Nzinga

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nzinga, meaning "beautiful", is a first name of both males and females in many countries in Subsaharan Africa and the Americas. It can also be a surname.

"Nzinga" is also the central source of beauty.

"Nzinga" is the alluring captivity of a sensual woman.

Another definition of Nzinga used as a name, is a manipulator and a woman in control of her surroundings through her beauty.

Nzinga of Ndongo was a West African warrior queen, who used her great military acumen and dissicplined army to defeat the Portuguese. No Angolan Africans were kidnapped and taken into slavery during her reign. On one occasion she started a rumor that she was dead. The Portuguese heard this disinformation and planned an assault on the country. When the Portuguese army arrived, they were ill prepared for the ready forces of the Angolan army. They suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat. The Portuguese empire was never able to out-smart Queen Nzinga.

The queen of Ndongo, and later ruler of the combined kingdom of Ndongo and Matamba was named in her own language, Kimbundu, Njinga. Thanks to Kikongo-speaking scholars in the 1940s her name was spelled according to Kikongo conventions. In both languages the root of the name means to turn or twist (kujinga/zinga), and it refers to the fact that Njinga was born with her umbilical cord twisted around her body, which was said to be an omen that she would be haughty and proud.

Famous People named Nzinga:

• Nzinga Nkuwu who was named João I of Kongo by the Portuguese
• Nzinga Mbemba
• Queen Nzinga
• Nzinga Blake --celebrity
• Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga
• Sekile Nzinga-Johnson

Organizations

Places named Nzinga:

• In Gabon:
  • Nzinga, in the province of Nyanga
  • Nzinga, in the province of Ogooué-Ivindo
  • Nzinga, in the province of Ogooué-Lolo
• In South Africa:
  • Nzinga, South Africa

• Nzinga is the name of a port in the Central African Republic.

Places related with Nzinga:

• Nzinga-Nzinga, in the province of Ogooué-Lolo
• Nzinga-Tchi, in the province of Nyanga

A gorilla named Nzinga resides at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas.

Nzinga's Daughters is an ensemble of female African-American poets and musicians in Connecticut.