Njinga Mbande: The Woman King

Hi divas! Strap in today because we are chatting about the Angolan warrior queen who fought off both the patriarchy and slavers through her wildly sharp wit AND wildly sharp weaponry. THIS is the story of Njinga Mbande, and I can't wait to share it with you! For more on Njinga, I recommend you watch the African Queens https://www.netflix.com/title/81650731 series on Netflix! Shout out to our incredible researcher Charlotte Wilkes for pulling this together. If you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://substack.com/@hothistoryclub, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here!

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• 1:00Speaker 03

  Testing, testing, one, two, three. Hello, my divas. If you are listening on audio, you may realize I'm sounding extra hot and extra crispy. And that is because, which if you're watching on video, you'll see, we have a gorgeous new mic setup. I am so excited to just continue to level up these episodes for you week in and week out. And we are testing this out, seeing how it goes. If the audio is a little bit different, a little bit unusual this time, please bear with us. Also, if you're watching on video, I am so insecure and in my own head. I was freaking myself out this morning on what I'm gonna do with my hands now.

• 1:40Speaker 03

  So if you hear, like if you're listening, if you hear some flapping noises, it's probably me just waving my hands around. So I'm really going through that at the moment. We're just gonna give me some grace during this period, okay? Let's get into it. Roll the whimsical medieval thing.

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Hi, guys, and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat about one of the most incredible, okay, and underrated, and unrecognized, and generally unknown warrior women in history, Njinga Mbande. Now, my divas, when it comes to badass warrior women, I am not short for subject matter, okay? We have Boudicca, Isabella of Castile, Joan of Arc, and so many more. But few, if any, were as fierce or as profitable as this Angolan queen, who wielded her wildly

• 3:00Speaker 03

  sharp wit and wildly sharp weaponry to fight off both the patriarchy and slavers alike. So let's get straight into it today, guys, by rewinding it all the way back to the African region of Ndongo in 1583, where Princess Njinga Mbande is born. Now, before we get into her actual life, okay, into the weeds, I wanna give you some context here, on both the time period at large and the location, because these are really essential to understand the wider politics and cultures in this story. So, as we said, we are currently in 16th century Africa, specifically Ndongo, which

• 3:41Speaker 03

  sits in the highlands east of Luanda, between the Kayuanza and Lukala rivers in what is now modern-day Angola, on the western coast of Africa. The capital of Ndongo was a city called Kabasa, and this is where the royal family lived. And let me tell you, divas, my god, it is breathtaking, okay? For while Angola today is mainly a savanna, back during Njinga's time, it was full of rainforests. So, you know, we're picturing like swaying palm trees, and bright sun, and tropical breezes, and sparkling rivers, and so many animals, okay? The entire cast of The Lion King is showing up.

• 4:22Speaker 03

  Plus, to top it all off, it has some of the greatest natural resources in Africa, still today being one of the three largest diamond suppliers on earth. So this is an incredible place to live. But it also presented unique challenges, because 16th century Africa is not like the Africa we know today, guys. Firstly, it wasn't made up of modern countries like it is now, but rather divided into empires, kingdoms, sultanates, and city-states across the entire continent. And while I don't wanna bog us down too much in the detail here, I could genuinely talk about this all day, I am going to give you a brief lay of the land, again, so we can kind of, you know, make sense of what's to come.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  So, in West Africa, we have the Songhai Empire, which was largely Muslim and very, very rich thanks to its gold reserves, making it the largest of the African powers at the time. Then, we have the Kingdom of Congo, which neighbors Ndongo in Central Africa, a region which is largely ruled through this kind of hierarchy system of provinces and subordinate rulers, including Njinga's family. Then, in Northeast Africa, we have the Christian Ethiopian Empire, competing with Muslim states, while North Africa embraced the Islamic religion, thanks to increased dominance from Muslim kingdoms and the Ottoman Empire. We then come over to the East Coast, and this was made up largely of wealthy Swali

• 5:46Speaker 03

  trading cities such as Mombasa, who facilitated trade with Arabia and India. So, a really big mix of different religions, and cultures, and languages, and economies, and of course, many, many other smaller communities and tribes who make up the wider African kingdoms. Which can be a lot to process, guys. I will say, researching this, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so rich and gorgeous and incredible and amazing, but kind of hard to piece together. So I just think of it as like a big patchwork, right, of different states and societies, all of whom are connected by three enormous commercial worlds, thanks to their access to the Mediterranean, the Trans-Saharan Trade System, and the Indian Ocean.

• 6:30Speaker 03

  But a fourth avenue was rapidly emerging at this time, the Atlantic Trade System, which is where we come back to Njinga and Ndongo. So Ndongo is made up of a number of political territories that were independently ruled by Sobas, who were similar in many ways to kind of lords and noblemen. And guys, excuse the Western references here, it's just kind of like the easiest way to communicate the structures here. And all of these people reported to the Angola, who was the ruler or king. Now, he was supported by a group of advisors, administrators, and religious authorities who helped to govern the kingdom, including the Makota, a counselor of senior nobles, and the Tindala, who was kind of like a chief of staff, I guess, is the most kind of modern comparison.

• 7:15Speaker 03

  So this system of governance is really quite political, and it has to be, because by 1617, Ndongo was one of the biggest and most powerful kingdoms in Central Africa, with historians estimating that the population could have been up to 200,000 people. For the most part, these citizens were relatively free to live normal lives. They farmed the land for corn and cotton, they raised livestock such as pigs and goats, and worked as artisans and blacksmiths. But there were some groups in Ndongo society who were not free. Similar to serfs in many ways, who were tied to the land, and landowners where they worked, these were peoples who were captured during battles and essentially treated as slaves

• 7:58Speaker 03

  under the authority of the Angola, who, if you haven't already guessed, is Njinga's father, Mbandi Angola Kilwanji, who ruled Ndongo from 1592 onwards, when Njinga was about 10 to 12 years old. So our diva is a princess, right? Whose mother, Kengela Kinnambe, gave birth to the young girl rather precariously, with her name deriving from the Kimpandu word "kunchinga," which loosely translates to "twist," because when Njinga was actually born, her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, something which was seen by the spiritual leaders of the tribe as a bad omen. But not everyone believed this. As we said before, right, Christianity and Islam are sweeping through parts of Africa,

• 8:43Speaker 03

  and one Capuchin missionary named Antonio Kavazi believed that the umbilical wrapping around her throat was actually a symbol of great resistance and survival, something which Njinga would need if she was going to make it to adulthood. You see, despite, okay, being basically royalty, life for Njinga and her foreknown siblings wasn't easy. In fact, it was actually plagued by a lot of rivalry. As the favorite of her father, who professor and historian Linda Haywood says garnered respect from and instilled fear in enemies and followers alike, Njinga was the Golden Girl, okay?

