Nzginha Mande

Nzingha Mbande (1583–1663) was Queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Raised as a warrior into a ruling family, she is remembered today as a strong and fearless leader, skilled diplomat, and brave fighter. She succeeded in defending her people from Portuguese colonisation, and ruled until her death despite numerous attepmts to overthrow her during her 37 year reign.

Nzingha was born into the royal family of Ndongo in South-West Africa round 1583. She was the daughter of King Kilombo of Ndongo. Her mother, Kengela ka Nkombe, was one of her father's slave wives and his favourite concubine. She had two sisters, and a brother, Mbandi, who acceded the throne after their father’s death.

Legend has it that her mother endured a difficult labour with Nzingha. She was so named because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck (the Kimbundu verb kujinga means to twist or turn). This was seen as a sign that the baby would grow to be a powerful person. It seems legend was right!

Her father became King when she was 10, and she was notably his favourite child. Because she did not stand to inherit the throne, she was not seen as a threat and thus her father was free to lavish affection on her without fear. Her ensured that she was raised as a warrior, receiving military training alongside her father. She participated in many official and governance duties alongside her father, including legal councils, war councils, and important rituals, which taught her the skills and processes needed to rule. She was also taught to read and right Portuguese by visiting missionaries, which again proved crucial to her later career.  

In 1617, the King died and was succeeded by his son (Nzinga’s brother), Mbandi. The new king was paranoid about the security of his rule, and thus ordered his nephew, Nzinga’s only child, to be killed so that he would pose no threat in later life. Even worse, he forcibly sterilized Nzinga to ensure that she could produce no more “rivals”. Sterilization has long been used as a weapon to control female bodies, but to endure this at the hands of your own brother after having just lost your only son must have been even more devastating. Understandably, Nzinga fled her brother’s abuse, seeking shelter in the nearby Kingdom of Matamba, where she stayed until her brother asked her to return as his ambassador to the Portuguese in 1621. 

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The Portuguese had first come to Ndongo in the late 15th century. Initially, they primarily focused on the port cities which were crucial for consolidating power and for trading slaves. However, in 1571, Sebastian of Portugal ordered the subjugation of Ndongo. The Imbangala, a group of young nomadic warriors already in conflict with Ndongo, joined forces with the Portuguese. The Imbangala wanted to seize Ndongo land, and the Portuguese wanted to claim slaves out of the crisis. Unfortunately, many Ndongo leaders also joined the Portuguese side, further reducing the manpower and tributary funds available to the king. By the time that Nzingha's father became king in 1593, the land had been at war for over a decade. The king unsuccessfully tried a variety of methods to handle the crisis, including diplomacy, negotiations, and open warfare, to no avail.

Her brother was failing miserably against the Portuguese. He knew that he needed Nzinga’s help to negotiate a treaty as she spoke fluent Portuguese. Despite her feelings towards her brother, she was distraught at the famine and terror inflicted upon her people and so she agreed to return to negotiate with the Portuguese Governor in 1622. While Ndongo leaders usually wore Western clothing to such meetings, she opted for the opulent traditional clothing of the Ndongo people, in order to debunk the colonial insinuation that her culture was inferior.

It is said that when Nizingha arrived, there were chairs for the Portuguese individuals and only a mat provided for her – a common tactic used by the Portuguese to maintain dominance and subjugate the colonised. In protest, Nzingha's soldier formed himself to be her chair while she spoke to the governor face to face – thus turning the tables on his attempt to humiliate her from the very start. Nzingha was a fierce negotiator who was able to charm the Portuguese into a deal which included the withdrawal of Portuguese troops from Ndongo and recognition of its sovereignty. She was also able to ensure that the Ndongo did not need to pay tributes. She did this by successfully arguing that the kingdom was an independent one, rather than a vassal or conquered state. In return, she agreed to open trade routes to the Portuguese slavers (perhaps an accomplishment that is less praiseworthy), as well as study Christianity and become baptized as Dona Anna de Sousa. Nzingha later called this period a happy time in her life, and she eventually left Luanda with the sense of a peace treaty completed. However, the peace she had negotiated was not to last as the Portuguese failed to keep their promises following the exile of the king of Ndongo.

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In 1624, Nzingha’s brother died in mysterious circumstances (some say suicide, others say poisoned by Nzingha herself). Before his death, he had clearly appointed Nzingha as his successor. An opulent funeral was arranged, and some of his remains were preserved in a misete (a reliquary), so they could later be consulted by Nzingha. After his death, the Portuguese declared war on Ndongo and the neighbouring tribes.

Nzingha’s main rival, Hari a Ndongo, was opposed to a female ruler and swore vassalage to the Portuguese. Aided by the Kasanje Kingdom and Ndongo nobility who opposed Nzingha, she was removed from Luanda. Nzingha then fled, and kidnapping the Queen of Matamba and her army. From there, she made herself Queen and took over the kingdom. Then she returned to Ndongo and took back her throne. Nzingha’s legitimacy for the throne was questioned because her mother was a slave and not a principal wife of the king. However, her rivals were not even related to the king and thus had less of a claim, however the fact that she was a woman went against her even amongst her own nobility.  

Nzingha was astutely aware that her gender would always threaten her claim to the trone. Subsequently, she adopted a more radical method of overcoming the "illegitimacy of her sex." At some point in the 1640s, Nzingha decided to 'become a man'. This practice was actually common among female rulers in Africa at the time. She reinforced this maleness by engaging in masculine pursuits. She led her troops personally in battle dressed as a man, and demonstrated her martial prowess thanks to the warrior training she had received from her father. Nzinga further bucked convention by making her sisters generals and putting women in government and military roles.

