Born around 1580 in Portuguese West Africa, or modern-day Angola, Nzingha was one of five children of King Ndongo of the Mbundu and Ndongo people who put up with decades of invasions by Portuguese slavers. Her father had her trained in war and diplomacy and she was well educated in that she could read and speak Portuguese. In 1624, her brother took the throne then killed her son. She didn't stand for that so she poisoned him to get him back and killed her nephew and ate his heart. This left her as ruler of the land at the age of forty-two. She forbade her people to call her queen but to call her king and immediately went to war for her country's independence.
She could be a diplomat or a total barbarian creating chaos to the invading armies. She was smart in that she found unique ways to add to her army by freeing any slave that made it to Angola and asking that they become a soldier. She had her soldiers get captured by the Portuguese and then steal arms from them and escape. She formed alliances with other area tribes and the Dutch. This increased her strength and earned her respect from these other countries who looked down on Africans as less than human. The Dutch proved to be just as treacherous as the Portuguese in that they wanted to use the Mbundu for slavery too.
She once let peace treaty negotiations go on for eight years because she wanted them to. Religion was something to be used to help in her cause. She was baptized as a Christian under the name Anna to please the Portuguese but then tried cannibalism to gain the respect of the fiercest tribe around. She was brutal in war and was utterly fearless. She was as agile as someone much younger than her years and would rally her troops by striking two iron bells. She would dress as a man in the skins of wild animals strapping herself with a sword, ax, and bow and arrows. She would lead the enemy inland into a trap where she had the favored ground. She would be cornered and always find a way out. She was merciful to the prisoners she took and made sure none were hurt by anyone who was under her.
Enemies hated her for her race, sex, and old age. One story tells of a peace conference she attended with the Portuguese who believed they had the upper hand. They also had all the chairs. When she arrived in the room to find no chair to sit in she called over a servant and had him bend over on the ground and provide her a place to sit upon. They could try to insult her but she proved to them that she was the ruler in the room. Shocked, the Portuguese signed the peace treaty without a thought.
She never married but had fifty or sixty young men as bodyguards that she had to wear women's clothes. If one of them displeased her he was never seen from again. She placed women in the highest government spots and exalted her sisters Mukumbu and Kifunji to top spots. When the Portuguese kidnapped one sister she gave 130 slaves for her release. When another sister was kidnapped and kept, she used her to get information about the Portuguese for years until they drowned her.
Ruling the politics of the region for forty years, Nzingha fought till her death at the ripe old age of eighty-two. Her body was put on display with royal robes that had jewels in them and a bow and arrow in her hand.
No strong ruler followed her and the Portuguese took over West Africa causing the area to suffer more damage from the slave trade than any other area. It would be 1975 before Angola would get its independence from Portugal. Today Nzingha is celebrated as a hero in the People's Republic of Angola.
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