• 9:23Speaker 03

  She has, at this point, all of her father's kind of affection, and attention, and love, and respect, something which pissed off her brother, Mbande. So there's quite a lot of tension, right, happening within the royal family here. But that is nothing compared to what is going on outside of Ndongo. For at this point in time, there was a trade so lucrative and so far-reaching that it laid the foundations for many of the economic powers we know today. That was slavery. Now, this was hardly a new phenomenon by the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  In fact, slavery has had many, many iterations throughout time, from ancient Mesopotamia to Egypt. I mean, the Bible, right, is littered with examples of slavery, which mainly involve slaves being taken as prisoners after they were captured in war, forming the backbone of many powerful empires as kind of a normal part of daily life. Some were labourers, for example, in Egypt, where we know slaves worked in mines, some as household staff, like we see in ancient Greece, and others as working members of society and the army, like in ancient Rome, which really relied heavily on slavery during military campaigns across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. And, I mean, not that it's necessarily relevant here, but I do love a little bit of debunking, a little fun fact for your Friday.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  So, for many years, people actually believed that slaves built the pyramids. But historians now believe that they were, in fact, mainly built by paid labourers and skilled craftsmen who worked when the Nile flooded and farming was temporarily impossible. Although, if you watch the History Channel after 11pm, they'll tell you it's aliens. But this is all the ancient world, right, primarily BC. So how has slavery evolved since then? Well, by the time the 16th century rolled around and Njinga was born, European nations began exploring and colonising the Americas, with Portugal and Spain establishing colonies that required enormous amounts of labour to grow things like sugar, tobacco, and other valuable crops for trade and export.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  So who then did all of this work, right? Well, of course, it was the indigenous populations. However, as a result of their colonisation, which brought things like disease and warfare, and kind of the very forced labour they depended on, a lot of the indigenous populations dramatically decreased, creating a severe labour shortage. So what now? Right, like these people have ravaged the indigenous native population, they've largely ravaged a lot of the land. So who is going to work for the profits of this enormous enterprise that we've brought to these nations? Well, for this, they turned their wandering, greedy, colonial eyes to West Africa,

• 12:15Speaker 03

  opening up the Atlantic Avenue we spoke about earlier. Now, at first, so kind of in its origins, right, it really was, as horrific as this kind of sounds, a trade, right? With Portuguese trading silks, mirrors, and jewellery in exchange for people. But that only lasted for so long. And eventually, these first slavers began just taking people from their homes. They pillaged villages, forced men, women, and children into cooperation through intimidation, using new world weapons such as crossbows and large swords, terrorising locals by, like, as I was reading this, apparently one of their key tactics was cutting off people's noses as they kind of hopped from village to village,

• 12:59Speaker 03

  something which ultimately became the foundation of the largest forced migration in human history: the transatlantic slave trade. This was a system which went on for 400 years, with an estimated 12 million Africans being forcibly taken from their families and their homes, loaded onto overpacked ships to face the Middle Passage, aka the fierce Atlantic Ocean, where again, these men, and women, and children are all packed tightly below deck with little food, water, or sanitation, and sometimes often shackled in place. Under these kinds of conditions, disease spreads like wildfire, and many people die before ever reaching their destination,

• 13:45Speaker 03

  with their bodies, these kind of rotting corpses, right, simply being dumped overboard, not even having a chance to sink to the depths of the ocean before being eaten by sharks, who even learned to follow Portuguese slave ships. That's how many corpses were being thrown overboard, how many people were dying on these journeys, with these sharks changing their native habits and migration patterns as a result. On this, Dutch merchant William Boesman wrote: "When dead slaves are thrown overboard, I have sometimes, not without horror, seen the dismal rapaciousness of these animals. Four or five of them together shoot to the bottom under the ship to tear the dead corpse to pieces."

• 14:26Speaker 03

  So, in short, absolutely fucking horrendous, right?

• 14:33Speaker 03

  Like, this has been such a heavy few weeks of research, and I struggle to communicate it to you guys, because there are genuinely no words to kind of sum this up beyond evil and insidious and devilry, right? Especially when we are talking to describe the institution of slavery, particularly the transatlantic slave trade. With, and like, this is genuinely terrible to say, but if we're being honest, those that died on board were the lucky ones. Because for the people who then reached the Americas,

• 15:17Speaker 03

  they were sold at slave markets, separated from their families, their names, their heritage, like, any kind of human decency, and forced to work on plantations in horrific conditions for nothing while creating the enormous wealth for European empires, and later, the United States, all of which was built on the back of millions of enslaved Africans who were considered inferior for their race, and their heritage, and their value as human beings. Something which has gone on to shape societies throughout the Americas and the world, leaving enormous, long-lasting social and economic inequalities that continue to influence the world we live in today. I mean, just look at the US here.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  Like, that's before we even turn our heads over the pond, right, to the fucking Brits. Because America, by the early 1800s, had millions of enslaved African Americans, which the South's economy relied on, eventually then leading to the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, which, like, great, but still, it doesn't really matter, right? The damage, the impact, the altering of not only like, a basic human decency and what we as a species consider okay, but the tectonic foundations of society changing forever. Because even after, right, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery,

• 16:43Speaker 03

  you've still got segregation, Jim Crow, hate crimes, racially motivated attacks, now in person and online, which often seep into the higher systems of government and enforcement. So this is a systematic problem, right? And that's before we even get to modern slavery. Because if you thought it ended here with the signing of the 13th Amendment, you are very much mistaken, because slavery, especially of women, still exists today in the form of human trafficking and forced labour. All of which, again, is influenced by the precedent that the transatlantic slave trade in particular, not saying, you know, everything or all other kinds of slavery didn't,

• 17:23Speaker 03

  but largely, this was the key catalyst for persistent economic inequality, systematic racism, and social divisions which impact our world to this very day. And Njinga is born smack bang in the middle of where the Portuguese are currently hauling millions of people and resources from the African coast.

