Abstract
This paper deals with Catholic Church’s actions in the region of current Angola, during the seventeenth century, especially the missionaries of the Company of Jesus and the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. This part of Africa was home to societies organized by an ethos according to which the political and the religious realms intertwined, embodied by a set of shared symbols. The arrival of Europeans transformed both sides. Not only Central Western Africans bore several impacts, but also the Catholic Church had to reinvent itself in order to remain and work in the region. Although both orders advertised as their major goal the evangelization of peoples for the salvation of their souls, they got entangled in local political matters and resorted to similar subterfuges in seek of conversion. On the other hand, they engaged in a certain competition and had occasional divergences on the missionary role.
Keywords
Western-Central Africa; Religion; Politics; Jesuits; Capuchins