Vulgar History - International, part 8： Njinga vs. Colonizers (pt 2⧸2)

00:00:00.000 hey this is Jared Femblow and Rachel Craig and welcome to our new introductory queer history

00:00:12.320 podcast called historically really good friends if there's one thing we learned from our history

00:00:16.960 high school courses is that history is really straight or so we were taught to believe through 0.97

00:00:22.360 massive amounts of self-education we learned that history is queer as fuck many of the people you 0.99

00:00:28.660 know from your textbooks were friends of Dorothy and bit the pillow once or twice. It's time to 0.99

00:00:34.140 reteach ourselves about the truth, the queer truth, of those who came before us. Rock Hudson, 0.99

00:00:40.380 he was queer. The High Five, also queer. Alexander the Great, well, you get the picture. So if you're 0.90

00:00:47.860 ready to relearn some history, we're ready to spill the tea. Stay queer, stay safe, and we'll talk to you soon. 0.97

00:00:58.660 Hello, welcome to Vulgar History, Feminist Women's History comedy podcast. My name is

00:01:15.940 Anne Foster, and this is part two of the saga of Njinka of Angola and Matamba. And if you

00:01:24.420 haven't listened to part one I would strongly encourage you to do so if just to learn about

00:01:29.460 the murder wedding and also to learn about the whole first half of her story today we're

00:01:36.840 really getting into I don't know I was gonna say it's like really getting into like the really

00:01:42.620 scandalous part of it but like the first part was also so the scandalousness continues

00:01:47.440 is what's going on right now so and again I just want to highlight the fact that she

00:01:53.180 proclaimed herself the um angola of indongo when she was i think aged 41 and that's the midpoint

00:02:03.360 of the story like this is a story this is kind of like goals for people you know those memes that

00:02:08.860 are always on where they're like you know so and so published their first book when they were like

00:02:13.020 32 and this person didn't whatever until they were like 39 like and jinga is goals for people

00:02:21.100 who feel like you have to succeed and do everything you want to do by age 20 or whatever because it's

00:02:26.080 like no this isn't like you know the most impressive 40 under 40 or whatever this is like

00:02:31.360 age 40 plus inspiration and goals because she does not this story just stays just as interesting

00:02:39.520 the older she gets so part two so in part one I talked about a bunch of the references that I

00:02:46.400 use like the main thing for all of this is the biography by linda haywood which is so good

00:02:51.240 super recommend reading that in this episode we're getting into more of the queer history

00:02:57.680 parts of her story which um for that i was because the haywood book doesn't dig into that

00:03:04.620 a lot which is not what that book is about the queer as fact podcast which i'm a big fan of so

00:03:12.260 This is a podcast run by four Melbourne-based queer people

00:03:15.500 with a background in history and a passion for sharing queer stories.

00:03:18.800 They have a really good episode about Njinga.

00:03:21.960 And I would, to really dig into more of the queer context of Her Life,

00:03:26.860 I would recommend listening to them.

00:03:28.760 But I'm going to, based on what I learned from them and from other sources,

00:03:32.420 summarize that this part's going to be more in a story.

00:03:37.180 so where we left things was i'm just recapping for myself yeah so the portuguese attacked her

00:03:47.300 captured her sisters cambu and funji um and then jenga was determined to both

00:03:52.940 defeat the portuguese and in so doing to save her sisters and bring them back so to bolster her

00:04:00.000 forces she looked to make allies in the region while keeping her battered forces out of reach

00:04:04.420 the portuguese army because remember she just like less and less people as time went on because

00:04:08.760 people were well i guess people were dying in battle but also people were being like do we

00:04:12.700 want to be backing in jenga unsure portuguese i'm gonna guess we're also like capturing people and

00:04:17.300 stuff so she sent a messenger to kasanji who is the leader of a powerful imbangala war camp

00:04:25.560 so reminder the imbangala were this kind of like mercenary force who would like sometimes side with

00:04:32.780 the Portuguese if that was to their advantage and they'd sometimes signed with the Mbundu people

00:04:36.520 and they kind of like went back and forth and it's like who are they going to support today

00:04:39.740 so Kisanji is the leader of one of their war camps not to be confused with Kasa so the Mbangala were

00:04:49.620 also the group where Njinga's nephew had been raised and then she seduced Kasa into marrying

00:04:56.060 her and then killed everybody at the wedding that was Kasa different person this is Kisanji

00:05:01.900 totally different guy also an in bengala person so she sent a messenger to kasanji

00:05:06.460 begging him to help shelter her from the portuguese and he was like okay but only in a

00:05:12.100 couple conditions first that njinga become his wife and then also that she disposed of her lunga

00:05:19.700 and so the lunga is a large bell symbolically carried by military leaders during times of war

00:05:24.620 and he also wanted her to live by his traditions so this is really wanting just her submission

00:05:28.920 to him and she's like you know what done and done and done like let's do this every negotiation well

00:05:36.880 i guess not every not with the portuguese i guess but people are always like okay and jenga

00:05:41.020 only help you if you'll do this if you only be baptized like catholic she's like okay like 0.63

00:05:46.180 she'll just agree to stuff to get what she wants and then change her mind later and that's works

00:05:51.100 really well for her so she's now entering her late 40s better than ever frankly and so and jenga began

00:05:58.840 she did this she married kasanji turned in her lunga and agreed to live by his traditions which

00:06:04.560 are the imbengala which is like a whole other cultural spiritual belief system from the imbendu

00:06:09.180 system that she had previously been living by so she began the intensive training necessary to

00:06:15.300 become an elite imbengala warrior she modeled herself on a semi-mythical previous female imbengala

00:06:22.340 leader called Tembo Ah Ndumbo, who, just a side note, Tembo Ah Ndumbo, amazing. So she had,

00:06:30.480 this was, I don't know how long ago, generations earlier, had performed a ritual that de-gendered

00:06:36.200 her. Tembo Ah Ndumbo had done this, which transformed her from a woman into a man,

00:06:41.340 soldier, and warrior. And so with this as a template, Njenga did the same. So this ritual

00:06:47.760 involved killing her own son but njenga didn't have a son because imbanda had killed him ages

00:06:54.380 ago so instead she killed the son of one of her female concubines and it's unclear if this ritual 0.63

00:06:59.940 was meant to literally transform her like from a woman into a man or just to hide her gender

00:07:06.540 but it meant something major because it was a whole ritual there was like baby killing and

00:07:15.160 then in jinga like tembo and dumbo before her announced after the ritual so there's a ritual

00:07:19.800 dance and i think during the dance she like declared she would no longer be known as a woman

00:07:24.700 but as a warrior so it's kind of like is she now a man or is it just kind of like a warrior is a

00:07:30.620 position with no gender to it unclear oh sorry and just tembo and dumbo her story just so you know

00:07:37.700 how that ended she was eventually murdered by her male concubine and he took over as the leader

00:07:43.640 after her death and ended up codifying a lot of the rules tembo and dumbo had established

00:07:48.180 which were now the rules and jenga continued to follow as an imbengalan warrior so his rules like