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• 18:46Speaker 03

  Which does beg the question here, guys, how they even end up here in the first place? And it is a good question and one which FYI, like, again, this has been a really hard and also fascinating few weeks because we never covered the transatlantic slave trade in school. Like, I was texting my friends this week, being like, hey, is it just me? Or did, like, do any of you remember this? I was texting people from, like, other states. I don't know if this is just an Australian thing. I'd love to hear from you guys if you are listening internationally. Comment below if you do learn about this, but we don't really cover it, let alone kind of its early origins. So, like I said, it's been a really large learning experience for me personally.

• 19:27Speaker 03

  So, we are going to have to rewind again, and I am aware we are kind of jumping around with timelines this episode, but I think it's all such important context. So let's go to 1575, so at this point, around 10 years before Njinga is born, when the Portuguese, under explorer and colonizer Paulo Dias de Novigs, first established a base at Luanda Island. Now, Paulo, who has a great villain name, ala Lizzie McGuire movie, originally cooperated with the Angola of the time, who was Njinga's grandfather. But, just like Paulo from Lizzie McGuire movie, he was also a traitor. You see, at first, he's all obliging, right? He's like, hey, guys, how are you? I've got these, you know, amazing mercenaries.

• 20:12Speaker 03

  I'd love to send them to kind of serve in your army. I want to keep you safe, right? You're going to be secure from kind of neighboring kingdoms and Muslims and, and the boogeyman. And, you know, because we're allies, like, I've got your back. But guess what? He did not have their back, for he too was speaking in the tongue of evil auto-tune, because these mercenaries were actually spies, sent deep into Ndongo's territory to report on access to trade, resources, and population for slavery, leading to outright war between the Ndongos and these troops, with Portugal then sending additional soldiers who attempted to push inland into the very heart of Ndongo's territory.

• 20:53Speaker 03

  But, they tried and failed, with Ndongos fighting prowess pushing the invaders back. However, they couldn't quite get rid of them. In fact, another African state actually came to the rescue here, with the Northern Kingdom of Congo, like, coming in at the last minute, you know, kind of allowing the Portuguese to set up a base on the Kwanzaa, which was a huge fort used for the mass capture and enslavement of people from the African interior, who were then, I think, largely sent to Brazil, if that's correct. So this is an incredibly precarious time for Njinga's father, who, seeing a situation which could only escalate further, insisted on his young, favourite daughter's education. Learning oration, geography, and, most importantly, honing her physical prowess.

• 21:38Speaker 03

  Njinga excelled throughout her career, being strong, fast, and having a talent for tactics, which made the army her favourite place to hang out.

• 21:49Speaker 03

  From hand-to-hand combat to weaponry and strategy, Njinga trained with and against her father's finest soldiers, attending war councils, going to state rituals, and ultimately gaining the respect of her entire kingdom, something which she used to her utmost advantage by hand-selecting the finest concubines for herself. That is right, my divas, our gal is out here, like, kind of having a hot girl summer in Ndongo, right? With her favourite concubine being a man named Kia Atoshi, who she fell pregnant by and shortly gave birth to a son. But despite this moment of personal joy, Njinga, and indeed Ndongo more widely,

• 22:31Speaker 03

  cannot celebrate for long, because her father, Mbande Kilwanji, dies in 1617. This is an event that completely destabilises the region, with a succession crisis breaking out amongst his children. Speaking of which, we should probably touch on kind of who they are. So, as we know, we have Njinga, obviously, but we also have her two sisters, Kambu and Fungi. And then we have her two brothers, okay? One, a stepbrother, his name is Kilwanji, and the other is her full brother, who we've already spoken about before, Mbande. Now, even though Kilwanji is older and his mother was the Angola's main wife,

• 23:12Speaker 03

  Mbande, in all of his kind of self-glory, believed it was he who should rule and went to bloody and brutal ways to ensure that was the case. Firstly, and probably most obviously here, he kills Kilwanji and anyone in his father's court who stood in his way. Then, he killed the rest of his male relatives, including Njinga's infant son, a baby. If you think that's the worst of it, hold on, because he then goes and sterilises his sisters, including Njinga, to prevent any future challenges to his throne. So this guy is fucked up, right?

• 23:53Speaker 03

  Like, a proper psychopathic joker, Lex Luthor, ginger-haired little fuck from The Impossibles level of villain, okay? Who was in no way, shape, or form equipped to rule. Something which became pretty dire, because the Portuguese are taking every chance they can to seize Ndongo in the wake of Kilwanji's death. Burning together with a group of fierce warriors for hire called the Imbengala, who are revered at this point, guys, for their fighting skill and guerrilla warfare, the Portuguese pushed and pushed and pushed on Ndongo's border. Now, I want to caveat, we don't know a lot about Njinga's life kind of during this period,

• 24:35Speaker 03

  but we do know that Ndongo was under such serious threat, because in 1622, she does the unthinkable, takes a job working for her brother. Yeah, the motherfucker who killed her child and sterilised her sisters and herself, and was now running her kingdom into the ground, exposing her people to the banalities of slavery. So she's like, look, I got to step in here, okay? Let me do something. And she kind of goes, all right, I'm going to pack up and I'm going to ship out for a 300 kilometre, or for my non-Aussie divas, 200 mile journey, to go and chat with the Portuguese at their headquarters in Luanda. Yeah, she's got balls.

