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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