AFRICAN WARRIOR: QUEEN NZINGA

Nzinga (1582-1663) became queen of what is now called Angola in 1623 and
dedicated her entire life to fighting the Portuguese to prevent the enslavement of
her people. She proved to be a cunning rival to the Portuguese and became famous
for her intelligence, bravery, and brilliant military strategies, which were imitated
for centuries during struggles for independence throughout Africa.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese stake in the slave trade was threatened by
England, France, and the Dutch. This caused the Portuguese to transfer their slavetrading activities southward to the Congo and to Southwest Africa. Their most
stubborn opposition, as they entered the final phase of the conquest of Angola,
came from a queen who became a legendary head of state and military leader with
few peers in world history.

Nzinga was one of five children born to her powerful father, King (or ngola) Kiluanji
of Ndongo -which the Portuguese called Angola after the word for king: ngola. The
Mbundu tribe of King Kiluanji initially welcomed the Portuguese as trading partners.
In fact, King Kiluanji became wealthy and powerful enough through Portuguese
trading that he conquered all the surrounding territories.

Subsequently, disputes over these new territories created the rift that eventually
ended the Portuguese alliance. King Kiluanji was such a great fighter that he was
able to repel the early Portuguese invasions of the border territories. When Kiluanji
died, his eldest son Mbandi declared himself king. Mbandi, however, he greatly
feared the Portuguese guns and canons and when they advanced, he fled to an
island on the Cuanza River and asked his sister Nzinga to negotiate a peace treaty
with the Portuguese governor. The arrogant Portuguese had been appointing
governors over Angola for over forty years without having control.

Nzingas 1622 negotiating conference with the new governor, Joao Correa DeSouza,
has become a legend in the history of Africas confrontation with Europe. Despite
the fact that her brother had surrendered everything to the Portuguese, Nzinga
arrived as a royal negotiator rather than a humble conquered messenger. When the
governor only provided one chair for himself, she summoned one of her women,
who provided a royal carpet and then fell to her hands and knees to become a
human seat. When Governor DeSouza entered, he found himself already out
maneuvered. When the governor asked for the release of all Portuguese war
prisoners, Nzinga smilingly agreed, provided all her Mbundu people who had been
carried off to Brazil and elsewhere were brought back in exchange. This condition
was eventually reduced to returning Portuguese prisoners in exchange for allowing

her brother, King Mbandi, to remain ruler of an independent Ndongo kingdom and
withdrawing the Portuguese army. Nzinga made it clear she would only negotiate a
treaty on equal terms.

Probably as part of a private agreement intended to reinforce the treaty, Nzinga

stayed in town and became baptized as Anna in the Christian faith. Such a move
was more political than religious because Nzinga knew that even her father had
opposed the mass conversion to Christianity of the Mbundu. She knew that the
Jesuit priests ran the slave trade for the Portuguese. They sprinkled Holy Water
while officiating at daily mass baptisms on the docks, where lines of captives
shuffled into slave ships with such names as Jesus and John the Baptist. Nzinga
also knew that her status as a Christian ally of Portugal would entitle her people to
favored status. She was even politically astute enough to allow herself the full
Christian name of Dona Anna DeSouza in order to strengthen her links with the
governor.

Shortly after negotiating with Nzinga, Governor DeSouza was replaced by a new
governor after quarreling with the Jesuit priests. The new governor promptly broke
all the treaty agreements. Nzinga demanded that her brother, King Mbandi, declare
war on the Portuguese. Unfortunately, cowardly King Mbandi had no such intentions
and went to the Portuguese asking for protection against Nzinga and to re-enforce
his authority over his own people. Nzinga, now determined to do away with this
treacherous weakling, had him killed and then promptly declared war on the
Portuguese herself. She initially trained an all female army which repeatedly
defeated the Portuguese using guerilla style tactics. She then recruited neighboring
tribes and also allied with the Dutch. The Dutch military attach who accompanied
her reported that the people loved Nzinga so much that everyone fell to their knees
and kissed the ground as she approached. He believed that all were willing to die
under her leadership. The Portuguese retreated to their strongholds and forts on
the coast giving the Dutch threat as an excuse and not the threat of being
annihilated by the queens forces. Nzingas main goal was always to end the
enslavement of her people. She even sent word throughout Africa in 1624, that any
slave who could make it to her territory was henceforth and forever free. This act
alone should make Nzinga one of the greatest women in history because there was
no other place on the continent of Africa that offered such freedom.

The Portuguese responded to this threat by calling in a massive force of men and
artillery from their colony of Brazil. Nzingas guerilla warfare tactics for resisting the
well armed Portuguese soldiers have been much admired and even imitated
successfully in this century. Since the Portuguese used large numbers of black
soldiers, she became the first Black leader and most successful to carefully organize
efforts to undermine and destroy the effective employment of Black soldiers by
Whites. She instructed her soldiers to infiltrate the Portuguese by allowing
themselves to become recruited by Portuguese agents. Once members of the

Portuguese military, her soldiers would encourage rebellion and desertion by the
Black troops which frequently resulted in whole companies of Portuguese soldiers
joining Nzinga along with much needed guns and ammunition. This quiet and
effective work of Nzingas agents among the Black troops of Portugal is one of the
most glorious, yet unsung, pages of African history. The Portuguese generals
frequently complained that they never knew which black soldier was friend or foe.

When the massive Portuguese manpower and firepower began to gain the upper
hand, she sent word throughout Angola that she had died in order to stop the
Portuguese offensive. While pretending to have died in Angola, Nzinga moved east
to the neighboring country of Matamba where she defeated the ruling queen and
created a new land for herself, her people, and all escaped slaves. She
consolidated her power in Matamba and then began sending out war parties from
Matamba to attack any settlement or tribe that had aided the Portuguese. In 1629
the Portuguese stood shocked when Queen Nzinga burst upon them from the
grave recapturing large segments of her own country. She was now queen of both
Matamba and Ndongo and redoubled her efforts against slavery by dealing
ruthlessly with any Black chief found participating in the slave trade.

Nzinga never stopped resisting the powerful Portuguese even as she approached
her 80th birthday. She was called the Black Terror by the Portuguese and was
clearly the greatest adversary and military strategist that ever confronted the
armed forces of Portugal. Her tactics kept the Portuguese commanders in confusion
and dismay and her constant aim was never less than the total destruction of the
slave trade. The long guerilla campaign that led to Angola independence 300 years
later was continuously inspired by the queen who never surrendered.