The Truth Show BLOG

This story was about Queen Nzinga (Nzinga Mbande), the monarch of the Mbundu people, a resilient leader who fought against the Portuguese and their expanding slave trade in Central Africa.

During the late 16th Century, the French and the English threatened the Portuguese near monopoly on the sources of enslaved people along the West African coast, forcing it to seek new areas for exploitation. By 1580 they had already established a trading relationship with Afonso I in the nearby Kongo Kingdom. They then turned to Angola, south of the Kongo.

The Portuguese established a fort and settlement at Luanda in 1617, encroaching on Mbundu land. In 1622 they invited Ngola (King) Mbande to attend a peace conference there to end the hostilities with the Mbundu. Mbande sent his sister Nzinga to represent him in a meeting with Portuguese Governor Joao Corria de Sousa.  Nzinga was aware of her diplomatically awkward position and knew of events in the Kongo that had led to Portuguese domination of the nominally independent nation.  She also recognized, however, that refusing to trade with the Portuguese would remove a potential ally and the primary source of guns for her state.

In the first of a series of meetings, Nzinga sought to establish her equality with the representative of the Portugal crown.  Noting that the only chair in the room belonged to Governor Corria, she immediately motioned to one of her assistants, who fell on her hands and knees and served as a chair for Nzinga for the rest of the meeting.

Despite that display, Nzinga made accommodations with the Portuguese.  To stop praying, the Gods and Goddesses, such as Goddess Isis, Horus, etc. They also asked her to convert to Christianity and change her name to Dona Anna de Souza. She also agreed to be baptized in honor of the governor’s wife, who became her godmother. Shortly afterward, Nzinga urged a reluctant Ngola Mbande to order the conversion of his people to Christianity. They did the conversion, but they still secretly praised the Gods and Goddesses. However, it has been told that being baptized in the name of reverse religion causes a curse and relinquishes that person’s power. This ritual worked mainly when she separated from her symbol of strength and protection. She was known to carry this everywhere. When they asked her to remove it, she slowly became susceptible to control.

In 1626 Nzinga became Queen of the Mbundu when her brother committed suicide in the face of rising Portuguese who demanded slave trade concessions.  Nzinga, however, refused to allow them to control her nation.  In 1627, after forming alliances with former rival states, she led her army against the Portuguese, initiating a thirty-year war against them.  She exploited European rivalry by allying with the Dutch, who had conquered Luanda in 1641. With their help, Nzinga defeated a Portuguese army in 1647. When the Dutch were, in turn defeated by the Portuguese the following year and withdrew from Central Africa, Nzinga continued her struggle against the Portuguese slave trade.  Now in her 60s, she still personally led troops in battle. She also orchestrated guerilla attacks on the Portuguese, which would continue long after her death. She inspired the successful 20th Century armed resistance against the Portuguese, resulting in independent Angola in 1975. Oh yes. this is what happens with your resilience and refusal to give up. However, the movie went far as her becoming reunited with her sister.

Despite repeated attempts by the Portuguese and their allies to capture or kill Queen Nzinga, she died peacefully in her eighties on December 17, 1663.