Middle Africa (964 – 1107 CE): Savanna Chiefdoms, Congo Networks, and the Roots of Kingdoms

Geographic and Environmental Context

Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Angola.

• The Lake Chad basin was the northern anchor, transitioning between Sahel savannas and Saharan trade.

• The Congo River Basin remained the ecological and demographic heart, with immense rainforests and river systems tying communities together.

• Cameroon highlands and Angola plateaus supported mixed farming and herding.

• The Atlantic coasts linked forest interiors to marine fisheries.

• São Tomé and Príncipe remained uninhabited, rich in forests and seabirds.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) brought relative climatic stability with ample rainfall across Congo forests and Chad savannas.

• Lake Chad fluctuated in size with rainfall cycles, influencing settlement density around its margins.

• Forest zones maintained humid, biodiversity-rich conditions, while Angola and Cameroon enjoyed productive savanna–forest mosaics.

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Societies and Political Developments

• Lake Chad Basin:

  • Early consolidation of chiefdoms foreshadowed the rise of the Kanem Kingdom (emerging fully in the 11th century).

  • Chadic- and Nilo-Saharan–speaking groups practiced millet farming, herding, and fishing.

• Cameroon Highlands:

  • Ironworking and village chiefdoms expanded, creating nodal communities that blended farming and herding.

• Congo Basin:

  • Riverine Bantu-speaking villages proliferated; kin-based councils led communities, but some regional chieftaincies were emerging along major rivers.

  • Horticulture of yams, bananas, and oil palms supported growing populations.

• Angola:

  • By this period, Bantu-speaking agro-pastoralists were consolidating territories, blending cattle-keeping with sorghum and millet farming.

  • These groups were ancestral to the later Kongo and Mbundu states.

• São Tomé and Príncipe: remained uninhabited until later centuries.

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Economy and Trade

• Agriculture:

  • Savanna: millet, sorghum, cowpeas.

  • Forest: yams, bananas, oil palm.

  • Plateau regions: sorghum, millet, and beans supplemented by livestock.

• Fishing: Congo tributaries and Lake Chad sustained protein-rich diets.

• Livestock: goats and cattle increasingly important in Angola and northern Cameroon.

• Trade networks:

  • Lake Chad: salt, fish, and pastoral goods exchanged with Saharan routes carrying copper, slaves, and beads.

  • Congo Basin: raffia cloth, ivory, kola nuts, and forest products circulated by canoe and caravan.

  • Angola/Atlantic coast: early corridors linked plateau villages to coastal fishing zones.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Ironworking: widespread smelting in Cameroon, northern Congo, and Angola.

• Fishing technologies: nets, basket traps, and weirs.

• Material culture: raffia textiles, wooden sculptures, decorated pottery.

• Housing: wattle-and-daub or thatch structures in villages; seasonal camps in floodplains.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Lake Chad corridor: tied Middle Africa into Saharan and Sahelian networks.

• Congo River system: major east–west axis for exchange across forest belts.

• Angolan plateaus to the Atlantic: pathways connected agro-pastoralists to coastal fishing villages.

• Cameroon Highlands: cultural crossroads of savanna and forest economies.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Ancestor veneration was central, with rituals at shrines and cemeteries reinforcing lineage identity.

• Nature spirits tied to forests, rivers, and animals were honored through offerings and divination.

• Iron and fire maintained ritual importance, symbolizing transformation and fertility.

• Ritual specialists mediated in healing, agriculture, and rainmaking ceremonies.

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Ecological complementarity: forest horticulture, savanna farming, and cattle herding reinforced one another.

• Mobility and shifting cultivation maintained resilience in rainforest environments.

• Kin networks and councils stabilized community life, resolving disputes and redistributing resources.

• Integration into Sahel–Sahara trade provided access to salt, metals, and prestige goods.

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Long-Term Significance

By 1107 CE, Middle Africa had become a mosaic of expanding chiefdoms and dynamic trade corridors:

• Lake Chad chiefdoms were transitioning into the kingdom of Kanem.

• Cameroon and Angola villages were consolidating, laying foundations for future states.

• Congo Basin remained decentralized but highly interconnected through river trade.

• Middle Africa thus entered the 12th century as a region of cultural diversity and ecological integration, poised for the rise of kingdoms like Kanem-Bornu and Kongo.