00:07:53.420 no children were allowed in imbengala camps like if a woman was pregnant she had to leave like so

00:07:59.960 i'm not sure where new people come from i guess you wait till they're older then they come back

00:08:03.280 so it's very much it's like all we do is war there's no room for children um there's no room

00:08:08.140 for women just warriors so um linda haywood in the biography mentions it's speaks to njinga's

00:08:16.580 state of mind when she's looking for someone like at this sort of low point of like she needed to

00:08:21.440 find an ally she needed to find someone to model herself after she didn't choose to model herself

00:08:25.820 after the portuguese governors or after the kings of congo or even her brother because they didn't

00:08:31.420 have the level of power that she wanted she chose to model herself after tembo at and dembo and

00:08:36.840 join with the imbengala who were the most feared and respected warriors um their reputation for 0.61

00:08:42.680 carnage cruelty and cannibalism made enemies and allies alike quake with terror they did cannibalism 0.98

00:08:49.760 was a thing they did they would kill their enemies and then also eat them so njinga adapted quickly 0.76

00:08:56.800 to this new culture because she was resilient and good at that sort of thing but she did not

00:09:02.800 completely abandoned her umbindu cultural roots instead she sort of combined the beliefs of her

00:09:08.200 people with those of her new imbengalan allies because that's kind of her trademark move is to

00:09:12.800 just kind of like what's it called like synthesize all the things together to make a new kind of way

00:09:18.200 of being that was the injinga way um yeah so she combined her umbindu heritage with the imbengalan's

00:09:24.780 military tradition and leadership structure thus forming a new highly capable army i think she 0.93

00:09:31.340 brought her like pre-existing small-ish army with her but so she had to get some more warriors 0.95

00:09:36.540 so to increase her numbers she granted freedom to escaped enslaved people to newly enslaved people 0.67

00:09:42.220 and other exiled oh she offered titles to other exiled people from indongo she just kind of was

00:09:50.060 recruiting but it's it reminds me of like in every you know sports movie where it's like well there's

00:09:55.580 a really powerful team it's like well we're put together team and it's like oh but you know it's

00:09:59.200 like this kid and like the kid with the glasses and like are they ever going to get together but

00:10:03.400 you bring them together and then you train them up and then it's like they do amazing

00:10:06.420 um she probably was also politically attracted to the imbangelan structure because unlike in

00:10:12.780 indongo the imbangelans placed value or they valued merit and dedication as opposed to who

00:10:19.900 are your parents and what is your gender and who is your father and that sort of thing so like she

00:10:24.700 was more free to just get more power in that structure fair enough and she thrived in kassanji's

00:10:30.640 camp throwing herself body and soul into her new life so like at her father's court remember when

00:10:36.780 she was a kid growing up she was so athletic good with throwing the axis so she displayed great

00:10:41.780 skill during her physical training and after a few years like yes years she became skilled enough to 0.88

00:10:48.520 become an imbangala leader in her own right establishing a new war camp and she took the

00:10:53.440 name angola and jenga and gombe a nga which means angola and jenga master of arms and great warrior

00:11:01.100 she molded her army into a fighting machine and gained a reputation as a formidable imbangala

00:11:06.600 leader but she needed a secure base from which to operate like where they could stay as they were

00:11:13.100 attacking the portuguese because her plan was to free indongo rescue her sisters but she needed

00:11:17.700 like a place to be. And so she was like, well, what if I invade the nearby kingdom of Matamba 0.61

00:11:23.440 and usurp the queen and become queen of Matamba? And that's what she did. So Matamba, I've mentioned 0.74

00:11:29.640 in part one, that's where she lived when she was first left Ndongo after her son was killed and

00:11:35.720 she was forcibly sterilized. She lived in Matamba for a while. So she knew people there. So it's a

00:11:39.500 nearby kingdom where many Mbundu people had settled. So Njenga just brought her army into 1.00

00:11:44.900 the kingdom where and this is kind of like that bodega thing where just like as she made her way

00:11:49.440 there people like oh my god it's in jenga like i've heard so many things about her so people

00:11:52.260 just kept joining her army like as she walked and it became more and more people eventually

00:11:56.460 she reached the capital where queen mungo's court was located so this is also matamba clearly cool

00:12:03.560 with a female leader in a way that indongo was not at that point i don't know the sort of queen

00:12:08.700 mungo like i don't know how she became the queen i don't know anything about her except for what

00:12:13.940 happened when Njinga showed up. Fierce battle ensued. Many of Queen Mungo's closest followers

00:12:19.360 abandoned her and fled. Njinga was victorious, obviously, and she captured Queen Mungo and her

00:12:24.880 daughter, also called Mungo. This was her first military success, Njinga's, as a Mbangala leader,

00:12:30.520 and it was really decisive. So she, she had Queen Mungo branded like a common slave, but did not 0.94

00:12:38.540 kill and eat her as in bengala laws would have dictated instead she banished mungo from the

00:12:44.200 capital and mungo died shortly afterwards mysterious causes i don't know and njinga had 0.95

00:12:51.520 the queen buried in a tomb with other former matamba rulers and made sure traditional rituals

00:12:55.780 were followed so it's a sort of like usurping and taking over is kind of like a thing that was

00:13:02.140 expected to happen sometimes and you showed respect afterwards she also spared the life

00:13:06.340 of Mungo's daughter, also named Mungo, and actually Mungo Jr., was allowed to join Njinga's army to

00:13:12.260 train up as a warrior. And in fact, the younger Mungo remained by Njinga's side for the rest of

00:13:16.580 her life. So Njinga is now queen of Matamba. And unlike in Ndongo, Matamba had a cultural 0.91

00:13:23.780 tradition of female leadership. So Njinga had a more stable power base. Now that she had overthrown 0.99

00:13:28.800 the queen, like she wasn't having to worry about people not trusting her or not liking a female 0.77

00:13:33.440 leader like she could just get on with it and not have to worry about all that politic stuff this 1.00

00:13:38.040 also gave her the political base she had lacked up until then and she became the first imbangala

00:13:43.180 leader to rule over a state and still adhere to the imbangala lifestyle so she's really like

00:13:48.140 meshing things in a new way and the location of matombo is ideal it was on the border of indongo 0.55

00:13:53.380 so she could continue to like harass ingolahari i don't know sending him more letters and like

00:13:58.680 haunted amulets or whatever and from there she could also pressure the portuguese to release

00:14:03.240 her sisters from captivity in luanda which was nearby and everyone to capitalize on spiritual

00:14:09.760 belief systems to get more people to follow her she promoted the idea that she and jingo was

00:14:16.140 a goddess the general belief among ubuntu people was the kings or angola's leaders did not die but

00:14:25.240 were deaf itself and so as the daughter of a king and jingo was therefore immortal and she's like 0.85

00:14:30.920 If that helps me, I will lean into that belief. 0.95

00:14:34.120 And this aura of invincibility was cemented over the next decade 0.91

00:14:37.500 as she led her forces from one victorious campaign to another, 0.93

00:14:40.680 capturing lands back from the Portuguese.

