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Afonso I of Kongo
King of Kongo who protested the transatlantic slave trade
The African king who wrote to Lisbon demanding an end to the slave trade — a century before abolition had a name.
The rise
Afonso I seized the Kongo throne and embraced Christianity, seeking a partnership of equals with Portugal. When Portuguese traders turned to mass enslavement, he wrote impassioned letters to the King of Portugal protesting the devastation of his people — some of the earliest documented African resistance to the slave trade.