Middle Africa (1108 – 1251 CE): Congo River Chieftaincies, Kanem’s Rise, and Angolan Agro-Pastoralism

Geographic and Environmental Context

Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Angola.

• The Congo Basin remained the ecological heart, dominated by rainforest, swamps, and wide tributary systems.

• Lake Chad basin formed a Sahelian–Sudanic frontier between desert trade and savanna farming.

• Cameroon highlands and Angolan plateaus offered mixed forest–savanna mosaics well suited to farming and herding.

• Atlantic littoral provided contact zones for coastal and inland exchange.

• São Tomé and Príncipe remained uninhabited, their forests and seabird colonies untouched by people.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) stabilized rainfall in many zones, sustaining savanna farming and rainforest horticulture.

• Lake Chad fluctuated in size, expanding during wetter decades but contracting during drier cycles, shaping settlement density.

• Forest belts retained humidity, anchoring horticultural villages.

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Societies and Political Developments

• Lake Chad basin:

  • The Kanem Kingdom emerged as a major Sahelian state.

  • Centered around Lake Chad and ruled by the Duguwa dynasty, Kanem extended authority through tribute and caravan control.

  • Islam entered court circles by the 11th–12th centuries, aligning Kanem with North Africa.

• Cameroon highlands: dense clusters of farming villages developed into regional chiefdoms, blending farming, herding, and iron production.

• Congo Basin:

  • Kin-based riverine villages expanded; clan elders and ritual leaders presided.

  • Some riverine chieftaincies grew larger, coordinating canoe traffic and ivory trade.

• Angola:

  • Bantu-speaking agro-pastoralists consolidated in plateau zones, blending cattle herding with sorghum and millet farming.

  • Proto-Kongo and Mbundu communities took shape, laying groundwork for the Kingdom of Kongo in the late 13th century.

• São Tomé and Príncipe: still uninhabited, but positioned on currents that would later make them critical Portuguese stepping stones.

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Economy and Trade

• Farming: millet, sorghum, cowpeas, bananas, yams, taro, and oil palm.

• Livestock: cattle in savanna margins (Cameroon, Angola); goats widespread.

• Fishing: Congo tributaries, Lake Chad, and coastal estuaries rich in resources.

• Crafts & metallurgy: iron smelting for hoes, axes, and spearheads; raffia cloth and wood carving.

• Trade networks:

  • Kanem: controlled Saharan routes moving slaves, ivory, and ostrich feathers north in exchange for copper, horses, and cloth.

  • Congo Basin: river trade of ivory, kola, salt, and raffia cloth.

  • Angola: plateau goods (ivory, hides, copper) funneled toward coastal and inland circuits.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Agriculture: slash-and-burn horticulture in forests; permanent fields in savannas.

• Pastoralism: kraals and seasonal grazing; cattle wealth central to ritual and prestige.

• Fishing: nets, traps, weirs in rivers and lakes.

• Iron technology: bloomery furnaces fueled by charcoal; smiths enjoyed ritual prestige.

• Canoes: hollowed logs moved bulk goods through the Congo system.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Lake Chad–Sahara routes: tied Kanem to Sijilmāsa and North Africa.

• Congo River system: east–west movement across rainforest villages.

• Cameroon–Cross River–Benue paths: integrated highland farmers into savanna exchange.

• Angolan plateau corridors: linked cattle keepers and farmers to Atlantic littoral.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Ancestor veneration central to kinship rituals across the basin.

• Islam: established at the Kanem court, though rural areas retained animist rites.

• Iron and fire held spiritual weight as transformative forces.

• Rainmaking and fertility rituals regulated farming cycles.

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Ecological diversity ensured resilience: Lake Chad farming, Congo fishing, savanna herding, and forest horticulture supported each other.

• Political layering: Kanem’s tribute system, Congo village networks, and Angolan plateaus allowed flexible governance.

• Mobility: shifting cultivation, cattle transhumance, and canoe trade provided insurance against drought or resource shortfalls.

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Long-Term Significance

By 1251, Middle Africa was increasingly integrated and politically diversified:

• Kanem dominated the Lake Chad basin and Saharan trade.

• Cameroon and Angola plateau chiefdoms consolidated into proto-states.

• Congo Basin villages multiplied into larger chieftaincies.

• The region stood poised for the rise of Kongo and further Sahelian–Saharan integration in subsequent centuries.

