Queen Nzinga Mbande: The Warrior Queen of Angola (1583–1663)

 

Queen Nzinga Mbande, who is also known as Anna Nzinga, was a legendary ruler of the Mbundu kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba in the present-day Angola. She will forever be remembered with pride among her people because of her fierce resistance to the advances of the Portuguese colonizers and the transatlantic slave trade throughout the 17th century. A skillful diplomat and visionary military strategist, Nzinga ruled over her people for more than 30 years, emerging as a symbol of African resistance and endurance.

Nzinga was born to king Kiluanji of Ndongo in 1583, who discovered her great intelligence and educated her in the kingly art. In the process, she followed her father to wars and learned both the art of ruling and warfare. To him followed a brother who took over from their father and continued producing zer0 alliances with the Portuguese, which allowed the Portuguese to increase their slave-trading operations in the area.

In the year 1617, damage was inflicted on Ndongo by the Portuguese governor Correia de Sousa, who enslaved thousands of Mbundu people. Four years after, Nzinga was sent to negotiate the peace treaty with the Portuguese. During the famous meeting where only the Portuguese provided seats for themselves, Nzinga famously ordered one of her attendants to kneel, using them as a chair to assert her equal status. Her diplomacy achieved a delicate tightrope balance of keeping Ndongo independence and creating trade agreements for weapons to strengthen her forces.

Nzinga was converted into Christianity as part of the agreement; she became Anna de Sousa by baptism, and her godfather was the Portuguese governor. However, immediately after the death of her brother in 1626, she stepped into the throne as Queen of Ndongo and found the same old threats coming from the Portuguese. Forced to withdraw, she soon invaded and conquered the neighboring Matamba kingdom by putting it under the rule of its former queen.