History Of Ndongo
History of Ndongo: In the late 15th century or early 16th century, the Kingdom of Ndongo possibly formed as a unified realm in the highlands between the Kwanza and Lukala rivers. Although the archaeological evidence is not very good, it does indicate that farmers most likely began to settle the area after 500 BCE and that ironworking took place there before the Common Era.
A lot of different kinds of groups might have been forming in the early Iron Age, just like they did further north. In the late 1600s, stories said that Ndongo came from Kongo. There were Kongo royal names like “Kingdom of Angola” as early as 1535, but Kongo probably didn’t have a big part in Ndongo’s start or early growth.
According to legend, Ngola Kiluanje was the first king. He allegedly extended the kingdom westward, annexing the majority of the lowlands along the Kwanza River’s coast on both sides and approaching the Kongo-ruled island of Luanda in the early 1600s. Not long before 1520, the king sent an embassy to Portugal to make ties like the ones Kongo had.
They sent an exploring party that stayed in Kabasa, which was the capital of Ndongo, until they were forced to leave the country in 1526 for unknown reasons. King Afonso I of Kongo made plans for them to go back to Kongo and then to Portugal. A lot of Portuguese traders, mostly from the island of São Tomé but also from Kongo, set up shop in Kabasa. This was against the rules for both the Portuguese crown and the Kongo kings.
By the middle of the 1600s, Ndongo had become a major force in the area. Its troops were fighting the king of Benguela in the central highlands of Angola and the king of Songo to the east as its borders grew. There may have also been border disagreements and fights with the Kongo in the mountainous “Dembos” area between them, where it was hard for either monarch to establish control.
Along with Jesuit preachers, a new Portuguese mission to Ndongo came in 1560. Paulo Dias de Novais was in charge of it. Also, it didn’t work, and the Jesuit teacher Francisco de Gouveia was locked up when Dias de Novais left to go back to Portugal in 1563. Around the middle of the sixteenth century, Ndongo was a country with a lot of connections. Sobas, who were local leaders and descended from ancient families, were in charge of hundreds of small areas that were grouped into a few big provinces.
The king was in charge of a large royal district that was right next to the capital. Several sobas in the Kabasa area said they were descended straight from Ngola Kiluanji. Rulers also took care of areas where dependent peasants (kijikos) lived and worked to support the king, his family, royal army units, and government officials.
There were also stories about the king giving friends and favorites land and people to work for him. Later stories say that the king’s job was passed down through a single line that began with Ngola Kiluanje. However, the succession could have happened in other ways, such as by primogeniture, election by the sobas, or election by the officials (tendala and ngolambole, among others). A group of roaming officials kept an eye on the area.
The ngolambole was in charge of the troops, while the tendala was in charge of the government and the law. Paulo Dias de Novais went back to Ndongo in 1575 with a crown grant from Portugal to build a colony on the coast, south of the Kwanza.
He told Ndongo he could help, and he fought against rebels for Ndongo in several battles. But in 1579, some Kabasa groups joined forces with Portuguese traders because they were afraid of Dias de Novais. This, along with a possible Kongo interest, got the king to kill the Portuguese and send them away. Kongo helped Dias de Novais hold on to some fortified sites. He also took over areas around Luanda and the north bank of the Kwanza River by using naval power and convincing Sobas to fight with him against Ndongo.
The Portuguese were strong enough by the middle of the 1580s to take the war to the mountains from their base at Massangano. That being said, the Ndongo were strong enough to easily beat the Portuguese at the Lukala in late 1589. Many of Dias de Novais’s allies turned their backs on him, and he was forced to leave the mountains.
There was a standstill, and around 1599, a peace deal set the border between the Portuguese colony and Ndongo for good. Mbandi, a Ngola Kiluanji, was in charge of Ndongo during this very important time. He worked to centralize his power while also fighting the Portuguese.
Fifty years later, tradition says that he sided with his wife and her brothers against the nobles.
However, this was probably part of a bigger complaint against a policy that let them have a say in decisions and hold office. People tricked him into fighting a rebel, and when he got hurt, his friends left him, and the rebels killed him. No matter what, this didn’t really slow down the process of centralization that his son and heir, Ngola Mbandi, was working hard to achieve.
Portugal sometimes helped Ngola Mbandi fight rebellious subjects, and there was some competition between the two powers until 1617, when Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos, the ruler of Portugal, broke the deadlock. In that year, the Portuguese governor led his own army and groups of Imbangala mercenaries from south of the Kwanza in a series of devastating operations against Ndongo.
As a way to keep their numbers up, the Imbangala were armed groups that lived by raping teenage boys. They were very good at what they did. Most of the people who lived in the center of Ndongo left between 1617 and 1620. A lot of its people were sold to work on farms in Brazil and Spanish America. Ngola Mbandi ran away to islands in the Kwanza River and had to arrange a peace treaty that was not good for his people in 1622.
He killed himself out of depression in 1624, leaving behind a seven-year-old son. The country was now ready for a violent civil war that would bring Portugal deeper into Ndongo and completely change its geography and government.
Also read: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE OYO EMPIRE: THE GREAT AFRICAN KINGDOM
