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Queen Nzinga - Warrior Queen Of Angola (1583-1663)
In the sixteenth century, the Portugese position in the slave trade was threatened by England and France. As a result, the Portugese shifted their slave-trading activities to the Congo and South West Africa. Mistaking the title of the ruler (ngola) for the name of the country, the Portugese called the land of the Mbundu people Angola—the name by which it is still known today. Here, the Portugese encountered the brilliant and courageous Queen Nzinga, who was determined never to accept the Portugese conquest of her country. An exceptional stateswoman and military strategist, she repeatedly harassed the Portugese until her death, at age eighty.
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She became renowned for the guerilla tactics she employed for resisting the technologically superior Portugese army. She was a brilliant strategist and, although past sixty, led her warriors herself. Never surrendering, she died on December 17, 1663. Her death accelerated the Portugese occupation of the interior of South West Africa, fueled by the massive expansion of the Portugese slave trade.
Her legendary image remains in the story told by the colonialists themselves. There was an occasion in which she was to meet with the Portuguese colonial governor in Luanda in 1657.
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. Upon arriving at the place of the meeting with her entourage, she met only the governor siting on the only chair available in the house where the meeting took place. Noticing that this was a strategy to make her sit down on the floor thereby giving a sign of inferiority, she made signal to one of her servants who quickly knelt down and turn herself to a sit upon which Queen Nzinga sat to discuss the peace treaties. She was wise enough to go into peace negotiation with the governor as equals rather than subjugate.