• 25:17Speaker 03

  Like, I find Njinga such an incredible, fascinating kind of look at leadership, because at this point, she just decides she's had enough, right? The, like, Imbengalas are there, the Portuguese are constantly down her throat, and as such, she meets with officers to negotiate for her region's protection. Something which I'm sure you can imagine tickled them all pink. I mean, like, to them in general, the sight of a woman, full stop, let alone a native woman coming into their camp and demanding to negotiate, was a dead-set, full-blown, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum comedy.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  But Njinga used all of this to her advantage. You see, through their racism and misogyny, they saw her as no real threat. Someone to be easily subdued, turned away, and put in her place. So they invite her in and decide to kind of make, you know, a bit of a message out of this by bringing her into the tent and kind of humiliating her, with all of the men present pulling up a chair and sitting, leaving nothing out for Njinga but a straw mat on the floor, which they point for her to sit. The obvious inference here, we are the colonisers, you are the colonised. But Njinga refused to acknowledge both their prejudice and her, like, internal, like, outrage

• 26:41Speaker 03

  and, you know, kind of anger here, remaining calm and instead snapping her fingers, ordering one of her attendants to get on his hands and knees before walking over, turning around, and sitting on his back, effectively using him as a human chair. Now, as you can imagine, everyone in the room falls dead silent, okay? As she stares each and every single one of them down, decked out in head-to-toe traditional clothing with layers of rich cloth and kind of beads and jewellery and, like, precious gems, which is this absolute stark comparison to, like, anything that any of these Europeans are wearing.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  So our gal really knows how to assert her dominance here, okay? Using this whole kind of seating fiasco as the ultimate middle finger. Not only showing her enemy she had full control in this, but she now also sat, this is my favourite detail, several inches above each of them, shocking those present so much that they wrote it down. Which is the very first time Njinga and Mbande is recorded in the history books. Which really makes her, in this kind of situation, the perfect example of why women only occupy 0.5% of the historical record, okay? Because we only get included if we piss men off enough that they actually write it down. So to my divas, you keep up the good work. You know, we have needles to nudge and many, many men to piss off to level those scales.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  So clap, clap, clap. So after the human chair fiasco, what goes on with these negotiations? Well, Njinga, because she's a smart, confident, clear, and concise queen, tells them that she wants peace between Ndongo and Portugal, who will remove themselves from her borders, return slaves from her region, and basically, like, get the fuck out of Ndongo's affairs, right? Pretty basic. The Portuguese, though, turn their noses up at this. After all, you know, they're just going to keep on dragging people out of their border towns if there's nothing in this for them. So what are they asking for? Well, firstly, they wanted an annual tribute of slaves from the region,

• 28:48Speaker 03

  which Njinga rejects, instead offering something else to the colonising force, her religion. You see, the Portuguese are Christians, Catholics to be specific, and after staying with the family of a prominent Portuguese official during this visit, Njinga became besties with his wife, a woman named Anna de Silva, who was deeply Christian and kind of recommends to Njinga, you know, as part of her negotiations, if she is baptised into the Catholic faith, assuming the Christian name of Anna de Souza, these negotiations could, you know, kind of go smoother and probably be won. This, for the political savvy Njinga, seemed like a pretty decent price to pay. After all, what is faith but what's held in our hearts?

• 29:32Speaker 03

  And if the Portuguese kind of wanted her to put on this show, then like, whatever, she's going to do it. So, there, at the camp, Njinga is baptised, with Anna de Silva and her husband becoming her godparents, which turned out to become this kind of real turning point for, um, for these negotiations, with the Portuguese signing a treaty with Njinga on behalf of her brother and the people of Ndongo for peace.

• 29:58Speaker 03

  Now, you may be thinking, you know, this seems just all too easy. And in this, you would be right, because there was another condition to this piece. For in exchange for the Portuguese staying away from Ndongo, Njinga condemned her neighboring states as new slave supply zones. Now, a lot is said about Njinga's involvement within the slave trade itself, both like in this instance with the Portuguese here, um, and kind of throughout her life more broadly. With estimates that she facilitated the trade of more than 200,000 enslaved peoples from surrounding lands. So this argument, like it isn't without merit, right?

• 30:40Speaker 03

  That's a big fucking number, which of course is devastating. And as we have all well and truly established right now, and just because we're normal fucking human beings, right? Slavery, abysmal, abhorrent, never should have happened with history and humanity being all the bloodier because of it. Like, I don't feel like I really even need to caveat this, but I'm just reinforcing. But during Njinga's time, slavery was neither illegal nor abnormal. In fact, the first public sale of African slaves occurred in Leos, Portugal, a hundred and seventy-eight years before Njinga landed in the history books, and would remain legal in Britain for another 211 years after, and as we already covered, in America for another 243.

• 31:21Speaker 03

  So while again, this argument for Njinga's involvement within the slave trade is not a wrong one, I do think it's important to understand that at this point in history, slavery was an unavoidable fact of life, making the abolition movement as equally kind of improbable as impossible. Plus, let's be so fucking for real, right? Like blaming Njinga, a 16th century African woman for the product of European colonizers, and assigning her equal, or if not more blame for this product, is pretty fucked up. Especially because in this instance, Njinga's best chance of saving her people was to reposition Ndongo as an intermediary to slavery rather than a supply zone for it,

• 32:04Speaker 03

  which is exactly what she did with this treaty. Something which made her realise she was fucking done with her psycho loser freaky freak of a brother, okay? And as such, returns to Ndongo a changed woman. A woman with purpose as clear as the diamonds pulled from her kingdom's hills. That Mbande had to go. Something which I'm sure had like absolutely nothing to do with his total kind of unsuspicious suicide by poisoning in 1624. Like, I just can't imagine what's happened here. Terrible, right? Like, I just can't believe it, but it's all good because, you know, Njinga's here, she's alive, she's the heir, and she becomes queen of Ndongo.

