Queen Nzinga Mbande 1583–1663 (also spelled Njinga), was a monarch of the Mbundu people. Mbande was a resilient leader who fought the Portuguese’s expanding slave trade in Central Africa. Nzingha Mbande was the queen of the ethnic Mbundu kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba, located in present-day northern Angola. (The Ambundu “Mbundus” are Angola’s second largest ethnic at about 25% of the population). The kingdoms she created would be a refuge for runaway slaves and a safe haven from European conquest for over two centuries after her death. Her actions as a women defying both male and colonial domination has also made her an important inspiration for more recent African feminists.
I first heard of Queen Nzinga during studying the Angolan civil war and Angolan wars for Independence. During the cold war when Angola was fighting for independence from a fascist Portuguese government Cuba sent troops to aid the rebels. Cuba has a famous Afro-Cuban slave rebellion leader Carlota Lucumi, La Negra Carlota de Cuba (see: Black Kos, La Negra Carlota de Cuba) that had some parallels to Queen Nzinga, so she became a rather noted figure in the Caribbean. I thought about her after Chitown Kev wrote in a comment Black Kos, Tuesday's Chile: A Cleopatra Note (after the kafuffle of casting of Gal Gadot as Cleopatra) that: Good afternoon...I mean, there are puh-lenty of great and powerful and significant black queens in world history to choose from. That reminded me that I had promised abluerippleinohio a diary on Queen Nzinga.
Nzinga reign was during a period of rapid growth in the African slave trade with the Portuguese Empire encroachment in South West Africa. Born into the ruling family of the Ndongo, the then princess Nzinga received military and political training as a child. Later as an adult she demonstrated an aptitude for defusing political crises as an ambassador to the Portuguese Empire. Portugal was attempting to corner the Atlantic slave trade. Nzinga fought for the indepence and stature of her kingdoms against the Portuguese and reigned for 37 years. Queen Nzinga's rise to power and her actions as a warrior, diplomat and nation builder would be an inspiration to those who would later fight for Angolan independence in the 20th century.
During the late half of 16th Century, both the stronger French and English kingdoms threatened Portugal’s near monopoly on the slave trade along the West African coast. This forced the Portuguese to seek fresh areas to exploit. By 1580 Portugal had already established a trading relationship with Afonso I in the nearby Kongo Kingdom (modern Congo). They then turned to Angolo, south of the Kongo.
The Portuguese first established a fort and settlement at Luanda the present-day capital of Angola in 1617, encroaching on Mbundu land. This outpost in Luanda would be a starting point for a long lasting conflict between the Ndongo and the Portuguese.
African states on the Central African coast soon found their economic power and territorial control threatened by these Portuguese establishing the Luanda colony. Many of these states had become regional powers through trade in African slaves.It was the growing demand for this human labor in New World colonies such as Brazil that ultimately led Portugal to seek military and economic control of this region. Old trading partners came under military attack by Portuguese soldiers and indigenous African raiders in search of captives for the slave trade, and rulers were forced to adapt to these new circumstances or face certain destruction. One leader who proved to be adept at overcoming these difficulties was the queen of Ndongo, Ana Nzinga.
In 1622 they invited Ngola (King) Mbande to attend a peace conference to end hostilities with the Mbundu people. Mbande was ruler of Ndongo a state to the east of Luanda populated primarily by Mbundu peoples. Mbande sent his sister Nzinga to represent him in a meeting with Portuguese Governor Joao Corria de Sousa. Nzinga was aware of her diplomatically awkward position. She knew of events in the Kongo which had led to Portuguese domination of the nominally independent nation. She also recognized, however, that to refuse to trade with the Portuguese would remove a potential ally and the major source of guns for her own state.
In the first of a series of meetings Nzinga sought to establish her equality with the representative of the Portugal crown. The story goes that when Njinga entered the room to negotiate with the Portuguese Governor he was sitting in a chair while she was expected to sit on a mat on the floor. Not wanting to be seated lower than her opposition Nzinga immediately motioned to one of her assistants who fell on her hands and knees and served as a chair for Nzinga for the rest of the meeting so she could negotiate on equal terms
Despite that display, Nzinga made accommodations with the Portuguese. She converted to Christianity and adopted the name Dona Anna de Souza. She was baptized in honor of the governor’s wife who also became her godmother. Shortly afterwards Nzinga urged a reluctant Ngola Mbande to order the conversion of his people to Christianity.
