Manguenzo

Manguenzo was a community in the interior of Kakongo, north of the Congo River. Its inhabitants included Christians from Soyo who had crossed the river and settled under their own leader, Dom Iouan. When French missionaries reached the village in the 1770s, they found a large cross in its midst and a chapel where the people sang Christian hymns. The visitors baptized children before leaving, finding a community that had maintained its religious identity away from Soyo.