African history: Nzinga of ancient Angola

Africa has a long history of powerful female rulers. Throughout the continent, many communities have trusted women with leadership. History shows that when women are respected everyone benefits. In ancient Angola, a powerful woman showed great wisdom and political strategy.

NZINGA OF ANCIENT ANGOLA

Angola used to be separated out into kingdoms. The kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba were particularly large and powerful. The wealth of these two kingdoms drew the attention of the Portuguese who began raiding the territory for slaves and silver in the 16th century.

Ngola Kiluanji Kia Samba, was king of the Ndongo people. He fought against the Portuguese in a war of liberation. After he died, his son Mbandi took up his fight to drive the Portuguese away. In 1621 the Portuguese invited Mbandi to a peace conference hoping to end hostilities. Mbandi decided to send his sister Nzinga, to represent him at this meeting with the Portuguese governor in Luanda.

Angola used to be separated out into kingdoms. The kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba were particularly large and powerful. The wealth of these two kingdoms drew the attention of the Portuguese who began raiding the territory for slaves and silver in the 16th century.

It is said that before the meeting, the Portuguese prepared the room with only one chair. They wanted to make Nzinga stand during the negotiations to demonstrate that she was inferior. Instead of standing, Nzinga had one of her male servants get down on his hands and knees for her to sit on him.

Despite this, negotiations were success. Nzinga proved herself to be very politically capable. The Portuguese agreed to restore Mbandi to his throne and to limit their slave-raiding. King Mbandi recognised Nzinga’s outstanding ability to defuse foreign crises and put her in charge of representing him in peace negotiations with foreign countries.

Nzinga’s great intelligence and political know-how led her to eventually become Queen after her brother passed. She successfully resisted Portuguese colonisation and kept her people free whilst in power much longer than other kingdoms were able.

Nzinga is an example of what happens when women are respected. Only when you appreciate people of both genders will you be able to find the best leader for your community.

HONEY FAFOWORA

VIEW ALL POSTS

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function create_function() in /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/framework/inc/sd-theme-functions/sd-functions.php:188 Stack trace: #0 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(326): sd_style_tag_cloud() #1 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php(205): WP_Hook->apply_filters() #2 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/category-template.php(778): apply_filters() #3 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-tag-cloud.php(60): wp_tag_cloud() #4 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-widget.php(394): WP_Widget_Tag_Cloud->widget() #5 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/widgets.php(837): WP_Widget->display_callback() #6 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/sidebar.php(26): dynamic_sidebar() #7 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/template.php(790): require_once('/home/213602.cl...') #8 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/template.php(725): load_template() #9 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/general-template.php(136): locate_template() #10 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/single.php(114): get_sidebar() #11 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include('/home/213602.cl...') #12 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('/home/213602.cl...') #13 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/index.php(17): require('/home/213602.cl...') #14 {main} thrown in /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/framework/inc/sd-theme-functions/sd-functions.php on line 188