Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: It was the morning of August ninth of nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: six in the neighborhood of Headington, Oxford. It was an
Speaker 1: unassuming place, suburban with cookie cutter houses lining a quaint street,
Speaker 1: a perfectly ordinary British suburb. On that morning, though, something
Speaker 1: had changed. By eight o'clock, a small crowd had gathered
Speaker 1: outside of a two story brickhouse on New High Street,
Speaker 1: and everyone was looking up. Planted in the roof of
Speaker 1: the building was a twenty five foot tall sculpture of
Speaker 1: a great white shark, its head embedded into the shingles.
Speaker 1: It looked as if it had dropped their head first.
Speaker 1: There was no mystery where the shark came from. Standing
Speaker 1: beside it on the roof for two men, one of
Speaker 1: them an American ex pat named Bill Hayne, who owned
Speaker 1: the house, and the other man was John Buckley, a
Speaker 1: British sculptor who had crafted the shark. The creators of
Speaker 1: this piece of art referred to it only as untitled
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six. It was, at least according to its creators,
Speaker 1: a political statement set up on the anniversary of the
Speaker 1: bombing of Nagasaki. It was supposed to represent death coming
Speaker 1: suddenly from above onto the heads of innocent civilians, like
Speaker 1: a shark lunging at its prey from the murky darkness
Speaker 1: of the ocean. Of course, not everyone believed that this
Speaker 1: was the intent. Skeptics suspected that Hayn put up the
Speaker 1: artwork in order to hide an antenna of some kind,
Speaker 1: or as a rank for his neighbors. But these loan
Speaker 1: speculators were not the statue's primary enemy. No, that would
Speaker 1: be the Oxford City Council. The council took an immediate
Speaker 1: dislike to the shark. They thought that it was an
Speaker 1: eyesore on the otherwise pleasant looking row of houses. They
Speaker 1: were also annoyed that Hain and Buckley had not gotten
Speaker 1: any permits to put such a visible statue up, and
Speaker 1: for years the city council and Hayne went to war
Speaker 1: over this statue. Council members created a petition to have
Speaker 1: it removed and asked everyone in the district to sign.
Speaker 1: They even solicited signatures from local retirement homes. Meanwhile, Hain
Speaker 1: held a birthday every year for the statue, which his
Speaker 1: neighbors attended in droves. In nineteen ninety, as a peacemaking solution,
Speaker 1: Haynes sent a petition to the council asking for retroactive
Speaker 1: permission for this statue. The council refused, though, stating that
Speaker 1: they could not approve a statue that so disruptive to
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. It must be taking down, they said. After that,
Speaker 1: Haynes's petition went all the way to the Department of
Speaker 1: the Environment. A representative there agreed that the shark was
Speaker 1: quite disruptive visually, but said that this was clearly the
Speaker 1: point of the artwork and allowed it to stay. One
Speaker 1: of the government inspectors set to survey the shark even
Speaker 1: called it unique and brilliant. It had taken six years,
Speaker 1: but after nineteen ninety two, untitled nineteen eighty six was safe. However,
Speaker 1: public pieces of art must be maintained. In the years
Speaker 1: since then, the sculpture referred to by locals as the
Speaker 1: Headington Shark started to show the wear and tear of age.
Speaker 1: The Department of the Environment suggested that it should be
Speaker 1: repainted every nine months and not illuminated after ten thirty pm.
Speaker 1: It's unclear if these suggestions were followed, but a full
Speaker 1: renovation was undertaken in two thousand and seven, even as
Speaker 1: Hain himself grew older and struggled to maintain the same
Speaker 1: enthusiasm for the sculpture that he had shown as a
Speaker 1: younger man. In his later years, as his mortgage ran
Speaker 1: out and his work prospects dwindled, Bill Hayn considered taking
Speaker 1: the Shark down. As of twenty sixteen, it had been
Speaker 1: thirty years since the shark had started standing over the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: which was a long time and he was tired. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: his son was able to buy the house from him
Speaker 1: and takeover maintenance of the sculpture. He found an ally
Speaker 1: in the Oxford City Council, the same body that tried
Speaker 1: to have the Shark taken down in the nineteen eighties
Speaker 1: and nineties. The council lobbied for over a decade to
Speaker 1: get the Headington Shark listed as a local heritage site,
Speaker 1: finally succeeding in twenty twenty two. Hayin didn't live to
Speaker 1: see this, sadly passing away. In twenty nineteen, in his honor,
Speaker 1: gold leaf was added to one of the sharks fins.
Speaker 1: Today the house is available as an airbnb, so if
Speaker 1: you're visiting Oxford, it's entirely possible to stay underneath one
Speaker 1: of the most esoteric pieces of independent art in England.
Speaker 1: The irony is not lost on anyone. A piece of
Speaker 1: art created without permission to protest the way societ is
Speaker 1: blind to the cruelties of war has become a tourist attraction.
Speaker 1: Whether that represents failure or success, though, is entirely up
Speaker 1: to you. When people tell stories, we often sand off
Speaker 1: the rough edges. We try to make people good or
Speaker 1: bad rather than the complex reality. And no figure in
Speaker 1: history better exemplifies this complexity than Queen Najinga of Indango
Speaker 1: and Matamba. Her African descendants often paint her as something
Speaker 1: akin to a saint, while her European rivals tried to
Speaker 1: depict her as a ruthless warlord. In truth, she was
Speaker 1: a complex, curious person from one of the most violent
Speaker 1: settings in human history. Nijinga was born in fifteen eighty three,
Speaker 1: the daughter of the King of Indango in southwestern Africa.
