Queen Njinga in TIMES: “6 queens you should know about for women’s history month”
“Njinga of Angola (1622-1663): She was the queen of Ndongo, an area around the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and is considered the “Cleopatra of central Africa” — whose political instincts rivaled those of Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great, according to the first full-length study in English of her life that was just published, Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Boston University historian Linda Heywood. According to the new PBS documentary Africa’s Great Civilizations, she dressed like a man and insisting on be called “king” — and kept concubines — and yet was still discriminated against by rulers of other countries for being a woman. For example, she negotiated a treaty with the Portuguese on behalf of her brother while sitting on the back of her servant, who crouched on all fours so that she could look the Portuguese in the eye after they refused to get her a chair.”
– Passage on Queen Njinga by Olivia B. Waxman’s article on “6 queens you should know about for women’s history month”
March 1, 2017