• 32:49Speaker 03

  After which, one of her first decisions is to kill Mbande's seven-year-old son as revenge for her own child. So a very much like Hazard the Dragon, son for a son, eye for an eye kind of situation here. But there was a problem. The boy was actually away training with the Imbengalas and living with their chief, a man named Kasa. So to get to the boy to kind of, you know, right the wrongs, Njinga decides to fake marry this man, inviting her nephew to the ceremony where she has him murdered and thrown into a nearby river in front of all the wedding guests. So again, it's very like Game of Thrones, very, it's very red wedding, actually, right?

• 33:33Speaker 03

  An act which obviously pisses off this guy, like Kasa and the Imbengalas who call off the wedding and kind of, you know, kick Njinga out, but guys, she's fine, right? She's queen, um, her dead baby has been avenged and her throne is secured. So she's ready to get shit done without these men. She's like, whatever. And she does this ASAP, electing her two sisters as her council, after which she reoccupies territory, makes alliances with fringe tribes, and begins disrupting the slave markets in Ndongo by blocking off roads. Something which, as you can imagine, royally pissed off the Portuguese, who are not only losing money at this point, but also, and this is one of my like favourite fucking details in this,

• 34:16Speaker 03

  I hate the Portuguese so much, love your chicken, but you're all fucked in this instance, right? They are also losing their enslaved soldiers who joined Ndongo's army after Njinga like convinced them all to rebel. So she's stirring the pot, right? And definitely has the upper hand here, divas. So the Portuguese then decide to do what the Portuguese do best, besides chicken. They waged war in 1626, firing on Njinga's army and absolutely annihilating it. Yeah, you see, despite Njinga's strategic mind and knowledge of the land she'd grown up on, it really is no match when the Portuguese have firearms and muskets.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  After all, let us not forget, this is the age of gunpowder weapons. And despite our diva, like literally coming out on the battlefield and slaying people down with her battle axe, it's no match when the Portuguese can fire people down from 50 metres away, right? Which leaves Njinga no choice other than to flee with her life. During which time, the Portuguese kind of staged this big, like dramatic coup d'etat, promoting one of Njinga's internal enemies who acts as a puppet ruler, allowing the Portuguese to open Ndongo back up as a slave centre. Now, you may be sitting there thinking, that's kind of cowardly for this queen to abandon her kingdom in this time, but I want to remind you guys of something.

• 35:42Speaker 03

  Njinga Mbande is a woman, okay? A very, very smart woman at that. One who recognised that being caught between a rock and a hard place would mean certain death for her. And so she decides to flee with as many of her people as possible, rather than making a foolish stand on the back of her ego. Something which plenty of her male predecessors had done before her. And again, like, this wasn't an easy decision for her by any means. She absolutely loses face by doing this, but she understands at her core, and it's what makes her such a good ruler and so smart, that the only way for her to save her kingdom is if she's actually alive to do it.

• 36:25Speaker 03

  So after she kind of makes this decision, I'm gonna flee, you know, I'll come back and fight at a later day, she abandons her bases at the Kandonga Islands, where according to historians Emily Ann Jordan and Jonathan Jordan, she and about a hundred of her guards became kind of surrounded, um, by the Portuguese on one side, and then trapped by a cliff face on the other, where she then uses vines to basically like climb down this cliff face to escape. Very, um, like Indiana Jones, okay? So this is a woman who is determined to survive, but how? What's she gonna do? Where can she go? After all, the Portuguese are now hunting her, so she's pretty desperate.

• 37:06Speaker 03

  So much so, that she turns back to a former friend slash foe, the Imbengalas. Yep, my divas, these, these guys come up, like, I just pop up all the time. And when I was researching this, they remind me very much, if anyone's seen Black Panther, of the Jabari. They're like up in the mountains, incredibly skilled, they kind of got beef with some people. And to be honest, the whole kind of plot of Black Panther 1, where the royal family have to go up to the Jabari for help, is kind of similar to Njinga here, who really has to, um, you know, kind of approach the big Imbengala himself, Chief Kassanjay, whose army at this point is 80,000 warriors strong, and be like, hey.

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  Can you help? Now, at first, and I think this is pretty fair, right? He's wary, he's like, hi, who have you come to murder this time? But after some diplomacy, strategy and light flirting, he agrees to forge an alliance against the Portuguese, but only if she marries him. Which like, ugh, fucking eye roll, guys, this diva doesn't want to marry any of you, okay? She just wants to save her people. But again, rock, hard place. So she agrees, doing what she does best, adapt.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  Something which, and like a bit of analysis coming up here my divas, so strap in, right? Something which has been interpreted in a number of different ways by different historians of different races at different times. Because essentially to become an Imbengala queen, it is said that Njinga and Bande had to participate in certain sacraments, which include things like human sacrifice, cannibalism, and a blood oath, AKA the literal drinking of human blood. Now, I want to be really clear, there is like a big fat donut, right? Zero evidence of this ever happening, and there wouldn't be, right? Again, we're up in the, like this mountain tribe in the 16th century, they're not necessarily

• 40:09Speaker 03

  recording like who's drinking who's blood or whatever. But someone is recording what's going on at the time. The Portuguese, who have every reason right now to portray Njinga not only in a negative light, but motivated by their racial prejudice as a savage, a monster, yeah? Someone who would, and these are actual examples, okay? Crush a baby with a pestle and rub its remains over her body? Eat human hearts à la Daenerys Dothraki? And drink human blood from a fresh skull? Just let that sink in. Now, again, want to reinforce, all of this unconfirmed, okay?

