it did for a while.

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Portugal responded by sending hordes of missionaries, and by 1506 Kongo had a Catholic ruler. [Missionaries transfer to Kongo]

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As the 16th century dragged on and Portugal founded a colony in the Americas, the Portuguese

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became less interested in talking about God and more interested in buying slaves. [Portugal man in room with a slave]

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Guess they didn't wear any “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets…

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The Portuguese first bought slaves directly from the Kongo government, including POWs

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and criminals convicted of serious crimes. [Portuguese man buying slaves]

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But the Portuguese just couldn’t get enough.

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So they hired bandits to kidnap people and take them to the slave trading posts. [Bandits kidnapping a slave]

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This became so common that some areas of the Kingdom of Kongo became regular ghost towns.

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Seems like the Portuguese weren’t too concerned with diplomatic relations at this point… [People stood by hut and tumbleweed blows past]

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In 1526, one of the kings of Kongo couldn’t take it anymore.

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His name was Afonso I.

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Nobody called him the Fonz, but… maybe they should have.

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Afonso’s first tactic was to write a strongly worded letter to the Portuguese on the subject [Afonso writing a letter]

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of illegal slavery.

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But this was the equivalent of a snippy post-it-note on the fridge, so… it wasn’t too effective. [Afonso puts sticky note on fridge door]

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Next, Afonso formed a committee to examine the problem.

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Like most committees that have ever existed, this committee, uh… didn’t accomplish

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much.

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It did, however, design a slew of treaties to restrict Portuguese slavery to a few hundred [Slaves stood behind bars]

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prisoners chosen each year by the government.

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But this… “just take the ones we don’t like” approach… also failed.

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Almost immediately, slavers were back to nabbing whoever they wanted. [Bandits kidnapping a slave]

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A century of political scheming followed.

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The Portuguese tried to support different candidates to the throne who were more on

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board.

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But the Portuguese scheming mostly failed, and the kings of Kongo got sick of the “selling [Kings pointing to portuguese man]

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civilians” plan.

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In 1622, the Kongolese put their bullets where their mouths were.

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Okay, that might have been misleading.

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Meaning… they started a war.

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The First Kongo-Portuguese War was from 1622-1623.

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The Portuguese came out as losers on that one and slave-trading activity was reduced. [Soldiers waving white flag]

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So that was good.

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Álvaro I was the king at the time, and he had a lot to be proud of.

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He’d defended his people and shown the Portuguese that the Kongolese weren’t going to be total [Alvaro outside door and man laying on the floor]

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doormats.

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But all this came with a high cost.

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Álvaro’s victory didn’t just tick off Portugal; it made every other slave-trading

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nation hopping mad. [Slave trade nations hopping]

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You know rulers are really angry when they start to hop...

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Kongo spent the 17th century under near-relentless attack by Portugal and nearby African slaver

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kingdoms.

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Finally, Kongo cracked. [Kongo cracking]

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In 1665, it lost a major battle against the Europeans.

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In the battle, the king and a ton of the upper nobility were killed. [Soldiers lay dead on the floor]

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So that was… not good.

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The Kongo government collapsed, civil war broke out, and the great kingdom fell apart.

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The scary thing about standing up to a bully is that bullies like to make examples of the [People bullying a boy on the bus]

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people who stand up to them.

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And when the bully is an entire society that’s making a ton of money be enslaving your people… [Giant portuguese king stomping on people]

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… you’d better believe they’ll have more in their arsenal than…doling out swirlies… [King pushing mans head into toilet]

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