Mbanza Kongo- The city of Mbanza Kongo, Zaire province, will have a replicate of the statue of António Emanuel Nsaku Nevunda, the first ambassador of Africa at south of Sahara and envoy of the Kingdom of Kongo to the Vatican, in 1608, the Secretary of State for Culture, Maria da Piedade de Jesus, said Thursday.
Emanuel Nsaku Nevunda, nicknamed "Negrita", was the special envoy of the Kongo king Dom Álvaro II to the Vatican to intercede for greater autonomy of the Catholic Church in his kingdom, whose natives were prevented by the Kingdom of Portugal from becoming clerics.
He died soon after his arrival in Rome (Italy) and was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria de Maior, where a statue was also erected in his memory and whose replicate will be erected Friday in Mbanza Kongo, a city part of the sites of the UNESCO World Heritage.
During the journey by ship, he contracted an illness that left him quite weak and died soon after his arrival at the Vatican in 1608 after being received in an audience by Pope Paul IV.
According to the Secretary of State for Culture, the statue of "Negrita" has a great importance for Angola and beyond, since he was the first ambassador of Africa at the south of the Sahara to the Vatican and appears in the books of Angolan history.
