Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Linda M. Heywood

Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen Reviews

• 
  Edward Butler

  Informative book about an important historical figure little known in the Anglophone world. I think that more could have been done to disentangle the account of Njinga's religious practices from the self-serving tales of Christian missionaries. The author has a tendency to view Njinga's adoption of Christianity late in life as a sincere conversion, while treating her earlier adoption of the Imbangala cult as tactical. And I am skeptical of some of the descriptions of Imbangala practices, which hardly come from disinterested sources. Still, a work of serious scholarship, and there is little else to read on Njinga in English.
• 
  Will Caskey

  Absolutely mindblowing biography of the 17th century leader you didn't know existed
  
  At the urging of a good friend familiar with Linda Heywood and her work I read this book not knowing what to expect at all. The biography exploded any expectations I possibly could have made. Njinga is, as Heywood emphasizes beginning and end, every bit as significant a figure as her contemporary Elizabeth I of England, in European history as well as that of the larger world. Njinga's life is a story of gut wrenching ferocity in equal parts with heart wrenching desperation. Her decades long struggle against the Portuguese takes enough twists and turns to put John Foxe's Elizabethan hagiography to shame. There's hardly a point in her life when Njinga's life's work, not to mention her literal life, was in mortal peril.
  
  At the same time, Heywood unrolls the maddening sequence of central African colonization. Local governors realize only after decades that they've utterly destroyed and depopulated the region beyond further exploitation, and even so their European rulers ignore them. I got the heavy impression of a multi century crime against humanity being a game of monopoly to its instigators. The Dutch, Jesuits and Vatican all appeared to take turns at a tragedy with what is now a monstrous and well known end.
  
  Njinga is without qualification the most fascinating historical figure I've read of and this book is indispensable to any understanding of early modern history.
• 
  Nathan Albright

  The fact that Njinga of Angola has become a heroine of freedom in Angola helps us to demonstrate the poisonous way in which the desire to oppose European imperialism leads people to talk up the importance of those whose behavior is far, far more wicked and evil than that of the imperialists they consider beneath contempt.  This book is certainly competently written, but just as certainly the book is itself evidence of and a testament to the political interests of the contemporary world that can sometimes overwhelm the proper perspective of the writer.  To be sure, the story is interesting, but Njinga is not only an interesting historical figure but is also an abhorrent example of African heathen religious thought whose failures as a leader and whose destructive political ambitions are themselves just as relevant to the troubles of contemporary Angola as her opposition to Portugal is an inspiration to contemporary imperiaphobes.  In short, I do not think that the author is writing about someone who is as significant as the author thinks, nor do I think that the author has done enough to avoid the problem she complains about concerning the way that Njinga has served the interests of those who have written about her.
  
  This book is about 250 pages or so and is divided into seven chapters.  The introduction to this book reveals the author's unfulfilled ambition to write the first "serious biography" of the subject in English-language historiography, an aim that is hindered by her desire to place the subject in a particular focus on questions of identity politics and feminism and colonialism.  After that the author writes about the Ndgongo Kingdom and the rise of Portuguese interests in Southwestern Africa (1) as well as the crisis involving the problems of succession that led to the rise of Njinga (2).  After that the author discusses Njinga as a defiant queen seeking to reject bowing to superior Portuguese military forces and their native allies (3), as well as the treacherous politics that involved the uncertainty of lords who did not find her a more compelling sovereign than the Portuguese (4).  After that the author discusses the warfare and diplomacy that Njinga undertook during decades as a tribal ruler (5), the balancing act that involved appeasing bloodthirsty heathen cults while also inviting Capuchin missionaries to spread Catholicism (6), and the subject's death and her efforts to pass her throne in order to later generations (7).  After this the author writes about the literary afterlife of Njinga in European historiography (because there apparently wasn't an African historiography to celebrate her during the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), after which there is a glossary, list of names, chronology, notes, acknowledgements, illustration credits, and an index.
  