After the death of her father her brother became king. But In 1626 her brother committed suicide in the face of rising Portuguese demands for slave trade concessions. After her brother’s suicide she effectively became Queen of the Kingdom of Ndongo. Nzinga negotiated a second treaty with the Portuguese in 1624 allowing for the Portuguese to trade (including slavery) and missionary work in return for the Portuguese respecting the territorial integrity of Ndongo and demolishing a Portuguese fort which was within Ndongo territory
But Ana Nzinga had inherited rule of Ndongo at a moment when 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. Ana Nzinga’s baptism, with the Portuguese colonial governor serving as godfather, sealed this relationship.
But unlike her brother Nzinga, refused to allow the Portuguese or any European to control her realm.
By 1626, however, Portugal had betrayed Ndongo, and Nzinga was forced to flee with her people further West, where they founded a new state at Matamba, well beyond the reach of the Portuguese. 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.
Looking at how quickly the Portuguese had broken their first treaty Nzinga must have been suspicious of Portuguese intentions to keep their promises with the second treaty. So Nzinga also fomented rebellion within Ndongo itself, which was now governed indirectly by the Portuguese through a puppet ruler. To regain control over the internal politics of the Kingdom of Ndongo the Portuguese began to back rival claimants to the throne and pushed them to rebel against Nzinga.
To fight both the Portuguese and her domestic rivals she would need to increase her military strength. In 1627, after forming alliances with former rival African kingdoms, she led a united army waging a thirty-year war against the Portuguese.
Nzinga also exploited European rivalry by forging an alliance with the Netherlands, which seized Luanda for their own mercantile purposes in 1641. With Dutch help, Nzinga defeated a Portuguese army in 1647. But their combined forces were insufficient to drive the Portuguese completely out of Angola. The Dutch were defeated by the Portuguese the following year and withdrew from Central Africa in 1648. After Luanda was reclaimed by the Portuguese, Nzinga was again forced to retreat to Matamba. 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. Now in her 60s she still personally led troops in battle. She also orchestrated guerrilla attacks on the Portuguese which would continue long after her death.
At the end of her life Queen Nzinga became more devoutly Catholic. Some academics argue that this was for strategic reasons to cement Portuguese support for her rule and silence any domestic dissent. According to some sources throughout the 1640s she had taken several men as husbands and many at the same time, these relationships soon developed into a kind of harem of male concubines. Some academics argue that the reason for adoption of concubines was to adopt typical masculine behaviors to increase her legitimacy in the eyes of the other noble lineages. In any case, after her re-affirmation to Catholicism in 1656 she gave up her concubines and married one man. After the peace treaty with Portugal her followers were told to give up their kilombo ways (youths raised communally in militias). This action meant that her people would finally settle in villages instead of mobile camps, and women would be allowed to once again raise their own children.
Despite repeated attempts by the Portuguese and their allies to capture or kill Queen Nzinga, she died peacefully in her eighties on December 17, 1663. By the time of her death in 1663, Matamba was a formidable commercial state that dealt with the Portuguese colony on an equal footing. Nzinga, who reconverted to Christianity before her death at the age of eighty-one, became a sensation in Europe following the 1769 publication of Jean Louis Castilhon’s colorful “biography,” Zingha, Reine d’Angola, in Paris.
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In the years following her death, Nzinga has become a historical figure in Angola. Her memory is accredited with helping to inspire the successful 20th Century armed resistance against the Portuguese that resulted in an independent Angola in 1975. She is remembered for her intelligence, her political and diplomatic wisdom, and her brilliant military tactics. A major street in Luanda is named after her. In 2002, a statue of her in Largo do Kinaxixi, Luanda, Angola, was dedicated by Angolan President Santos to celebrate the 27th anniversary of Angolan independence. Queen Nzinga actions as a women defying both male and colonial domination has made her an important inspiration for African feminists and black woman of African descent world wide.
Sources
Wikipedia: Nzingha Mbande
Black Past: QUEEN NZINGA (1583-1663)
Met Museum: Women Leaders in African History: Ana Nzinga, Queen of Ndongo
BBC on YouTube
South African History Online: Njinga Ana de Sousa
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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In the weeks leading up to the election, Black women are expected once again to deliver victory for Democratic candidates. We have gone from being unable to vote legally to a highly courted voting bloc — all in little more than a century.
Despite this and despite the way so many have embraced messages about racial justice this year, Black women are still constantly disrespected and disregarded in so many areas of life.
I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man. After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him. We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place.
