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For Jinga, Uganda see Jinja, Uganda This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
 Nzinga Mbande, queen of the Ndongo and Matamba. Nzinga Mbande also known as Ana de Sousa Nzinga Mbande (IPA pronunciation: [ʒinga mbandi) (c. 1583 - December 17, 1663) was a 17th century queen (muchino a muhatu) of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in southwestern Africa. Ngola was both a name and a title in Ndongo. Ngola Ann Nzinga Mbande This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ...
Ngola Ann Nzinga Mbande This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ...
Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...
1583 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ...
December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1663 (MDCLXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...
(16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...
The Ndongo are a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting northern Angola. ...
Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...
The Mbundu people are the second largest people group in Angola. ...
Early Life
Succession to power The immediate cause of her embassy was her brother's attempt to get the Portuguese to withdraw the fortress of Ambaca that had been built on his land in 1618 by the Governor Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos, to have some of his subjects (semi-servile groups called kijiko in Kimbundu and sometimes called slaves in Portuguese) who had been taken captive by Governor Mendes de Vasconcelos' campaigns (1617-21) returned and to persuade the governor to stop the marauding of Imbangala (mercenaries) in Portuguese service then operating in Ndongo. Nzinga's efforts were successful, in that the governor João Correia de Sousa, agreed to her terms. One point of disagreement was the question of whether Ndongo surrendered to Portugal and accepted vassalage status. A famous story says that the Correia de Sousa had offered her no chair to sit on during the negotiations, and had placed a mat on the floor for her to sit, which in Mbundu custom was appropriate to subordinates. Not willing to accept this she ordered one of her servants to get down on the ground and sat on her back. By doing this, she wanted to assert that she was equal to the governor. The Imbangala or Mbangala were 17th century groups of Angolan warriors and marauders, often confused with the Jaga. ...
The Ndongo are a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting northern Angola. ...
Nzinga converted to Christianity to strengthen the treaty and adopted the name Dona Anna de Souza when she was baptized in honor of the governor's wife who was her godmother. She sometimes used this name in her correspondence (or just Anna). The Portuguese never honored the treaty however, neither withdrawing Ambaca, nor returning the subjects, who they held were slaves captured in war, and they were unable to restrain the Imbangala. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box: Christianity is...
Nzinga assumed control as regent of his young son, who was then residing with the Imbangala band commanded by Kaza. Nzinga sent to Kaza to have the boy in her charge, and, again according to later reports, won Kaza's heart when he saw her. He returned the son, who she is alleged to have killed, and then she refused marriage to him. She then assumed the powers of ruling in Ndongo. In her correspondence in 1624 she styled herself "Lady of Ndongo" (senhora de Dongo), but in a letter of 1626 she now called herself "Queen of Ndongo" (rainha de Dongo), a title which she bore from then on.
Defeat and withdrawal The new Portuguese governor, Fernão de Sousa, arrived in 1624 and entered into negotiations with Nzinga, but from the beginning claimed possession of the kijikos and refused to evacuate Ambaca. This impasse led to war, and de Sousa was able to oust Nzinga from her island capital of Kidonga that year. She fled to the east and reoccupied the island in 1627, but was driven out again in 1629, during which time they captured her sister.[Who?] Portuguese forces pursued Nzinga and the remnants of her army to the Baixa de Cassange district, when Nzinga was only able to escape by climbing down the steep cliffs that surrounded this depression on ropes.[vague]
Unable to hold on to Ndongo and deeming the island of Kidonga too vulnerable, she sought to raise a new army by allying with the Imbangala band of Kasanje. He refused her equal status with him, however, and she soon raised sufficient forces to take over the neighboring Kingdom of Matamba, which she accomplished in 1631. During this time she declared herself an Imbangala, and allied with a smaller Imbangala band led by Njinga Mona (Nzinga's child).
The Portuguese often asserted that Nzinga's army practiced the rites and rituals of the Imbangala, which included infanticide and cannibalism, but acceptance of such reports must be tempered with knowledge that Europeans often created stories of barbarism to justify the dehumanization and enslavement of African peoples. It is unclear whether Nzinga or her armies ever engaged in these rites, and she often appeared to have continued some elements of Christianity. She was certainly favorably disposed to priests and allowed Portuguese prisoners to have Christian sacraments if possible.[vague] In sociology and biology, infanticide is the practice of intentionally causing the death of an infant of a given species, by members of the same species - often by the mother. ...
“Cannibal†redirects here. ...
For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ...
Barbarism may refer to: Barbarism (derived from barbarian), the condition to which a society or civilization may be reduced after a societal collapse, relative to an earlier period of cultural or technological advancement; the term may also be used pejoratively to describe another society or civilization which is deemed inferior...
She gained notoriety during the war for personally leading her troops into battle and forbade her subjects to call her “Queen,” preferring to be addressed as “King.” Portugal attempted to come to an understanding with her in 1639 and sent a mission to regularize relations, but nothing came of the attempt.[vague]
The Dutch Alliance In 1641, the Dutch West India Company, working in alliance with the Kingdom of Kongo, seized Luanda. Nzinga soon sent them an embassy and concluded an alliance with them against the Portuguese who continued to occupy the inland parts of their colony of Angola with their main headquarters at the town of Masangano. Hoping to recover lost lands with Dutch help, she moved her capital to Kavanga in the northern part of Ndongo's former domains. In 1644 she defeated the Portuguese army at Ngoleme, but was unable to follow up. Then in 1646 she was defeated by the Portuguese at Kavanga and in the process her other sister was captured, along with her archives revealing her alliance with Kongo. These archives also showed that her captive sister had been in secret correspondence with Nzinga and had revealed Portuguese plans to her. As a result the Portuguese drowned her sister in the Kwanza River. Dutch West India Company (Dutch: West-Indische Compagnie or WIC) was a company of Dutch merchants. ...
