In 1506 King João I of Kongo (the name Nzinga a Nkuwu took upon his conversion) died, and potential rivals lined up to take over the kingdom. Kongo was an elective rather than a hereditary monarchy, so Afonso was not guaranteed the throne. Afonso was assisted in his attempt to become king by his mother, who kept news of João's death a secret, and arranged for Afonso to return to the capital city of Mbanza Kongo and gather his followers. When the death of the king was finally announced, Afonso was already in the city.
"A final piece of incidental information concerns the presence of Christianity. Although it is sometimes believed that Christianity did not survive the reign of Afonso, an impression created in part by the slanderous correspondence of Jesuit missionaries and São Tomé officials written against Diogo, in fact, all the actors appear as fairly solid Christians. For example, when he first broke the plan to Afonso, Dom Pedro asked him first to swear on a holy Bible to keep it a secret (gol. 2v). Furthermore, Diogo apparently observed the right of Christian asylum in a church enough to allow Pedro to operate from a church for years after his desposition, even though officials from that same church were important witnesses in the trial and obviously played a significant part in revealing the plot (fols. 2r-2v; 4v; 5r-5v; 8). Both Pedro and Diogo respected the decisions of the Pope in the question of succession, and both thought to obtain the requisite bulls recognizing them as rulers of Kongo."