My initial silence about what happened was out of fear for myself and my friends. Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment. The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted.
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The race for top prosecutor in Los Angeles has become one of the most important criminal justice elections in the US this year, with Black Lives Matter activists pushing the contest to the forefront of national debates on racist policing and incarceration.
Jackie Lacey, the first woman and first African American to serve as LA district attorney, is facing a tough challenge from George Gascón, a former San Francisco district attorney who has positioned himself as a progressive candidate dedicated to police accountability and reducing the prison population.
The election comes as nationwide protests over police killings and racial inequality have highlighted the role of district attorneys as some of the most influential and least accountable players in America’s criminal justice system. And the top prosecutor job in LA oversees the country’s largest local prosecutor’s office, funneling defendants into the world’s largest jail system.
The race has drawn interest from across the country, with police groups pouring millions into Lacey’s campaign, and celebrities, tech billionaires and political heavyweights such as Bernie Sanders throwing their support behind Gascón.
“Everyone understands what’s at stake with the presidential race, but what affects us most on a daily basis is the DA,” said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA. “The DA determines what crimes are prosecuted, what crimes go unenforced … and whether we will continue to lock up Black and brown people with reckless abandon.”
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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the special prosecutor who led the Breonna Taylor investigation, has been hard-pressed to keep a juror from speaking publicly about the grand jury proceedings.
On October 8, an attorney for the anonymous juror argued before a judge that all recordings, transcripts, and files be released, and that the juror be allowed to “talk about their service” on the grand jury. In response, Cameron filed a motion to prevent the juror from speaking publicly while he appeals the case.
While Cameron is worried “this disclosure would irreversibly alter Kentucky’s legal system,” activists and attorneys for Taylor’s family have long been worried that Cameron, and prosecutors in general, have too much power.
After spending six months investigating the shooting in which Taylor was killed in her own home, he only recommended charges of wanton endangerment to just one of the three officers who fired a total of 32 shots into her apartment on March 13. That single charge was the only one jurors were allowed to consider — whether former officer Brett Hankison endangered neighbors when he shot through Taylor’s apartment, not whether any of the officers committed murder or even manslaughter in regards to Taylor.
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Despite the scarcity of formal training opportunities, locally-made productions are already starting to take off.
Chris Morgan of Fundi Films was able to draw on a pan-African talent pool for his recent production, My Better World.
The educational series aimed at African schoolchildren and young teenagers involved a team of creatives working remotely across the continent.
"We had over 100 producers working in seven different countries, and this was pre-Covid," he says, speaking from Mpumalanga, South Africa.
The end result is a series made up of 55 short animated films that are available in English, Swahili, Hausa and Somali.
In each episode, the characters navigate complex situations - such as negotiations about safe sex - but in a lively and accessible way. As well as a cartoon, each film features an interview with a real-life high achiever, such as Africa's first female pilot.
When it was broadcast in Kenya earlier this year, My Better World quickly became the top rating children's TV show. It was also nominated for this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival, one of the world's top animation competitions.
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In late 1961, a young teenager called James Chambers turned up unannounced at Beverley’s restaurant and ice cream parlour on Orange Street in Kingston, Jamaica. In search of a sponsor, he told the owners, three Chinese-Jamaican brothers, that he had written a song for them. His audacity paid off and a few months later, Dearest Beverley was released as the B-side of a more topical and upbeat song called Hurricane Hattie, which became the first hit for the newly formed Beverley’s Records.
The single was produced by the label’s owner, Leslie Kong, one of the brothers for whom Chambers had auditioned. Kong would go on to produce a series of classic early reggae songs like 007 (Shanty Town) by Desmond Dekker and Monkey Man by the Maytals; by the time Dearest Beverley was released, James Chambers had turned 14 and was calling himself Jimmy Cliff, soon to be one of reggae’s biggest stars.
A plaintive ballad delivered over a rolling piano riff, Dearest Beverley is part of a Jamaican music scene taking its first steps towards global glory. This is the era immediately before the homegrown music of ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and dancehall – a time when the American sound of doo-wop reigned.
The song is one of the highlights of If I Had a Pair of Wings, a compilation of Jamaican doo-wop songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, which was released last year on the archival label Death Is Not the End. The album includes similarly wistful offerings by the likes of Alton Ellis, Millie Small and Laurel Aitken, all of whom who would go on to become successful singers as post-independent Jamaican discovered its own distinctively offbeat rhythm in the early 1960s.
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