00:14:43.440 She also became the dominant Mbengala leader in the region

00:14:46.140 by adopting other aspects of the Mbengala lifestyle. 0.95

00:14:50.460 And now, queer corner. 0.98

00:14:51.960 So, I'm not here as a white lady in Canada

00:14:56.380 to, um, state categorically anything about N'Jinga's, um, the cultural context of gender

00:15:04.840 in this region, in this era, uh, to quote, this isn't a book about N'Jinga, but I really like

00:15:10.700 this quote. So B. Koch wrote a book called Mad and Bad, Real Heroines of the Regency Era. And

00:15:15.520 one of the chapters is about queer figures from the Regency Era in England. And she wrote,

00:15:19.840 the question of identification, self or otherwise, when discussing sexuality historically is a

00:15:24.580 difficult one to be sure but it shouldn't stand in the way of considering the queer women of

00:15:28.480 history absence of proof is not proof of anything and then the queer is fact podcast hosts noted

00:15:35.780 that what njinga did doesn't necessarily mean she was a lesbian or trans or bisexual or gender

00:15:43.020 non-binary but it doesn't mean she wasn't so okay so as part of the in bangala scenario remember

00:15:51.580 she did the ritual where it was like i'm no longer a woman now i am a warrior slash a man or whatever

00:15:57.100 and she'd always been using the title of angola which was sort of a male gender title so she

00:16:03.820 set it up that her inner circle and followers should view her as a man and this was part of

00:16:09.800 the imangala thing so this is where you're just like what okay so well this is where i'm just

00:16:17.240 like wait what so she kicked off this new status of her being a man by marrying a man whose name

00:16:23.640 was angola and tombo so i guess i don't know what her relationship status with kasanji is at this

00:16:29.100 point anyway so she married angola and tombo and insisted that he dress as a woman as explained

00:16:35.360 by linda haywood she referred to him as female while demanding that he address her as king instead 1.00

00:16:39.740 of queen at the time of her marriage and jing it increased the number of male concubines she kept 0.97

00:16:44.760 and ordered them to dress in the same clothing as her female bodyguards she also required the 0.99

00:16:49.060 males to sleep in the same room as her female bodyguards but demanded that they remain chased 1.00

00:16:52.900 if one of the male concubines or female bodyguards touched someone else even accidentally in their 0.74

00:16:57.560 sleep they would be killed or rendered impotent or infertile so this is where comparisons to

00:17:04.300 elizabeth the first of england also come into play for me just wrapping my head around all of this

00:17:09.900 where you know how elizabeth ii in england was just like i'm not a woman you know like i might

00:17:15.180 have the body of a woman but inside i'm a man or she's like i'm only married to the country like

00:17:19.860 she really de-gendered herself in order to maintain power and it worked for her and that 0.95

00:17:26.360 was happening at the exact same time as it's happening for in jenga really like to gain 0.95

00:17:30.860 acceptance and respect and jenga had to present herself as not a woman even though she was

00:17:36.360 a woman or at least assigned female at birth and the portrait and a lot of this is where it's like

00:17:42.460 a lot of the writing about her comes from the portuguese who are coming into this with their

00:17:45.400 own understanding of gender and sexuality so they were like you know if they see a woman who's being

00:17:49.920 a warrior and wearing whatever men wore in this culture they'd be like well she's she's a man

00:17:55.160 she's doing man things where it's like or is she just wearing pants i don't know um the portuguese

00:17:59.160 wrote that she referred to herself as a king she did also refer to herself as a queen so this is

00:18:04.300 all interesting and like bears a lot of discussion and the queers fact podcast really does that

00:18:10.140 discussion but it doesn't mean that she in her personal life considered herself a woman or a man

00:18:15.620 we don't know it's just the presentation she found she needed to succeed at this time was to present

00:18:20.240 herself as a man so yeah so a trans narrative is possible here or a non-binary but these are all

00:18:26.500 like contemporary western concepts and who knows if those concepts had any viability in her society

00:18:33.280 but there's a lot of gender stuff going on here and also so there's a thing about she had male

00:18:40.200 concubines she also had female concubines she also had i think i alluded to this in the previous

00:18:44.320 episode there are some concubines that were or even just the men who dressed as women it's kind

00:18:49.040 of like well what gender is are we looking at here like the people who are perceived as men

00:18:54.340 dressed as women and so there is also in imbundu society and this is also on the queerest fact

00:19:00.080 podcast they really talk about this more spiritual leaders might have worn robes or something and

00:19:05.140 then portuguese people might have been like oh those are men dressed as women where it's like 0.81

00:19:09.520 well those are her spiritual advisors like they've actually had all these concubines like yes

00:19:13.040 that was for sex reasons partially but it's kind of like with um in the harem sultan episodes where

00:19:21.000 it's like people just see a group of people together and it's not like a man and a woman 0.83

00:19:25.660 and a mistress or whatever and europeans are just like well this must be like some crazy sex stuff 0.65

00:19:31.120 where it's like was it or did you just have a bunch of spiritual leaders who came around with 0.94

00:19:35.800 her and also some lovers like i i don't know but this is this is what's going on with in jenga 0.81

00:19:42.320 so she used male titles politically and also sometimes female titles politically and sometimes 0.94

00:19:49.100 she was an in bangala warrior and sometimes she was a christian monarch and sometimes she was an

00:19:53.200 Mbundu woman, and sometimes she signed her name as Njinga, and sometimes as Ana de Sousa. She was

00:19:58.500 kind of a shapeshifter just through identities and religion as to what was needed to succeed, 0.54

00:20:04.560 and it all worked because she did succeed. So, Matamba now under her control, she worked to 0.90

00:20:10.740 expand the slave trade in her new kingdom using the profits from slave trading to finance wars 0.93

00:20:16.180 and divert trade income away from the Portuguese. Over the next decade, she continued to struggle 0.95

00:20:21.760 against the portuguese and their allies with both sides attempting to limit each other's 0.89

00:20:25.400 influence and take control over the slave trade by the late 1630s and jenga had expanded her

00:20:32.320 influence to the north and south of matamba her sister kambu was finally released from the

00:20:38.360 portuguese so they got to reunite funji her other sister was still with the portuguese but she had

00:20:43.700 been working for some time sending back secret letters as a spy so these three sisters iconic

00:20:49.380 Love it. 0.99

00:20:50.080 So she's just getting more and more profitable in Jenga. 1.00

00:20:52.180 So she cut off other rulers from the Portuguese-controlled coast, 0.99

00:20:55.460 bringing the region's key slaves supplying lands under her control.

00:20:58.940 She also expanded her territory to the north

00:21:00.760 and established diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Congo

00:21:04.020 and also with Dutch merchants.

00:21:06.820 Yes, it's time for another group of European colonizers to appear, the Dutch.

00:21:11.700 And when they arrived, in Jenga was like, 0.78

00:21:13.340 wait, a different group of white Europeans? 0.97

00:21:15.520 I bet they hate the Portuguese too, so maybe they'll team up with me. 1.00

00:21:18.920 And she was right. 1.00

00:21:20.440 So she established a lucrative slave trade with the Dutch, 0.97

00:21:23.620 who purchased as many as 13,000 enslaved people per year from Matamba.

