Of most immediate importance is the fact that the creation of a literate elite allowed Kongo to become the first sub-Saharan state whose history was extensively documented and preserved in its own words and from its own perspective. It was not long before, in fact, João I of Kongo was himself exchanging letters with Manuel I (who had succeeded João II as king of Portugal) as “Brother.” John Thornton, a historian of Kongo, estimates that the entire archive of documents left by the kingdom amounts to more than ten thousand items.
