Meet Kimpa Vita, the prophet who unified a central African kingdom

Born into a noble family in 1684 in modern-day Angola, Kimpa Vita was trained as a Nganga marinda, or healer. As a religious leader of the Antonianism movement, a fusion of Christianity and central African religious practices, she attempted to unify the kingdom of Kongo. For a short period, she succeeded. But her religious activities made her a threat to other leaders, and Kimpa Vita was put to death by Pedro IV of Kongo in 1706. But Kimpa Vita’s legacy lives on: today she is referred to as the mother of A