• 40:50Speaker 03

  And just like simply stinking of racist sexist Portuguese propaganda. With the marquee to say describing her as quote "a woman driven to evil by passion." There's also throughout a lot of the reporting that deals with Njinga, mentioning of her strength and skill in battle, of which there is no doubt. But instead of, um, you know, kind of admiring these and it being kind of this, this positive thing, it's chalked up to her savagery, with Western accounts marking her sexuality, alleged cannibalism, and brutality as a direct symptom of her race. And that's before we get to the plain old misogynists, okay? Who American historian Linda Haywood tells us describe Njinga's kingdom as quote "a barren,

• 41:35Speaker 03

  unfertile land that had eventually collapsed due to her usurping the natural order of things." Something which, one, totally untrue, and two, I think like it's actually quite a modern thing to say in many ways, like it pulls on a lot of the kind of ins, um, incel, red pill misogynistic kind of handbook, right? Where the world is apocalyptic, it's on fire, it's barren, it's cursed, because women aren't doing their rightful job. Which, like if we go even further back, guys, it's very like Fall of Man, right? Eve's in the garden, she kind of sins and then steps out of line and she's thrown out into the barren world.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  Pandora as well, kind of the opening of this cursed box for which men must pay the consequences. And again, you know, very, very literal comparisons here in terms of, um, Njinga's barren kingdom and barren land and her own barren womb after she's sterilized. So really clear prejudices in the historical reporting here, which are again factually incorrect and plain as day. Something which is really important to mention when talking about Njinga, um, and any woman throughout history, to be honest, especially women of colour. So when we are covering women on this pod in your own lives, kind of doing your own research, you know, you've got to make sure you've got kind of your prejudice, like searching

• 42:58Speaker 03

  hat on or whatever, because yeah, it does require kind of a deeper level of analysis to pick the bullshit. But alas, I digress, guys. For Njinga did officially become part of the Imbengala tribe at this point in time, which she commanded to invade Matamba, a neighbouring city-state founded at some point in the early 16th century and known for two things. Firstly, its military strength, and secondly, its history of female rulers, making it the perfect place for Njinga to re-establish her position in 1631. So divas, just to check in here, right? Through many a sacrifice, including leaving her homeland and like marrying this guy,

• 43:38Speaker 03

  Njinga has bounced back, now becoming queen of Matamba, who commands an army of 100,000 warriors. So it's like Daenerys with the unsullied, right? She's like doubled her army basically. Now re-established and re-protected, Njinga decides to do things a little differently than she did in the early years in Ndongo. Instead, opening Matamba as a sanctuary to runaway slaves and Portuguese military defectors alike, strengthening both the population and the military, which she reorganized into a system called Colombo, which, um, is kind of like militarized armed boy scouts, where youths are kind of raised in communal militia, where they develop skills and camaraderie

• 44:22Speaker 03

  and nationalism and are all kind of made loyal to their queen. But more than military strength and becoming a safe haven, Njinga realised the only real way to get Ndongo back, okay? The only real way to free her people, which FYI, I haven't even mentioned this, also includes her two sisters who are being held captive by the Portuguese, was to beat these motherfuckers at the thing they understood and revered and wanted most in the world: money. Okay?

• 44:57Speaker 03

  Having navigated the peripheries of the slave trade and with a strong numeric literacy, Njinga manages to transform Matamba into an elite trading power by capitalising on its position as a gateway to the Central African interior. Here, she facilitates the trade of slaves, resources, and her mercenary forces, all while launching guerrilla attacks on the Portuguese in her homeland, many of which she personally led with the Imbengalas by her side. So at this point, Njinga is going about building her economy, okay? She's hot smart, riching it up, but she's still without her sisters and feeling the effects of their absence in her life.

• 45:42Speaker 03

  But, and like if you think Njinga is not well covered, these sisters, like almost totally forgotten, and I'm obsessed with them, okay? They are not simpering ladies in all of this, like kind of cowering in the, in the corner behind the Portuguese, okay? They are princesses of Ndongo, sisters of a queen, so even in their imprisonment, they're aiding the war effort for their nation by becoming spies. Sexy obsessed, okay? Pretending they're extremely devout Catholics that enjoy praying. Fungi and Kambo begin eavesdropping on officers who reveal that the Portuguese forces ain't doing so well. Information they managed to smuggle out to their sister in Matamba, who smells

• 46:29Speaker 03

  opportunity and a side of Harry. Oh wait, no, that's not actually what she smells, that's just the Dutch, who have landed in Luanda. Now, for my F1 fans, insert Max Verstappen audio key. And for my history fans, insert the Dutch West India Company. Now, for context at this point, okay? The Portuguese have really had the African slave trade cornered for nearly a century. But now in 1641, Britain, the Netherlands, and France want in, which is exactly why the Dutch West India Company pulled up on the Luanda shores, looking not only for slaves,

• 47:10Speaker 03

  but for access which would allow them to capture the single most important transatlantic trade post at the time. Something which would end up ferrying an estimated 2.8 million Africans per year across the Atlantic during the height of the trade, not to mention of course as well, kind of the countless natural resources that are pouring out of the region during this time. So the Dutch want this place pretty badly, okay? Badly enough to bring very big guns and very big cannons and very big energy to all but obliterate the exhausted Portuguese stronghold in Africa, giving them and Njinga a common enemy.

• 47:51Speaker 03

  Now, you may be thinking, and rightfully so, hang on, didn't you just say like they're here for slaves? So why would Njinga want to work with them? And it is true, that is what they're there for, but largely, that's all they're there for. Because unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch have no real interest in conquering or colonising Africa. Not obviously that this makes it like in any way, shape or form rightly better, but in Njinga's mind, the Dutch are the lesser of the two evils, okay? So she decides to make a deal with the devil and joins the Dutch campaign against the Portuguese in a series of wildly successful conflicts between 1641 and 1648.

• 48:33Speaker 03

  Now, during this time, Njinga and the Dutch all but drive the Portuguese out of the country, but these motherfuckers are slippery, okay? They're always like escaping or popping up somewhere else with a major victory for them occurring in 1646, which forced Njinga to flee her war camp where they find Fungi's letters and decide to punish the Ndongo princess by drowning her in a river. Something which gets back to Njinga who loses her fucking mind. And when I say that, guys, I'm not talking about like a temper tantrum, like the big man flipping a table or Regina George kind of, you know, scream and spit the dummy kind of reaction. I am talking about something far scarier.

