NZINGHA
AMAZON QUEEN (1582-1663)


A very good military leader who waged war against the savage slave-hunting Europeans. This war lasted for more than thirty years. Nzingha was of Angoloan descent and is known as a symbol of inspiration for people everywhere. Queen Nzingha is also known by some as Jinga by others as Ginga. She was a member of the ethnic Jagas a militant group that formed a human shield against the Portuguese slave traders. As a visionary political leader, competent, and self sacrificing she was completely devoted to the resistance movement. She formed alliances with other foreign powers pitting them against one another to free Angola of European influence. She possessed both masculine hardness and feminine charm and used them both depending on the situation. She even used religion as a political tool when it suited her. Her death on December 17, 1663 helped open the door for the massive Portuguese slave trade. Yet her struggle helped awaken others that followed her and forced them to mount offensives against the invaders. These include Madame Tinubu of Nigeria; Nandi, the mother of the great Zulu warrior Chaka; Kaipkire of the Herero people of South West Africa; and the female army that followed the Dahomian King, Behanzin Bowelle.





Nana Yaa Asantewaa of the Ashanti Empire




Her fight against British colonialists is a story that is woven throughout the history of Ghana.


Asantewa noticed that some of the chiefs were afraid. Some said that there should be no war. They should rather go to beg the Governor to bring back the Asantehene King Prempeh. Then suddenly Yaa Asantewa stood up and spoke. This was what she said: "Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. If it were in the brave days of, the days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opolu Ware, chiefs would not sit down to see thief king taken away without firing a shot. No white man could have dared to speak to chief of the Ashanti in the way the Governor spoke to you chiefs this morning. Is it true that the bravery of the Ashanti is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be! I must say this, if you the men of Ashanti will not go forward, then we will. We the women will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields." This speech stirred up the men who took an oath to fight the white men until they released the Asantehene. For months the Ashantis led by Yaa Asantewa fought very bravely and kept the white men in the fort. Yet British reinforcements totaling 1,400 soldiers arrived at Kumasi. Yaa Asantewa and other leaders were captured and sent into exile. Yaa Asantewa's war was the last of the major war in Africa led by a women.

[b]Toussaint louverture (although not a King but a great Leader)

Leader of the Haitian Revolution - Born in 1743, the eldest of eight children born to slaves on the Bréda plantation in northern Haiti. Taught to read and write by his godfather, Toussaint rose quickly in rank among the household slaves, and became first his master's coachman, and then steward of all livestock on the estate. In the early months of 1792 he joined the slave uprising and began to organise the rebellious slaves into a revolutionary army.



A skilful military leader, expert at guerrilla warfare, and able to instill loyalty, respect and admiration in his followers, he soon became the undisputed leader of the black forces. Over the years of bloody conflict, he maneouvered and manipulated the competing armies of French Republicans and Royalists, the Spanish and British, to achieve the goal of an independent republic free from slavery.

Toussaint himself was captured by the French in 1802 and was taken to France. He died in prison in April 1803, but as, William Wordsworth wrote in his poem, To Toussaint L'Ouverture, "Though fallen thyself, never to ride again, Live and take comfort. Thou has left behind Powers that will work for thee." Under the command of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the united black and mulatto forces defeated the troops sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to reimpose slavery, and the revolution was completed when Haiti declared independence on January 1st 1804.

More than twenty [slave revolts] occurred in the years 1789–1832, most of them in the Greater Caribbean. Coeval with the heyday of the abolitionist movement in Europe and chiefly associated with Creole slaves, the phenomenon emerged well before the French abolition of slavery or the Saint-Domingue uprising, even before the declaration of the Rights of Man. A few comparable examples occurred earlier in the century, but the series in question began with an attempted rebellion in Martinique in August 1789. Slaves claimed that the government in Europe had abolished slavery but that local slaveowners were preventing the island governor from implementing the new law. The pattern would be repeated again and again across the region for the next forty years and would culminate in the three large-scale insurrections in Barbados, 1816, Demerara, 1823, and Jamaica, 1831. Together with the Saint-Domingue insurrection of 1791, these were the biggest slave rebellions in the history of the Americas.

