Njinga, a princess far from home
for three long years.
We have to be simultaneous.
The moment one camp gets word from the other camp, it's over.
I'm going to trust you and your men to lead this charge.
Aware of her kingdom's state of despair,
she forges an alliance with the Imbangala leader Kasa,
making the enemy of her enemy a brother in arms.
Back home, Kabasa is falling into the hands of their rivals.
Don't touch her, I said!
Hey, hey!
- Fu... Funji! - Funji!
- You need... You need to get out of here. - What's happening?
- We must do something! - We will!
No, no!
Funji! Funji!
But Njinga remains steadfast and determined to do whatever it takes
to protect the future and safety of her people.
Or die trying.
May your ancestors welcome you home.
Njinga is in self-imposed exile.
She has formed alliances with the Imbangala.
With them, she's been fighting against the Portuguese.
Njinga works with Kasa to disrupt the slave trade routes,
to help to get slaves from the interior of West Central Africa to the coast.
She's still, I think, heartbroken because of the death of her son,
and she still feels resentful towards her brother, Mbande.
But now, King Mbande is in a desperate situation.
His capital, Kabasa, has been sacked by the Portuguese.
And he's been forced to flee to the Kindonga Islands.
The islands are a defensive stronghold located in the middle of the Kwanza River.
And now he's summoned Njinga for a meeting.
Where are his guards?
Njinga, you should know...
the past three years have changed him.
I can see that.
Let's cross.
What have you done?
Are you immortal now?
Walking around here unprotected.
What if the Portuguese had got here before I did?
Didn't you hear?
They already have.
Kabasa is lost.
Now I've lost more than Father ever did.
What of my sisters? Where are Funji and Kambu?
I got them out.
- This can't be our end. - It isn't.
We're still here.
Why did my King call me?
Peace.
I want you to negotiate peace with the Portuguese.
What?
Your successes with the Imbangala have reached us in Kabasa.
- You put order to their chaos.
Use them to cut Portuguese communication lines.
Njinga, your skills are undeniable.
It makes you the best person to negotiate peace on our behalf.
I've been fighting them for years.
- Yes, I know. - And even if I hadn't,
this is not the time to negotiate peace.
Not when you...
Not when the throne is so weak.
We must keep fighting.
Njinga.
I have no more blood left to spill.
It won't be your blood we're spilling.
It will be theirs.
Until we drive those murderous thieves out of this kingdom.
Please, Njinga!
You're our only hope!
I am not asking as your king.
I'm asking as your brother.
When Njinga's brother comes to look for Njinga,
she doesn't just have her brother, the one who killed her son.
She has the King,
the one who's seated on the throne of her people.
He's an entity that she has to serve.
- Hey.
The King of Ndongo does not bow to anyone except the ancestors.
What does my brother need?
It might seem unimaginable for us today
to think about her still having a relationship with her brother.
She does not trust him,
but this was so much bigger than him.
Really at the heart of every decision she's making,
she's thinking about protecting her people,
and keeping as many people out of the slave trade as possible.
The Portuguese raid on Kabasa was a show of military force
to intimidate Mbande and his people.
So when the Portuguese troops move elsewhere,
Mbande and his sister are able to return to their home city,
but they know that their battle with the Portuguese is far from over.
West Central Africa is going through a massive turmoil.
The Portuguese are going in villages
and in towns and cities,
destroying and pillaging, ravaging society.
The Portuguese have even built a fort at Ambaca,
a site threateningly close to Mbande's capital, Kabasa.
He knows that they can attack at any time.
Mbande is absolutely exhausted.
He doesn't have the military capacity to take on the Portuguese.
There is chaos in the region.
It's really now or never if he's going to remain on the throne
and keep even just a tiny bit of power.
I've called you both here
because I need to tell you that
I've made peace with Mbande.
What?
And I've also agreed to be his ambassador to the Portuguese.
So we are going to Luanda.
Why are you letting Mbande hide behind you?
He is the king after all.
A king who has lost his feet.
Mbande...
He's not himself right now.
He believes the Portuguese want peace, but...
...I know this enemy.
He is cunning and ruthless,
and he wants our complete subjugation.
Why don't we send a war party?
Kambu.
Battles aren't won in the field until they're won in the mind.