00:21:28.860 She continued to occasionally send peace overtures to the Portuguese,

00:21:32.220 even suggesting a military alliance with them,

00:21:34.200 but only if they supported her return to Indongo, which they did not.

00:21:37.600 She also refused to be readmitted to the Christian faith. 0.53

00:21:40.720 Like, she's like, that era for me is over.

00:21:43.880 1641, forces from the Dutch West India Company,

00:21:46.980 working in alliance with the Kingdom of Congo,

00:21:48.920 seized luanda where the portuguese had been for so long they drove out the portuguese and they

00:21:53.660 set up the directorate of luongo angola this was a major blow to the portuguese but and jingo was

00:22:00.660 like how can i put this to my benefit so she sent an embassy to the city which was now controlled

00:22:05.440 by the dutch hoping to form a coalition against the portuguese she requested an immediate alliance

00:22:11.440 and offered to open the slave trade to the dutch and they accepted her offer and sent their own 0.73

00:22:16.160 ambassador and soldiers some of whom who brought their wives to her court and soon it was like 0.98

00:22:19.820 this whole thing where it's like dutch people families living together with like the mbengalas

00:22:25.240 and the mbundus all together and the dutch were assisting her in her fight against the portuguese 0.51

00:22:30.300 so let's see the portuguese were in such bad shape at this point they tried to make peace

00:22:35.500 with her but she was like yeah no so she moved her capital to cavanga in the northern part of

00:22:42.360 indongo's former area and since luanda had been captured by the dutch this left her kingdom

00:22:50.200 matamba slash kind of indongo as the preeminent um slave trading power in the region allowing

00:22:56.440 for her to build up a sizable army of 80 000 mercenaries escaped enslaved people allies and 0.99

00:23:01.360 her own soldiers at one point she had like 200 soldiers now she's 80 000 using this large army 0.99

00:23:07.700 her new wealth and her famous reputation and jingo was able to reclaim large parts of indongo 1.00

00:23:12.300 but this caused alarm among other african kingdoms including congo so she greatly offended the 1.00

00:23:19.560 congolese king garcia ii why was it is because okay so she invaded the wandu region of congo 0.96

00:23:25.400 in this region the people there had been a revolt against the congolese king

00:23:29.160 um anyway this all just she had been cool with garcia ii of congo now she's not the dutch wanted

00:23:36.360 to preserve their the dutch had an alliance with congo and with njinga so they tried to broker

00:23:40.380 peace they could be like a three-part alliance in addition kisanji her former question mark

00:23:46.780 husband question mark was worried about her growing power and formed a coalition of imbangala 0.92

00:23:51.400 leaders against her invading her lands in matamba by uh let's see her successes had won her the

00:23:58.000 support of many indangan nobles with the nobility flocking to her side she's able to collect more

00:24:02.600 tributes in the form of enslaved people which she then sold to the dutch in exchange for firearms

00:24:06.900 thereby increasing her military and economic power and then 1644 she defeated the portuguese

00:24:13.860 army at the battle of engolim great job but then two years later the portuguese attacked her back

00:24:22.060 this story is so much like there's so many stories we've done in the podcast where it's like and then

00:24:26.000 two weeks later and then three weeks later like this this is just like years pass and like and

00:24:31.320 she's still going so engineer personally got involved in this battle when the portuguese

00:24:35.900 attack fighting alongside her dutch and in bangala forces the portuguese were winning though and it

00:24:40.780 seemed like obvious they were going to win to the point where she had to make a quick escape

00:24:44.040 meaning so she and kind of the most important people all just fled so the portuguese were able

00:24:49.740 to easily get to the center of the camp of the city where they were sort of confused to find

00:24:54.000 like the wives of dutch people they're like oh this is like a city but i think they're also just

00:24:58.100 mad they were like white people being held captive i don't know this confused and distressed them to 0.71

00:25:03.900 see like white women there anyway and jinga had left so quickly that there hadn't been time for

00:25:08.220 her to like pack or bring anything so the portuguese looted everything um they got 500 1.00

00:25:13.200 firearms um all the rich fabrics and jewels because jinga is a bashing girl even though 0.89

00:25:18.100 she's dressing like a man and all the people left behind were captured or killed except for 0.70

00:25:22.640 the dutch women because the portuguese respected white women the most valuable captive was and

00:25:27.580 jinga's sister camboo who seemingly so she had been left behind when and jinga left strategically

00:25:33.540 i would assume um kenbu seemingly knew she's going to be taken and in fact the portuguese

00:25:37.920 found her sitting in regal splendor with 40 ladies-in-waiting attending her apparently

00:25:42.060 unbothered by the invasion iconic she remained so calm that the military chronicler kador nega

00:25:48.180 later credited her deportment to majesty and sovereignty like she just held herself like a

00:25:52.660 queen that being said kenbu was sexually assaulted during the night by the umbundu soldier who found 0.98

00:25:58.920 her to appear for her meeting in the morning after having been assaulted she had her ladies

00:26:03.340 and waiting dress her elegantly linda haywood writes they decorated her hands with gold rings 1.00

00:26:08.120 placed beautiful jewels on her head and chains around her neck wrapped her hair with cords that 0.97

00:26:11.980 cascaded from her head to her hips indeed although kambu was well over 60 years old at the time of

00:26:16.800 her second capture she appeared so much younger that to avoid another situation where she might

00:26:20.700 be assaulted by guards the captain himself took over her supervision but then another sister

00:26:26.400 related repercussion to the fact that njenga had to leave so quickly is that the portuguese found

00:26:31.220 the letters from fungi the secret spy letters which revealed secrets of the spy network and

00:26:35.920 which put fungi's life at risk because she had been leaking portuguese information to njinga for

00:26:40.120 years so again separated from her sisters and fungi's life especially now at risk with the

00:26:45.400 exposure of her spy work but guess what within a few months njinga was already planning a 0.94

00:26:51.480 counter-attack this time like alongside with a dutch who she had bribed to team up with her

00:26:57.660 rather than with the portuguese and instead of attacking the portuguese with all her troops is 0.98

00:27:02.880 like a big army battle she instead set out small guerrilla forces to pillage the portuguese lands 0.79

00:27:07.540 the formal agreements with the dutch directed her to send half of all the enslaved people she

00:27:11.940 captured to luanda for the dutch and the agreement also said neither side could have any deals with

00:27:16.960 the portuguese without telling the other ones first and then a messenger arrived with news

00:27:22.620 that her sister funji had been drowned by the portuguese in the kwanzaa river as a punishment

00:27:28.000 for her spy activities and jenga obviously devastated but her other sister kambu was still

00:27:33.440 alive being held by the portuguese and jenga was determined to rescue her again so she got to

00:27:40.020 business just decimating the portuguese to save her sister she defeated a portuguese army in 1647

00:27:45.440 at the battle of combi then laid siege to the portuguese capital of masangano by 1648 she 1.00

00:27:51.860 controlled much of her former kingdom of undango while her control over the slave trade increased

