An illustration showing Nzinga Mbande preparing to confront the Portuguese Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Africa

Raina de Angola: As Joe Biden tours the Central African country, an explainer on its queen who fought the encroaching Portuguese

Whatever the narrative, Nzinga Mbande stands tall on her own among a galaxy of female heroes from Africa

Rajat Ghai

President Joe Biden of the United States is on what might probably be the last major diplomatic tour of his presidency. He is visiting Angola, in the heart of Central Africa.

Biden has so far spent his time maneuvering the minefield that is the cruel legacy of slavery that binds Angola and his country. The tale of Nzinga Mbande, who was the ruler of two kingdoms at the time this trade was taking place encapsulates a remarkable life: one of hard choices and flexibility, of female power in a largely patriarchal continent and of survival in the face of brutal colonialism.

Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande had inherited the rule of her kingdom of Ndongo in 1624 at a time of great flux and turmoil.

“At that moment, the kingdom was under attack from both Portuguese as well as neighboring African aggressors. Nzinga realized that, to remain viable, Ndongo had to reposition itself as an intermediary rather than a supply zone in the slave trade. To achieve this, she allied Ndongo with Portugal, simultaneously acquiring a partner in its fight against its African enemies and ending Portuguese slave raiding in the kingdom,” the Metropolitan Museum of New York notes in an article on its website.

It adds that by 1626, Portugal had betrayed Ndongo and Nzinga was forced to flee west with her people. She founded a new kingdom named Matamba.

“To bolster Matamba’s martial power, Nzinga offered sanctuary to runaway slaves and Portuguese-trained African soldiers and adopted a form of military organization known as kilombo, in which youths renounced family ties and were raised communally in militias,” says the article.

Nzinga also allied with the Protestant Dutch, the archenemy of the Catholic Portuguese. However, their combined forces could not make the Portuguese leave Angola.

“From this point on, Nzinga focused on developing Matamba as a trading power by capitalizing on its position as the gateway to the Central African interior. By the time of her death in 1663, Matamba was a formidable commercial state that dealt with the Portuguese colony on an equal footing,” says the Met article.

Differing narratives

Rachel Briard, in her essay, Creating the identity of Queen Njinga, offers an insight into why the story of Queen Nzinga is not a straightforward one.

The ruler had become a sensation in Europe following the 1769 publication of Jean Louis Castilhon’s colorful “biography,” Zingha, Reine d’Angola, in Paris.

According to Braird, European accounts of her time painted Nzinga as a barbaric and hypersexualised woman, complete with a male harem.

“These European views of Njinga were focused through the lens of white supremacy and European superiority…In overemphasizing her barbarity and sexuality, these European authors were able to reinforce the importance of imperial colonization and Christian missionaries. In this manner, these accounts perpetuated stereotypes of African societies and ignored aspects of Njinga’s life for their own purposes and gain,” says Braird.

The views of Afrocentrists on Nzinga too do not find favour with Braird, who accuses them of “fabricating their own version of history through generalizations and opinions”.

For instance, Angolan and anti-colonial writers have painted Nzinga as a national heroine and monarch who unified and led her people against the conquering Portuguese.

“However, this version of the past is also biased in omitting the complications of history. Njinga’s kingdom was hardly unifed against the Portuguese—in fact, some of the nobles, called sobas, chose willingly to support the Europeans,” writes Braird.

Braird though has praised historian Linda Heywood’s portrayal of Mbande “As Heywood demonstrates, Queen Njinga is an interesting and vibrant historical figure with accomplishments that speak to her strengths…Thus, according to Heywood, Njinga was consciously making choices in her political strategy depending on the needs of the situation and the players involved. Njinga was a complex ruler,” she writes.

According to Braird, Heywood, in her 2017 work, Njinga of Angola: Africa's Warrior Queen,revealed how Nzinga “managed to maintain power, reunite her kingdom, and front a religious revolution” through “the complexities of the slave trade, the rivalry between the Portuguese and the Dutch, as well as the inner rivalries between sobas, religious leaders, and other African tribes”.

“Oversimplifying the queen’s story for specific purposes and audiences risks diminishing her triumphs,” she concluded.

Whatever the narrative, Nzinga stands tall on her own among a galaxy of female heroes from Africa, finding mention alongside women warriors, queens and princesses like Amanirenas of Cush, Kahina of the Maghreb, Nana Yaa Asantewaa of the Ashanti, Mnyazi wa Menza, also known as Mekatilili Wa Menza or Mekatilili of the Giriama and Queen Hangbe and the all-woman ‘Agoodjie’ Corps of the Dahomey Kingdom.