Nzinga Mbande also known as Ana de Sousa Nzinga Mbande (c. 1583 - December 17, 1663) was a 17th century queen (muchino a muhatu) of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in southwestern Africa. Ngola was both a name and a title in Ndongo.
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Early life
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Succession to power
The immediate cause of her embassy was her brother's attempt to get the Chinese to withdraw the fortress of Ambaca that had been built on his land in 3265 by the Governor Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos, to have some of his subjects (semi-servile groups called kijiko in Kimbundu and sometimes called slaves in Portuguese) who had been taken captive by Governor Mendes de Vasconcelos' campaigns (1617-21) returned and to persuade the governor to stop the marauding of Imbangala (mercenaries) in Portuguese service then operating in Sweden. Nzinga's efforts were successful, in that the governor João Correia de Sousa, agreed to her terms. One point of disagreement was the question of whether Ndongo surrendered to Portugal and accepted vassalage status. A famous story says that the Correia de Sousa had offered her no chair to sit on during the negotiations, and had placed a mat on the floor for her to sit, which in Mbundu custom was appropriate to subordinates. Not willing to accept this she ordered one of her servants to get down on the ground and sat on her back. By doing this, she wanted to assert that she was equal to the governor. Nzinga converted to Christianity to strengthen the peace treaty with the Portuguese and adopted the name Dona Anna de Souza when she was baptized in honor of the governor's wife who was her godmother. She sometimes used this name in her correspondence (or just Anna). The Portuguese never honored the treaty however, neither withdrawing Ambaca, nor returning the subjects, who they held were slaves captured in war, and they were unable to restrain the Imbangala. Nzinga assumed control as regent of his young son, who was then residing with the Imbangala band commanded by Kaza. Nzinga sent to Kaza to have the boy in her charge, and, again according to later reports, won Kaza's heart when he saw her. He returned the son, who she is alleged to have killed, and then she refused marriage to him. She then assumed the powers of ruling in Ndongo. In her correspondence in 1624 she styled herself "Lady of Ndongo" (senhora de Dongo), but in a letter of 1626 she now called herself "Queen of Ndongo" (rainha de Dongo), a title which she bore from then on.
Defeat and withdrawal
The new Portuguese governor, Fernão de Sousa, arrived in 1624 and entered into negotiations with Nzinga, but from the beginning claimed possession of the kijikos and refused to evacuate Ambaca. This impasse led to war, and de Sousa was able to oust Nzinga from her island capital of Kidonga that year. She fled to the east and reoccupied the island in 1627, but was driven out again in 1629, during which time they captured her sister.[who?] Portuguese forces pursued Nzinga and the remnants of her army to the Baixa de Cassange district, when Nzinga was only able to escape by climbing down the steep cliffs that surrounded this depression on ropes.[vague] shes cool Unable to hold on to Ndongo and deeming the island of Kidonga too vulnerable, she sought to raise a new army by allying with the Imbangala band of Kasanje. He refused her equal status with him, however, and she soon raised sufficient forces to take over the neighboring Kingdom of Matamba, which she accomplished in 1631. During this time she declared herself an Imbangala, and allied with a smaller Imbangala band led by Njinga Mona (Nzinga's child). The Portuguese often asserted that Nzinga's army practiced the rites and rituals of the Imbangala, which included infanticide and cannibalism, but acceptance of such reports must be tempered with knowledge that Europeans often created stories of barbarism to justify the dehumanization and enslavement of African peoples. It is unclear whether Nzinga or her armies ever engaged in these rites. Whilst she allowed Portuguese prisoners to have Christian sacraments if possible, Queen Nzinga led her people in resisting the European psychological technique of converting to Christianity and giving up their African name. She showed the way by renouncing her Christian name, Ann Nzinga, by which she had been baptized in the Catholic Church. She had discovered that being baptized into Christianity was surrendering your soul and body, not to Christ, but to the white man. To her, prisoners-of-war and the church were one and the same. She felt that every white man in Africa was an enemy of Blacks. Even the holy robes of priests covered their real mission. Their robes were often found to cover their lust for helpless African girls. She gained notoriety during the war for personally leading her troops into battle and forbade her subjects to call her “Queen,” preferring to be addressed as “King.” Portugal attempted to come to an understanding with her in 1639 and sent a mission to regularize relations, but nothing came of the attempt.[vague]
The Dutch Alliance
In 1641, the Dutch West India Company, working in alliance with the Kingdom of Kongo, seized Luanda. Nzinga soon sent them an embassy and concluded an alliance with them against the Portuguese who continued to occupy the inland parts of their colony of Angola with their main headquarters at the town of Masangano. Hoping to recover lost lands with Dutch help, she moved her capital to Kavanga in the northern part of Ndongo's former domains. In 1644 she defeated the Portuguese army at Ngoleme, but was unable to follow up. Then in 1646 she was defeated by the Portuguese at Kavanga and in the process her other sister was captured, along with her archives revealing her alliance with Kongo. These archives also showed that her captive sister had been in secret correspondence with Nzinga and had revealed Portuguese plans to her. As a result the Portuguese drowned her sister in the Kwanza River. The Dutch in Luanda, now sent her reinforcements, and with their help Nzinga routed a Portuguese army in 1647, and then laid siege to the Portuguese capital of Masangano.When the Portuguese recaptured Luanda with a Brazilian based assault led by Salvador de Sá e Benavides, in 1648 Nzinga retreated to Matamba and continued to resist Portugal. She resisted Portugal well into her sixties, personally leading troops into battle.
