Kingdom of Ndongo
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The Kingdom of Ndongo is the name of a pre-colonial African state in modern day Angola built by the Mbundu, a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting northern Angola.
The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of a number of vassal states to Kongo that existed in the region, though Ndongo was the most powerful of these within a kingdom called Ngola.
Little is known of the kingdom in the early sixteenth century, "Angola" was listed among the titles of the King of Kongo in 1535, so it is likely that it was in somewhat subordinate to Kongo. Its own oral traditions, collected in the late sixteenth century, particularly by the Jesuit Baltasar Barreira, described the founder of the kingdom, Ngola Kiluanje, also known as Ngola Inene, as a migrant from Kongo.
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[edit] Social and Political Structure
The Mbundu speaking region was known as the land of Mbundu, and according to late sixteenth century accounts, it was divided into 736 small political units ruled by sobas. These sobas, and their territories, called murinda were compact groupings of villages, called senzala or libatas (probably following the Kikongo term divata) surrounding a small central town, called mbanza.
These political units were often grouped into larger units called kanda and sometimes provinces. Larger kingdoms may have emerged in earlier times, but in the sixteenth century most of these regions had been united by the rulers of Ndongo. Ndongo's capital city was called Kabasa, located on the highlands near modern day N'dalatanda. This was a large town, holding as many as 50,000 people in the densely populated district.
The king of Ndongo, and the leaders of the various provinces ruled with a council of powerful nobles, macota (singular dicota), and also had an administration headed by the tendala, a judicial figure, and the ngolambole, a military leader. In Ndongo itself the ruler had an even larger group of bureaucrats, including a quartermaster called kilunda, and another similar official called the mwene kudya.
Social structure was anchored on the ana murinda (children of the murinda) or free commoners. In addition to the commoners, there were two servile groups, the kijiko or serfs, unfree commoners who were permanently attached to the land and the mubika (plural abika) who were slaves. Ijiko (plural of kijiko) were not allowed to be sold, but the abika could be and were sold.
[edit] The Portuguese Colony and War with Ndongo
In 1518 the kingdom sent an embassy to Portugal asking for missionaries, and indirectly for recognition as independent of Kongo. A Portuguese mission arrived in Ndongo in 1520 but local disputes and perhaps Kongo pressure forced the missionaries to withdraw. Afonso I of Kongo took the missionaries to Kongo and left his own priest there. Around 1556, Ngola Kiluanje sent a second mission to Portugal, and the return mission, led by Paulo Dias de Novais, arrived in 1560. Dias de Novais' mission also failed and he returned to Portugual in 1564, leaving the Jesuit priest Francisco Gouveia behind.
In 1571 the Portuguese crown granted Dias de Novais a charter to build a colony in Angola, authorizing him to make conquests in the region, bring in settlers, and built forts. Dias de Novais arrived in Luanda, which was on Kongo territory by arrangement with Kongo's king Álvaro I in recompense for Portugal's assistance against the Jaga. Unable to conquer any territory on his own, Dias de Novais made alliances with both Kongo and Ndongo, serving as a mercenary army. In 1579, jealous Portuguese merchants who had settled in Kongo, led by Francisco Barbuda, advised Njinga Ndambi Kilombo kia Kasenda, that Portugal intended to take over his country. Acting on this intelligence and advice, Njinga Ndambi tricked the Portuguese forces into an ambush and massacred them at his capital.
The war that followed witnessed a Kongo invasion which was narrowly defeated in 1580, and a Portuguese offensive up the Kwanza river, resulting in the founding of their fort at Massangano in 1582. A number of sobas switched their allegience to Portugal and soon many of the coastal provinces were joined to the colony. By 1590, the Portuguese decided to attack the core of Ndongo, and sent an army against Kabasa itself. Ndongo, however, had recently sealed an alliance with nearby Matamba, and the Portuguese force was crushed. Following this defeat, Ndongo made a counteroffensive, and many of the formerly pro-Portuguese sobas returned to Ndongo. But Portugual managed to retain much of the land they had gained in the earlier wars, and in 1599, Portugal and Ndongo formalized their border.
[edit] The Imbangala Period
During the early seventeenth century an uneasy peace held between Portugal and Ndongo. Portuguese continued their expansion along the Kwanza, founding the presidio of Cambambe in 1602, and attempted, whenever possible to meddle in Ndongo's politics, especially as it concerned Ndongo's tenuous hold on Kisama and other lands south of the Kwanza River. In the course of their activities in the region south of the Kwanza the Portuguese came into contact with the Imbangala, a rootless group of nomadic raiders who were ravaging the country. In 1615, the temporary Angolan governor Bento Banha Cardosa encouraged some Imbangala to cross the river and enter Portuguese service, and with their help he expanded the colony along the Lukala River, north of Ndongo.
In 1617 the new governor Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos, after first rejecting the use of Imbangala troops, committed himself to the alliance and began aggressive campaigns against Ndongo. Thanks to the help of Imbangala bands commanded by Kasanje, Kasa, and others, he was able to invade Ndongo, sack the capital and forced King Ngola Mbandi to take refuge on the island of Kindonga in the Kwanza River. Thousands of Ndongo subjects were taken prisoner, and Mendes de Vasconcelos sought unsuccessfully to create a puppet government to allow Portuguese rule.
Mendes de Vasconcelos' successors, João Correia de Sousa tried to make a peace with Ndongo, and in 1621, Ngola Mbandi sent his sister, Njinga Mbandi to Luanda to negotiate on his behalf. She negotiated a peace treaty in which Portugal agreed to withdraw its advance fort of Ambaca on the Lukala, which had served as a base for the invasion of Ndongo, return a large number of captive ijiko to Ndongo, and force the Imbangala bands who were still ravaging Ndongo to leave. In exchange Ngola Mbandi would leave the island and reesablish himself at the capital and become a Portuguese vassal, paying 100 slaves per year as tribute.
