WEBVTT - Queen Njinga's Cleverness 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.920 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:08.440 and Grim and Mild from Aaronminky Listener. Discretion is advised. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:18.560 By the sixteenth century, Europeans interested in the conquest and 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:23.639 colonization of Africa were forced to move inwards, further away 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.240 from the western coast of the continent and towards its center. 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:32.479 But the land there was difficult to traverse thanks to waterfalls, 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.960 some over three hundred feet high, and sporadic shallows in 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.760 the river which may travel by water, challenging, to say 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:46.080 nothing of the constant threat of crocodiles and hippos. The 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:51.360 largest kingdom in Central Africa was Congo, stretching over three 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.000 hundred miles long, although the arid western side of the 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.960 kingdom made it inhospitable and meant that the population was 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:03.960 primarily and traded in the city of Mbanza, Congo. Portugal 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.280 had arrived to Central Africa with the ostensible goal of 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:13.000 converting the local population to Catholicism and the added benefit 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:18.400 of joining in on the lucrative slave trade. King Alfonso 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.600 of the Congo submitted to the Portuguese under a mutually 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:28.600 beneficial arrangement. He converted to Catholicism allowed the Portuguese to 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.279 engage in the slave trade, and in return, he used 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.440 Portuguese military power to continue the expansion of his own 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.400 kingdom against neighboring states. One of those states to the 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:45.959 south of Congo was Indongo, the second largest kingdom in 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.600 Central Africa. When the Portuguese built a fort in Luanda 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:55.680 directly on the border, encroaching on Nindongo territory, the King 0:01:55.800 --> 0:02:00.400 of Ndongo knew something had to be done, and in 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:05.000 sixteen twenty two, the king sent his sister in Jinga 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:10.360 to negotiate. And Jinga knew what a precarious situation she 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:15.880 was walking into. Trading with colonialist Europeans was something of 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.320 an arms race amongst the kingdoms of Central Africa. You 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.440 didn't want to be the last kingdom left without guns. 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.600 Button Jinga had seen what had happened to King Alfonso 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:33.000 and the Bcongo people. The goal for her was preserving independence. 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:37.480 In autonomy, she needed to negotiate with Portugal in a 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.799 way that would give her kingdom access to Portuguese resources, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.720 but also that would keep Portugal from absorbing her kingdom entirely. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.200 The Portuguese governor Chua de Susa showed up for the 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:55.120 meeting informal European dress, and he sat on a high seat. 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:00.680 There was only one chair in the room. When Inga entered, 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.320 di Susa indicated that she should sit on the carpet. 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.520 It was, of course a classic power move to make 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.760 her sit an attempt to negotiate with him as equals 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.360 when she was physically put already in the position of 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:21.079 an African who had been conquered. But instead of kneeling, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.760 Jinga gestured for one of her lady's maids to get 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:30.600 on all fours. The woman became a human chair. Jinga 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.280 sat on her back and conducted the meeting at eye 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.240 level with the Portuguese governor. That anecdote, which has been 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.760 retold for hundreds of years and been the subject of 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:48.000 numerous artistic renderings, is perhaps the best possible embodiment of 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:53.920 Jinga's fascinating legacy, a woman who defied European colonialism with 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:59.120 cleverness and flair, but also sometimes on the backs figuratively 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:04.000 and literally of her subjects. After her brother's death, and 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:08.400 Jinga would become a conquering queen and an inspiration for 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.760 the spirit of African independence against colonialists even to the 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:17.720 present day. But she's also a complex figure of course, 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:23.000 as a female African ruler, propaganda from European missionaries would 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.760 paint her in incredibly racist and sexist terms, claiming she 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:34.600 was a cannibal and extremely sexually promiscuous, but more credible historians, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.760 particularly Dr Linda Haywood, have worked to uncover the truth 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:44.440 behind the bluster, both positive and negative. Another historian, Aurora 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.880 Levin's Morales, writes of Queen Jinga in her essay Historian 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:54.280 as Corndera quote, she was a fierce anti colonial warrior, 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.520 a militant fighter, a woman holding power in a male 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:03.240 dominated society, and she laid the basis for successful and 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:07.560 Golan resistance to Portuguese colonialism all the way into the 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:12.120 twenty century. She was also an elite woman living off 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.600 the labor of others, who fought other African people on 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.520 behalf of the Portuguese and collaborated in the slave trade. 