Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen

319 Pages·2017·32.07 MB·English

by  Linda M. Heywood

Njinga of Angola

NJINGA OF ANGOLA
Africa’s Warrior Queen
LINDA M. HEYWOOD
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts • London, England
2017
Copyright © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First Printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Heywood, Linda M. (Linda Marinda), 1945– author.
Title: Njinga of Angola : Africa’s warrior queen / Linda M. Heywood.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016044098 | ISBN 9780674971820 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Nzinga, Queen of Matamba, 1582–1663. | Angola—
Kings and rulers—Biography. | Angola—History—1482–1648. |
Angola—History—1648–1885.
Classification: LCC DT1365.N95 H49 2017 | DDC 967.3/01—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016044098
Contents
Introduction 1
1.
The Ndongo Kingdom and the Portuguese Invasion 18
2.
Crisis and the Rise of Njinga 35
3.
A Defiant Queen 56
4.
Treacherous Politics 85
5.
W arfare and Diplomacy 114
6.
A Balancing Act 158
7.
On the Way to the Ancestors 193
Epilogue 245
•
Glossary 259
List of Names 261
Chronology 263
Notes 265
Acknowl edgments 297
Illustration Credits 301
Index 303

Njinga of Angola
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Ndongo (ca. 1550) and Ndongo- Matamba (ca. 1663)
situated in present- day Angola
Introduction
Q
ueen Njinga, the seventeenth- century ruler of Ndongo, a kingdom
in central Africa that was located in what is now a portion of
northern Angola, came to power in Africa through her military
prowess, skillful manipulation of religion, successful diplomacy, and re-
markable understanding of politics. Despite her outstanding accomplish-
ments and her decades- long reign, comparable to that of Elizabeth I of
England, she was vilified by Eu ro pean contemporaries and l ater writers as
an uncivilized savage who embodied the worst of womankind.1 Eu ro pe ans
at the time portrayed her as a bloodthirsty cannibal who thought nothing
of murdering babies and slaughtering her enemies. They also charged her
with defying gender norms by dressing as a man, leading armies, keeping
harems of male and female consorts, and rejecting the female virtues of
caring and nurturing. Much l ater, eighteenth- and nineteenth- century
writers who composed fictional accounts about Njinga depicted her as a de-
generate woman driven by unorthodox sexual desires who reveled in barbaric
rituals.
Njinga’s life has continued to be viewed mostly as a curiosity. But the
historical rec ord reveals something difer ent: it was this same Njinga who
conquered the kingdom of Matamba and ruled it together with the
remainder of the power ful Ndongo kingdom for three de cades; defied
thirteen Portuguese governors who ruled Angola between 1622 and 1663,
keeping her kingdom in de pen dent in the face of relentless attacks; and
made impor tant po liti cal alliances not only with several neighboring
polities but with the Dutch West India Com pany. It was this same Njinga
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