The Empire Kongo The Kongo Kingdom was an African kingdom located in southwest Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...
Luanda (formerly called Loanda) is the largest city and capital of Angola. ...
The Cuanza River is a river in Angola. ...
The Dutch in Luanda, now sent her reinforcements, and with their help Nzinga routed a Portuguese army in 1647, and then laid siege to the Portuguese capital of Masangano.When the Portuguese recaptured Luanda with a Brazilian based assault led by Salvador de Sá e Benavides, in 1648 Nzinga retreated to Matamba and continued to resist Portugal. She resisted Portugal well into her sixties, personally leading troops into battle. Matamba was a kingdom located in what is now the Baixa de Cassange region of Malanje Province of modern day Angola. ...
Final years In 1657, weary from the long struggle, Nzinga signed a peace treaty with Portugal. After the wars with Portugal ended, she attempted to reconstruct her nation that had been seriously damaged by years of conflict. She was anxious that Njinga Mona's Imbangala not succeed her as ruler of the combined kingdom of Ndongo and Matamba, and inserted language in the treaty that bound Portugal to assist her kin retain power. Lacking a son to succeed, she tried to vest power in the Ngola Kanini family and arranged for her sister to marry João Guterres Ngola Kanini and to succeed her. This marriage, however was not allowed as priests maintained that João had a wife in Ambaca. She returned to the Christian church so as to distance herself ideologically from the Imbangala, and took a Kongo priest Calisto Zelotes dos Reis Magros as her personal confessor. She permitted Capuchin missionaries, first Antonio da Gaeta and the Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo to preach to her people. Both wrote book length accounts of her life and kingdom. Events January 8 - Miles Sindercombe, would-be-assassin of Oliver Cromwell, and his group are captured in London February - Admiral Robert Blake defeats the Spanish West Indian Fleet in a battle over the seizure of Jamaica. ...
She devoted her efforts to resettling former slaves and allowing women to bear children. Despite numerous efforts to dethrone her, especially by Kasanje, whose Imbangala band settled to her south, Nzinga would die a peaceful death at age eighty on December 17, 1663 in Matamba. Matamba went though a civil war after her death, but eventually Francisco Guterres Ngola Kanini carried on the royal line in the kingdom. Portugal would not have control of the interior until the 20th century. Today she is remembered in Angola for her political and diplomatic acumen, great wit and intelligence, as well as her brilliant military tactics. In time Portugal, and most of Europe, would come to respect her. A major street in Luanda is named after her, and a statue of her was placed in Kinaxixi on an impressive square. Angolan women are often married near the statue, especially on Thursdays and Fridays. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...
Military tactics (Greek: Taktikē, the art of organizing an army) are the collective name for methods for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. ...
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Name Variations Nzinga has many variations on her name and in some cases is even known by completely different names, these include but are not limited to: Queen Nzinga, Nzinga I, Queen Nzinga Mdongo, Nzinga Mbandi, Nzinga Mbande, Jinga, Singa, Zhinga, Ginga, Njinga, Njingha, Ana Nzinga, Ngola Nzinga, Nzinga of Matamba, Queen Nzingha of Ndongo, Zinga, Zingua, Ann Nzingha, Nxingha, Mbande Ana Nzingha, Ann Nzingha, Dona Anna de Sousa, and Dona Ana de Sousa.
In the Kimbundu language, as it is currently spelled, her name should be spelled Njinga, with the second letter being a soft "j" as the letter is pronounced in French and Portuguese. She wrote her own name in her several letters as "Ginga". The statue of Njinga now standing in the square of Kinaxixi in Luanda calls her "Mwene Njinga Mbande".
In Literature and Legend According to the Marquis de Sade’s The Bedroom Philosophers, Nzinga was a woman who "immolated her lovers." De Sade's reference for this comes from History of Zangua, Queen of Angola. It claims that after becoming queen, she obtained a large, all male harem at her disposal. Her men fought to the death in order to spend the night with her and after a single night of lovemaking were put to death. Portrait of the Marquis de Sade by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (c. ...
Sources Njinga is one of Africa's best documented early rulers. About a dozen of her own letters are known (all but one published in António Brásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana (1st series, 15 volumes, Lisbon, 1952-88), volumes 6-11 and 15 passim). In addition, her early years are well described in the correspondence of Portuguese governor Fernão de Sousa, who was in the colony from 1624 to 1631. Her later activities are documented by the Portuguese chronicler António de Oliveira de Cadornega, and by two Italian Capuchin priests, Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo and Antonio Gaeta da Napoli, who resided in her court from 1658 until her death (Cavazzi presided at her funeral). Cavazzi included a number of watercolors in his manuscript which include Njinga as a central figure.
Further reading - Patricia McKissack, Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 (2000)
- David Birmingham, Trade and Conquest in Angola (Oxford, 1966).
- Heywood, Linda and John K. Thornton, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Making of the Americas, 1580-1660 (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
- Saccardo, Grazziano, Congo e Angola con la storia dell'antica missione dei cappuccini 3 Volumes, (Venice, 1982-83)
- Williams, Chancellor, Destruction of Black Civilization (WCP)
- Van Sertima, Ivan, Black Women in Antiquity
Patricia McKissack is the author of three Dear America books: A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. ...
John K. Thornton is a American historian specializing in the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. ...
See Also The Ndongo are a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting northern Angola. ...
The following is an incomplete List of Ngolas of Ndongo, a pre-colonial West Central African state in what is now Angola. ...
Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...
The following is an incomplete list of the rulers of Matamba, a medieval West Central African state centered in modern Angola. ...
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