Njinga Mbandi: Biography Of This African Warrior Queen
According to some contemporary testimonies, Njinga Mbandi, the fearless queen of Ndongo (present-day Angola) looked terrible in battle and his war cry was chilling. It is also said that she had a profuse male harem with which she satisfied her high sexual desires, and that she killed her own brother to take the throne (although, to be fair, it must be said that the brother had killed the son first. of Njinga, to ensure that no one would usurp his power).
Legends or not (since, as is usual, there is a lot of gossip in the biographies of this African queen), what is certain is that Njinga Mbandi was one of the most important women in Angola, currently claimed throughout the world. African country. If you are interested in learning more about her, keep reading. Today we tell you about the exciting life of the queen who stood up to the Portuguese invasion, Njinga Mbandi.
Biography of Njinga Mbandi, the African queen who stood up to the Portuguese
In the sources she appears with various names: Njinga Mbandi, Zinda, Ginga, and even Ana de Sousa, her Christian name after receiving baptism. Little is known about the first years of the future queen’s life; It is known that she was the daughter of the Angolan Mbandi Ngola Kiluanji, monarch of Ndongo, in present-day Angola. The word Angola means king, and the Portuguese, when they arrived in the region in 1576, took the word to name the territory (Angola).
Educated to be a warrior
Although Mbandi Ngola Kiluanji had a son, it seems that he taught the art of war to his favorite daughter, who was none other than Njinga. Thus, the girl learned from a very young age to handle weapons and some government tactics, so it may be that she was the successor that her father planned to appoint upon her death.
In any case, it was not like that. When Mbandi Ngola Kiluanji died in 1617, it was not Njinga who inherited the crown, but the male son, Ngola Mbandi. who, in an act of extreme cruelty, and according to some sources, ordered the murder of Njinga’s son and his own mother, as well as the violent sterilization of his other sisters. The objective: eliminate any possibility of producing a new heir who could usurp the throne. Maybe Njinga was also sterilized, or maybe she was saved from it because she was too old to conceive (she was about forty years old).
Njinga never forgave his brother. However, for some years he remained under his command, perhaps as a method of survival, or perhaps to buy time while he plotted revenge on him. In any case, the records from this time are confusing. The first reliable information we have about the future queen is dated 1618, when the brother, aware of her gifts for diplomacy (and, above all, her ability to communicate in Portuguese, learned from the missionaries) sent Njinga to Luanda, headquarters of the Portuguese colony, to negotiate peace.
Between hate and negotiation
So, Njinga leaves with her entourage for the Portuguese city, where upon arriving she finds a huge slave trade that disgusts her to the extreme. Unable to find the supposed gold mines that exist in the place, the Portuguese have changed their objective, and are now dedicated to trading with people, who they send to their new colonies in Brazil.
Njinga must swallow his repulsion in order to successfully resolve his peaceful mission. But the king’s haughty daughter has not (nor does she wish to) lose her dignity. A curious anecdote is told about her interview with the Portuguese governor.
It appears that when Njinga arrived at the meeting place, she discovered the man sitting, but there was no other seat in the room for her. On the floor, a rug indicated which place she should occupy; at the feet of the Portuguese. Extremely irritated by this display of power of hers, Njinga ordered one of her servants to kneel before the governor and she immediately sat on top of the woman.
In any case, Njinga’s intelligence worked. The negotiations resulted in a peace treaty that allowed Portugal to trade in Ndongo, but without annexing the territory and respecting its autonomy. It is during her stay in Luanda that Njinga receives baptism and a Christian name, Ana de Sousa. We do not know if her faith was sincere, although everything seems to indicate that it was just a political strategy.
The hour of revenge
In 1624 Njinga’s brother died suspiciously, a fact that historians have pointed out as a possible revenge of the woman. Before a perplexed people and with the opposition of both Angolans and Portuguese, Njinga is crowned queen of Ndongo. To legitimize her position, she dresses in her father’s ceremonial clothing. From now on, nothing can stop her.
His long reign, lasting no less than forty years, saw both periods of war and peace. Njinga alternated hostilities with the Portuguese with periods of negotiation, during which time he also had time to conquer the border kingdom, Mutamba, and unite it to his crown. The queen also starred in a coalition with the Dutch newcomers eager to get their share of the African pie, with whom he allied against his always hated Portugal.
In 1657, finally, the Portuguese crown refused to annex the territories of Njinga. The queen is now an old woman of almost eighty years, still in command of her kingdom. Incombustible, she died in 1663. She had given her life to keep her people safe from the colonizers.
From the brave and heroic queen to the cold and savage assassin. There are many stories about Njinga, but which are true, and which are not?
We know that many of these chilling testimonies come from enemy sources, so we must put their statements between many quotes and questions. It is not at all unusual to find historical figures vilified after the fact to discredit their memory. especially if they are women who have transgressed the roles that supposedly fell to them because they are women. We have another example in Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus, whose unusual power in misogynistic Roman society encouraged stories of poisonings, betrayals and other evils.
This may or may not be the case for Njinga as well, who knows. We do not have enough historical documents to confirm this. In any case, the stories told about her are disturbing to say the least. Her fame for her insatiable lust reached 18th century France; The Marquis de Sade himself includes it in his work The Philosophy of the Boudoir, where he says of it that it was of “wild lust.” Among the many pearls that are told about the queen is that, after spending a night with one of the men in her harem, she had him murdered the next morning. The truth is that the fact is too fictional to be true…
In any case, Njinga Mbandi, Zinda, Ginga or Ana de Sousa was a surprising woman who became a reference for the Angolan people, and about whom there is still much to discover and tell.