Father used to say that.
Yes, he did.
- So that's why I'm going.
Because I wanna look that governor in the eye
when he gives me back everything that he's taken from us.
How are you so sure he will?
Because I won't rest until he does.
What Njinga is taking on is a formidable challenge,
the largest official peace delegation ever undertaken
since the arrival of the Portuguese.
Njinga and a huge group of attendants
make the 200-mile journey
from Kabasa to Luanda.
Njinga arrives in Luanda with a retinue
and makes a splendid display of Ndongo aristocracy
and Ndongo royalty.
She speaks Portuguese.
She's very knowledgeable of the politics.
And she's a strategic thinker.
She will be a perfect envoy to show the Portuguese,
you know, that, "We are mighty people, we are grand, and we are honorable."
At this point, the governor in this region is de Sousa,
who acts on behalf of the Portuguese State.
He is intent on putting Njinga firmly in her place.
She's older than I expected.
Don't underestimate her.
I don't intend to.
No one's brought her to heel yet.
I don't think that the Portuguese were at all prepared
to receive a woman as their diplomat.
And I think they thought, because she was a woman,
that they might be able to trick her or undermine her.
While the Portuguese understand that Mbande
and his sister are key players in the region,
this is a powerful kingdom.
For the time being, what they want
is to appear to show respect.
Princess Njinga,
my pleasure.
I'm sure it is, Governor.
It's rare to behold a princess of Ndongo,
let alone three.
You really didn't need to come all this way.
I could easily have sent a messenger with our terms.
A messenger
on these dangerous roads.
That would have been unwise.
Njinga wants three key things from these negotiations,
the release of Ndongo enslaved captives,
protection from mutual enemies,
and the promise from the Portuguese to remove their fort from Ambaca.
The question is, how much will she have to give up to get what she wants?
Please...
sit.
What the Portuguese do when they first meet her
is to try and humiliate her.
She's not provided a chair.
The Portuguese are trying to show her
that whatever negotiations are gonna happen
is gonna be on their terms.
You didn't need to inconvenience yourself on my behalf.
I always come prepared.
It's such a power move.
It's such a boss move, to be able to say,
"I will not allow you to make me have a lower status.
We are equal partners in these conversations.
And if I have to create my own chair, I will do so."
I had hoped to have this conversation with your brother and not an envoy.
My King delegates duties however he sees fit.
Clearly.
Well, our terms are quite simple.
Our King is willing to offer your brother peace
on condition that he lay down his weapons,
helps us fight our mutual enemies,
and he returns our property.
Property?
Slaves.
The Portuguese are the first to really start
using Africa as a place
in which they will get their enslaved human cargo.
Njinga is aware
that they're losing thousands of people
because of this insatiable appetite that the Portuguese have
for the slave trade and colonization in the New World.
My King believes friendship would be better...
for all.
Surely, your king believes in friendships.
No?
Yes, he does.
My King wishes to live peacefully with the Portuguese,
but we keep running into a problem.
Kasanje.
Kasanje is an Imbangala leader with a fearsome reputation.
He's an unpredictable force in and around Ndongo.
He's a threat to both Njinga and the Portuguese.
The Ghost in the Mist.
So, you're familiar with him?
We can take care of Kasanje...
...as long as your brother pays tribute to the King
to make up for all the property we'd be losing.
The Portuguese wanted Ndongo to pay yearly tribute to them,
which means that they would have to bring a certain number of slaves to Luanda
to pay to the Portuguese State.
Governor,
my people have a saying,
"He who is born free
should maintain himself in freedom
and not submit to others."
Tribute can only be paid by those who have been conquered.
My King Mbande has never been conquered.
Njinga refuses to give tribute that is actually people,
to give people to slavery,
because Njinga deeply believes
that is against what she thinks is right.
She does not believe that the Portuguese slavery is okay.
The Portuguese wanted
to impose conditions of submission,
of servanthood.
She said that there was no way the ruler of Ndongo
would be subordinate to the King of Portugal,
because they hadn't won any war,
and because they hadn't conquered Ndongo.
Njinga is an incredibly savvy political operator.
She will take on aspects of...
political cultures foreign to her
in order to get what she wants.
I believe she entered those negotiations
with a sense that she could prevail.