  Throughout history people have been written about because they have served the agendas of those who write, and that is certainly the case here.  The author may think that she is superior on a moral basis than those writing biased broadsides about bloodthirsty heathen African rulers, but the story here is essentially the same, only the author praises the bloodthirstiness of Njinga because it came from a non-Christian religious worldview (which are apparently the only ones that a contemporary historian can praise or endorse) and because it shows a feminism that the author (but not the reader) considers admirable.  As a result, the author comes off at times like a partisan hack who lacks the self-awareness to see that she is no better than the hacks of previous generations who wrote politically motivated screeds to support their own partisan agendas.  This book has higher production values, to be sure, but not any greater insights into history, as it is limited most by the author's lack of recognition of the way that an anti-European bias hinders the understanding of Portugal's lengthy and frequently successful empirebuilding in Angola over the course of around four centuries.  Had the author had even a tenth of the favor towards Portugal and European efforts to build empires that she does for bloodthirsty and ambitious heathen African chieftains, this would be a far better book.
• 
  Shona Tiger

  I first came across the name Nzinga when every second woke person on Twitter was using the name, but I was never curious about it 😄 Turns out, I needed to be, because woke people already knew something about this amazing woman.
  
  This book fixed the deficit in my knowledge very smartly. Written by an academic, it's nevertheless very accessible; except, you may find the shifting political alliances in 17th century Angola as bewildering and eventually stultifying as I did. Never mind those, though: Njinga is a fascinating character, and her life makes for a compelling read.
  
  I was also very intrigued, after reading through most of the book, to see parallels between the use of the myth of Njinga to create a nationalist icon in 1970s Angola, and Zimbabwe's historical and also recently revived myth-making around Nehanda. I got to thinking again about the Western insistence on written history being "real" (To whom?), and "accurate" (By whose standards? Interpreted by whom?). How forcing a people to speak the coloniser's language disrupted/distorted/*destroyed* oral tradition. Much of what was written about Njinga over the two centuries after her rule came from Portuguese missionary sources, who of course had their own agenda. It is interesting that the MPLA may have reverted to local historical sources, but created a myth for their own agenda, too. Maybe history must always be disputed, and narratives must always have a purpose?
  
  Regardless, very much worth educating yourself about this larger-than-life southern African woman of history. I feel as proud of her as if her blood runs in my veins -- even if she was an occasional cannibal, and sent people off into slavery.
• 
  Jennifer

  This book is a more scholarly biography than popular biography so it's missing some of the sweeping "placement in greater time and place" and cultural commentary that I normally like in my nonfiction. That all said, it's laser-focused on a fascinating life that doesn't get talked about in the US and I'd love more biographies that exposed me to history that didn't get touched on at all in my schooling.
• 
  JRT

  Njinga of Angola tells the story of one of the most legendary, skillful, and consequential leaders in modern African history—Queen Njinga of Ndongo-Matamba. Queen Njinga was not just a stunningly calculating politician and ruler who defied gender norms and used competing cultures for her own aims, she was *the* central figure in organizing African resistance to total Portuguese domination in the region during the 17th Century. This book does a really good job detailing the development of Queen Njinga’s Kingdom—the Kingdom of Ndongo—situating it in the middle of Portuguese efforts to control the entire region, including the powerful Kingdom of Kongo. The book also does a really good job showing how and why Queen Njinga is represented differently by Europeans and Africans. Europeans simultaneously saw her as both the picture of African savagery and Euro-colonial success (as Queen Njinga both viciously fought against Portugal and often engaged in extremely vile acts in order to consolidate her power, but died a Catholic and ruler of a Christianizing state). Africans, however, saw her as the epitome and symbol of resistance and the standard of Central African culture. In a way, all sides are correct, as Queen Njinga’s life demonstrated how one person can manipulate multiple cultures, practices, political aims, and peoples for her own personal ends.
  
  This book also places the tragic story of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade—the primary economic engine of both the Portuguese and the Central African rulers of the day, including Queen Njinga—as the subtext of the story. In doing so, the author makes clear that despite her legendary status as an African ruler and champion of African culture and traditions, Queen Njinga engaged and collaborated with European powers (both the Portuguese and the Dutch) in the trade of her fellow Africans into chattel slavery. This, and other dark aspects of Queen Njinga’s story, ultimately come together to present a well-rounded depiction of a deeply complicated ruler. I highly recommend this book for anybody who wants to learn about the history of Central Africa during the early stages of European contact.
  
