WARRIOR QUEEN

                                     QUEEN NZINGA1582-1663

The Portuguese were among the first Europeans to make contact with Africans, in the 15^th century. The Portuguese were welcomed, but by late 1th century they had established a foothold in the Congo, were trading in slaves and expanding their activities southwards into the territory of the Ndongo whose king was known as Ngola, the Portuguese mistakenly took to be the name of the country(Angola).

On the death of her father in 1617,his eldest son Mbandi seized power killing all pretenders  of the throne including  Nzinga’s son….Mbandi was not only a murderer but a coward who fled before the advancing Portuguese, abandoning  the cherished land of the Ndonga as he retreated  into the interior. IN 1582 Princess Nzinga was born to king Ngola of Ndonga who was engaged in a bitter struggle with Portuguese, this struggle was to for almost 100years.Nzinga’s childhood had been spent in the shadow of continued war with the European invaders of peace and harmony. She had a fierce and courageous spirit, just like her father when the time came to talk terms with the enemy; since Mbandi had disappeared she had to make a long journey with her aids to the coastal fortress which the Portuguese had built at Luanda.

Her meeting with the Portuguese Governor De Souza has passed to our history as a legend she had characteristics of an astute leader. the Governor was sitted in the only chair a large room, she signaled for one of her handmaids who arched her back for her to sit for she was very determined to meet the enemy on equal terms, when asked to return Portuguese prisoners of war Mother Nzinga agreed on terms that they return all the African slaves taken away to slavery in a fair trade off. As this was not possible she demanded that her people‘s lands should be restored in exchange for Portuguese prisoners of war. The peace treaty was signed, but De Souza was greedy because of the growing demand from Lisbon and Brazil for more slaves and broke the treaty, when the usurper Mbandi died Nzinga assumed leadership of her people. Continued attacks by the Portuguese forced her to withdraw from the plains  into the high lands  of Matamba,where she began  to resettle her people in 1630.

A supreme tactician Mother Nzinga waged a fierce guerilla war against the Portuguese who installed a puppet chief in Ndonga in her place. Over the next 10yrs she continued to harry the enemy forces with spasmodic raids whilst creating new allegiances with the Jaga people.1641-1644 she re established her control in the plains of Ndonga an un easy peace was restored but Mother Nzinga knew that this was only a lull in the in the protracted war against the Portuguese they returned with reinforcement from Brazil in 1648 they retook Luanda and Queen Nzinga returned to her strong hold in the mountains. The Matamba highlands be the home of the ‘ANGOLANS’. In the 1650’s Queen Nzinga  started to withdraw from the battlefront(age 68),over the long years of war she had trained a new generation  in the tactics of survival and jungle war fare against the white invaders of her land.

Whilst surrounding Kimgdoms had submitted to foreign white rule but the people of Ndonga (Angola) had defended freedom of their precious land with their Queen Nzinga leading them.

In 1663 at the age of 81 Queen Nzinga died. Three hundred years later, with Africa colonized and partitioned by European evil powers Angolans were locked in another with their old enemy Portugal, the Angolan victory came about the army using the same war strategies Queen Nzinga had used centuries before.

Queen Nzinga had a crucial role in her people’s resistance to the European intruders.