Captain Cardoso, if you keep emptying out our lands,
my King will have no one left to govern.
And what is a king without subjects?
Well, you would make a formidable ally.
Now, uh, if we may,
the captain and I are needed elsewhere.
Milady.
- Any progress? - They're still toying with us.
Trying to figure out how much we're willing to give
and how much he's gonna have to take by force.
What does that mean for peace?
Peace isn't even on the table yet.
But at least they remembered to get me a chair this time.
Mm.
And sometimes, to understand a man...
you have to go through a woman.
Ana da Silva is the wife
of a prominent Portuguese official in Luanda.
Like most of the Portuguese,
she's a devout Catholic.
From the records, we can tell that she and Njinga were fond of each other.
You've been gone from home for so long.
How do your children cope?
My people are my children.
They understand I serve them wherever I go.
Yes.
Your men...
they say one thing, they mean another.
Why?
I guess it depends.
On what?
Whether they trust you or not.
Mm, for my people, a man's honor is his word.
Unless he breaks it, you trust it.
Where I come from,
trust is earned through service and communion with one another.
- Through a shared belief in our values. - For us too.
A shared belief in our God,
and our baptism
into one Catholic family.
Mm.
So...
in this baptism,
you see yourselves as the same?
Yes.
The Portuguese,
they didn't imagine themselves as undertaking this violent conquest
for purely selfish motives.
They thought that they were Christianizing barbarians.
They thought that they had
a religious justification for this conquest.
They believe if they can convert as many people as possible,
that they can maintain spiritual and political control over the region,
that they can gain a foothold of influence.
If you don't trust them, why are you even considering baptism?
Because we can use it to force them to keep their word.
Convince them we're one big Catholic family.
Then why are you hesitating?
Kambu, I'd still be taking the hand of an enemy that I don't trust,
with no guarantees.
So, you'd be taking a leap of faith.
I don't want to see it again.
You must.
The Portuguese practiced chattel slavery,
which is an extremely violent form of exploitation,
in which you get as many people as you possibly can
and you cram them into ships
in horrific conditions
and then you send them to work on sugar plantations
or coffee plantations.
Njinga knows that it is devastating her people,
that it is decimating their numbers.
She's seen hundreds of people being captured and kidnapped.
How many so far?
I lost count days ago.
If we don't do something to end this now, our people...
we will be no more.
It's a really, really hard life.
The life expectancy is about seven to eight years.
Imagine that, seven years from the moment you get to the New World,
the clock is ticking on your life expectancy.
There were slave markets at this time in Ndongo,
but they were actually quite tightly regulated and monitored.
And it wasn't really a system of chattel slavery.
So these slaves in Ndongo weren't necessarily people's property.
They were essentially members of the family unit.
It's very complicated.
There are no perfect solutions in this time period
because slavery was so endemic.
It was so common.
It was almost impossible to avoid participating in it.
There are major differences between the way that slavery is understood
among the Portuguese and among the all.
I think Njinga believes that she cannot stop slavery,
but I do think she believes she can contain it.
Njinga is using every tool she has in her toolbox
in order to salvage her kingdom.
So she will take strategic decisions,
hoping that converting into Christianity
would help her save the legacy of her forefathers.
Congratulations.
I think it's safe to tell Ngola Mbande that we have an agreement.
- And the terms? - Acceptable.
Including the fort at Ambaca?
And one more thing, we'll be releasing the Ndongo captives
so that your brother can reestablish his kingdom.
Because what is a king without subjects? Hm?
Njinga plays a masterful game of diplomacy
and her baptism seals the deal.
The Portuguese finally agree to a peace treaty.
The Portuguese agree to all three of Njinga's demands.
They say they will help protect her people against the Imbangala leader Kasanje.
They agree to remove troops from their fort at Ambaca.
And they even agree
to return some of the all
they've stolen and enslaved.
Njinga goes back to Ndongo triumphant...
having secured an agreement with the Portuguese
to turn the downward spiral of Ndongo...
Njinga! Njinga! Njinga!
...which promises a better future
for the kingdom and its people.
Njinga! Njinga! Njinga!
You did it!
Njinga! Njinga! Njinga!
Njinga! Njinga! Njinga! Njinga!