• 
  Marc Kohlman

  Phenomenal! A biography worthy of such a powerful and courageous leader. Ambitious, dominant, confident, dynamic, calculating, resourceful, vicious and intelligent- a Warrior Queen in every sense of the title. Extremely strong, focused and highly honorable woman anyone can learn from and respect. For me the most attractive and human aspect of Njinga's person is that she was tough as nails and put her nation's welfare and future above all. Heywood's book has brought Njinga's incredible story into the forefront and helped sweep aside critical European viewpoints of her as a savage, whore, witch and blood-thirsty deviant. She presents readers with the life and character of a remarkable woman who risked all, even life itself, to protect her people. Ostracized by her people, Njinga proved herself a capable, witty and proud person who galvanized and inspired people around her to fight back against the Portuguese slave trade and for the preservation of Angola and Matamba. Resilient beyond belief, Njinga certainly belongs on the list of Women who made History. Devout with a first-rate military-mind, she represents people who are able to achieve greatness regardless of their social backgrounds. Her legacy is that of bravery, the unrelenting warrior spirit and standing for national honor by any means necessary. I was amazed when having first read about her in Joyce Hansen's "African Princess"in the 7th grade. Her story instilled a deep-rooted pride for my own African heritage. Fellow readers will find themselves gripped, intrigued, motivated and astounded by the determination and widespread influence Njinga had not only in her own time but even now and generations to come.
• 
  Fernando Nunes

  Trata-se de uma biografia da Rainha Nzinga, rainha guerreira que no e do interior da hoje Angola fez a cabeça em água aos portugueses entre 1624, quando se torna rainha e 1663, ano da morte. O texto do livro é extenso, por vezes difícil de seguir, com muitas datas e com nomes de intervenientes que confundem o leitor. Apresenta, contudo, uma outra visão do que se passou naqueles anos em África e sobretudo a história de uma mulher que foi capaz de resistir aos seus e aos portugueses usando a guerra, a diplomacia e a religião.
• 
  Rhonda Hankins

  This reads like a PhD dissertation — full of facts and citations but so dense and detailed that the energy of a fascinating story can get suffocated.
• 
  Jose De sa

  Muito bom e rigoroso. Mas, talvez por isso mesmo, talvez não agrade nem aos leitores portugueses, nem aos angolanos e brasileiros que costumam mitificar a rainha.
• 
  Thom DeLair

  The legendary queen Njinga has been getting more attention in the past several years, certainly Heywood has played a role in that. Heywood and Thorton’s work about the Angola connection in the early American colonies caught my attention a while back. I wanted to learn more about her and the society that she lived in, as it was a connection to colonial American history.
  
  Njinga’s modern appeal is that she fought against colonization. She was a fierce leader on the battlefield and a shrewd negotiator. She knew how to turn the screws by creating diplomatic pressure and how to handle high stakes negotiations with people who would stab her in the back if they had the chance. Njinga was tough, in charge and exceptional in many ways.
  
  That being said, Heywood is fair in showing that Njinga functioned in a reale politik environment to maintain her autonomy against the pernicious Portuguese. While Njinga does resist Portuguese slavers at times in her life, other times she’s willing to make a deal, including trading in slaves. At the center of her mission was maintaining her inherent superiority within her society. Heywood makes a convincing interpretation that at her core was maintaining her royal identity within the Mabundu lineage. She was also skilled at speaking on multiple levels. After the Portuguese took her kingdom of Ndongo, she converted to Imbangala, rising through the ranks to become a captain. She later invited the Capuchin missionaries to bring Catholic traditions to her kingdom of Matamba. She ruled over subjects of different religious orientations and won many over.
  
  When her Christian sister, who was a hostage to the Portuguese, was returned to Njinga’s kingdom, she was traded for one hundred and thirty slaves. While Njinga might have surrendered traditions like human sacrifice, she was integrating the Portuguese slave economy into her lands that would in turn ensure her family’s agency within the regional power structure. And of course, the role of the slave trade would continue drain the region for many centuries to come. It was interesting, that when she did adopt Christianity fully during this time, she symbolically dropped her battle axe, surrendering in a sense to the Portuguese, it was making a compromise. She had to accept she would not be the dominate power in the region. In this compromise, she also ensured that her kingdom would not pay any tribute to the Portuguese, they would be on equal footing. I wouldn’t consider her a champion of human rights but she is a champion of national sovereignty and female empowerment.
  