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:23.200 It is in many ways more empowering when we tell 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.719 the stories of our heroic figures as contradictory characters full 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.640 of weakness and failures of insight. It enables us to 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.520 see our own choices and potentials more clearly, and to 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:41.000 understand that imperfect people can have a powerful liberating impact 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.800 on the world end quote. By the end of her 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.120 meeting with the Portuguese governor, and Jinga had agreed to 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.360 convert to Christianity as a means of securing a peace treaty. 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:57.159 As she left, her servant remained on all fours. The 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.640 Portuguese called after her. You're not going to take your chair, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.279 they said, Jinga shrugged. I have many more chairs where 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:11.720 I come from. I'm Dani Schwartz, and this is noble blood. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.200 The future Queen Jinga was born to the soon to 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.200 be King Umbande and one of his enslaved wives. Her 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:32.200 father became King or Ngola when Jingo was ten. The 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.159 present day country of Angola, which encompasses what was once 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.160 the Indongo Kingdom, actually gets its name from a European 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:46.320 misunderstanding of that word Ingola. King Jinga's Mother's name was 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.280 King Gala, and as an enslaved woman, she was presented 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.440 to the king as a gift, but she soon became 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:58.640 his favorite companion, eventually receiving the title of principal concubine, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:04.160 which is the status just below chief wife. According to legend. 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.440 When Jingo was born, she was breach with the umbilical 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.880 cord wrapped tightly around her neck, threatening her airflow. The 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.240 newborn baby was turning blue, but even as an infant, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.200 Jinga clung to life, and she twisted herself out of 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:26.320 the umbilical cord and earned herself her first breath. Jinga 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.880 also earned her name that way from the Kimbund language 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:35.560 verb kajinga to twist and turn. According to local tradition, 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.040 a baby who survives being born with an umbilical cord 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.200 wrapped around its neck is a symbol that they'll grow 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.360 up to be powerful and proud. But Njinga's birth was 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.680 also prophetic in another way. It foreshadowed the way that 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.280 she would be able to manipulate situations to her advantage, 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.480 to be able to twist and turn and adapt amongst 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:03.080 various tribes and European allies in order to protect herself 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:08.440 and her kingdom. Jinga, clever and hard working, quickly became 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:13.400 her father's favorite child. Though no women were actually rulers 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.440 of the Dongo Kingdom, they weren't excluded from the political 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.320 sphere either. Jinga's father became king when she was ten 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.960 and she was constantly at his side, standing at his 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.040 knee and learning while he conducted various diplomatic affairs and meetings. 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.839 She learned how to fight and received the same military 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:37.120 training as her brother, and she also learned Portuguese. Because 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.000 she was a woman, her brother didn't see her aptitude 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.280 as a threat. He just saw her as her clever sister. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.960 Isn't it sweet how much time she spent with Dad. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.400 The monarchy in the Nindongo Kingdom wasn't a direct father 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.120 to son dynasty. It was a little more game of 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.320 thrones e in which there were a number of eligible 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.960 possible kings based on their royal lineages, and any one 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.200 of them could be selected, or one of them could 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.080 establish themselves as king in a show of force, like 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:14.120 Njinga's brother Bondi did by more or less staging a 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.560 coup before the formal council decision was made. After their 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.880 father's death, button Bondy's fragile hold on the throne in 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.040 the early days meant that he had to be vigilant 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:30.600 of every possible threat. According to the story, Jinga had 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.560 a son at this point, and Bondi, afraid that his 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.920 nephew might one day, usurp him killed the baby and 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:44.600 for grotesque good measure forcibly sterilized Jinga with hot oil 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:47.600 and herbs to make sure that she could never have 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.520 any more male heirs. Because Njinga was a woman, she 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.360 was allowed to live. She wasn't seen as a threat 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:04.160 to his throne. But after being on the receiving end 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:09.160 of such extreme violence, Jinga fled the kingdom. Maybe there 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.040 was a chance that her brother, in his paranoia, might 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.360 have seen her as a threat after all. But for 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.960 the next few years, Jinga stayed in the nearby kingdom 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.679 of Matamba while Mbandi solidified his position as king and 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.880 became newly aware of the quagmire his kingdom was facing 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:32.920 in regards to Portugal. Maybe he begged, or maybe he 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:37.160 didn't have to, but in sixteen twenty one, Njinga returned 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.560 to the Kingdom of Indongo at her brother's behest, in 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.240 order to act as his ambassador with the Portuguese governor. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:50.080 Jinga was an invaluable asset. She was fluent in Portuguese 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.800 and had spent her entire childhood learning diplomacy beside her father. 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.520 This is the point in the story when Jinga met 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.079 with Governor de Suza and the Wanda, the infamous human 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:07.560 chair Comeback of sixty two. While most African diplomats met 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:12.400 with their European counterparts in European clothes, Jinga made the 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:18.120 tactical decision to where her own traditional clothing first. In 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.480 the negotiations, she refused point blank for her kingdom to 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:27.439 offer our Portugal anything in tribute. They were equals, she argued. 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:29.760 If they were going to give them anything, it would 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:34.719 be as a gift. Eventually, a settlement was reached in 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.679 exchange for opening trade routes to the Portuguese and Jinga 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:44.640 becoming baptized. Portugal would withdraw from Dongo territory and recognize 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.240 its national sovereignty. But the peace would be short lived. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.440 Donga was under threat from a new kingdom called Cassanja, 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.880 made up of in Bengala warrior soldiers who had broken 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:01.200 ranks with the Portuguese. Dongo was a tact and the 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:06.920 king bandy was forced to flee and go into exile. Now, 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.679 because the King of Nudonggo was now exiled and unbaptized, 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.040 the Portuguese decided that they didn't need to honor the 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:19.199 treaty that they had negotiated with Njinga. After all, she 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.760 had negotiated on behalf of a king who wasn't Christian 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:27.040 and wasn't really a king anymore. And so, with most 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.760 of Western Africa already gutted from the slave trade and 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.679 monopolized by the French and English, the Portuguese came for 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:40.480 Central Africa with a fervor. According to Dr Haywood, between 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.599 fifteen eighty and sixteen forty, the majority of enslaved Africans 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.040 brought to the Americas were from the Indongo people in 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:59.800 present day Angola. In sixteen twenty four and Bandy, the 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.320 ing of Inndongo, died. It may have been poisoning, but 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.400 more likely it was suicide, maybe out of shame for 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.600 having not better protected his kingdom from the Portuguese. Though 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.520 he made it very clear that his sister, in Jinga 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:21.400 diplomat extraordinaire, was his heir, most of the Indongo nobility 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.520 rejected her, some because they thought that Ndongo should become 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.800 a vassal state under Portugal, and others because they straight 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.600 out refused to acknowledge a female leader, and Jingo was 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:39.640 forced to flee her kingdom. Needing security, she joined up 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.960 with the in Bengala camp for protection, although she was 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.920 only allowed in on the conditions that she submit to 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.160 their chief as his wife, which she did. As a 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.640 new ward of the warrior in Bengala tribe, Jinga trained. