Queen Nzingha

Queen Nzingha "Warrior-King"

Nzingha was a renowned warrior-queen, sister of King Ngoli Bdoni of Ndongo in what is now known as Angola. She was born in 1582, and at that time the Portuguese were encroaching upon her territory. She was a member of the ethnic tribe called the Jugas. Upon her advent to the throne in 1623, Nzingha presented the Europeans with their stiffest opposition. Consequently, she led her army against the Portuguese and won battle after battle

In 1622, Nzingha represented her brother at a peace conference in Loanda with the Portuguese viceroy.
The treaty of 1622 was designed partly to eliminate the war in the West-Central region of Ndongo.
Nzingha unconditionally refused to accept the alliance as it was originally presented, and
she was successful in eliminating tribute payments to the King of Portugal.
She emphasized that releasing the Portuguese prisoners of war was concession enough.

While Nzingha was in Loanda, she embraced Catholicism, was baptized, and adopted some European customs.
Upon her return to Angola, her brother died, and in 1623, Nzingha became queen.
Her first official duty was to send an ultimatum to the Portuguese, demanding execution of the treaty, or war would be declared.

Part of her strategy against the Portuguese included forming an alliance with the Dutch whose aim was to break the Portuguese monopoly on the slave trade in Africa.

Queen Nzingha's apparent strategy was to defeat the Portuguese and to later expel the Dutch from her country. Consequently, Nzingha maintained friendly relations with the Dutch. Aside from freeing her country from European control, Queen Nzingha sought to expand her kingdom from Matamba in the East to the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1623, at the age of forty-one, she became the queen of Ndongo. She preferred to be called king, though, and when she led her regiments into battle, she supposedly dressed as a man.
Nzingha also possessed a feminine charm and was particularly good at maintaining both personal and political friends. She graciously rewarded both, and her friendships and alliances were hardly ever challenged.

In 1645, her sister, Fungi, was taken prisoner by the Portuguese and later beheaded.
Queen Nzingha also suffered a series of military setbacks that year. Consequently, she began to examine her religion and compare her people's god (Tem-Bom Dumba) with the Christian God.

She decided to subscribe once again to Christianity. For the most part, Nzingha used her newly acquired religion as a political tool whenever it was advantageous. However, to demonstrate her sincerity, she set out to reform her people's customs, including the abolition of polygamy. At the age of seventy-five, she also provided an example for her constituents by marrying one of her courtiers.

She died on December 17, 1663, at the age of eighty-one and was buried in a Capuchin habit, as she had requested, with a crucifix and rosary in her hands. She symbolized the epitome of resistance against European domination in Africa's interior.

Although she failed to expel the Portuguese, she is remembered as one of the most important personalities in Angolan history.

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