Njinga! Njinga! Njinga!
I think this is a point where Mbande starts to realize
that his sister has more power and influence than he had anticipated.
Mbande's very insecure.
He's also very much aware of the fact that Njinga is favored.
I think that he feels sidelined or marginalized within the community.
From early on in her childhood and her early adulthood,
Njinga outshone Mbande.
She was smarter. She was her father's favorite.
She seemed to have a natural talent
for politics and for diplomacy.
There seems to have been a rivalry from very early on.
Brother.
I saw the scale of it.
What?
- The trade in our people.
- You can't imagine. - Njinga.
- You brought us a victory. - This is not enough.
It's going to take more than a peace agreement
to stop the Portuguese.
Mbande.
Brother.
This is a hollow victory.
Things are gonna get worse.
They won't.
They won't if you become regent until my son comes of age.
What?
When Njinga returns, she's the one in the spotlight.
She's the one who's best representing Ndongo.
Njinga herself knows it.
Mbande, even he sees it.
I need to do this now while I still can,
to secure Ndongo's future.
Maybe if I'd done it sooner, we wouldn't be here.
- Mbande.
You are still king.
How can you give away your throne when you're still sitting on it?
What matters is that you trust yourself...
because we are trusting you.
And I don't trust anyone else with Ndongo's future.
Let's celebrate.
At first, it seems Mbande is right to trust the Portuguese.
Njinga's tentative truce with them lasts for several months.
Kambu!
I'll take you to them!
Kasanje.
- Njinga, we need to go.
- Njinga, we must go!
- We must go!
We don't know exactly why Kasanje attacks Kabasa at this time,
but we do know that the Imbangala are mercenaries
who will do anything for anyone who pay them well enough.
So it's possible that Kasanje is acting on behalf of someone else.
How did Kasanje...
get past our defenses at night?
The fall of Kabasa is absolutely devastating for Ngola Mbande,
and he's forced to flee to the Kindonga Islands.
He essentially has to abandon his people.
He is losing his grip, not only on his main power base,
but also, his people are going to start trusting him less.
You know what he had to do to amass that amount of power.
We need Kabasa back.
We need options, give me options.
Can you ask Kasa for help again?
No, his army is too small to go against Kasanje.
We can't do that.
What if we reach out to...
Maybe they'll be willing to join us.
- It's still not enough.
He knows that his sister is right there, ready to take over.
And he also knows that some factions of the kingdom
are thinking that he's not actually capable as a ruler.
We have the villagers. They're capable...
What about the Portuguese?
They, they agreed to help us fight our enemies.
Maybe it's time we make them prove it.
For all we know,
they are the ones who sent Kasanje to push us out of Kabasa
so that we would have to come to them begging for help.
So that they could take all the tributes that they want in return.
We don't have any other option.
Yes, we do.
As you were saying.
We have the villagers.
- We, we have Congo. They owe us. - Okay.
- If we talk to Congo-- - Njinga!
Have the general set up a meeting with the Portuguese.
In the winter of 1623,
the Portuguese sent an envoy to negotiate.
A priest called Father Baretto.
The officials in Luanda
are willing to help the King reclaim Kabasa,
on condition that you submit to the King of Portugal
and be baptized.
Submit to the King of Portugal.
How dare you come here
and try to reduce us to slaves?
- I am here to do the Lord's work-- - Shut your mouth!
In the presence of the King!
Viper.
"I am here to do the Lord's work."
Is that what you tell yourself
when you're putting human beings in chains?
Hmm?
Who is this God...
that favors your kind and not mine?
I should have cut you all down in Luanda.
Njinga.
- What will be required? - Mbande.
Your surrender to Christ must be whole and complete.
Meaning, no more pagan ways.
No false gods.
No idols, no rituals, no concubines.
No nganga.
- Everything impure... - Mbande.
...must go.
Mbande.
You are our connection to the ancestors.
If you abandon them, we are lost.
You were baptized.
Did the ancestors abandon you?
- I am not the King. - That's right.
Despite being baptized herself,
Njinga feels that what the Portuguese are demanding is a step too far.
She sees this as Mbande effectively giving up his power to the enemy
and abandoning their traditions and customs.
If he agrees to this,
it is yet another display of his weakness as king.