  While this is a biography of Njinga, therefore centered on her, understanding the broader diplomatic context in her story is important, especially if you don’t know much about the broader history before reading this biography. I felt the book needed a tad more context in this aspect. Chiefly, as the Kingdom of Kongo to the north, would have served as a guide to Njinga understanding how to position herself against the Portuguese on the diplomatic front. Just as Njinga had sought to bypass the Portuguese and establish a direct diplomatic communications with the Vatican, the kingdom of Kongo had done this several decades before. The description of the Kingdom of Kong is peripheral and having more about it gives a broader context to the situation and Njinga’s decision making.
  
  Heywood also takes some pretty firm stances on some of the questionable information in order to tell a story fluidly, rather than derail the narrative by explaining the limitations in the historical information available. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that but readers should know there are slightly different interpretations on some major aspects of Angolan history. For example, historical sources about the Imbangala are from bias Catholic sources and while they might have elements of truth, they are described as evil and it seems unfair to not explain the lack of information on the Imbangala before they get cast as the spooky ones in the historical narrative.
  
  A question the book left me was the changes in the social dimension from Njinga’s birth and childhood to the end of her life in the 1650s and 1660s. The lands she lived in saw a great deal of destruction. The tears she and her people shed when she spoke at church of her life said something to me about the collective trauma they had endured together. It would be interesting to know more about how the cycle of violence that destabilized the region did it endorse changes in cultural norms of violence or dehumanization of others during Njinga’s lifetime? She said she was not perfect, but in dire times of her age, she guided her people pragmatically with a long-term plan to ensure their dignity.
  
• 
  Cam's Corner

  Queen Njinga was a powerful 17th-century ruler of Ndongo who came into power “through her military prowess, skillful manipulation of religion, successful diplomacy, and remarkable understanding of politics,” (pg. 1). Despite these facts, Linda M. Heywood’s Njinga of Angola is the only English-language biography about her. How can this be? Heywood challenges traditional conceptions of Njinga. Previous European accounts focused on the conquests that she has done, which have reductively illustrated her in a narrow way. In fact, the main aspect Europeans have taken from her story was her “barbarity, bloodthirsty nature, wanton sexuality and cannibalism” (pg. 248). Heywood addresses this remiss account and seats Njinga with other great women leaders at the table. Focusing on themes such as “resistance, power, leadership, gender, and spirituality” (pg. 3), Heywood adds to existing historiography that Njinga and other Africans were not passive victims of European colonization.
  
  Heywood addresses how the perceptions that the Portuguese had of Njinga shaped the political interactions between Njinga and other Europeans. Heywood points out how the Portuguese resisted Njinga’s political influence based on her gender. One Portuguese diplomat, Fernãno de Sousa, despised her. To delegitimize and antagonize Njinga, he elected her half-brother Hari a Kiluanje to take the Ndongo throne, declaring that “a woman had never governed this kingdom” (pg. 71). Even with attempts from Njinga to compromise, de Sousa still undermined her. When Njinga “indicated… that she was willing to become a vassal of the Portuguese king… de Sousa expected [her] to give up on any claim to the lands and throne of Ndongo and accept Ngola Hari as the legitimate king,” (pg. 98). De Sousa ignored both the traditions and norms of the Ndongo by refusing to see Njinga as a legitimate agent in her kingdom's politics. Heywood demonstrates that de Sousa’s promotion of Hari reflected such indifference. Not only was Hari not the rightful heir, the people never took him seriously, as they “regarded the king not as an ordinary person but as a divinity with the ability to provide for the well-being of his people,” (pg. 117). Hari had not been viewed in the same esteem as Njinga. Therefore, Hari was “Ngola” only in name.
  
