Cantar é
Capoeira,
Camará
PART II: Nzinga/Ginga
Translation and Commentary by Café (Chanzo GREENIDGE)

© 2006 Instituto Palmeiras, ADANIS
Except Cover Drawing © E. Zolcsak (2003). http://www.nzinga.org.br/desenhos.htm
Much of the content in this compilation has been offered for educational use only. For other use of the text and
explanations included, please contact the author for permission at:
institutopalmeiras@gmail.com
Cantar é Capoeira, Camará
By Café (Chanzo GREENIDGE)
INTRODUCTION:
Cantar é Capoeira is a seven-part series intended to give Englishspeaking readers an indication of the historical significance of the
culture of Capoeira, with primary focus on its music and oral history.
The scope of the series as well as the author’s understanding is
admittedly limited, and I take full responsibility for errors and omissions
in the translation and explanation of the text.
Special thanks for their openness and guidance to my family, especially
my parents, Patrick and Ernesta, to Instructor Fred Bendongué and Co.
of Compagnie Azanie, Instructor Márcio Mendes and Co. of Grupo
Muiraquitã, Mestre Bezerra, Contramestre Tesourinha and Co. of the
Quilombo do Queimado Group, Instructor Azulão and Co. of Grupo Axé
Capoeira (Trinidad) for their pioneering work in the Caribbean, and to
the many other capoeiristas who have contributed to my understanding
and appreciation of the artform.
This series is dedicated to my grandparents. Part II is dedicated to my
daughter, Ana, who was named after Queen Nzinga.
ChanzoG>Café
NZINGA/GINGA
The Quilombo Queen of Ngola and Matamba1
Memória de Ginga, memória de Zumbi.
Carlos SERRANO
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Nzinga Mbandi Ngola, Queen of Matamba and Angola in the XVI-XVII centuries (15871663), was one of the African heroines whose memories has defied historical amnesia, and
contributed to the Diaspora’s cultural imaginary in particular in Brazilian folklore with the
name of Ginga;
The Ginga is the basic movement that underlies and connects positional and tactical play in
the Capoeira roda. An art in itself, the Ginga allows the Capoeirista to change fluidly from
defense to attack, to flow through upright to crouching to inverted movements, mask
fatigue, and distract players from her weakness or intention. Ginga has also come to refer to
one’s ability to move rhythmically or ‘go with the flow’.
Translated and adapted by BRAVO Language Services Ltd. (www.bravocom.net) from articles by Carlos
M.H. SERRANO (1996) and Instituto Nzinga de Capoeira (www.nzinga.org.br).
1
Nzinga and African Political Economy
A large number of African kingdoms on the central and western coast of the continent had a
similar spatio-political organizational structure. Their economies, prior to the European
presence, were based on centralized power situated in the interior. This relationship was
based on the control of inland commercial routes. Normally, the coastal regions were the
site of the production of salt, dried fish and other products that were necessary but difficult
to produce in the interior.
The intervention of exogenous elements, in this case, European slave traders, has significant
implications for political power in these societies. As the exploitation of the Americas
shifted the centre of global trade to the Atlantic, traditional chiefs of the African west and
central coasts - e.g. Dahomey (see K. Polanyi, 1966), Loango, (see Philippe Rey, 1971),
Ngoyo (see Serrano, 1983), and Congo (see Pirenne, 1959)- began to experience a dualeconomy based on economic relations with the hinterland on one hand and with European
traffickers seeking to establish commercial presence on the African Atlantic coasts.
In 1578, Paulo Dias de Novais founded the fortified city of São Paulo de Assumpção de
Luanda that would become the capital of Angola in Mbundu territory. The King of the
Mbundu in Ndongo (Angola) and Matamba was Ngola Kiluanji (Nzinga’s father), born in
Cabassa, in the Matamba interior, in 1581. Despite his resistance, a part of the territory was
taken- the first colonial in the region- the king took refuge in Cabassa, and successfully
halted the advance of the Portuguese into the interior. Nzinga’s half-brother, Ngola
Mbandi, succeeds the throne, and his control of the interior route blocks an established trade
relationship between the coastal Eastern Jagas2 (Yagas) or Imbangalas and the Portuguese.