00:27:56.300 the economic power of matamba but then portuguese attacked again oh sorry the portuguese attached

00:28:02.000 the dutch and recaptured luanda which deprived injinga of her ally slash trading partner

00:28:08.420 eventually the dutch surrendered to the portuguese and agreed to peace andjinga and her forces had

00:28:14.600 to retreat to matamba just for the record by this time our girl is 65 years old and she's like you

00:28:21.320 know what time to try something new so the wars against the portuguese and their allies continued

00:28:27.180 and she was more focused on kind of diplomacy related things at this point creating alliances 0.90

00:28:32.440 with neighboring kingdoms to expand her influence she sent soldiers to enforce her rule over local 0.98

00:28:37.640 noblemen dispatched forces to fight against kassanji her exes in bengalans and fought against 0.98

00:28:44.460 the kingdom of kaka in the congo she also used her army as a political tool using its influence to 0.78

00:28:49.840 sway the outcomes of succession disputes in her favor so that the leaders of other nearby kingdoms

00:28:54.160 would be people who she liked and major pivot she began to adopt christian cultural traditions but

00:29:00.920 for real this time maybe so this all began when her army captured a portuguese priest

00:29:06.420 and expanded when her forces in congo captured two spanish capuchins in 1648 so the spanish

00:29:13.380 capuchins which might be pronounced capuchins were and are a religious order of franciscan

00:29:19.380 franciscan friars who had beards and wore robes and did their own thing they're kind of like

00:29:24.380 monk-esque very like basic stripped-on christianity not the like fancy like vatican level

00:29:31.360 gold embellished silk robes this is like a more simple style and njinga liked them so unlike other

00:29:39.240 european prisoners she granted the spanish capuchins extended freedoms in her war camp

00:29:44.760 And one of them, Father Calisto Zelotes do Reus Mago,

00:29:49.540 would go on to become a longtime resident at her court and her personal secretary.

00:29:53.760 So, yeah, the Capuchins were more sympathetic to Inginga's positions

00:29:57.720 than previous Portuguese missionaries had ever been.

00:30:01.700 So, she sent requests to the Capuchin order for more missionaries

00:30:05.260 and for support against the Portuguese,

00:30:07.360 effectively turning the missionaries into de facto diplomats between her and the Vatican.

00:30:11.320 and because of this kind of partnership with them she conceived of a bold new plan to develop her

00:30:19.000 own relationship with rome and convince the pope to recognize her as a christian ruler because if

00:30:24.440 she had the support of literally the pope like the vatican then she figured the portuguese could no 0.97

00:30:30.280 longer challenge her right to the throne and so began in ginga's strategic reconversion to

00:30:35.780 christianity in order to beat the colonizing catholics at their own game she also adopted

00:30:42.140 christian customs into her court so the thing with anjinga is like whenever she decided to do 0.98

00:30:45.940 something she would like did it like fully like she nothing was ever half measures like when she

00:30:51.380 was in bangala she was like doing it and then now she's like guess what i am catholic and like

00:30:56.760 in a big way so from the 1650s onward she increasingly relied on christian converts

00:31:02.940 at her court like as advisors etc yeah so she appropriated aspects of christian ideology and

00:31:08.440 culture as she had done with the in bengalan culture decades before um she also began 0.91

00:31:14.060 practicing catholic inspired rituals placed crosses in places of high honor in her court

00:31:18.380 and built churches across her kingdom this was not without controversy because the people who

00:31:24.220 she ruled over who are in bundu and or in bangala people were like what is happening

00:31:28.080 and some people pushed back against her new policies in response and jinga empowered the

00:31:35.280 christian priest to burn the temples and shrines of protectioners who opposed her in order that

00:31:39.680 they be arrested and turned over to her for trial because she was like i've decided i'm going to be

00:31:43.840 christian that means everybody has to be christian so traditionalists i guess imbundu traditionalists

00:31:49.840 were dismissed from her court she sends them to public whippings several prominent imbundu and

00:31:54.940 in bengala priests were sold as slaves to the portuguese with in jenga personally asking they

00:31:59.840 be shipped overseas profits of the sale were then used to furnish a new church some of these priests

00:32:05.800 escaped the purge and went into hiding later working to undermine her legitimacy as queen

00:32:10.700 so like years have been passing and jenga is currently age 73 just so you know for the timeline

00:32:16.920 the portuguese she'd been a worth of portuguese for well i mean actively like as a queen slash

00:32:23.740 angola for 40 years ish uh the portuguese hope to end the expensive war in angola like you think

00:32:31.260 and reopen the slave trade and in jinga who again age 73 was kind of on her mind was like who's

00:32:38.460 going to take over when she passes away she hoped to have her sister camboo released by the portuguese

00:32:45.040 so that she could take over after her camboo by the way was is often called barbara because she

00:32:51.360 had been baptized and her her baptismal name was barbara so she's like camboo barbara um the

00:32:57.160 portuguese were like okay like we'll release your sister but you have to pay a ransom and she's like

00:33:00.800 no i won't and so the negotiation stalled repeatedly eventually in 1656 a peace treaty

00:33:07.940 was signed between injinga and the portuguese um under the terms of this treaty she agreed

00:33:12.720 to cede lands on her kingdom's western coast of portugal and returned portugal ceded another

00:33:17.980 region to her and she she agreed to allow portuguese traders inside matamba and they agreed

00:33:24.120 to intervene if kasanje or angola hari attacked her so they're on team and jinga now it's like

00:33:29.860 if they had just done this at the beginning they could have avoided decades of war while some

00:33:34.420 sources describe the treaty as making concessions to portugal others note that her recognition as

00:33:38.640 a ruler by portugal gained in jinga legitimacy and political stability and then finally october

00:33:44.240 12th 1656 it finally got all resolved and cambu slash barbara was released by the portuguese and

00:33:50.320 brought back to her and jinga now 74 years old cambu barbara around the same age presumably i

00:33:55.720 guess a bit younger they were finally reunited like this is her last surviving sibling and it's

00:34:00.820 both of each other's last surviving sibling um as soon as she saw cambu barbara and jinga collapsed 0.96

00:34:06.220 to the ground and began rubbing soil on herself which was the custom for someone paying homage 0.99

00:34:09.840 to their superior or receiving a favor then she approached her sister and after kissing her hands

00:34:14.300 and kneeling before her dropped her head to the ground again after that the two held and kissed

00:34:18.280 each other wordlessly to overcome with emotion to speak all of her political efforts had finally

00:34:23.700 paid off with kembu slash barbara's arrival in matamba the terms of peace were officially agreed

00:34:29.440 upon and so peace was found between enjinga and the portuguese because kembu barbara had arrived

00:34:35.660 with a retinue of portuguese diplomats and then they like officially signed the documentation

00:34:39.100 etc and after the document was signed the next few days were given over to celebrations that

00:34:43.840 lasted late into the night much to the chagrin of the queen's new spiritual directors so about her

00:34:49.540 conversion to christianity it had been done in true and ginga style publicly and over the top

00:34:56.300 ishly so when she herself converted to christianity she had her brother's relic brought out remember

