African Queens: Njinga (2023) s01e04 Episode Script

The slave trade
is bleeding West Central Africa dry.
Thousands are sent away on ships
destined for foreign shores,
never to see their home or family again.
Njinga, Queen of Ndongo,
and now, Matamba,
will fight to her last breath
to defend her kingdom.
Don't let them get away!
That's right.
Keep running.
It's your turn to run.
But victory brings no peace.
After four years, the Portuguese
are still holding her sisters hostage.
The price of their freedom
is for Njinga to allow the Portuguese
access to the slave routes.
She refuses to concede.
Looks like you've done well
without us, Sister.
Kambu?
Kambu!
He's the governor's envoy.
They sent him with me
with a message for you.
I've given you your sister back.
Now, open up our slave markets.
You still have my sister Funji.
Until she's free,
there will be no slave markets.
And there will be no peace
without my sister.
Get out!
Heavenly Father
Funji's held
in the Portuguese stronghold
Fort Massangano.
But even in captivity,
she's proving to be
a valuable asset to Njinga.
Go, my child, and sin no more.
I have my penance to say.
This is the house of God.
Allow her to say her penance.
Hurry.
Holy Mother, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God
pray for us.
Holy Mother of Christ
pray for us.
Funji is effectively a spy for Njinga.
She leaves notes in the chapel
which are picked up
by a network of messengers,
and are taken to her sister.
Funji has confirmed what we suspected.
The Portuguese are in big trouble.
They have lost Luanda to the Dutch.
This could be good for us.
Or not.
Imbangala warrior, Njinga Mona,
is the Queen's top general and confidante.
His name means "Son of Njinga",
which is how she sees him.
The enemy of my enemy could be my friend.
We should at least reach out.
See if there's a possibility
of an alliance.
If the ancestors will it,
I will use the Dutch
to bring the Portuguese
to their knees finally.
In 1641, the Dutch arrive.
They're really the big power player now
in the Atlantic.
The Portuguese had a monopoly
on the African slave trade
for over a century.
But now France, Britain,
the Netherlands are in the game
and they want their share.
The profits being made here
are unimaginable by today's standards.
The slave plantation economy alone
is driving the fortunes of kingdoms
all across Europe.
Everyone is coming to Africa
to basically harvest the Black gold,
which is the people
so that they can build the Americas
and other economies with the free labor.
Well?
Have they brought these new foreigners
to fight alongside us or
do we still have to sleep
with one eye open?
It is only when a woman
has slept with two men
will she know whom she prefers.
When you dance with your rival
do not shut your eyes.
You must meet these people
from a place of power
and authority.
On my throne.
As female King.
Yes.
Then it is done.
Let's leave these new foreigners
in no doubt who I am.
The leader they dare not ignore.
Let them in.
It's a major turning point,
I think, in part,
because Njinga recognizes that
European rivalries
could be beneficial, politically, for her.
Please sit.
We heard you captured Luanda.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Perhaps some of that wine
you people favor to celebrate.
The Queen is too kind.
Perhaps later.
After we've discussed business.
After work.
The Dutch are very wise, indeed.
So, you have conquered Luanda.
What next for your formidable army?
- What do you mean?
- With our common enemy,
the Portuguese?
How badly do you want them gone?
We have heard tales of the great Njinga,
with whom the Portuguese
have never known friendship or peace.
This land has never known
friendship nor peace
since the Portuguese set foot in it.
We are people born running
from extinction.
So I want them gone.
Then we want the same thing.
More or less.
Hmm.
"More or less."
I mean to say, trade is why we are here,
but everyone knows that Njinga
has valiantly blocked the Portuguese from
I would say these
important trade routes to key markets.
Slave markets.
I, too, have heard of your conquest
of Portuguese plantations
from Americas to the Gold Coast.
Lands screaming
for the bent backs of our people to plow.
Am I right?
The Queen is well-informed.
For me to even consider what you want
I need to get what I need first.
I've been here too many times
with the Portuguese.
Promises, oaths, broken, worthless
We are not the Portuguese.
And yet, your insatiable thirst
for slaves is the same.
What do you need?
Soldiers and weapons.
And above all
recognition.
That if I were to agree to work with you,
you would acknowledge me
as a female king of royalty.
And not your subject.
But perhaps, that's too much work
for today.
Perhaps some of that wine now.
Yes?
Hm.
Njinga never wavers in her disdain
for the Portuguese,
and the Dutch are a convenient way
to contest their power.
