The Mbundu people make up 25% of Angola. Queen Nzingha, who fought the Portuguese in the 1600s, was Mbundu. So was Agostinho Neto, who fought them in the 1900s. So was Lesliana Pereira, Miss Angola 2008 (pictured above). And so were the Africans who arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, beginning Black American history.
The Mbundu in 1450:
- Location: northern Angola.
- Population: about 500,000.
- Language: Kimbundu, a Bantu language.
- Religion: worshipped spirits of ancestors, hills, water, woods, etc. Witchcraft, divining.
- Government: kingdoms.
- Society: matrilineal lineages with the oldest males in charge. Craft guilds. Circumcision.
- Economy: Farming, hunting, fishing, crafts, trade, etc.
- grew: sorghum, millet.
- raised: goats, sheep, guinea fowl, cows.
- hunted: rats, birds, porcupines, hyenas, lions, elephants.
- Technology: iron, no writing.
- weapons: spears, bows and arrows, machetes.
- Origins: arrived from the north by about the year 100 as part of the
Bantu Expansion.
In the 1480s, White people began to appear: the Portuguese. At first they came as traders, later as slave raiders.
In 1575 the Portuguese founded Luanda along the Mbundu coast. It will become the centre of the slave trade to Brazil.
In 1618, the Portuguese and their Imbangala allies overthrow Kabasa, the capital of Ndongo, the most powerful Mbundu kingdom. Ndongo had no guns. The people of Kabasa were marched to the coast to Luanda to be put on slave ships.
Twenty of them, bound for Veracruz, Mexico, fell into the hands of Dutch pirates and were taken to Virginia instead. They arrived at Jamestown on August 20th 1619, a year before the Mayflower. A fourth of all Black Americans will come from the Congo Angola region, many of them Mbundu.
From 1619 to 1657, Queen Nzingha fought the Portuguese and their allies and kept them at bay, with some Dutch help. After her death, the Mbundu fought on into the 1700s, but lost the lion’s share of their labour force to the slave trade.
In the 1600s, the Portuguese brought cassava from the Americas. It did better than sorghum or millet under the uncertain rains of that part of Africa.
In the 1900s, the Portuguese forced Mbundu farmers to grow cotton, paying them less than a fair price. They kicked other farmers off their land and gave it to White coffee growers. The dispossessed farmers were then arrested as vagrants and forced to work for coffee growers at poverty wages. These policies led to famines.
The Catholic Church controlled education and taught the Mbundu only in Portuguese. It preached absolute obedience to authority (meaning White rule). It held up the Portuguese as a shining example to the Mbundu.
That led to the rise of the assimilados: Westernized Mbundus. They understand they are brainwashed by the West, but still push to get rid of things like witchcraft and sexism. They are seen as out of touch with ordinary Mbundus, but they did lead the fight against White rule.
The MPLA led that fight under Agostinho Neto. In 1975 the Portuguese left. In 2016, after long years of civil war, the MPLA is still the ruling party in Angola. It is heavily Mbundu.
– Abagond, 2016.
Sources: “In Search of Our Roots” (2009) by Henry Louis Gates, Jr; “Creating Black Americans” (2006) by Nell Irvin Painter; “Mbundu” (1997) by Onwuka N. Njoku, PhD.
See also:
- Queen Nzingha
- Agostinho Neto
- Portuguese Empire
- Anglo Americans
- Swahili civilization, 700 to 1500
- Songhay Empire
- Africa: the last 13,000 years
- Bantu Expansion
- DNA tests and Black Americans – actor Chris Tucker’s father’s line goes back to the Mbundu.
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@abagond
Do you have a post about those Mbundu who were taken to Virginia by the Dutch pirates?
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It’s great to learn more about Mbundu people. There is a street in my hometown named after Agostinho Neto.
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@Abagond
Thank you for this article.
I am having lunch with my friend and her daughter today. I will print this out and show it to her daughter, whose father is Angolan.
She goes to an exclusive private school , where she is the only Black child in her grade. She is very whitewashed and brainwashed.
She told me that they have learnt about “fair complexion and chiselled noses and fine golden hair” of the people of the Roman Empire. For the whole continent of Africa, only a footnote of Masaai history was taught.