00:35:01.760 the like portable shrine that like so his spirit could enter a priest she brought out also four

00:35:06.960 other like portable shrine relics that held the bones of revered imbangalic captains who had

00:35:12.240 achieved ancestor status after their death she stood in front of her council and explained how

00:35:16.040 she intended to follow christian law but first had to know the opinions each of the council members

00:35:20.840 became possessed by a spirit of a deceased imbangalic captain or her brother and then in

00:35:26.460 turn each spirit gave njenga permission to convert she had a spirited debate with the ghosts

00:35:32.780 ultimately um they came to a consensus that um if she wanted to live as a christian as queen she was

00:35:38.200 free to do so um even her brother agreed and then so she held mass public baptisms like and this 0.90

00:35:44.300 whole thing of her and the priests happened publicly everyone saw it happen then she had

00:35:47.700 public baptisms before she was personally allowed to be baptized she had to make some personal 0.99

00:35:52.620 changes as well the um friars explained to her and to the nobles like you have to have monogamous 0.99

00:35:58.420 marriage that's like the christian thing and they were like but we have concubines and that's like

00:36:04.660 our thing and so and ding and jenga was like okay you guys just have to all give up your concubines

00:36:09.600 that's the rule and they're like but and jenga you you still have concubines like you can't 0.81

00:36:13.120 still have concubines and take away our concubines they told her she had more husbands and more 0.93

00:36:17.220 lovers than we have wives and eventually and jenga's like okay fine so she agreed to a church 0.50

00:36:22.820 wedding she selected from among her concubines a young man named sebasteo to be her husband

00:36:29.680 and was her wedding iconic i mean it's the wedding of njinga so five days before the wedding took

00:36:36.480 place she ordered all her court officials attendants and thousands of soldiers to assemble

00:36:40.080 in the plaza in front of the church dressed in her war attire she ordered them to perform the

00:36:44.380 military dance they usually held before going on a campaign after this she stood on a large chair 0.99

00:36:48.680 in the middle of the plaza turned to them and announced she had selected a man to marry who 1.00

00:36:52.720 had already been baptized and this is a place she would often give speeches standing in a square

00:36:56.900 she'd just like to like bestow her wisdom on people a lot and then she dismissed the more

00:37:00.980 than 40 husbands or concubines and other husbands concubines women all the people all her lovers

00:37:08.760 she dismissed them all and then married sebasteo in a church wedding he was given the title husband

00:37:13.220 of Njinga not king just kind of like husband like the first gentleman and he was granted 500 0.69

00:37:21.180 enslaved people so he could live as a nobleman so during her era during her years as an Mbangala

00:37:28.600 leader she had downplayed her royal identity and also her um womanhood as per Mbangala cultural

00:37:34.460 expectations but now she was a catholic queen and she was able to unleash her true self for all to

00:37:40.500 see and this is where it's like what was her true self what her true self was at this point was

00:37:45.580 the most so for instance she always sat on a throne when she welcomed official visitors

00:37:51.140 father gueta a spanish missionary who wrote extensively about the time he spent with her

00:37:55.760 wrote the quote when she received foreign ambassador she was always elaborately dressed

00:38:00.060 in silk drapes velvet and brocades imported from europe wearing a crown and she always

00:38:04.120 wore on her hands feet and arms several rings made of gold silver copper iron corals and

00:38:08.500 various imported beads she also wore the best of the local wraps that women valued and used these

00:38:13.900 occasions to showcase the rich rugs mats beaded with silver and other precious items she had

00:38:18.100 acquired so just i think it's like she had this all pent up on her from the time she had to dress

00:38:22.760 as like a man war leader and she's just like but i want to be glamorous um she also really got into

00:38:28.860 the whole like i am a goddess immortal invincible deity um she insisted she possessed special

00:38:35.400 spiritual attributes and appeared in the courtyard of her residence at a certain time i don't know

00:38:39.840 if it's every day to dispense her wisdom which is i feel like she's 74 years old and i i know

00:38:46.060 74 year old women who like to share their wisdom too she had by now stopped personally participating

00:38:52.880 in the battlefield like fighting throwing her axe etc but her soldiers believe because the whole 1.00

00:38:58.220 deity thing if they received bows directly from her hand they would hit their targets and they 0.78

00:39:02.540 would themselves become invincible and she was continuing on with her quest to have the vatican

00:39:09.060 recognize her as a christian leader she sent letter after letter to the pope finally 1660

00:39:15.080 the pope responded to her personally calling her his daughter in christ and saying he would pray

00:39:20.180 for her country to be prosperous and virtuous so she had received recognition of her queenhood

00:39:25.080 from an authority that the portuguese would have to respect the pope so after the wars with

00:39:30.700 portugal ended she attempted to rebuild her kingdoms so indongo had been ravaged by decades

00:39:37.960 of war with wide swaths of land left depopulated so it would be she did some work there but she

00:39:44.980 focused more on strengthening matamba which was not quite as um desolate at this point she developed

00:39:50.400 matamba into a trading power by capitalizing on its strategic position as a gateway to the central

00:39:54.860 african interior strengthening her hold on the slave trade she resettled foreign slave people 0.98

00:39:59.840 on new land and allowed women to bear children remember the thing with in bangala like women 0.84

00:40:04.360 couldn't have babies like no children allowed so the whole time they were at war and she was being 0.89

00:40:09.860 an in bangala leader they the whole city was like that but now women were allowed to have babies 0.50

00:40:14.600 and she reformed the legal code of her kingdom and established contact with christian rulers in

00:40:19.680 europe she had a period of illness and grew increasingly concerned about who would succeed

00:40:24.960 her as the ruler of indongo and matamba she didn't want her death to lead to a succession crisis

00:40:29.360 which could cause her christian conversions to be undone could potentially bring back portuguese

00:40:35.560 aggression so to ensure the transition would be smooth she appointed kambu slash barbara as her

00:40:41.560 heir forgoing the traditional mbundu elections october 1663 aged 80 and jinga fell ill with an

00:40:49.080 infection in her throat and became bedridden by two months later the infection spread to her lungs

00:40:54.440 and Njinga died in her sleep the morning of December 17th 1663. Before she died she had

00:41:00.020 given instructions she should be buried in a simple robe like the Capuchins wore. That did not happen 1.00

00:41:05.400 because all of her attendants and people who knew her love of style and fashion and kind of what the

00:41:13.240 Inbundu like conventions were wanted her to dress up fabulously. So her body was washed by attendants

00:41:20.040 who anointed it with herbs perfume and powders her hair was styled with corals pearls and feathers

00:41:24.900 and her crown was placed on her head her limbs were loaded down the jewelry and arrangements 0.98

00:41:29.180 of elephant hair a symbol of royalty then the body was wrapped in two richly wrought brocade

00:41:33.900 cloths and velvet slippers were placed on her feet father cavazzi who's one of the capuchins

00:41:39.740 who was there at the time and a lot of what we know comes from his records saw this and he was

00:41:45.160 like that's literally not what she wanted to be done so then he and the attendants made a deal

00:41:50.020 where she could be put in the capuchin robe for the funeral but afterwards they could dress her