The Dutch are different
from the Portuguese
because they don't want to conquer
her kingdom of Ndongo.
Are you really planning on letting
the Dutch have their slave markets?
I need to negotiate with them.
I know what I saw on my way back here.
Whole villages empty.
Stripped bare by the Portuguese.
Not a single living soul.
Like where only bad spirits roam.
Is that what is to become of us all?
Of course not, Kambu.
- Why do you ask me that?
- Then why are you still
even negotiating with them?
Even now,
when we know without a doubt,
that they want what the Portuguese want.
Because the Portuguese
are still our biggest enemy!
And the Dutch are the best chance
we have of defeating them!
Of ever seeing Funji again!
The Dutch need us.
That gives us leverage.
And without leverage, there's no hope.
Our best people
will continue to get stripped
from our land.
Can you remember a time
where you didn't have to sleep
with one eye open?
No.
We need to do whatever it takes
to live to fight another day.
If the Dutch agree to fight with us
and can recognize me as an equal,
then together,
we can rid the land of the Portuguese.
And then they can't ignore me.
Njinga continues her attacks
on the Portuguese.
She has a huge impact
on the transatlantic slave trade.
Whereas once at the peak,
the Portuguese had been exporting
about 10,000 to 13,000
enslaved individuals annually,
it drops to almost zero.
And finally,
the Portuguese King is so enraged
at how much money he's losing,
that he sends a new governor
to deal with her.
His name is Souto-Maior.
He gathers together a huge force in 1646,
the biggest that Njinga has ever faced.
The Portuguese head straight
for Njinga's war camp
in the Dembos region.
There are more coming, My Queen!
They're surrounding us!
Retreat to the forest!
Go!
Njinga is having to flee
and to leave behind
many of her people
including, again, her sister Kambu.
This is not how you enter
a royal household.
How dare you?
You do not belong here! No!
I I
No! No!
When the Portuguese find out
that Funji was spying all along,
they are really angered.
So they decide to really show Njinga
that "you're not going to win on this one.
We're going to crush you."
Njinga's armies
are on the move again,
as news reaches them of Kambu's abduction
and Funji's murder.
How can we say goodbye
without a body?
Can she even come back without a body?
She is an ancestor now.
We have another spirit
of a royal brave warrior watching over us.
Take heart.
Nothing happens
that isn't the will of the gods, Njinga.
What if they do the same thing to Kambu?
I can't lose her too. I can't.
I can't.
I know
that it hurts.
I can't lose her too.
This is her baby sister
who she was responsible
for protecting all of their lives.
I imagine that she feels
a great deal of guilt
about her inability
to keep her safe and to protect her.
Watch over us, Funji.
Your sacrifice will not be in vain.
With Funji dead,
Njinga now needs the Dutch
more than ever to save Kambu,
and now needs them to sign the treaty.
The Portuguese are holding Kambu
at Fort Massangano.
Njinga doesn't have the firepower
to attempt a rescue alone.
As part of the treaty,
I want Fort Massangano,
which means I need Dutch soldiers,
ammunition, and guns.
Why is this fort so important to you?
Why is this fort so important?
Massangano is the Portuguese's
last stronghold,
if not their strongest.
In fact, it is so strategically important,
that were it to fall today,
the Portuguese would be finished,
they'd be on their last legs.
Why is it so important to me?
Oh, no, sir.
It should be of paramount importance
to you too, shouldn't it?
Yes, I see.
But still, a treaty of this kind with a
Female King of Ndongo.
Let's just say it is complicated, hm?
It has never been done.
I'm sorry,
but I'm just not sure it's possible.
Meaning, it's not impossible.
Meaning that if it were possible,
I'm not promising anything,
but if it were
Naturally, the price will be high.
How high?
We want more slaves.
What did I tell you?
Snakes. All of them.
You have already taken
countless numbers of my people.
We want access
to Portuguese slave markets,
without Portuguese interference.
The Dutch want Njinga
to allow them to exploit
the Portuguese system of enslavement
from trade routes to market.
She's shown she can easily shut them down.
So now, they need her cooperation.
I want it in writing,
which means
you officially acknowledge my position
as independent and legitimate ruler
of Ndongo and Matamba.
Your royal equal and partner
in this fight against the Portuguese
and in this land.
Like I said,
it's a big ask.
To match your big price
like you said.
Njinga signs
a formal treaty with the Dutch.
She agrees to give them half
of all the captives she takes in war,
which they can then enslave
and use in their plantations.