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.320 This is the part of the story where if Njinga's 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.520 life was a film, we would get an epic Rocky 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:06.439 style training sequence. Njinga would be a fierce fighter for 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.160 the rest of her life, physically leading her soldiers into 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.679 battle well into her sixties, and she learned much of 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.160 that by training with the in Bengala people. She was 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.160 already a diplomat, but after her period with the in 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:25.080 Bengala she was a warrior, and as a warrior, Jinga 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:31.160 wanted to retake her kingdom, but first she needed an army. 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.800 Do you remember that neighboring kingdom of Matamba, the kingdom 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.840 where Jinga had stayed after her brother killed her son 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:44.040 and forcibly sterilized her. Well, Njinga went back to Matamba 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.160 with a band of in Bengala soldiers and kidnapped their queen. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.160 She declares herself the new queen of Matamba, and using 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.600 their army and their resources, she returned to Indongo and 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:09.720 took the throne to which she was entitled. For forty years, 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:13.360 Jinga was the Queen of the United Kingdoms of both 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:17.280 in Dongo and Matomba. Even with all of her political 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.920 and military strength, Jinga understood that she needed to subvert 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.240 the negative assumptions that came with her being the first 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.800 female in Donga ruler. In a strategy not unlike Queen 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.160 Elizabeth the First of England, and Jinga ceremonially became a 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.960 man in order to reaffirm her legitimacy as a monarch. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.760 Just to be clear, it was a symbolic ceremonial move, 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:47.040 not a reflection of her gender identity. It just meant 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:51.720 that Jinga acted in stereotypically masculine activities in order to 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:57.520 assuage all doubt about her capabilities. She led battles, forced 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:02.760 people to address her as king, and male concubines. According 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:07.800 to Dr Haywood, Jinga forced her male concubines to dress 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:12.120 in the female clothing of her female bodyguards. She made 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.400 the men and women in her service sleep in the 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.600 same room, but they were all required to remain chaste 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.480 if the men or women so much as touched one another, 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.360 even if it was just an accidental graze in someone's sleep, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.760 he or she would be rendered impotent or infertile, or 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:36.760 even killed. Some of the other stories about Jinga's brutality 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:41.000 have more nebulous sources, and are, in this writer's opinion, 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.640 evidence of the cultural European racism of missionaries reporting back. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.800 One missionary wrote that in Jinga was a cannibal, that 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.880 she delighted in bloody rituals, and that she forced the 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.800 men in her harem to fight to the death in 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.480 order to win the chance to spend a night with her. 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.200 Then in the morning, even the winner would be put 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:13.000 to death. Quing Jinga came to power in Africa through 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:19.159 her military prowess, skillful manipulations of religion, successful diplomacy, and 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:25.160 remarkable understanding of politics. Despite her outstanding accomplishments and her 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.040 decades long reign comparable to that of Elizabeth the First 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:33.680 of England, she was vilified by European contemporaries and later 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:39.240 writers as an uncivilized savage who embodied the worst of womankind. 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.720 End quote. One more note about in Jinga's historiographical legacy. 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.160 There are a number of different spellings of her name, 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.199 Some of her own writings and letters even have her 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:56.240 using her Europeanized baptismal name Anna de Suza. But I'm 0:17:56.320 --> 0:18:00.560 following the path of doctor Heywood and going with Jinga 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:05.240 n j I n g A. I also find for 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.840 me it visually makes that soft end sound easier to 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.919 pronounce than the other common way of spelling Njinga with 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:17.840 a Z instead of a J. Ever willing to twist 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:22.080 and turn as a political tactician. In sixteen thirty one, 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.560 Jinga formed an alliance with the Dutch West India Company 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.359 as the Dutch moved in against the Portuguese in Central Africa. 