“I am the subject of three kings: of the king of Congo, master of all the blacks; of the King of France, who represents my father; of the king of Spain, who represents my mother,” he announced. Invoking the biblical magi, he wrote: “These three kings are the descendants of those who, led by a star, came to adore God made man.” If he “went over to the Republic,” he concluded, he might be “forced to make war against my brothers, the subjects of these three kings to whom I have promised loyalty.”

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 229