• 49:18Speaker 03

  This was a cold, calculated, driven assassin level focus to now fuck shit up, okay? Again, bringing back Game of Thrones, think Daenerys when Messende's head got lobbed off. Dracarys is currently all she's thinking about, so she kind of goes back to the Dutch at this point and is like, guys, what do we need to do to close this thing off, right? What do you need from me? Here's what I need for you, let's get this done. So yet another negotiation occurs here, where the Dutch are like, look, like if you want this done quicker, we can give you soldiers, we can give you guns, but in return, we want access to the Portuguese slave trade network without any interference or word from you.

• 50:04Speaker 03

  And Njinga in return, like she's over at this point, right? She's like, fine, whatever, but I want two things in return. One, I want us to take Fort Massangano ASAP, which is where, um, her sister's kind of being held. And two, I want you and all of your forces to recognise me as king.

• 50:25Speaker 03

  Yes, my divas, you did hear that right, despite the new mic. Njinga didn't want to be seen as a princess or a queen, but an equal. Someone whose authority was absolute. Because in all of this process, kind of the fighting and the fleeing and the strategy and the alliances and the death of her sister. Njinga Mbande transformed herself into the woman king. Which is exactly how she wanted to be recognised. And I think anyway, to be remembered. Whether this was because she'd kind of faced all of this and it was very transformative. Or she started to maybe, you know, face obstacles within her state for being a woman. Or perhaps she's just like a non-binary diva.

• 51:09Speaker 03

  Njinga begins dressing like a Matamba king. Okay, decked out in traditional dress and armour. She's also kind of taking male and female concubines. Um, my favourite, she marries multiple husbands who she then makes fight for the honour of sleeping with her. And began insisting on being referred to always as king. She even made one of her husbands dress in woman's clothing and demand he be referred to as queen, just to drive the point home here. At this time, she also increased her involvement within the army. Training extensively after the death of her sister. And kind of, you know, riding into battle with her troops, evading all manner of threats.

• 51:52Speaker 03

  Uh, and plots and raids and, and kind of assassins, right? Attempts upon her life from enemy tribes and the Portuguese alike. So she's ready and primed for a fight. And really seals this Dutch treaty with a kiss by throwing in one last item for the fine print. That she will be, from this moment forward, the independent ruler of both Matamba and Ndongo. So she's going for the full clean slate here, divas. She's like, I'm not giving up this, you know, incredible place that I've like, this is my territory, Matamba, but I also want my homeland back. And let this be an example, that if you're in contract negotiations or something like that and you're kind of like, oh, you know, I don't wanna be greedy. Look, I can't ask for that.

• 52:39Speaker 03

  And Njinga did. So you should just fucking take it, okay? The Dutch agree to this and you know, they kind of sign this treaty, after which Njinga's like, let's lock the fuck in. We're going to start planning this campaign to get my sister back. Now, at this point, after this signing, this kind of looks in the back. Right? Like obviously she, she still needs to go and win the battle. But she's kind of set up for success, um, she's got a plan and initially this is all looking good. However, in 1648, with her transition to woman king fully established and the plans for taking the fort, like really kind of being finalised in the, in the last stages. The Dutch pull out of the endeavour, moving their forces to Lawanda to protect the port, which the Portuguese desperately wanted back.

• 53:24Speaker 03

  Like this is the big commodity, right? So much so, they send a massive army from Lisbon, which the Dutch kind of like have no choice but to defend against, which like, whatever. I guess, like, why can't you, why can't both of you fuck off, right? Um, and also why can't this diva just get her sister back? Like she's annoyed by this point. I'm fucking pissed off, right? This whole time. And she's just like at her wits end, willing to do whatever she needs to do, including turning her back on the Dutch. And negotiating directly with the Portuguese. Well, to actually be specific in this instant, actually negotiating with the Catholic Church. Which, FYI, divas, strap back in here if you took your seatbelt off, put it back on.

• 54:06Speaker 03

  Because when I was researching this, I was like, fucking, of course this happened. But in my brain, which like really just in my private school, like Christian, uh, brainwashing, right? I was like, oh, this can't possibly be true, but it is. So, in 1654, the Portuguese send a Catholic envoy to basically negotiate with Njinga specifically for her sister's release. So not, um, a land negotiation or a military alliance, really more like a ransom here. Which hinged on two key things. One, the whole of Njinga's kingdom, so Matamba and Ndongo, would convert to Christianity. And two, she would give the Portuguese 200 slaves.

• 54:50Speaker 03

  Now, again, and I think it's a, an important conversation to have. Njinga's involvement with the slave trade comes up here, right? But, people in glass houses should not throw stones, okay? Because for all of the criticism of Njinga's actions within the slave trade. We very, very seldom hear analysis about the Catholic Church's involvement in the slave trade. Which historian Dr. Kelly Carter Jackson says, quote, "The Catholic Church is very much complicit in slave trade." You know, we haven't had nuanced conversations about how much the church plays a role in the slave trade. And how much the wealth of the slave trade is building up the church.

• 55:34Speaker 03

  And that is bang on here, guys. Like this is a really, um, the more I was digging into it, like a really complicated relationship historically, which rarely gets pulled out. So I'mma put my gloves on today and yank at that bitch, okay? Now, I am not saying, and no one would say, that the Catholic Church is responsible for creating slavery. Right? We already said at the top, slavery existed in many societies before European Atlantic expansion. But Catholic institutions and leaders legitimised and participated in. And benefited from systems of enslavement throughout the entire transatlantic slave trade.

• 56:19Speaker 03

  For example, like beyond this specific one, right? In the 15th century, so before this, papal documents such as 1452's Dum Diversus and 1455's Romanus Pontifex. Gave Portugal the first kind of religious justification it needed to quote, "conquer non-Christian peoples." And reduce enemies to slavery in certain situations.

• 56:44Speaker 03

  Then, if we come back to the Njinga example here, right? We know the church sends missionaries, whose aim it is to convert as many people as possible within these African regions to Christianity. Something which also came, as we see, with these religious figures negotiating for slaves. With some Catholic institutions even owning their own enslaved peoples. Or like, at the very, very least, like the bare minimum in this kind of arrangement. Benefiting economically because of the trades that they facilitated. The devastating irony of which is that the church, right?

