Queen Nzinga Mbande: Ndongo And Matamba Kingdoms

Queen Nzinga Mbande, Queen Nzinga for short, was the powerful African ruler of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms, is now the country of Angola, during the 16th and 17th century. She was best recognized as the fearless leader that helped her people fought against the colonization of the Portuguese and bring freedom to her country, as well as free her people from slavery. Ngola Kiluanji Kia Samba, Nzinga’s father, was the ruler of the Ndongo people at the time Nzinga was born. Her brother, King Ngola Mbandi, took the throne after Nzinga’s father passed away. It was around the same time that the Portuguese attacked the kingdom of Ndongo as an attempt to colonized the country. According to the article “Queen Nzinga, the Ruler who Set her People Free” by Ancient-origins, the Portuguese “have been raiding the territory of the Ndongo for slaves, due …show more content…
Nzinga became the Queen of her kingdom after her brother died. She fled her country and took over the kingdom of Matamba, merged it with Ndongo after the Portugal took over Ndongo in 1626. She tried many time to fight against the Portuguese regime, but failed as the Portuguese proved to be quite powerful. In the article, “Ana Nzinga Mbande, fearless African queen”, by Kerilynn Angel, Queen Nzinga even reached out for the Dutch and invited them to join her troop in the war against Portugal. Even with the help of the Dutch, their combined forces was not enough to drive the Portuguese out the Ndongo. Her attempt was not successful as the Portuguese remained asther u ler of Ndongo until 1975. After retreating back to Matamba, Nzinga was determined to focus on improving Matamba economy and build it to became a powerful kingdom with “equal footing to Portugal” through trade, making it a commercial