Queen Ana Nzinga
Queen Ana Nzinga, also called Nzinga Mbande or Anna de Sousa, was a queen in the 17th century over the kingdom of Ndongo, and later Matamba. Ndongo was close to Luanda, the present day capital of Angola. She inherited power in 1624, after her brother committed suicide . She was known to be a skilled diplomat, and even before she became the sovereign leader herself. Her strengths were negotiating and making allies, skills that were crucial for Ndongo and Matambas’ survival and well being during this period because of threats from the Portuguese, who were in the process of building an empire.
The Portuguese were attempting to establish a colony in Luanda because of their role in the slave trade. The increasing demand for human labour in the New World colonies, such as Brazil, led to Portugal seeking control over this area. Many neighbouring states of Ndongo faced military attacks as Portuguese soldiers as well as indigenous African raiders were looking for captives for slave trade.
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Because of the new social, political, and economic circumstances, she allied with the Portuguese to make sure Ndongo did not become a source of supply in the slave trade. The alliance, however, was broken by the Portuguese in 1626. Nzinga and her people fled further west and established a new state in Matamba. To boost Matamba’s military power, she offered sanctuary for runaway slaves, and trained them as soldiers.ii
With the Portuguese growing stronger, Nzinga allied her new kingdom with the Dutch, who seized Luanda in 1641. Their combined power was not enough to drive the Portuguese out of Angola, and from this point, she focused on developing Matamba as a trading power. Matamba became a gateway into Central Africa, and Nzinga managed to develop a kingdom that was comparable to the Portuguese colonies.
Tales of Angola: Free Blacks, Red Stick Creeks, and International Intrigue in Spanish Southwest Florida was a powerful essay written by Cantor Brown Jr. This essay displayed the significant increase of the slave resistance in the state of Florida, in the nineteenth century. Throughout Tales of Angola Brown, came off to his readers with a strong argument regarding the many different characteristics being exhibited of slave resistance in the state of Florida. Even though some may not agree but his argument got through to millions. Angola is a country in southwestern Africa. It was thought that Bantu speaking people from West Africa were the first of many people to arrive to this area, but in actuality the original people to arrive were the Khosian speakers, but since the Bantu people were so powerful they began to displace many of the other kingdoms. The significance of importance of the black communities was more than just the Negro Fort and the Fort Mose. (page.5) After awhile there was a link between Bahamian exiles through these communities. (page.6) Brown’s argument was that the Indian Removal Act, the racial collaborations between Red Sticks and African, and the legacies of resistance in the writing of African American history, all helped in the slave resistance in Florida.
The scramble for Africa started from 1800s to the start of the First World War (1914). Prior to the 19th century, the rest of the world knew very little about Africa, the Dark Continent. Africa brought huge areas of lands under the control of Europeans. Colonies were created and forced labor was introduced to bring land and labor together. The main purpose of forced labor was to acquire raw materials, ivory and rubber, for processing in European industries. Leopold garnered public support at home by publicly announcing his intent to Christianize and modernize the Congolese population, all the while planning the forced labor of men, women, and children for the lucrative ivory and rubber business.
The story starts with King Leopold II of Belgium. In the scramble for Africa, many nations rushed to establish colonies, and those who did made a great profit from them. The king himself wanted to compete with them, as well as amass a profit. He traveled to several British colonies and learnt how to establish and manage a colony of his own. The king himself then secretly bought the Congo, and supported an expedition led by Henry Morton Stanly.
Hailing from the African state of Ndongo and born in 1581 during the start of Luandan disagreement with Portuguese settlers (Toler 265), Queen Nzinga of the African Mbundu tribe stood up for her country and reestablished power over her people. Nzinga came in a time period that needed her. She got her country of Matamba (present day Angola) equal, both economically and socially, to the Portuguese. In order to do this, Nzinga took measures to place herself in the right position to eventually seize rule and steer her country in the right direction, even though it prompted a steady flow of opposition from her enemies. These initial enemies included the Imbangala tribes and irritated Portuguese Settlers, both of which she succeeded in turning into allies. Queen Nzinga's rule was well justified by a legal rise to the throne, and her subsequent role as a skilled ruler counteracted her reputation as a thriving slave trader.
The concept of slavery was accepted as a part of the culture and even in the fields of Isseke, Africa slaves were put to work. “Sometimes indeed, we sold slaves to them, but they were only prisoners of war, or such among us as had been convicted of kidnapping or adultery, and some other crimes, which we esteemed heinous.” (38)
While Portuguese power declined, the British, Dutch, and French powers rose due to firmly standing footholds along the coast. In 1652, Dutch immigrants sailed to the southern tip of Africa and established Cape Town, which was the first permanent European settlement to supply ships sailing to and, from the East Indies. Boers, Dutch farmers, settled in Cape Town and believed they were superior to the native peoples; there, they ousted, enslaved, and killed the people who lived there. The migrations of the Boers “… would eventually lead to battle with several African groups” (455). By the seventeenth century, British and French presences had both reached present-day Senegal. The French established a fort in this region by 1700. After hearing stories about British explorers’ quest for the Nile River’s source, the French and British were intrigued and set off to find this source. These forts led to the continuation of European exploration during the next century in Africa.
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
Reilly, "Nzinga Mbemba: Appeal to the King of Portugal." Worlds of History, Volume Two: Since
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