It could be liberating for her to learn about Queen Nzingha . And a double whammy , the very beautiful Lesilana Pereira as the indomitable Queen Nzingha.
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Without Angola, there would be no Brazil and Portugal, as we know them , today.
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My ancestress came over in a Portugese slave ship.
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I love how the story of the indomitable Queen Nzingha is wrapped in the story of the Mbundu people. It’s obvious from history that she loved her people and her land. Her leadership was guided by her love.
Thank you for this post, Abagond!
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@taotesan
That is extremely hilarious! Apparently the teachers at that school don’t know that the ancient Romans (and their descendants) were primarily dark-haired, dark-eyed, olive skin toned Mediterranean Europeans, not Scandinavians.
Though the Romans went through fads where they donned blonde wigs as a “fashion statement”, they thought the people who were naturally blonde and pale were ignorant barbarians beneath their contempt.
Sounds like the teachers are so steeped in White Supremacist ideology they are projecting their views on top of facts.
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Admittedly I thought Lesliana Pereira played Nzingha pretty poorly. Barely any action at all – but she’s still HAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWT!!!!!!!!!!
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Reblogged this on Mbeti's Blog and commented:
authenic black history from one of my favorite blogs.
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not as popular as sex and racism or poc having sex with white/albinic people but just as interesting and important to me – black/african history and culture that is.
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Hmmm……This Lesliana Pereira looks like she is doing a shoot for a fashion layout not a fierce warrior queen battling colonialist Portuguese. I will read about the real Queen Nzingha.
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@Mary Burrell
Mary, that is laugh out loud funny!
African women have the ability to look sharp and stylish even when they are doing hard labor as this woman in Mali shows. She’s going to be pounding millet for hours, but she looks great!
http://artwolfe.photoshelter.com/image?&_bqG=0&_bqH=eJxNzU0LwjAMgOF_s3OnO.ggh9pGKG7r1qaiuxSRyYQJogP139sqfhwSnveSuGbTnldpmWWzLfH5tGxuWDSdtn2WT_KUsThhKy.tgNNxGLoxeYXnlYRDsLLeYIHcooR31v.tjcKKOCldxbTaEEhOGOwsGq8kuPiif9xZ3dLaGZZ4sfAqnIHxQ_elWf5YRnJBcO12l32fiHjtCWEVPlo-&GI_ID=
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@Benjamin
No. They come up from time to time, but no post just on them.
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@taotesan
“She told me that they have learnt about “fair complexion and chiselled noses and fine golden hair” of the people of the Roman Empire. For the whole continent of Africa, only a footnote of Masaai history was taught.”
Does she attend one of those international elite schools that have names like Pembrook or Pineridge? I can’t stand people who go to such schools, especially the black students. They are very white inside (and dumb) and totally Eurocentric. I generalize here but I hesitate to apologize.
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Hey, I was wondering if you could listen to a song called ‘This is War’ by 30 seconds to Mars and give you’re opinion on it,
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Sorry for the late response
@Afrofem and
@villagewriter
(I feel I am derailing again)
Yes, she attends a posh school.
Even though I recognize in my friend’s daughter brainwashing, many Black children even when attending township schools minds are emptied of their own history. I was one of those
township children.
The tragedy is that ms x does not understand and appreciate her beauty and as yet to comprehend African history.
. The socialization with mostly white peers, the white media, Eurocentric based education plays a huge role in that perversion of perception.
When we are together, I always try to impart some positive knowledge of her heritage.
Paradoxically, both her parents were prominent anti-apartheid activists.
I am reading about Cuba’s important role in Angola, contributing to the demise of white supremacy in Southern Africa.
I might write about that later.
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correction:were emptied.
The education department had changed the curricula taught in schools esp. history.
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[…] to describe each other. The word ”malungu” is derived from Kimbundu, the language of the Mbundu people of what is now Angola. Malungu ties were so powerful that there developed a strong taboo against […]
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@ Abagond
The 400th anniversary is this coming August. Time for that post?
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@ Benjamin @ Solitaire
A post on 1619 is coming up soon, God willing.
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