00:41:54.260 up in ubuntu realness following a christian service so she was changed into the like monk robe

00:42:01.500 but then got her glam put back on before she was buried as following ubuntu custom she was

00:42:06.920 interned with objects valued with the same amount as the entire estate of a nobleman living in rome

00:42:11.860 at the time so just like lots of expensive stuff was put there with her for the afterlife despite

00:42:16.820 being buried with this treasure the only marker that this was Njinga's grave were stones marking

00:42:22.100 the burial site and then like it's the funeral of Njinga like come on so there was an all-night

00:42:27.360 vigil 20,000 people showed up and had to be housed in a temporary village constructed in the city

00:42:32.180 center like they had to construct a temporary village because so many mourners came funeral

00:42:36.720 rites included a lengthy performance in which every aspect of the queen's life was reenacted

00:42:41.040 from her military triumphs to her renowned debating ability to humorous sketches about her strong

00:42:46.000 personality. Many of the scenes ended with shouts of long live the queen, I'm ready to give my life

00:42:50.660 to defend her from her enemies. And then the celebration of Njinga's rule concluded with an 0.97

00:42:55.520 opulent meal served by the new queen, Kambu slash Barbara. So Njinga ruled for 37 years. It's one of 0.94

00:43:03.580 the longest and most successful reigns of any monarch in history in any country ever. To quote

00:43:10.300 Linda Haywood. There are few monarchs in recorded history who are N'Jinga's peers when it comes to 0.99

00:43:15.120 longevity, skill, or achievement, yet she's rarely included in western lists of great kings and queens.

00:43:20.380 While she was able to enchant, or at least grudgingly impress, many people during her life,

00:43:25.060 racism and misogyny soon began to distort her legacy in Europe. Over the years, various white

00:43:29.840 chroniclers wrote works about her that strayed further and further from the truth, describing 1.00

00:43:33.920 her as a depraved, bloodthirsty despot who ate the hearts of her enemies. N'Jinga's reputation

00:43:39.280 in the west recovered significantly in the 20th century as her use as a symbol in the angolan war

00:43:44.540 of independence increased in interest in her life and authors began to take a more nuanced approach

00:43:49.280 to her biography linda haywood again says quote and jinga's life and actions transcend african

00:43:55.500 history and the history of slavery in africa and the americas her story reveals larger themes of

00:44:00.100 gender power religion leadership colonialism and resistance books on notable and sometimes notable

00:44:05.340 female european rulers such as queen elizabeth the first of england and catherine the great of

00:44:09.340 russia number in the hundreds despite the many parallels in jinga shares with these women

00:44:13.580 no serious biography of her has existed until now in english or any other language and that's 2017

00:44:19.660 when linda haywood wrote her book because prior to that the books about her were books from like 1.00

00:44:24.480 17th 18th century they were like in jinga the queen in africa who had crazy sex lovers and was

00:44:32.360 a cannibal or like Njinga the woman who was a sex cannibal and then became a catholic and isn't that

00:44:39.160 nice of her it's such an important book that Linda Haywood did and it's so recent but in the absence

00:44:45.620 of literal biographies books oral traditions celebrating her life began immediately like she

00:44:52.340 was so famous during her time people who knew her or knew about her told stories about her right

00:44:56.880 away her kingdoms would eventually be incorporated into portuguese angola but commemoration of

00:45:02.440 njinga and her achievements persisted because she did so much cool stuff and what a legend she was

00:45:08.580 remembered by the people of angola as a great ruler someone whose resistance determination

00:45:13.060 and sheer genius has had led her to succeed against all possible odds by the time angola

00:45:18.860 got gained its independence from portugal 1975 400 years after its conquest njinga had become

00:45:26.360 firmly entrenched as a symbol of independence and the angolans refer to her as mother of the

00:45:31.240 nation and and ginga's story has been kept alive both by the people in the regions where she lived

00:45:36.500 as well as through the people captured or purchased from those regions by the portuguese

00:45:40.380 and sent to brazil who brought her story and memory with them so brazil and other parts of

00:45:45.880 in the caribbean the legend of and ginga still very well known very celebrated in 2002 a massive

00:45:54.720 statue it's a i'm gonna put a picture on instagram it's like i don't even know four stories tall a

00:46:00.860 massive statue of njenga was unveiled in a public square in luanda um it was later moved to the

00:46:06.500 museum of armed forces where it still stands today um while it was still in public the statue was a

00:46:12.720 popular gathering spot a newlyweds would pose for pictures in front of it as they might post 0.71

00:46:17.120 with her actual parents and her the way that she used gender religion political alliances 0.99

00:46:27.920 helped lay a foundation for future leaders of indongo today she really the whole thing about 1.00

00:46:33.780 like oh no can a woman be a leader like she made that be not so much of an issue in the period of 1.00

00:46:39.660 like in the next century following her death in 1663 queens ruled for at least 80 of those 100 1.00

00:46:45.520 years. So during her lifetime, she never fully overcame the idea of females could not rule in 1.00

00:46:50.520 Ndongo, and she had to become a male to retain power. Her female successors faced little problem 0.87

00:46:55.580 in being accepted as women and rulers. And she is a leadership role model for all generations of

00:47:01.280 Angolan women. Women in Angola today display remarkable social independence and are found

00:47:06.040 in the country's army, police force, government, public, private economic sectors. In December 2014,

00:47:12.560 the national reserve bank of angola issued a 20 kwanzaa coin in tribute to njinga in recognition

00:47:18.520 of her role to defend self-determination and cultural identity of her people in 2013 an

00:47:24.120 angolan film called njinga queen of angola was released and stars the network that does all the

00:47:32.240 philippa gregory type adaptations is currently developing a series about queen njinga and the

00:47:39.840 star is going to be yetida badaki who is the nigerian actress who is on american gods and is

00:47:48.000 such a good actress and i think would do an amazing will do an amazing job as this role and

00:47:53.120 also she's 40 years old which i love because njinka is a story about a woman who was so

00:48:00.900 powerful and she wasn't 18 she wasn't 25 she's a woman who things just started going for her at age

00:48:07.860 like 35 and she kept going after that um the producers of this series are 50 cent steven

00:48:16.160 s de knight and mo abundu as producers and that is the saga of our new icon and jinga so time to

00:48:25.200 do some scoring i truly i don't know how this is gonna go i feel like i feel like it's gonna be a

00:48:32.640 high score but like how high will it be let's decide it's tricky starting with scandalousness

00:48:37.820 because so much of her story to me i'm just like oh so juicy the scandalousness of it all but i'm

00:48:44.580 like no but like think in her era and her time and place but when you think of that so it's like she

00:48:49.240 had all these lovers she had all these concubines of various genders and it's like well but that

00:48:53.820 was just kind of how things were then but it wasn't because that one guy like challenged her

00:48:58.100 about it and was like stop being so open with your sexuality so that was scandalous but no one

00:49:02.820 could really challenge her about it because she was the king's daughter at the time um murder

00:49:07.740 wedding is both schemey and scandalous I don't know if I can score for both though I don't know

