Religion within the Kongo is fiercely debated, whether or not Christianity and more specially Catholicism where actually transferred through to the indigenous population. The Kongo is a particularly different case of religious transference, since the majority of the population did convert by their own free will. This conversion was unlike any other cases in Africa and one must wonder why. The Portuguese were entering into the Kingdom of Kongo quite rapidly by the late 1400’s, and with them bringing many missionaries and dignitaries. All bringing the word of Christianity, the reasons why people converted are said to be due to this reason and justifiably so. Benefits were coming to the Kongolese people because of the recent conversion of their king, more trade options either exporting or importing, and peacefulness because of their so called Christian state. It is safe to say that people were adopting Christianity for social, political and all around benefits.
The amount of research that has been done on the actual following of the Christian faith is overwhelming. Many are vehemently against the idea of the Kongolese people truly adopting these values, while some are still on the fence. The evidence for the lack of actual practices being transferred is much more convincing. With that said it is apparent that the Kongolese people had understood what they could gain from conversion and what might be lost due to lack of conversion. This idea brining one to the conclusion that the Kongolese people had adopted Christianity to appease the Portuguese, yet still practiced their traditional religions alongside Christianity.
The religion in Kongo then was not a truly Christian or a truly traditional one; it was one of molding and conforming to keep the peace. Did some Christian traditions get passed through and adopted, absolutely but the traditional traditions stuck as well. We see this type of cohesions of religions with Islam in Africa societies as well.