Born in 1684 in the Kingdom of Kongo, Kimpa Vita witnessed the collapse of the great Kongo Empire due to wars fought against the Portuguese colonialists and conflicts among the royal family, engineered by the Portuguese. She observed fellow Africans being sold into slavery, even when the Kongo kings opposed the slave trade. She became a VICTIM of Eurocentric religion, promoting a Eurocentric savior, Eurocentric understanding of the Bible, and Eurocentric baptism in which she was named Beatrice, a Portuguese name. This religion taught Africans that 'God' could only accept them by ADOPTING the white man's culture.

This religion justified slave trade and colonization, as missionaries hammered into Africans the false belief that they were the cursed generation of HAM. The Portuguese claimed to be 'God-sent' to bring salvation, civilization, and light to the dark and backward people plagued with savagery and barbarism. It is from this background that Kimpa Vita grew up.

After wars between Kongo kings and the Portuguese, the independence and freedom of African people in Kongo were taken, and they became a colonial domination of Portugal. In her early 20s, she began a movement encouraging Kongo people to resettle back to Mbanza Kongo, their former capital destroyed by the Portuguese.

This movement gained a large following, and the population in Mbanza Kongo began to grow, thriving once again. Due to her gaining a lot of support, the Portuguese colonialists and rival royal families noticed her. Because of a Portuguese priest, people of Kongo attended her sermons, heeding her teachings, which pitted her against colonial administrators who viewed her as a threat.

She taught that the SAVIOR sent to save Africans was BLACK, conceived, born, and brought up in the normal way. This teaching made her infamous to the Portuguese, who couldn't fathom a black savior, an issue that remains controversial in the 21st century. She preached the great day for SALVATION to black people, as the kingdom of Kongo would ARISE and be STRONG again. She taught that, with the help of the God of Africans, the glory of Africa would RISE again, and Africans would be RESPECTED and NEVER enslaved.

Portuguese strongly rejected these teachings that AWAKENED Africans and gave them hope of LIBERTY. The teaching that the savior was black irked them, as they had tried their best to paint black people as devil incarnates needing the white man's religion to be holy.

One fateful day, she called all her followers together to demonstrate how the savior was born. This marked her unprecedented departure as she was burned alive while giving birth in her early 20s. From Kimpa Vita's lifetime, many lessons can be drawn, beneficial for us Africans.

Kimpa Vita clearly showed that even in the early 18th century, colonizers were active and continuing their exploitations in Africa, contrary to the belief that colonialists came in the 19th century after the Berlin conference.

Kimpa Vita shows that Africans believed in God with whom TRUTH, JUSTICE, and EQUALITY were never found lacking. Even people of Kongo welcomed the Portuguese without segregation, believing in justice, fighting against the Portuguese who wanted more Africans for the slave trade.

In her time, we see the SEED for AFRICAN LIBERATION had already been planted. Kimpa Vita condemned Europeans establishing forts, giving HOPE for Africans that they would be LIBERATED. She reiterated that, for Africans to be independent of colonizers, they had to be united to rebuild the kingdom of Kongo.

Kimpa Vita showed that the spirit of NATIONALISM still existed in those times, contrary to the belief that nationalism developed after European education. European education SLOWED down the pace for African emancipation, as educated Africans were SUBSERVIENT to colonizers, mirroring their tastes and views. Kimpa Vita also emphasized the need for Africans to respect their traditions and history, which colonizers wanted them to forget, making them appear as people without history.

Kimpa Vita also shows that Africans believed in a STRONG UNITED NATION where their strength, economic potential, security, culture, and prosperity are TIED. Africans initially built a big EMPIRE covering CENTRAL, EASTERN, and SOUTHERN Africa, expanding before the encroachment of the Portuguese.

We also note that the PLACE of WOMAN in African society was very high, carried in honor, respect, and obedience, contrary to what our colonizers always have us think that they are the ones who elevated African women. Portuguese disregarded the position of women, calling her degrading insults and inflicting the most painful death unto her.

We also get to know the potential of Africa has always been great from time immemorial in terms of resources, raw materials, and even human capital.

It is from this that I would like to challenge you, my fellow African, why is it that we speak very little or none of African SAINTS who laid their lives to GUIDE Africa to the path of SELF-REALIZATION? Why do we have to keep CANONIZING saints of other races while our own remain UNRECOGNIZED? From this, let's BRACE ourselves in the comfort of our ANCESTORS who fought for EMANCIPATION and LIBERTY of Africa and push forward to the FINAL LIBERATION of Africa in which we shall have a UNITED African nation that will be ECONOMICALLY INDEPENDENT, uphold the TRADITIONS and CULTURE of Africans, be able to DEFEND its citizens within and in the diaspora, and tell its OWN STORY with its own HEROES and HEROINES.