Kingdom of Ndongo - The Imbangala Period

The Imbangala Period

During the early seventeenth century an uneasy peace held between Portugal and Ndongo. Portuguese continued their expansion along the Kwanza, founding the presidio of Cambambe in 1602, and attempted, whenever possible to meddle in Ndongo's politics, especially as it concerned Ndongo's tenuous hold on Kisama and other lands south of the Kwanza River. In the course of their activities in the region south of the Kwanza the Portuguese came into contact with the Imbangala, a rootless group of nomadic raiders who were ravaging the country. In 1615, the temporary Angolan governor Bento Banha Cardoso encouraged some Imbangala to cross the river and enter Portuguese service, and with their help he expanded the colony along the Lukala River, north of Ndongo.

In 1617 the new governor Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos, after first rejecting the use of Imbangala troops, committed himself to the alliance and began aggressive campaigns against Ndongo. Thanks to the help of Imbangala bands commanded by Kasanje, Kasa, and others, he was able to invade Ndongo, sack the capital and forced King Ngola Mbandi to take refuge on the island of Kindonga in the Kwanza River. Thousands of Ndongo subjects were taken prisoner, and Mendes de Vasconcelos sought unsuccessfully to create a puppet government to allow Portuguese rule.

Mendes de Vasconcelos' successors, João Correia de Sousa tried to make a peace with Ndongo, and in 1621, Ngola Mbandi sent his sister, Nzinga Mbandi to Luanda to negotiate on his behalf. She negotiated a peace treaty in which Portugal agreed to withdraw its advance fort of Ambaca on the Lukala, which had served as a base for the invasion of Ndongo, return a large number of captive ijiko to Ndongo, and force the Imbangala bands who were still ravaging Ndongo to leave. In exchange Ngola Mbandi would leave the island and reestablish himself at the capital and become a Portuguese vassal, paying 100 slaves per year as tribute.

However, João Correia de Sousa became involved in a disastrous war with Kongo and in the aftermath was expelled from the colony by angry citizens. His temporary successor, the bishop, was unable to execute the treaty, and it was then left to the new governor, Fernão de Sousa to settle matters when he came in 1624.