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.560 The Dutch sees Luongo, and with their help, Jinga defeated 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:40.680 the Portuguese army at Golme in sixteen forty four. It's 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:45.560 easy sometimes to skate past decades of battles and paint 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.600 them all in broad swatches without actually becoming cognizant of 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.320 the human toll that was sacrificed, the tragedies tiny and large, 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.199 that get swept up and pushed to the back of 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.600 a closet marked this or that war because company is 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.200 coming in. We want all these things out of the way. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.480 But there was a human toll, especially on Queen Jinga 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:12.720 and an especially visceral one in sixteen, when the Portuguese 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.280 kidnapped her sister. Accurate accounts are difficult to come by, 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.560 and some sources report that they actually captured two of 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.680 her living sisters, but the Portuguese at least had one, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.840 a sister who had grown up in Dongo by Njinga's side, 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.600 who had been with her and experiencing the horrifying ordeal 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:40.400 of being forcibly sterilized by their brother. Jinga's sister, named Kifnuji, 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.639 remained behind Portuguese enemy lines for years, and we do 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:49.760 have records of her writing back smuggled reports about Portuguese 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.959 goings on, which indicate that she might have been working 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.800 as a spy, and that might be part of the 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:09.200 reason that the Portuguese drowned her in the quand The River. Still, 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:14.320 Jinga continued her fight at this point in her mid sixties, 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.760 and Jinga had her soldiers using guerrilla tactics against the Portuguese, 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:23.280 and she oftentimes led the troops into battle herself. But 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:27.520 the Dutch were defeated by the Portuguese in six and 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:32.600 they withdrew from Central Africa eliminating one of Jinga's key allies. 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.400 But soon she would have another ally in her long 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:42.119 struggle to maintain Dongo sovereignty the Vatican. Back when she 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.560 was her brother's ambassador and she converted to Christianity in 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.760 negotiations with the Portuguese, that conversion didn't really stick in 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.040 her heart. She was committed to the cultural sovereignty as 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.360 well as the political sovereignty of her kingdom, and so 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:01.280 pretty soon after her treaty with Portugal was resolved, so 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:06.359 too did her commitment to Christianity. But in her mid sixties, 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:12.200 another flavor of missionary arrived in Nindongo, two Capuchin monks. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.119 Now it's impossible to know exactly what in Jinga's thought 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.640 process was here. It's possible that the Capuchin monks, devoid 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:26.000 of any political agenda, really spoke to her and Jinga 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:30.000 felt connected to the Catholic faith. Or it's possible that 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.760 in Jinga realized the value of becoming Christian as a 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.400 means of establishing her country on the world stage as 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.280 one of the Catholic nations recognized by the Pope. Or 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.840 maybe it was a combination of the two factors. But 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:49.320 for whatever reason, this time Jinga's Christianity seemed to stick, 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.160 she saw to it that as many Nindongo and Matomba 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:57.400 babies were baptized as possible, and she built an elaborate 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:03.480 European style church in her kingdom's capital. When traditional Dongo 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.960 priests were wary of their queen's seemingly sudden left turn 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.240 away from their spiritual teachings, and Jinga performed a public 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.560 right in which she used holy relics from the remains 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.200 of her brother's body the former king and asked him 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.879 and their ancestors if they approved of her converting to 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.040 Christianity if it meant that it would bring their nation 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:32.080 peace and surprise, Surprised, the holy relics agreed with her decision. 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:37.600 In sixteen sixty, her efforts came to fruition in the 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.440 form of a letter from Pope Alexander the seventh himself, 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.840 recognizing her as a daughter in Christ and saying that 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:55.639 he'd pray for her kingdom during the end of her life. 