NJINGA OF ANGOLA, Africa's warrior queen

310pp., illus., maps, paperback, Reprint, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, (2017) 2019

ISBN: 9780674237445

Njinga, baptised Anna de Souza Nzingha (c. 1583-1663), was born into the ruling family of Ndongo, located in present-day northern Angola. Her father, Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda, was the king of Ndongo, and she assumed power after the death of her brother Mbandi. She ruled as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), until her death.

“Queen Njinga of Angola has long been among the many heroes whom black diasporians have used to construct a pantheon and a usable past. Linda Heywood gives us a different Njinga—one brimming with all the qualities that made her the stuff of legend but also full of all the interests and inclinations that made her human. A thorough, serious, and long overdue study of a fascinating ruler, Njinga of Angola is an essential addition to the study of the black Atlantic world.” Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me

"In her biography of this fascinating character, Linda Heywood seeks to blow away the smoke of infamy and adulation. She reveals a figure no less protean in life than her reputation has proved to be in the three and a half centuries since her death - an individual who overstepped boundaries of religion, gender and nationhood ... Like its subject, Heywood’s book defies simple categorization, mixing anthropology, gender studies and history ... This stimulating biography of a queen and resistance leader offers a timely reminder that gender fluidity is not something unique to the present age." David Gelber, Literary Review