As kings were expected to keep concubines, Nzingha continued this tradition by keeping an all-male hareem. However, it is said that she had the men fight to the death to spend the night with her, after which she would put them to death a la Black Widow Spider. Perhaps the trauma that her brother had subjected her to left her permanently opposed to the male species, or perhaps her sterilization just allowed her an element of sexual freedom without fear of pregnancy which most women of her time did not have. It is also reported that she made the 50 or 60 men who formed her hareem dress as women – this is debated but cross-dressing was not unheard of in African culture at this time so it could have been true. Her “concubines” have even been described as “Third gender” (which incidentally is interesting to me as my PhD is on India’s third gender). Either way, it cannot be denied that Nzingha inverted gender norms in every way she could find.

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In 1641, forces from the Dutch Empire, allied with the Kingdom of Kongo, seized Luanda. Nzingha quickly sent a diplomatic mission to negotiate with the Dutch. She successfully forged an alliance with the Dutch against the Portuguese. This was the first time a European power had ever sided with a non-European nation against another European nation. With this alliance, Nzingha moved her capital to Kavanga, in the northern part of Ndongo's former domains. This move was made in the hope of recovering lost lands with Dutch aid.

In 1644, Nzingha defeated the Portuguese army at Ngoleme. However, they defeated her in 1646 and her sister – who had acted as an informant for Nzingha – was captured and reportedly drowned.

The Dutch in Luanda sent Nzingha reinforcements, and with their help, Nzingha defeated a Portuguese army in 1647. Nzingha then laid siege to the Portuguese capital of Masangano. The Portuguese recaptured Luanda with a Brazilian-based assault led by Salvador Correia de Sá, and in 1648, Nzingha retreated to Matamba and continued to resist Portugal for the next 20 years.

She implemented guerrilla warfare tactics and had begun to order trenches to be made around her island, created hidden caves, and stocked up on supplies to prepare her people for a potential long-lasting siege. She also made an unusual decree considering her complicity in the slave trade during her earlier reign, establishing her kingdom as a safe haven for runaway slaves seeking refuge from the European colonists. She was also able to expand her terrority during the time she spent at war with the Portuguese.

In 1656, after meeting two Capuchin missionaries, she converted again to Christianity. This conversion was notable, as she had opposed Christianity since 1627, but she later tried to similarly convert her people, suggesting that this time the conversion was a genuine display of faith rather than a diplomatic tactic.

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“Sometimes force is able to exterminate the wicked customs of those that do not use reason and do not understand any argument without punishment.”

In November 1657, the Portuguese decided to relinquish their claims to Ndongo and the land was returned to its traditional leader. Following this treaty, Nzingha attempted to rebuild her war-torn nation. She developed Matamba as a trading power by capitalizing on its strategic position as the gateway to the Central African interior. The treaty obliged Portugal to assist her family to retain power after her death. Lacking a son to succeed her, she tried to vest power in the Ngola Kanini family and arranged for her sister to marry João Guterres Ngola Kanini and to succeed her. This marriage, however, was not allowed, as priests maintained that João already had a wife in Ambaca.

She devoted her efforts to resettling former slaves and allowing women to bear children – a cause close to her heart, of course. Despite numerous efforts to dethrone her by neighbouring kingdoms, and the many attempts by the Portuguese to kill her, Nzingha died a peaceful death at the age of 82 on December 17, 1663.

Matamba went through a civil war in her absence and by 1671, Ndongo became part of Portuguese Angola. That her kingdom was conquered so quickly after her death shows that it was her efforts and leadership alone which had allowed her nation to resist colonisation for so long. Her sister Barbara ruled briefly, until her death in 1666, before passing to two male successors (under whom, the kingdom was finally lost. Ugh, men).

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Her legacy continues in contemporary Angola where she is hailed as the Mother of Angola, the fighter of negotiations, and the protector of her people. She is still celebrated throughout Africa as a remarkable leader and woman, for her political and diplomatic acumen, as well as her brilliant military tactics. Accounts of her life are often romanticized, and she is considered a symbol of the fight against oppression. Nzingha ultimately managed to persuade her state to tolerate a female leader, though her crushing of all attacks on her and her strong loyal supporters helped as much as the relevance of the precedents she cited. While Nzingha had obviously not overcome the idea that females could not rule in Ndongo during her lifetime, and had to 'become a male' to retain power, her female successors faced little problem in being accepted as rulers. The clever use of her gender and her political understandings helped lay a foundation for future leaders of Ndongo today. In the period of 104 years that followed Njinga's death in 1663, queens ruled for at least eighty of them. Nzingha is a leadership role model for all generations of Angolan women.  Women in Angola today display remarkable social independence and are found in the country’s army, police force, government, and public and private economic sectors, showing that her legacy continues to have real positive influence on Angolan women today.

A major street in Luanda is named after her, and a statue of her was placed in Kinaxixi on an impressive square in 2002 to celebrate the 27th anniversary of independence. Angolan women are often married near the statue.

The National Reserve Bank of Angola (BNA) issued a series of coins in tribute to Nzingha "in recognition of her role to defend self-determination and cultural identity of her people."^[16]

Aurora Levins Morales best sums up Nzingha’s complex reign: "She was a fierce anticolonial warrior, a militant fighter, a woman holding power in a male-dominated society, and she laid the basis for successful Angolan resistance to Portuguese colonialism all the way into the twentieth century…she was also an elite woman living off the labor of others, murdered her brother and his children, fought other African people on behalf of the Portuguese, and collaborated in the slave trade."  Thus, she is an example to be celebrated and emulated, but not without critical reflection of the harm she inflicted in order to protect her power and her people.