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.200 Jinga also turned her kingdom into a safe haven for 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:04.040 formally and slaved people escaping from slave trading colonists, which 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:08.320 was humanitarian but also an effective strategy to increase her 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:13.280 army strength and further her kingdom's expansion. It's tempting to 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.439 see that action as a symbol that in Jinga was 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.480 always fighting against slavery with the same zeal with which 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.000 she fought for her nation's sovereignty. But the truth is 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:28.560 a little more nuanced. Jinga and her family all owned 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:33.280 enslaved people, and she would gift enslaved Africans to the 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:38.520 Portuguese as diplomatic gestures. At certain times she supported the 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:42.639 Portuguese slave trade. But I also think it's important to 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.720 recognize that, even as she engaged in the political realities 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:51.199 of the time, her goal was always African sovereignty and 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:55.479 protecting the strength and autonomy of her kingdom, even if 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:58.919 she had to make horrific civil sacrifices in order to 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:03.400 achieve her your political goals, there are plenty of writers 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:06.720 who speak far more eloquently about the impact of the 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:12.200 European slave trade in Africa. Dr Linda Haywood's entire book, 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:16.520 Jinga of Angola is a great resource for anyone who 0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:20.480 wants to learn more about this topic from an actual expert. 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:26.240 Jinga made enemies both domestic and Portuguese throughout her life, 0:24:26.680 --> 0:24:31.399 but despite numerous assassination attempts, Jinga's final revenge on her 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:35.440 adversaries was dying peacefully in her sleep at age eighty. 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:38.560 She knew how to lead and what it took to 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:44.760 maintain power, especially against the encroaching threat of colonialism. Though 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:49.399 Njinga requested a simple Christian burial in a Capuchin habit 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:53.080 after her death, her attendants couldn't help but sending her 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:58.160 off with more traditional and dongo adornments. According to Anne 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:02.920 Theoryo's essay on Jinga in her series Queens of Infamy quote, 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:08.280 after she died, Jinga's body was carefully washed by her attendants, 0:25:08.359 --> 0:25:12.800 who anointed her with herbs, perfume, and powders. Her hair 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.760 was styled with corals, pearls, and feathers, and her crown 0:25:17.040 --> 0:25:20.560 was placed on her head. Her limbs were loaded down 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:25.480 with jewelry and arrangements of elephant hair, a symbol of royalty. 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:30.320 Her body was wrapped in two richly wrought brocade cloths, 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:34.680 and velvet slippers were placed on her feet. Then, mindful 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:38.240 of her instructions, her attendants replaced all of this with 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:42.440 a habit, crucifix, and rosary, although they left her hair 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:47.280 and crown as they were. This ceremonial dressing and redressing 0:25:47.720 --> 0:25:52.280 represented a middle ground between the two traditions. Njinga had 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:58.399 spent decades navigating. Though Njinga was Ndongo's first female leader, 0:25:59.080 --> 0:26:02.040 her sister to go over after her death, and out 0:26:02.040 --> 0:26:05.840 of the next one hundred four years in Dongo, eighty 0:26:06.000 --> 0:26:16.040 of those years would be under a female ruler. That's 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:19.480 the life of Queen Jingo of modern day Angola. But 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:22.800 stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear more 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:36.800 about her modern legacy. Four hundreds of years, Ninjinga has 0:26:36.800 --> 0:26:42.720 remained a powerful figure embodying African independence across the entire continent, 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:46.960 but also, of course, in the present day country of Angola. 0:26:47.680 --> 0:26:53.800 In and Gola finally broke free of Portuguese rule for good. 0:26:54.520 --> 0:26:58.440 In Ninjinga and everything she stood for was a guiding 0:26:58.560 --> 0:27:02.480 symbol for those who fought once again protect their nation 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:07.080 from European imperialism. In two thousand two, they built a 0:27:07.240 --> 0:27:11.000 giant statue of Nyjinga, which was placed in a public 0:27:11.040 --> 0:27:15.400 square in Luanda. Today the statue stands in the Engolan 0:27:15.520 --> 0:27:20.360 Museum of Armed Forces. But there's another reminder of Jinga's 0:27:20.400 --> 0:27:25.760 legacy that I find particularly interesting. She's a heroic figure 0:27:25.800 --> 0:27:29.040 in Africa, but also in the Americas, where so many 0:27:29.080 --> 0:27:32.680 of her people were brought against their will. In Brazil, 0:27:32.880 --> 0:27:36.679 where many enslaved Africans were brought, there's a number of 0:27:36.720 --> 0:27:41.320 businesses that bear in Jinga's name. A form of Brazilian 0:27:41.520 --> 0:27:48.320 martial arts called capuara frequently has studios named Njinga, keeping 0:27:48.440 --> 0:27:57.159 her fighting spirit alive. Noble Blood is a production of 0:27:57.200 --> 0:28:00.120 I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. 0:28:00.600 --> 0:28:03.119 The show is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and 0:28:03.200 --> 0:28:07.800 produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. 0:28:08.400 --> 0:28:11.399 Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, 0:28:11.680 --> 0:28:13.560 and you can learn more about the show over at 0:28:13.600 --> 0:28:16.560 Noble blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I 0:28:16.640 --> 0:28:20.240 Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:22.439 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.