Among the only documents on the Kingdom of Kongo and West Central Africa before 1800 are accounts by Italian Capuchin missionaries.

​

Capuchin reports and letters are held at the Archives of the Propaganda Fide at the Vatican in Rome. Many of these reports have not been translated. The Propaganda Fide does not allow scholars to take photographs of these documents. 

​

Several Capuchin accounts were printed—as at left—and I also rely on these to reconstruct African social life and religious practice.