Donna Beatriz was born Kimpa Vita in 1686 near Mount Kibangu in the Kingdom of Kongo in modern day Angola and led a movement called, Antonian, from 1704 through 1706. She was born in a family of nobility called Mwana Kongo with possible connection to King Nvita Nkanga or Antonio I. Beatriz was baptized into the Catholic faith after she was born. From a very young age, Beatriz demonstrated some spiritual gifts. She had visions and believed to have had a connection with high spirits. In the middle of her teenage years, she was trained as an Nganga Marinda, a person that could communicate with supernatural, which she later rejected. Beatriz told her followers that she died and resurrected as Saint Anthony who was going to address the kingdom’s problems through her. She declared the Christian’s cross a fetish and burnt it. Beatriz’s movement was in direct conflict with the Catholic mission in the kingdom.

Beatriz was born during a period when the Kingdom of Kongo was going through cultural disintegration and political disarray. The Portuguese had defeated the Kongolese army at the battle of Mbwila and Sao Salvador, the Kingdom’s capital city was destroyed and then abandoned. The ruling dynasty was split by rivalry between the Ki –Mpanza and the Ki –Niaza families. There …show more content…
She and her followers known as “Little Anthonys” traveled around the country spreading the message entrusted upon her by God while repudiated the Catholic messenger’s messages from the Vatican. For Beatriz and her followers, Christianity did not represent Africans as all their saints were white Europeans. For two years, she preached a message that was anti-Catholicism. The Antonian movement focused on “traditional Kongo cultural