Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola

She is Angola's hero, and after reading her story she is mine too now. What a woman! I wrote my review in goodreads.com and would like to share it here in my blog. Afterall, my original blog's name is "On Becoming a Woman" and she is surely one role model for women... :)

Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 by Patricia C. McKissack

My review rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book so much, I read it very fast like for couple of hours only or so, but I am sure I will keep it in my bookshelf, in case I'll have children I want them to know about the life of this remarkable woman.

As you can see from my profile I am not Angolan but curently I live in Luanda, and the busiest street here is named Gingha (or, Nzingha). It took me sometime to understand that Nzingha was an Angolan queen, who fought for her kingdom against colonialist (portuguese) and slavery. I was amazed to hear that story from somebody. Amazed to imagine in this patriarchy society, she was the warrior and the leader in this country. And on top of that, at that time slavery was so normal -as her mother was also an ex-slave captured during war between the kingdoms, aparently- yet she knew the recent type of slavery brought by her enemy is something else. She said, "This way, the baby of a slave will be born a slave. It is not correct".

Like the previous review mentioned, reading this book I'm stunned by her persistence yet saddened at the same time, knowing that her fight against colonialism was not successful. Although, she still never gave in until end of her time.

Outside Angola -except it says in the book, in Brazil- she is not too popular, but her story is definitely one to be passed on for generations.

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Comments

[wulan aquariyanti]

Kinda Cut Nyak Dien of Angola ya mba.. Good recommendation, i like reading woman biography and your review has driven me to read that book. Tapi masih puasa beli buku sampai pindahan. Huhuhu.. Absolutely gonna read it! Thank youuu..

[Nina]

Local heroes were almost always not popular world wide, because all the time what well known world wide is according to the western point of view..... I think that is why we need to travel to odd countries to learn about the local.
Bravo Nadia, dah mau membuka mata terhadap local history....
Nina

[tikno]

I'm salute to you for this post.

[nadia febina]

@Wulan:
Yes kind of Cut Nyak Dien, probably a century older. Puasa beli buku? Biar ngirit apa biar gak refot pindahannya? :) Selamat pindahan yaa

@Nina:
Yes I think I start to get addicted to be in those "exotic" countries... Exactly for that very reason you mentioned. At some point, I realized that the information I have been provided with is too one-sided.

@tikno:
thank you, she has a story worth to share. How are you? :)

[diny]

kudos for nzingha... my hero would be ayaan hirsi ali from somalia.