In return,
the Dutch agree to support Njinga,
both militarily and politically.
It's a trade-off.
How do you protect people
in an era of omnipresent slaving,
where slavery and slaving is everywhere?
Where the violence of colonization
produces either enslaved people
or those who are able
to successfully resist
by their alliances
with European powers who were slaving.
Njinga,
with the help of Dutch soldiers,
begins planning an assault
on Fort Massangano to rescue Kambu.
Two weeks later,
they are one day away
from moving on the fort.
Long live our Queen.
Live long. What brings you here?
Would you excuse us?
They sent a large contingent from Lisbon
to fight the Dutch,
so our Dutch friends
need their soldiers back.
What do you mean?
Even these ones here?
Every single last one of them
to defend Luanda.
Can't it wait?
We're literally one day
from taking the Fort
and freeing Kambu, they
They cannot do this!
I don't think there's any other choice.
By all accounts,
there are far too many Portuguese
landing in Luanda.
No.
Summon the Nganga.
The ancestors must have a different way.
We cannot just come so close again
just to let go.
She is too far away.
There is no time to summon her.
Then tell them to give me one more day.
Just one more.
And I will I will personally come down
with our soldiers and theirs
to fight them.
But we promised to help them.
Yes. But not today.
Tomorrow.
I don't think they have
until tomorrow, My Queen.
If they lose Luanda,
then everything
we have achieved today is lost!
They need their soldiers back now.
We have to choose.
Tell the troops to move out.
But the minute this is over
we return, as promised, to rescue Kambu.
When Njinga finally
gets back to Luanda,
she sees the last Dutch ships
disappearing over the horizon.
The Portuguese
are back in control of the city.
Being let down by the Dutch
is devastating for Njinga.
She realizes
that without their military support,
she's going to find it much harder
to beat the Portuguese.
Fighting is not the issue
with or without the Dutch.
I am still a thorn in their sides
and yet, we still don't have Kambu.
It's like they're determined
to hold on to her no matter what we do.
So we keep fighting
until they have no choice.
You are as strong as the day
you took the throne.
Well, I'm yet not immortal,
and neither is Kambu.
And I need her
to replace me when I'm gone.
We found them hiding in the chapel.
Hmm.
You, I know you, don't I?
What were you doing in Wandu, old friend?
Friend?
Are you with the Jesuits now?
They are not Jesuits.
They they are with the Capuchins.
What is the difference?
They are all serving the Portuguese.
We have no friends
with the Portuguese.
They they answer to Rome.
- Rome?
- Not Lisbon.
- Hmm.
- Yes.
To the Pope.
All Catholics answer to the Pope.
Even the King of Portugal.
You see, I've not forgotten everything
you taught me at my baptism, have I?
Praise God, you have not, Queen Njinga.
All Catholics must indeed
answer to the Pope.
Then why don't we behead the Pope
instead of you?
Hmm? Hmm?
Since you are obviously
just the serpent's tail,
and he is the head.
Njinga Mona, stop terrifying our guests.
There'll be no beheadings today.
Make our guests comfortable.
Now.
What?
Maybe we've been chasing
the tail too long.
For once, I think Njinga Mona is right.
Hmm.
In these difficult times,
I need your help,
I need your guidance.
Amen.
I hope I've not disturbed you,
old friend.
No. No, you have not.
Seeing you
reminds me of my baptism many moons ago.
It was a blessed, memorable day.
Eh It was mostly business.
I'm joking.
It was indeed memorable.
I'll come straight to the point.
I need the Pope's recognition of me
as the legitimate ruler of Ndongo.
If he recognizes me,
the Portuguese will have to do the same.
To do otherwise
would be to disobey the Pope.
Which they can't.
I need you and your Capuchin friends' help
to win his validation.
- It is not that simple.
- I know.
How do we make it so?
Proof of conversion.
Not just you.
All of Ndongo.
- Your ways
- And our culture.
I need the Pope.
And I need your help
to get him to my side.
Will you
and your Capuchin friends help me?
Father Zelotes agrees to help her.
So Njinga starts sending letters
to the Pope.
She says that she's willing
to return to Christianity.
And she also asks for people to come,
missionaries to come,
and to baptize her people,
and she introduced Christianity,
um, into her kingdom.
While she's waiting
for a reply from the Pope,
the Portuguese
exploit Njinga's desperate need
to get her sister Kambu back.
They send a religious envoy
to negotiate her release.