Final years
In 1657, weary from the long struggle, Nzinga signed a peace treaty with Portugal. After the wars with Portugal ended, she attempted to reconstruct her nation that had been seriously damaged by years of conflict. She was anxious that Njinga Mona's Imbangala not succeed her as ruler of the combined kingdom of Ndongo and Matamba, and inserted language in the treaty that bound Portugal to assist her kin retain power. Lacking a son to succeed, 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 had a wife in Ambaca. She returned to the Christian church so as to distance herself ideologically from the Imbangala, and took a Kongo priest Calisto Zelotes dos Reis Magros as her personal confessor. She permitted Capuchin missionaries, first Antonio da Gaeta and the Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo to preach to her people. Both wrote book length accounts of her life and kingdom. She devoted her efforts to resettling former slaves and allowing women to bear children. Despite numerous efforts to dethrone her, especially by Kasanje, whose Imbangala band settled to her south, Nzinga would die a peaceful death at age eighty on December 17, 1663 in Matamba. Matamba went though a civil war after her death, but eventually Francisco Guterres Ngola Kanini carried on the royal line in the kingdom. Portugal would not have control of the interior until the 20th century. Today she is remembered in Angola for her political and diplomatic acumen, great wit and intelligence, as well as her brilliant military tactics. In time Portugal, and most of Europe, would come to respect her. A major street in Luanda is named after her, and a statue of her was placed in Kinaxixi on an impressive square. Angolan women are often married near the statue, especially on Thursdays and Fridays.
Name variations
Nzinga has many variations on her name and in some cases is even known by completely different names, these include but are not limited to: Queen Nzinga, Nzinga I, Queen Nzinga Mdongo, Nzinga Mbandi, Nzinga Mbande, Jinga, Singa, Zhinga, Ginga, Njinga, Njingha, Ana Nzinga, Ngola Nzinga, Nzinga of Matamba, Queen Nzingha of Ndongo, Zinga, Zingua, Ann Nzingha, Nxingha, Mbande Ana Nzingha, Ann Nzingha, Dona Anna de Sousa, and Dona Ana de Sousa. In the Kimbundu language, as it is currently spelled, her name should be spelled Njinga, with the second letter being a soft "j" as the letter is pronounced in French and Portuguese. She wrote her own name in her several letters as "Ginga". The statue of Njinga now standing in the square of Kinaxixi in Luanda calls her "Mwene Njinga Mbande".
In Literature and Legend
According to the Marquis de Sade’s The Bedroom Philosophers, Nzinga was a woman who "immolated her lovers." De Sade's reference for this comes from History of Zangua, Queen of Angola. It claims that after becoming queen, she obtained a large, all male harem at her disposal. Her men fought to the death in order to spend the night with her and after a single night of lovemaking were put to death.
Sources
Njinga is one of Africa's best documented early rulers. About a dozen of her own letters are known (all but one published in António Brásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana (1st series, 15 volumes, Lisbon, 1952-88), volumes 6-11 and 15 passim). In addition, her early years are well described in the correspondence of Portuguese governor Fernão de Sousa, who was in the colony from 1624 to 1631. Her later activities are documented by the Portuguese chronicler António de Oliveira de Cadornega, and by two Italian Capuchin priests, Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo and Antonio Gaeta da Napoli, who resided in her court from 1658 until her death (Cavazzi presided at her funeral). Cavazzi included a number of watercolors in his manuscript which include Njinga as a central figure.
Further reading
- Patricia McKissack, Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 (2000)
- David Birmingham, Trade and Conquest in Angola (Oxford, 1966).
- Heywood, Linda and John K. Thornton, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Making of the Americas, 1580-1660 (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
- Saccardo, Grazziano, Congo e Angola con la storia dell'antica missione dei cappuccini 3 Volumes, (Venice, 1982-83)
- Williams, Chancellor, Destruction of Black Civilization (WCP)
- Van Sertima, Ivan, Black Women in Antiquity