  Heywood spends a great deal of time on illustrating how Njinga possessed great leadership abilities and qualifications. As a child, she had unusual the favor of her dad as she “was allowed to attend the numerous judicial, military and other councils over which her father presided,” (pg. 58). She also served as an official envoy in October 1621 under her brother Ngola Mbande. He knew that “she harbored political ambitions, had a loyal following among some important factions in Ndongo and… was intent on rebuilding Ndongo and limiting” (pg. 50) Portuguese advancement. Such experiences helped shape her political cunning and ability to lead her people when she came into full power. In fact, Njinga still maintained a considerable influence while she was exiled. Heywood notes that “she was able to persuade many reluctant sobas in eastern Ndongo and the neighboring kingdoms to join her cause and to keep her whereabouts secret.” (pg. 87) The fact that she united people in and outside of her kingdom to resist the Portuguese is no small feat.
  
  Njinga of Angola is a phenomenal biography; however, it is not without a shortcoming. While Heywood does a fantastic job in the epilogue explaining the evolution in the European depictions of Njinga to the reclaimed ones of the Angolans, it would have been interesting to get the historiography from scholars. How was she depicted by these historians over the past few centuries? Were there aims to humanize her and get the truth or was it all speculation and drama?
  
  Regardless of this one flaw, this biography deserves to be sold in stores with other biographies. I too share the hope with the author that Njinga will one day “take her place in popular history alongside her near contemporaries” (pg. 257) such as Catherine the Great and Queen Elizabeth the II. She is just as worthy of recognition and respect.
  
• 
  Alison

  This is not the liveliest history, despite the fascinating subject matter. The book focuses heavily on the military events and various shifting alliances, with only rare glimpses - stronger towards the end - of what must have been a fascinating woman. I also struggled with the human sacrifice from the Ngolans, and the horrific obsession with slavery from the Portuguese and Dutch - I wanted a bit more exploration of the societies that produced such comfort with inequality. This is an important book, but not a particularly immersive read.
• 
  Laura

  Queen Njinga's story hidden for centuries in the throes of European colonization and imperialism is finally revealed. Heywood does a great job in painting the legacy of this complex female monarch with her military aptitude, diplomatic intelligence and spiritual reinventions; who proved a formidable power no male could quell. Great use of primary sources without being overly academic.
• 
  Elizabeth Judd Taylor

  A very interesting biography about a woman who should be better known in the Western world, as well as a look at the military and religious unrest caused by colonialism in the 17th century. A talented warrior and politician, Njinga was a very fascinating woman. I also appreciated the epilogue, which looked at how her memory has been used for propaganda—both negative and positive—since her death.
• 
  Laura

  I wanted to be into it because little-discussed warrior queen who went up against Europeans. But it's still just a royalty/warfare/strategy history (necessarily because of the sources available), which is not really my thing.
• 
  Samantha

  Angola
• 
  Nkaiferi Ifiok

  I haven’t read many history books, so I have little to compare this one with, but it seems that this book was painstakingly researched by the author. She gives sources for nearly every fact put forward. This is great, because the topic covered is potentially contentious (the conflicts between the Angolans and the Portuguese in the 16th to 17th centuries). The wealth of citations renders the work credible.
  The author’s tone is not overly pedantic, so you can easily follow her narration. In addition, at the back of the book are to be found a helpful glossary and index.
  All this being said, I didn’t quite finish the book. The subject matter, while probably accurately represented, was violent and gory, and I found it quite disheartening to read, especially because I know that the Portuguese eventually conquered and colonized Angola, and its people still feel the shockwaves of these events till today. Also, I found it quite jarring how violent the Angolans were, even amongst themselves.
  I skipped to the end of the book and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Linda Heywood is black. That fact does little to change the quality or content of the writing, but it does warm my heart to be reminded that there are black historians dedicated to documenting Africa’s history accurately, something that the white people of the previous century did not think worthwhile.
  I also appreciate that the author included Njinga’s influence in recent history and contemporary Angolan and Brazilian life.
  
  I look forward to more history books by this author.
  
• 
  Sonnet

  Wonderful book about a little-known queen who really deserves a bigger place in history. I'll post my Library Journal review of it once it's published.
• 
  Mills College Library

  Biog N999h 2017