When the Portuguese navigators arrived on the Angolan coast, they found one of the most powerful kingdoms in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Kongo, an empire that had been around for nearly seven centuries and which had an advanced political and social organization centered on the "Lûmbu", an Electoral College that elected the King or Emperor and presented a scheme of separation of powers similar to the one of the modern democratic regimes.
Kongo society was civilizationally advanced, which still echo of high degrees of literacy in the population.
The greatness of nations is built upon their History, which gives them identity and example. Regrettably, the action of the European Colonizer and the fratricidal wars that followed their departure have cast the past into deep oblivion, among the Angolan population; past details that must be reborn, whose heroes it is important to revive and whose sages and artists urge to be rediscovered.
The proposal of M'banza Kongo, the former capital of the Kongo Empire, to the classification as a World Heritage by UNESCO, thus presents itself as a commendable effort and is expected to constitute a firm first step towards a cultural renaissance, so that the Angolan nation can rediscover its identity.
Included in the initiatives of this process, Executive Decree No. 437/16 of November 15, has been recently published, which regulates the Participatory Management Committee of the Historic Center of Mbanza Kongo, a permanent specialized collegiate body, in charge of the management, Conservation, protection and enhancement of the historical and cultural heritage of the Historic Center of Mbanza Kongo.
This body will not only coordinate and plan scientific and archaeological research activities, but will have the functions of assessing new buildings and evaluating projects for the rehabilitation and restoration of classified or newly classified properties, as well as promoting educational programs on cultural heritage, organize a historical archive and promote cultural tourism in the region.
The qualification of the archaeological and historical heritage constitutes an important pole of economic and tourist development and constitutes a crucible of opportunities, in the contribution to this qualification.