Pedro I Nkanga a Mvemba was manikongo of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1543 until being deposed in 1545.

[2] Records of the events leading up to and following his dethronement were preserved in the inquest after Pedro's failed attempt to regain power.

A copy of the inquest has survived in the Portuguese archives and was published in 1877 by Paiva Manso.

His most important confederate and cousin, Rodrigo de Santa Maria, fled to São Tomé, where he perhaps owned a plantation and tried to get assistance in Portugal and even in Rome.

It was an intercepted letter that Pedro sent to his cousin to seek assistance that led Diogo to conduct the inquest and to send a copy to Portugal demanding that Santa Maria be extradited.