The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706

John Thornton is one of the best academic historians of the Kingdom of Kongo. He explains the culture along with the primary source documents. This book focuses on a part of history during the civil wars of Kongo. The capitol was abandoned and three members of the royal family fought over control. The people had enough of the wars and when a young woman claimed the spirit of Saint Anthony entered her body and demanded the restoration of one king in a rebuilt capital city, people flocked to her. The Kongolese elites scrambled to either appropriate her movement or squash this movement.

I hate to give a book a low rating when clearly much time and effort has gone into it, but my God it was a labour to read, and filled with detail that seemed extraneous to the core theme. I get the feeling that an awful lot was packed in in order to flesh out a story that really does not have much actual historical detail available about it. Creating an elaborate setting does not compensate for thin historical detail. The man clearly knows his stuff, but this is the subject for an extended article, not a book. I will say it gets easier to read as the author gets into his stride, and it certainly is a worthwhile publication if you need to know ther facts of this unusual story.

One of the first panafricanists. Fascinating heroine. Excellent research.

fine

This book was painful to read. His writing style is incoherent. He saturates the text with unnecessary details, which make the book almost impossible to read. Thornton is very knowledgeable and includes a lot of good information in his book but he needs to learn how to write. He just lists fact after fact without providing enough information on specific events or people. I do not know who wrote the other reviews on this book because it is certainly not "engaging." Thornton takes a good story and muddles it with hundreds of unnecessary details. He mentions dozens of people and places on each page but he does not actually discuss them or their importance.

I read this book for a class on precolonial sub-Saharan African history at UC Irvine and it provides a pretty outstanding in-depth analysis of an African woman from Kongo who converted to Christianity and tried to stem factional strife among those vying for the Kongolese throne, only to be burned at the stake by Capuchin missionaries for being a heretic. The movement led by Donna Beatriz is described in the book as being a peace movement, because Beatriz wanted to bring peace in the Kingdom of Kongo when her homeland fell into a civil war as Capuchin missionaries took hold in southern Africa.

John Thornton distills some of his prodigious research on Kongo and Angola to tell a coherent and exciting story. The result is a rare achievement, a solid full-length study of a precolonial African woman. Dona Beatriz was a young woman who inspired a religious movement against the internal wars which overwhelmed the Kingdom of Kongo in the Atlantic slave trade era. Her charismatic leadership ran afoul of civil authorities and the Catholic Church and she was executed in 1706, but echoes of the movement endured for several decades both in West Central Africa and the New World. The author answers important questions on cultural syncretism, women's political and spiritual roles, and the adaptation of world religions to indigenous settings. The main drawback is the welter of unfamiliar kiKongo place and personal names, which unavoidably frustrate some readers. A future edition could address this with more detailed maps, a glossary and list of main actors. Thornton skillfully provides more context in "Africa & Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World," and the more recent "Cultural History of the Atlantic World."

Just finished reading it and loved it. Information on pre-colonial Africa is so hard to come by. Quality info that goes beyond the surface is even harder. John K Thornton always impresses. This is actually better than Warfare in Atlantic Africa. The best thing about this in my opinion (other than the narrative itself) is the use of footnotes rather than a clumsy reference page at the back. Anywayz, i highly recommend it.

I did order this book but I still not receive it could you send me this book please

About half of this book is rather unnecessary details of the names of mountains, rivers, cousins, and grandsons, creating a maze of information to try to get through. While the subject itself is quite interesting, I cannot help but continue to re-read the same lines again and again as I attempt to organize who is who, who is not related whatsoever to the story but mentioned anyhow, and how all these random tangents relate to the main character and namesake of the book; Dona Beatriz. Do not recommend at all, having to read this for a university course, but this is the first book I've read in all my years of education I just straight up did not like at all.

Cet ouvrage est une très bonne synthèse sur le sujet par John Thornton spécialiste reconnu de la question, déjà un classique