The Portuguese demand
that you cease your warlike practices,
if you ever want to see your sister again.
"Warlike practices."
Look who's talking.
All I ask
is that you return my sister,
my rightful successor,
and leave us alone.
If you did that,
there would be no more war.
We need to see an end to your pagan ways.
We need complete proof
of your conversion to Christianity.
The complete conversion
of your people too.
How dare you?
Let him finish.
And
And what?
Governor Chichorro
also demands 200 slaves
as a tribute of goodwill.
The Catholic Church is very much complicit
within the slave trade.
I don't think that we have had
full nuanced conversations
about how much the church
plays a role within the slave trade
and how much the wealth of the slave trade
is building up the Catholic Church.
Just so I'm clear.
You are asking us
to turn our backs on our ancestors,
throw away our culture,
what we have known since birth,
and for what?
A God
whose name we cannot pronounce,
whose language we cannot speak?
And in addition to all of that,
you ask
for 200 more slaves
on top of the thousands
thousands
you have already taken?
Is that it?
Hmm?
Will that be enough?
Your Christ speaks of love and compassion.
Where is yours?
I will not give 200 more slaves.
I
We have given enough.
To get Kambu back, Njinga agrees
to some of the Portuguese terms,
but she refuses to comply
with their demand for 200 slaves
which is like denying them
almost half a million dollars
in today's money.
To convince the Pope
to recognize her,
Njinga has built churches
across her kingdom,
and organized mass baptisms of her people.
Where is she?
With some of the terms agreed,
the Portuguese release her sister Kambu,
but the Pope has still not recognized her
as a sovereign Christian monarch.
There she is.
Kambu!
Kambu!
Kambu!
Ooh, thank you, my ancestors.
Look at you.
My little sister.
Who are you calling little?
Kambu! Kambu!
Kambu!
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ongoyo dancing fine.
I wish Funji were here to see this.
Father too.
They are.
Our ancestors always walk with us.
I know it wasn't easy
allowing all these
Catholic customs amongst our people.
To convince the Pope.
To secure peace.
To ensure your succession
and the future of our people.
I didn't do anything
the ancestors didn't guide me to.
And I certainly didn't do it
for any white man,
however powerful he may think he is.
I know.
Because I won't always be here.
Don't talk like that, Njinga.
When I'm gone
remember everything it took to get here.
Strive to protect it.
What if I'm not enough?
As long as we walk with the ancestors,
we are always more than enough.
We are never alone.
Njinga pursues the Pope
with letters after letters for years,
really a decade.
Until she finally gets a letter
that seals the deal for her,
that recognizes that, yes,
you are in fact an African-Christian state
and that the Portuguese
have to acknowledge them.
I believe it's peace.
Peace at last.
Because even the greatest warriors
have the day where they have
to put their weapons down,
either on the battlefield,
which is a glorious death of the warrior,
or in her case,
on her throne,
where she will die.
By the time
Njinga's at the end of her life,
the slave trade has exploded.
There is basically not a country,
very few countries,
that are not involved in the slave trade,
that are not plundering
the African continent
from millions of enslaved Africans.
She can't fight against that.
She can't fight against the whole world.
Njinga was the only African leader
to be recognized
by European rulers in power
as a female king.
Njinga was a mother of a nation.
But she loved her country,
and for that, she made great sacrifices.
But those sacrifices ensured
the independence of her kingdom
while the rest of Africa
was swallowed by Imperialism.
Our stories still have to be told,
because most of the time,
they haven't been told by us.
They have been told by others for us.
As an Angolan woman myself
connected to the Archives,
I found Njinga's story,
and to this day, it has never left me.
It's emotional.
It's important
and in Angola
and the world
Njinga lives on.
I think of her
as probably one of the greatest
women warriors and women leaders
this world has ever seen.
By the end of Njinga's life,
everything she'd fought for came to be.
She secured a safe, independent kingdom
for her people.
The royal line she sacrificed
so much to preserve did continue,
with first, her sister Kambu,
then three more female kings
continuing to rule in Matamba.
Like in much of Africa,
European forces eventually
overwhelm the continent.
Ndongo, too, fell to the Portuguese
and became known as Angola.
And like most tales of hunting
told solely by the hunter,
Njinga's prowess was diminished,
her story buried.
Then in the 1960s,
a new generation of Angolans
fighting for independence
reclaimed Njinga as their own,
an icon of resistance,
of hope, a revolutionary.
A powerful warrior, and African queen,
whose story deserves to be told.