QUEEN NJINGA′S STORY- What I Came to Realize. [Part 1.]

Hello, and welcome to my second edition of this newsletter. I just believe the first edition has generated enough power to draw you back again for more information on African stories. About a week ago I had the opportunity to watch one of Netflix′s African documentaries′ story, African Queens-the Story of Njinga during the course of my adventurous watch which is a 4 part series something struck my mind very much that I decided to share with you in today and tomorrow′s edition.

The story follows the reign of what I can safely say is one of Africa′s female warriors who dominated the nothern part land of present-day Angola. A powerful queen who gave the Portuguese a nightmare during her reign. Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande?was a Southwest African ruler who ruled as queen of the?Ambundu?Kingdoms of?Ndongo?(1624–1663) and?Matamba?(1631–1663), located in present-day?northern Angola.

Born into the elite ruling family of Ndongo, her father Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda was the king of Ndongo who was later assassinated by one of his people during a visit to one of his lands. Njinga who developed a love for military and political training from childhood, demonstrated an aptitude for defusing political crises as an ambassador to the?Portuguese Empire.

In 1624, she became queen over Ndongo after the death of her brother Mbandi whom many of his people regarded as a wicked king after he killed Njinga′s only son because he saw him as a threat to his throne. She ruled during a period of rapid growth of the?African slave trade?and encroachment by the Portuguese Empire in South West Africa. The Portuguese declared war on Ndongo in 1626 and by 1628, a war that led to a massive depletion of soldiers and forced her to go into exile.

In search of allies, she married?Imbangala?warlord Kasanje. Using this new alliance to rebuild her forces, she conquered the Kingdom of Matamba from 1631 to 1635. In 1641, she entered into an alliance with the?Dutch West India Company?which had captured?Luanda?from the Portuguese. Between 1641 and 1644, Njinga was able to reclaim large parts of Ndongo. Alongside the Dutch, she defeated the Portuguese in a number of battles but was unable to take the?Fortress of Massangano. In 1648, the Portuguese?recaptured Luanda, with the Dutch leaving Angola. Njinga continued to fight the Portuguese until a peace treaty was signed in 1656.

After watching the full 4-part documentary series I concluded that one of the most important assignments Njinga carried was to abolish the slave trade. her mission was to protect her people by any means possible and she squeezed her way through all obstacles that she faced from internal ones to external forces that tried to stop her. I related her story to each and every one of us under the sun how far are we willing to give up everything just to make someone next to us happy and feel protected?

For more than four decades, Queen Njinga regained her throne twice after losing it and was forced to flee and regroup. what caused her to regroup and fight again was 1, the capturing of her two little sisters and 2, the freedom of her people. I laid the brief background of Queen Njinga above so that you can trace her story with me to the motivation side. We as Africans, do carry some important stories to tell the world if told the correct way.

There are some stories of African origins that have been distorted by the outside world with intentions only God knows. My point is that Queen Njinga's film made me think that it is possible to trace even some female past leaders and tell their stories to the world of how they went to the periphery of defending the black majority.

I went to high school in Zimbabwe and most amount of the stories we learned in preparation for the final examinations had to do with what the white colonial rule had to do to get what they wanted forgetting what the black community of Africa also did to defend themselves. I will leave it here so that we finish tomorrow my conclusion of