@Maffie. Question didn't Nzingha come from Angola them parts. confused3?



FBniceone.gif

this thread is nice.

Fredblack wrote:

Quote:

Yes that is correct the Ndongo Kingdomhad two inland Mbundu states--Matamba and Kasanje. Major tribes of the Mbundu are the Mbaka, Ndongo, and the Mbondo.Here is some more on this Queen, taken from a website.

I amended the title in the earlier post as it can be confusingniceone.gif

[quote]
[font=arial][size=3]Queen Nzingha of Ndongo belonged to the Mbundu, a large and ancient ethnic group that lived in modern-day Angola. The Mbundu were divided into tribes, including the Songo, Lenge, Libolo, Hungu, Pende, Ndongo, and Imbangala. Every group was made up of clans descended from their mother's side of the family. Every clan was identified with their mother's clan and all the marriages were marriagesbetween clans related maternally. Nzingha's family ruled the Ndongo people.

@Maffie. I thought I was right. Still have memory, because I remember first coming across Nzingha in Destruction of Black Civilisation by Chancellor Williams and I don't forget particular things or women like this in particular.

Tell you why. I saw a thread by Opinated. Good one on African Queens and it claims Nzingha came from West Africa which I know not to be true as the Jaga people them come from Angola. Williams is very clear on that.

Facts for that clarification and info.

FBniceone.gif

Yes indeed the only book I have read about the Great Woman.

What I especially liked about her if Chancellor Williams is historically correct/ after banning African involvement in slavery within her country/ she sold the slave owning chiefs/ African agents for white men into slavery.

She must of had a strong sense of justice. Certainly a punishment to fit the crime.

Nice thread.

@Fred

Thank you for pointing out that error to me.

@Mansamusa

I agree and isn't it amazing that we still make references to Chancellor Williams book , just goes to show what a great and vital/important read this book is for us all.niceone.gif

there were many rebellions throughout africa not only during slavery times but also through colonial time. these people you posted above are not the only ones

Willthis discussion thread also coverChaka?

I recall a TV series a few years ago called Chaka Zulu...

A leader in mathematics

Ahmes (Ahmos), the Egyptian mathematician and scribe, wrote several math 'books' for children. The Ahmes Papyrus discussed what we were taught was the Pythagorean Theorem amongst many other math principles. Pythagoras is not responsible for this theorem. Much of the math that is claimed by the Greeks as original thought was borrowed, stolen, acquired, however you want to think of it, from library in Kemet. Pythgoras, Plato and others studied at the great library that had been in existance for more than a millenia before they were born.

For more info, check the following sites:

http://www.exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History019.htm

http://www.websn.com/Pride/Pride/ahmos.htm

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Anci...hind%20papyrus

Knowledge with wisdom weilds true power

When you look at Moor history you'll see evidence of a black civilisation far more advanced thanthat of any European one at the time.

THE EMPIRE OF THE MOORS

The Moors were people who lived in Morocco. That's the reason they called it that. The word Moor meant Black. It meant Black people. In ancient times all Africans were called Ethiopians or Kushites. And in Middle Ages the Africans were called Moors. The word Moor literally means Black, so the Moorish people were the Black people. In medieval times the name Moor was not restricted to the inhabitants of Morocco, but it was customary to refer to all Africans as Moors.

The Moors went into Spain and there laid the foundations of a new civilization. The country was immeasurably enriched by their labors. They, for instance, introduced the silk industry into Spain. In the field of agriculture they were highly skilled, and introduced rice, sugar cane, dates, ginger, cotton, lemons, and strawberries into the country.

The Spanish city of Cordova, in the tenth century, was very much like a modern city. Its streets were well paved and there were raised sidewalks for pedestrians. At night, one could walk for ten miles by the lights of lamps, flanked by an uninterrupted extent of buildings. This was hundreds of years before there was a paved street in Paris, France, or a street lamp in London, England. The population of Cordova was over a million. There were 200, 000 homes, 800 public schools, and many colleges and universities. Cordova possessed 10,000 palaces o