However, João Correa de Sousa became involved in a disastrous war with Kongo and in the aftermath was expelled from the colony by angry citizens. His temporary successor, the bishop, was unable to execute the treaty, and it was then left to the new governor, Ferão de Sousa to settle matters when he came in 1624.
[edit] The Rise of Queen Njinga
Portugal's failure to honor its treaty took a toll on Ngola Mbandi, and in desperation, he committed suicide, leaving the country in the hands of his sister Njinga, who was to serve as regent for his minor son, then in the protective custody of the Imbangala leader Kaza, who had left Portuguese service and joined with Ndongo. Njinga, however, only briefly served as regent, and had the young son murdered and succeeded to the throne as ruling queen.
De Sousa took this opportunity to reopen negotiations with Njinga, whose legitimacy he questioned. He refused to return the ijiko, and insisted that Njinga first acknowledge Portuguese sovereignity. Although Njinga was prepared to do this, she would not leave the island until her full control was established and the ijiko returned. When the Portuguese refused, Njinga encouraged them to run away and enter her service. The dispute over the ijiko led to war in 1626, and de Sousa's army was able to oust Njinga from Kidonga, but not to capture her.
De Sousa felt confident enough at this point to declare Njinga deposed and convened some sobas who had supported him to reelect as new king Hari a Kiluanji, lord of the rocky fortress of Mpungo a Ndongo (or Pungo Andongo) in 1626, but he died in the smallpox epidemic that broke out as a result of the war, and was replaced by Felipe Hari a Ngola.
Njinga refused to recognize Hari a Ngola claiming that he was of slave origin and not eligible to reign. She reoccupied Kindonga and began mobilizing support of all the sobas opposed to Hari a Angola and Portuguese rule, leading to a second war with Portugal. De Sousa's army defeated Njinga again in 1628, once again forcing her to flee the islands. Njinga narrowly escaped capture, at one point having to descend into the Baixa de Cassange on ropes with only a few hundred of her followers remaining.
Desperate, Njinga joined her forces with the Imbangala band of Kasanje, who forced her to accept a humiliating position as wife and give up her royal regalia. Nevertheless, she was able to win one of his supporters, subsequently known as Njinga Mona (or Njinga's son) away and rebuild her army. Using this support, Njinga moved northward and captured the Kingdom of Matamba which became her base, even as she sent a detachment to reoccupy the Kindonga Islands, now sacred because her brother's remains were buried there.
At this point the history of Njinga become that of Matamba, and her career can be followed in that country.
[edit] Ndongo under Felipe Hari a Ndongo's Dynasty
Felipe I served the Portuguese loyally in the following decades, even when the Portuguese made a separate peace with Njinga in 1639. His troops were the largest component in the army the Portuguese used to make conquests and to consolidate their rule in the Dembos area to the north. When the Dutch invaded Brazil, Felipe served against them, forming the bulk of the forces that defended the rump colony at Masangano, though he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Njinga's army with its Dutch allies in 1647 at the Battle of Kombi.
Following the expulsion of the Dutch, however, Felipe began to feel that the Portuguese were not giving him his full due. He became involved in disputes with them over his subordinates and jurisdiction, even as his forces marched into disastrous wars in Kisama and the Dembos. His son and successor was equally disappointed, especially following the Portuguese treaty with Ndongo which recognized Njinga as queen of Ndongo and Matamba in 1657, leaving him feeling dishonored as only ruler of Pungo a Ndongo. In 1670, therefore he revolted, and after a long siege, his fortress fell to the Portuguese army in 1671, thus effectively ending Ndongo as an independent kingdom.
[edit] Sources
The history of Ndongo is known largely through the writings of Portuguese missionaries, adminstrators and travelers. Much of this work was gathered in the monumental collection of original sources, in the original languages by António Brásio. In addition, several Italian Capuchin missionaries, especially Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi and Antonio da Gaeta wrote book length descriptions of the country in the mid-seventeenth century when it has split into Njinga's half and Hari a Kiluanji's half. However, the Capuchin's work included detailed recountings of oral tradition.
António Brásio, ed. Monumenta Missionaria Africana, 1st series (15 volumes, Lisbon, 1952-88)
Antonio de Oliveira de Cadornega, Historia geral das guerras angolanas, 1680-81, ed. Matias Delgado (3 volumes, Lisbon, 1940-42, reprinted 1972)
[edit] References
David Birmingham, Trade and Conquest in Angola (Oxford, 1966)
Beatrix Heintze, Studien zur Gesichte Angolas im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert: Ein Lesebuch (Cologne, 1996).
Linda Heywood and John Thornton, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Making of the Americas, 1580-1660 (Cambridge, 2007)
Graziano Saccardo, Congo e Angola con la storia dell'antica missione dei Cappuccini (3 vols, Venice, 1982-83)
[edit] Rulers of Ndongo
Ngola Kiluanje (c. 1515–1556)
Ndambi a Ngola (1556–-c.1562)
Ngola Kiluanje kia Ndambi (c. 1562-c. 1575)
Njinga Ngola Kilombo kia Kasenda (c. 1575–1592)
Mbandi Ngola Kiluanje (1592-1617)
Ngola Mbandi (1617-1624)
Ana de Sousa Njinga Mbandi (Nzinga of Ndongo)(1624-63)
Rulers established by Portugal as vassals
Hari a Kiluanje (1626)
Felipe I Ngola Hari (1626-)
[edit] See also
- Nzinga of Ndongo, Queen of Ndongo
- Matamba
