The Story of Ann Nzingha

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The Story of Ann Nzingha

The story of Ann Nzingha begins about 1582, the year she entered the world. She was born into a family of royalty. Nzingha was the sister of reigning King of Ndongo, Ngoli Bbondi. The country of Ndongo, in later years was named Angola. Nzingha was apart of an ethnic group called the Jegas. In later years, Ann Nzingha became queen because of determination, brave leadership, deceitfulness, and her persistent work ethics.

Nzingha showed great determination during her time on the throne. She made early attempts to become queen, but her brother became ruler in the early 1600's. In 1622 Nzingha showed great determination when her brother sent her to stand before Governor de Sousa to negotiate. She ordered a slave to kneel underneath her so she could sit down. Then she got the slave slaughtered to show the governor she meant business.

Znigha proved bravery leadership skills. In 1624, her brother died and his son also. Then she became queen, but it took mischief to get her seat on the throne. Nzingha possibly did the deaths of them. When she became queen, she started to make positive alliances with fellow countries. Nzingha closed the slave routes to

Portuguese. Then she recruited an army in the early 1630s and conquered the kingdom of Matamba. Shortly after that, the Portuguese drove her out and recruited a more cooperative queen.

Queen Nzingha had a deceitful side with her also. She killed slaves to get her point across. Nzingha had sexual intercourse with her slaves also. She had about 30 sex-

partners, and when she finished with them they were killed. I do not think it is right to kill slaves, like the queen did. You do not have to kill people to get your point across.

The queen was a persistent woman until she got her seat on the throne. In the 1640s, she formed an alliance with the Dutches and drove the Portuguese out of Luanda in 1641. The Portuguese were persistent also, because they came back in 1643,1647, and 1648. Queen Nzingha was strong and drove them out every time, but they conquered Nzingha at Luanda in 1648. Portuguese worked with Queen Nzingha in 1656/1659 and negotiated a slave trade, plus the assistant in military campaign.

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