• 57:23Speaker 03

  Preached Christian equality and salvation while actively operating within and benefiting from societies that treated millions of Africans as property. This, of course, right? And it's like some, not all, yeah, in any situation. Was condemned by some figures within the church who did eventually go on to support abolition. But the fact remains, and again, is actually seldom spoken about. That conversion to Christianity became deeply interconnected with European imperial expansion and the slave trade which came from it. And I just like, I find it such a hypocrisy. That anyone can look at the life of Njinga Mbande and assign her the same or a similar level of guilt and complicity.

• 58:07Speaker 03

  To the Portuguese and the church in this case. When she herself and her people are a victim of this institution. Like it, it's just dripping in racial and misogynistic and Christian bias, like blah, gross. Especially because Njinga actually says no to giving these 200 slaves, okay? But she does however concede on the kind of like Christian element, right? Um, she lets churches be starting to set up missionaries into her regions and she does start baptising her people. Even writing to the Pope herself about these actions. Something which the Portuguese, at the direction of these missionaries, decide to release her sister for. Allowing the pair to finally be reunited.

• 58:50Speaker 03

  Speaking of which, before we move on, I really want, um, to recommend to you guys, because I love a recommendation, you know this. That if you're wanting more on this story, you should definitely go and watch the Netflix docu-series called African Queens. There is a whole, um, kind of episode here on Njinga. And it really looks at her relationship with her sisters, what makes her tick. Um, it chats about a lot of the kind of, um, kind of bias and prejudice in her reporting. And I do think it's really important to hear from Angolans when speaking about Njinga. It's kind of made by, um, Angolans here because it's all well and good.

• 59:31Speaker 03

  Right? For me to come and talk to you about this and like, obviously we're going to because she's hot and it's history. But this is an Angolan story, so you should hear from the people directly. Uh, and I will link the information for that in the show notes for you as well. I highly, highly recommend. Now, coming back to our timeline, let's look at where we are. So, as we said, Njinga and her sister are reunited and they're kind of staying relatively out of trouble. Which I do say with a grain of salt, because Njinga is still personally leading raids on Portuguese camps at this point in her life. Despite, and hold on to your hats here, divas, being in her 60s. Like, oh, just incredible. I could not love this woman more. She's so amazing, right?

• 1:00:13Speaker 03

  Something which eventually saw the Portuguese like forced to sue for peace in 1657, after yet another lengthy negotiation. Without any human chairs, the basis of which was Ndongo being delineated. Njinga being reinstated as its ruler, while also being recognised as woman king of both Matamba and her homeland. Something which had ultimately taken many years and many innocent and not so innocent lives to achieve. Making Njinga Mbande the first female African leader to be recognised by any colonising force in history.

• 1:00:49Speaker 03

  Successfully, having kept both kingdoms independent from Portuguese control, Njinga upheld her end of the bargain, disbanding the fearsome Imbengala warriors who kind of returned home to the mountains, she herself converting fully to Christianity, and as we said, allowing missionaries into her territory, something which she recognised as really essential, um, and kind of playing this, this game of thrones, I guess, if you will, which, like, really, when we look at her life, and again, I know I've kind of glazed her a bit and been like, she's such an incredible ruler, but she is, because the key thing we see with Njinga is that she recognises very early on, this is give and take. She's never foolish enough to just,

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  like, demand outright peace and sacrifices many personal protections and freedoms in the process of kind of the greater good, or the best version of good, not to mention, like, her ego, which rarely got in the way of her decisions. And so, these final years of the warrior queen's life were pretty full ones, as she continued to defend her borders, push for economic expansion, and fight for the rights of women to lead, naming her sister as heir to the kingdom, which came into being in 1663, when Njinga Mbande, the woman king, died peacefully in her bed at a whopping eighty-one years old, passing into legend

• 1:02:10Speaker 03

  as the ultimate leader, warrior, and diplomat, whose life paved the way for four other African queens to rule after her. So, like, an absolutely incredible life, right? And, like, not to mention a huge innings, eighty-one years old, in the seventeenth century, like, wow, incredible. Something which she is still remembered and praised for alongside, obviously, her life heroism and military skill today, um, with her kind of life story being passed down by both descendants still in Angola today, and those of enslaved people who were abducted from the region, so kind of, you know, these, these slaves that were taken, primarily Afro-Brazilians,

• 1:02:51Speaker 03

  who celebrate Queen Njinga at the Rio Carnival every year. Her impact is also still felt in modern politics in Angola, with Njinga becoming a symbol of the Angolan independence movement in the sixties and seventies, claimed her as their national hero, erecting a five-metre-tall bronze statue of the queen which stands in the wonder today. Really, becoming, you know, this true testament to the woman who fought against colonisation, sexism, gender norms, and the enslavement of her people, breaking just about every rule in every book, paving a history that even three hundred and sixty years after her death remains as empowering and inspiring as ever. Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History,

• 1:03:36Speaker 03

  guys. Thank you so much for listening along, as always, and make sure to tune in next week, because we are going to deep dive, like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited for this series, guys, I cannot tell you. We're deep diving one of the most fascinating, tragic, and enduring periods in human history, the Salem Witch Trials. Hmm. Okay, from the origins of the witch, right, to the impact of the Malia's Malafakam, and exactly how one small town in colonial America changed how we think about witches and women forever, all that and so much more, coming to you in a two-part series, dropping on Friday, as usual, and

• 1:04:21Speaker 03

  then the following Tuesday. So I will remind you guys in that Friday episode when part two is dropping, but if you can, please make sure to tune in for part two and finish the story. Until then, if you are looking for some more Hot History, you can follow us on Instagram and Substack at Hot History Club. Don't forget, if you follow us and subscribe on Substack, you can get every Monday, like, this week, a history newsletter. Um, you can also follow us on YouTube and TikTok at hot dot history. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you, and I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

• 1:05:00Speaker 03

  This episode of Hot History was recorded on Darugland, always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

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