To this day, she’s remembered as one of the first anti-colonial revolutionaries in Africa. After you’ve read this story of Kimpa Vita, you’ll never forget her name, her commitment to her people, and her uncompromising valor.
Kimpa Vita was just a teenager when she began to challenge the powers that ruled her world.
Born in 1684 in the Kingdom of Kongo, Kimpa Vita grew up in the growing shadow of colonial devastation. Once a mighty African kingdom, the Kongo her people once knew had been torn apart by European encroachment and the transatlantic slave trade. Portuguese invaders had fueled civil wars, pitted leaders against their own people, and turned the kingdom into a battleground.
But Kimpa Vita saw a different future.
Trained in Kongo’s traditional spiritual practices as a healer and a medium, Kimpa Vita once fell gravely ill; and as she laid on her would-be death bed, she experienced a profound vision: a unified Kongo, free from war and foreign control.
When she recovered from her illness, she declared herself a prophet and founded the Antonian Movement—a powerful religious and political uprising. Kimpa Vita preached that Kongo’s people were divinely chosen, that Christ was not a European figure but an African one, and that the kingdom must cast off European rule and reclaim its sovereignty to preserve its future and the security of its people.
Through her teachings, Kimpa Vita reinterpreted Christianity from an African perspective, rejecting the European missionaries’ version of the faith that justified slavery and European domination.
Her message spread like wildfire. Within a few short years, thousands followed her call, including soldiers and exiled leaders. She led her followers back to their abandoned capital, São Salvador, and began rebuilding what the Portuguese had destroyed. But her defiance came at a cost. Branded a heretic and a rebel by European Catholic authorities, she was captured by Kongo’s ruling elite—who were aligned with the Portuguese—and burned at the stake in 1706.
She was just 22 years old.
Her execution was meant to extinguish her movement, but her legacy endured. Over three centuries later, the struggle she embodied continues. Today, Congolese women lead movements for justice, self-determination, and liberation from the modern forces of imperialism—corporations, foreign powers and local elites that still exploit Congo’s seemingly inexhaustible wealth.