00:49:15.220 I feel like the stuff she did is so cool and awesome I'm gonna go back to scandalousness

00:49:22.580 I'm going to give her a 10 for scheminess because a 10 for scheminess like 10 plus for

00:49:27.840 scheminess were that possible because everything she did just like the strategic baptisms the like 0.78

00:49:33.260 three-pronged revenge plan the murder wedding all the like I'm gonna be Christian now now I'm gonna

00:49:38.940 be in Bengala like everything like the way that she escaped on a vine that one time even just like 0.67

00:49:46.520 the chair moment like she's a 10 for scheminess and i think she is a 10 for significance as well

00:49:54.200 because of everything um the impact of her reign on that region was massive because the way that

00:50:02.480 the portuguese people are like this woman just won't stop being rebellious against it is 0.91

00:50:07.100 significant and actually in terms of the legacy like we talked a lot about with the slavery

00:50:11.640 the atlantic slave trade all of that and historical records show that this is from

00:50:17.600 ann terrio's piece on long reads so historical records show that the number of enslaved people

00:50:21.980 departing luanda for the americas dropped in 1623 just as njinga was beginning to consolidate her

00:50:27.980 power the number would fluctuate over the coming years as the balance of power shifted between

00:50:32.840 njinga and the portuguese finally falling to zero in 1642 and staying low for the rest of njinga's

00:50:37.900 life it's possible that her claim of supporting the portuguese slave trade was all part of her

00:50:41.920 statecraft an empty show of alliance that distracted them while she worked to circumvent

00:50:45.540 them we can only guess what her actual intentions were but the numbers tell a compelling story so 0.97

00:50:51.580 she was active in the slave trade asterix her role in it may have meant less people were sent

00:51:00.080 for a time so anyway the significance both of her involvement in the slave trade the people who were

00:51:04.460 but also was less people the like 20 foot statue of her in angola the way that her story lives on

00:51:11.840 legend um it's a 10 for significance for sure the sexism bonus now in a story where she was

00:51:20.080 forcibly sterilized that's a major sexism thing the fact that um she was doubted for so long in

00:51:28.100 andongo like she wouldn't have had to leave and go to matamba if she'd been accepted as a leader 0.90

00:51:32.380 but people like girls can be leaders but the purpose of the sexism bonus is kind of to be like

00:51:36.900 it's to give bonus points to people who are held back by sexism because some people could have done

00:51:43.140 more were it not for the sexism so it's a way to kind of even the playing field a bit like she

00:51:47.540 gets like we're starting off with a five for sure and then i think that moves up to like an eight 0.99

00:51:52.420 because of the sterilization and the way that people are associated to her about her gender

00:51:56.880 and then the fact that she had to act like a man in order to retain control i'm gonna go with an 0.99

00:52:02.540 eight for sexism and then we have to wrap it back around to scandalousness i've talked through those 1.00

00:52:08.520 other things so the scandalousness is just like on the one hand it's like how did people see her 1.00

00:52:13.700 at the time but it's also like to us as a podcast how scandalous was the stuff she did like she 0.89

00:52:19.080 seduced a man a younger man entirely just to kill everybody at their wedding where she's the bride 1.00

00:52:26.380 i love the use of fashion as a weapon is that scandalousness though the way that she sort of 1.00

00:52:31.400 like slowly manipulated her brother potentially causing his suicide so she could take over 1.00

00:52:37.460 is scandalous just um the way that she just sort of like mercenarily would just like change

00:52:43.940 religions and stuff i think would well certainly to everyone who is passionate about any one of 0.74

00:52:49.940 those religions would find scandalous when she switched out of it like the murder wedding is

00:52:54.700 very i think it's her highest scandaliciousness moment and i don't know if i can give her a 10

00:53:02.860 for scandaliciousness because the context in which she was living her actions weren't necessarily 0.67

00:53:09.340 scandalicious to that culture i'm gonna give her a murder wedding is such a major thing though 0.90

00:53:19.300 i'm gonna give her an 8 for scandaliciousness so what does this add up to 1.00

00:53:23.560 36 a 36 for in jingo which puts her right up there towards the top as well fredigand 38 queen margo

00:53:34.880 37.5 and then in jinga 36 harem sultan 36 malinzine 35.5 like that is that is your top five

00:53:45.580 and it's glorious and that's just where i'm going with my gut if you let me know what you think

00:53:51.980 about that as a score it's tricky it's tricky like she did so much war stuff is the thing with

00:53:57.820 njinga that she scandalousness is more like i'm sure she did cool war stuff like fredigan did you 0.98

00:54:04.860 know like disguising as trees etc but that scheminess is not scandalousness like the

00:54:09.120 scandalousness njinga is amazing in so many ways scandalousness is just not the top number one way

00:54:15.080 in which she was amazing i don't know such a story though right so excited about it i'm glad

00:54:21.240 i got to do this two-part episode and just like really get in depth with it with you all so thank

00:54:27.120 you for listening vulgar history before you close out of whatever little app you're listening in i

00:54:31.560 would appreciate it if you could just tap on the five stars button there's one of those in spotify

00:54:36.320 um an apple podcast there's a little button that probably is on google and other things that you

00:54:41.320 like to listen to your podcasts on and i appreciate that i appreciate the reviews i appreciate getting

00:54:48.420 tips of i'd love to learn more about african history if you have suggestions of people from

00:54:55.300 african history or wherever um you can send me a message if you go to vulgarhistory.com there's a

00:55:00.940 little contact button you can smash you can email me vulgarhistorypod at gmail.com all the pictures

00:55:07.740 and stuff will be posted on instagram at vulgarhistorypod where my dms are open you can

00:55:13.760 send me suggestions and feedback there as well or on twitter at vulgar history and then of course

00:55:18.520 there's the patreon so if you go to patreon.com slash ann foster writer that's where you can get

00:55:22.720 all of our bonus content and yeah there's a link in the show notes if you go click on the one it

00:55:31.720 takes you to bookshop.org to buy your books and if you buy books through there you are supporting

00:55:36.280 this podcast directly i super recommend linda haywood's biography of njinga it's just like

00:55:41.440 this was me talking for two hours i'm sure if you listen to that book read out loud to you it's like

00:55:45.460 20 hours like there's so many excellent amazing details it's such a saga and of course if you go

00:55:50.700 to vulgarhistory.store um use code tits out for free u.s shipping or tits out 10 for 10% off of

00:55:56.480 all of our merch the proceeds of that also support me and this show thank you all for listening 0.53

00:56:02.220 and i'll talk to you all oh sorry mask on tits out talk to you all next time

00:56:11.440 The war is over and both sides lost. 0.98

00:56:29.140 Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust.

00:56:34.160 Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world,

00:56:38.640 praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight but in the shadow dark the darkness always wins

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00:57:31.400 unhinged. Welcome to Roxanne and Chantelle, the podcast where cousins Roxanne and Chantelle

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00:57:55.720 and Chantel. Let's get into it. Do you ever watch a TV show set in a historical time period and 0.98

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Vulgar History - April 20, 2022

International, part 8： Njinga vs. Colonizers (pt 2⧸2)

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