If you do this...
you might as well renounce the throne...
and go work on a farm.
Mbande ignores his sister's advice.
He can see no other option
and agrees to be baptized.
Over several weeks,
he begins to learn the catechism from Father Baretto.
...in heaven.
You see, this is why you need to turn your back on these false gods
and, and these false idols because...
They've broken the peace agreement.
The Portuguese have sent troops to strengthen the fort at Ambaca.
This is who they are!
Go and tell your white father this is done!
Go!
The Portuguese, of course,
renege and do not
abide by their promises.
And for the King,
this is, uh, a catastrophic failure of his power.
I can't do this.
Nonsense.
Our ancestors have lived through worse.
They didn't.
I am tired, Njinga.
I think it's time that I rested.
Mbande.
Are you saying what I think you're saying?
Mbande really is disappointed about what happens with the Portuguese
and that seems to have sent him into a spiral of depression.
This will be putting him in front of the question,
"Are you able to defend the kingdom?"
I think that fundamentally, inside, he was extremely afraid.
Mbande has ruled and lived his life
by so much violence
that it caught up with him.
He had to ask himself real hard questions
about the decisions that he made
and if they were worth it.
How?
Poison.
Who else knows?
No one.
It's not clear as to how Mbande dies.
There are some that say
he drank poison and committed suicide
because of his acute depression.
There are other people that speculate that Njinga was behind this
and that Njinga poisoned her brother,
or at least was behind his poisoning.
May the ancestors...
welcome you home.
Funji, stand guard.
Kambu.
Summon the Mwene Lumbo.
Have him announce the death of the King.
Where are you going?
- I'm going to assemble the council...
...and have them vote in the new queen.
Njinga is very ambitious,
and I think she saw this as an opportunity
to get rid of her brother and to have him no longer in the equation.
I wouldn't be surprised that Njinga killed her brother,
or had her brother killed for mainly one reason,
that he was weak.
He didn't have the fiber of being the king that her father was.
What is it?
I've been asking myself the same thing.
I feel like I'm stealing something that belongs to someone else.
You were voted Queen.
Regent Queen.
Which means no power.
I'll be holding the throne for Mbande's son.
Everything I do will be challenged
by those who don't believe I belong on the throne.
The Portuguese will use my dissenters to their advantage.
I'll be leading with no one following me.
Like a woman taking a walk.
What do you want?
Power.
The kind of power that will make a difference in my people's lives.
The kind of power the Portuguese can't ignore.
Power is not given, Njinga.
It is taken.
When Mbande dies, he leaves behind an heir.
His seven-year-old son.
But because he's so young, Njinga becomes Regent Queen
until the child turns 18 and is capable of taking over.
You turn your hip into the thrust.
Mbande's son has been sent to live with Kasa,
the Imbangala leader and Njinga's old ally,
where he's training to be a warrior.
Hip. Nice, boy.
Kasa.
Uh...
Princess Njinga.
It's Queen Njinga now.
Njinga needs to make strong alliances fast.
And Kasa, who she's fought alongside before,
might be useful to her.
Mm.
Say hello to your auntie, boy.
Go on.
Well, he's a shy one, but he's handling his training well.
Go on. Go train. Go on.
I'll make a warrior out of him yet.
Oh, I'm not concerned about my nephew.
I'm here for someone older.
A husband.
You're serious.
Well, I'm not available.
Not even for the price of a crown?
And how heavy is this crown?
Very.
I am going to create an empire greater than Congo.
And I'm going to make you its king.
Unless, of course, you don't want it,
then I'll offer to Kasanje.
Don't you mention that name here.
Why me?
You gave me sanctuary.
Your soldiers helped me fight the Portuguese.
Of course, I'd come to you first.
But speaking as a woman,
you're young...
easy on the eyes,
with the stamina of a bull.
What does a woman your age know of such things?
Boy,
there are certain things only a woman my age knows.
She woos Kasa, displays her affection publicly,
and uses her wealth, and gives him gifts.
And he agrees to get married to her.
I believe that Njinga has to distance herself
from being a human being.
What is this? What is this?
Once the nephew is dead,
Njinga rises in her power.
She rises as king of her people.
What is this?
Imbangala!
Njinga! Njinga!