Speaker 1: She had a close relationship with her father from a
Speaker 1: very young age, and this made her brother Embondi quite jealous.
Speaker 1: In Jinga learned everything that she could from her father
Speaker 1: as he waged war against the invading Portuguese and slavers.
Speaker 1: When her father captured one of their missionaries, she made
Speaker 1: the missionary teach her how to read and write in Portuguese.
Speaker 1: And although she was the most fit to rule, her brother,
Speaker 1: of course, took the throne when their father died in
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen. Now a grown woman of thirty four years old,
Speaker 1: she had to watch in horror as Embondi killed all
Speaker 1: of their male relatives who he saw as a threat
Speaker 1: to his rule, and this included her own son. After this,
Speaker 1: Embandi also forcibly sterilized in Jinga and all other sisters
Speaker 1: so that they couldn't have children that would one day
Speaker 1: grow up to challenge him. Despite this mistreatment, though Embondi
Speaker 1: still relied on in Jinga's superior acumen. When it came
Speaker 1: time to negotiate with the Portuguese, it was her that
Speaker 1: he sent. She arrived at then negotiations, clad in elaborate
Speaker 1: traditional dress. Right away, the Europeans tried to demean her
Speaker 1: by providing only a mat on the floor for her
Speaker 1: to sit on while they had chairs. She looked at
Speaker 1: the mat and then motioned to one of her enslaved people.
Speaker 1: He came forward and went down on all fours, providing
Speaker 1: her a place to sit his back. She spoke Portuguese
Speaker 1: and even offered to convert to Christianity, but she was
Speaker 1: determined that her kingdom would not become a vessel. She
Speaker 1: told the Portuguese that yes, they could enter into the
Speaker 1: human trafficking business, but they had to respect in Bondi's authority.
Speaker 1: The Portuguese were impressed and agreed to her demands, and
Speaker 1: the two parties signed a treaty. But as soon as
Speaker 1: Niginga got back home, she learned that the Portuguese had
Speaker 1: refused to withdraw their troops and were continuing to raid
Speaker 1: to kidnap human lives, and Bondi was weak and indecisive.
Speaker 1: In Niginga's eyes, he wasn't the man to stand up
Speaker 1: to these enslavers. He died under mysterious circumstances in sixteen
Speaker 1: twenty four The official story, if you're curious, was that
Speaker 1: he died by suicide, but others claimed that Najinga had
Speaker 1: finally gotten her revenge. She ascended to the throne, beginning
Speaker 1: a period of political maneuvering between her and the Portuguese. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: though the Portuguese were able to gain the support of
Speaker 1: the nobles of Endogo, who installed a puppet king. The nobles,
Speaker 1: it seems, preferred a male ruler, Najinga was forced to
Speaker 1: flee on foot to the east, where she found unlikely allies.
Speaker 1: She met a band of m Bengala, roving marauders with
Speaker 1: a strict code of military discipline. Various historical accounts described
Speaker 1: them as ruthless. They literally ate their enemies and killed
Speaker 1: and sacrificed any children born within the tribe. The only
Speaker 1: way to join was to prove yourself in combat. The
Speaker 1: tribe had no use for infants, they say, and although
Speaker 1: Najinga was shocked by their way of life, she was
Speaker 1: even more shocked when the tribe leader offered to marry her.
Speaker 1: He was impressed with her abilities and the way she
Speaker 1: handled the Portuguese compared to her brother. She agreed to
Speaker 1: the offer and soon she was personally leading m Bengala
Speaker 1: raiding parties. Keep in mind that she was a woman
Speaker 1: in her forties at this point. Najinga and her new
Speaker 1: allies conquered the nearby kingdom of Matamba, where she became
Speaker 1: the new ruler, and there she grew in power equally
Speaker 1: loved and feared by her people. One of the most
Speaker 1: curious features of her corto was a harem of male concubines.
Speaker 1: She thought that this was only fitting since male rulers
Speaker 1: had their own harems of women. Strangely, though, Najinga had
Speaker 1: the concubine's dress as women, while she dressed as a
Speaker 1: man in order to seem more like a king than
Speaker 1: a queen. With her new kingdom in tow, Najinga attacked
Speaker 1: her homeland, the now Portuguese controlled Kingdom of Endogo. Fighting
Speaker 1: would continue for years, but neither side was ever able
Speaker 1: to truly get the upper hand. Ultimately, Nijinga had to
Speaker 1: settle for a peace treaty in sixteen fifty six, although
Speaker 1: it did recognize her authority in her kingdom of Matamba,
Speaker 1: but it also required her to recommit to Christianity and
Speaker 1: allow the Portuguese slave trade to continue. Matamba, by the way,
Speaker 1: remained independent until the twentieth century, when it was joined
Speaker 1: with Angola. It's also one of the few countries in
Speaker 1: the world to have multiple successive female rulers. In the end,
Speaker 1: it's fair to say that Nijinga was a curious mixture
Speaker 1: of warrior and diplomat, liberator and enslaver, feminist and matriarch.
Speaker 1: She was no storybook queen, and yet her accomplishments were
Speaker 1: absolutely legendary. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written
Speaker 1: by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk.
Speaker 1: Learn more about the show and the people who make
Speaker 1: it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also
Speaker 1: find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity. These
Speaker 1: hardcover book available in bookstores and online, as well as
Speaker 1: ebook and audiobook, and if you're looking for an ad
Speaker 1: free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories,
Speaker 1: but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn
Speaker 1: more and sign up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild,
Speaker 1: and until next time, stay curious,