There is basis for negotiation and Ngola Mbandi sends Nzinga to Luanda to negotiate with
‘Os Portugueses’. Received with grand pomp and ceremony in Luanda by the Governor
General, she requests the return of the territories obtained in exchange for her political
conversion to Christianity (receiving the name of Dona Anna de Sousa). Later her sisters
Cambi and Fungi also convert and are named Dona Barbara and Dona Garcia respectively.
Nzinga
2
Yagas or Jagas or Imbangalas were the terms used to refer to warrior tribes from Southwestern Africa.
The Portuguese, however, are eager to establish trade with the Jaga of Cassange in the
interior and do not respect the treaty. Chaos ensues as some sobas (chiefs) break away and
form alliances with the Jaga of Cassange and the Portuguese. Nzinga encounters one of the
rebel sobas, her uncle, on his way to submit his allegiance to the Portuguese, and has him
beheaded on the spot.
Nzinga and the Quilombo
Realising that her brother is also wavering, she has him poisoned and accedes to the
leadership of the resistance movement. The Portuguese elect an Mbundu chief, Aiidi
Kiluanji (Kiluanji II) as the new Ngola of the Ndongoland. Nzinga, after failing to negotiate
peace with the Portuguese in exchange for her recognition as queen of Matamba, reneges the
Catholic faith and allies herself with the Western Jagas by submitting to the initiation rites of
the war machine that constituted the Quilombo.
In 1640, Queen Nzinga and her warriors attack the Massangano Fort, where her two sisters,
Cambu and Fungi, are taken prisoner with Fungi being put to death. Taking advantage of
the temporary occupation of Luanda by the Dutch, she recovers some of Ngola’s lands
through alliances with sobas there.
Sketch of a West African Quilombo, 1732
Nzinga as Strategist: A Cunning Peace
Salvador Correia de Sá y Benevides, a Brazilian general, would restore Portuguese
sovereignty in Luanda and attempt to restore power in the interior. Nzinga’s army manages
to take two Capuchins prisoner, and the queen seizes the opportunity to convince them of
her willingness to reconvert in exchange for the recognition of her sovereignty over the
kingdoms of Ngola and Matamba and the release of her sister Cambu. The Governor
General agrees to free Cambu if Nzinga would ratify a treaty limiting her claim to Matamba
and renouncing the Ngola territories, with Lucala chosen as the border. This treaty, signed
in 1656, is only observed after the queen threatens to return to war. It is only then that
Cambu is released by Luanda, and even then a ransom of more than a hundred slaves is
demanded. Cambu had remained prisioner in Luanda for almost ten years.
Matamba witnesses relative peace until Nzinga’s death at 82 on the 17th of December, 1663.
She is succeeded by Cambu who continued Nzinga’s resistance to colonial occupation and
the trafficking of slaves for almost forty years and her use of a wide array of tactics ranging
from conversion to Christianity to Jaga practices, is the source of the creation of an
imaginary that places her as the symbol o struggle against oppression.
Nzinga
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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BALANDIER, Georges. Antropologia Política. São Paulo, Difusão Européia do
Livro, 1969.
BIRMINGHAM, David. A Conquista Portuguesa de Angola. Lisboa, A Regra de
Jogo, 1974.
CASTILHON, J.-L. Zingha, Reine DAngola. Histoire Africaine. Bourges,
Ganymede, 1993.
CAVAZZI, Pe. João Antonio (de Montecúccolo). Descrição Histórica dosTrês
Reinos Congo, Matamba e Angola (1687). Lisboa, Edição da Junta de Investigações
do Ultramar, 1965, 2 volumes.
MILLER, Joseph C. "Nzinga of Matamba in a New Perspective", in Journal of
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SERRANO, Carlos. Ginga, a rainha quilombola de Matamba e Angola. Revista USP
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SOROMENHO, Castro. "Portrait: Jinga, Reine de Ngola et de Matamba", in
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