Middle Africa (1396–1539 CE): Equatorial Forests, River Corridors, and Atlantic Horizons

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola.Anchors include the Congo River basin and its tributaries (Ubangi, Kasai), the Gulf of Guinea islands (São Tomé, Príncipe), the Atlantic mangrove–estuary belt, the Cameroon Highlands, and the northern savanna–Sahel fringetoward Lake Chad. This is a world where dense evergreen forests yield to mosaics of woodland, floodplain, and savanna, threaded by some of Earth’s most voluminous rivers.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age introduced modest cooling and shifts in rainfall seasonality. Equatorial belts retained high annual precipitation, but interannual variability—longer dry seasons in some decades, intensified rains in others—reshaped farming calendars and fish runs. Along the Atlantic coast, estuaries and mangroves buffered storm surges; inland, floodplains rose and fell with the Congo’s pulse, redistributing soils and fisheries.

Subsistence & Settlement

Households combined shifting cultivation (sorghum, pearl millet on northern fringes; plantain, yam, taro, and bananas in forest belts) with cassava’s gradual spread (accelerating later, but present in pockets by this era), plus oil palm, legumes, gourds, and leafy greens. Riverine and lacustrine fisheries furnished key protein; forest hunting and gathering (duiker, bushpig, wild fruits, kola, honey) remained integral. Settlement patterns ranged from riverside towns and hill-foot villages to dispersed hamlets along canoe routes and forest paths. In the far north, Lake Chad basincommunities practiced flood-recession farming and herding.

Technology & Material Culture

Ironworking thrived: hoes, axes, knives, and spearheads supplied farms and hunting; blacksmiths held ritual esteem. Canoe carpentry produced long dugouts for river trade; basketry and pottery stored grain and palm oil. In forest polities, raffia textiles, barkcloth, and beadwork marked status. Copper and salt circulated from regional sources; carved ivories and wood sculpture expressed courtly and ritual aesthetics. Early coastal contacts brought small quantities of European cloth and metal goods by the early 16th century, but inland systems remained largely endogenous.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

The Congo–Kasai–Ubangi waterways were the great arteries, moving palm oil, salt, fish, smoked meat, raffia cloth, and ironware among river towns. Overland paths crossed the Mayombe and Plateaux Batéké, linking forest and savanna markets. To the north, caravan paths brushed the Sahel–Lake Chad edge, exchanging salt, kola, and textiles. From the late 15th century, Atlantic corridors opened: Portuguese ships probed the Kongo–Angola littoral, touching São Tomé and Príncipe (colonized as sugar and way-stations) and forging ties with coastal polities near the Congo estuary and Angola.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Political authority ranged from acephalous village federations to centralized courts. Along the lower Congo, the Kingdom of Kongo—a regional power by the late 15th century—projected influence through provincial lineages, tribute, and ritual kingship. Across forest belts, initiation societies structured life stages; masked dances, ancestor shrines, and sacred groves anchored moral order. Praise poetry and drum speech memorialized rulers and genealogies; sculptural arts (ivory, wood) encoded sovereignty and cosmology. Northward, Sahel–savanna Islam brushed Middle Africa’s margins via traders and scholars, without displacing local ritual life.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Farming systems hedged risk through multicropping, staggered planting, and field rotation; fallow cycles regenerated soils. Floodplain agriculture followed river pulses; smoked fish and dried grains bridged hungry seasons. Forest households balanced gardens with foraging and hunting, guided by ritual taboos that conserved keystone species. In drier zones, mobile herding and dry-season wells buffered drought. Trade networks redistributed surpluses after crop failure, while kinship and initiation societies mobilized labor for clearing, house-building, and canal/landing-site upkeep.

Transition

By 1539 CE, Middle Africa was interlaced by river trade and forest pathways, with Kongo ascendant on the lower river and Atlantic contact growing at coastal nodes and on São Tomé and Príncipe. Inland subsistence systems remained resilient and diverse; courtly and village religions flourished; blacksmiths, canoe builders, and ritual specialists sustained everyday life. The next age would tighten the Atlantic hinge—sugar, Christianity at Kongo’s court, and an accelerating slave trade—reshaping corridors that had long run with the current of the Congo.

Middle Africa (1540–1683 CE): River Worlds, Atlantic Sugar, and Wars of Enslavement

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Middle Africa includes Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola.Anchors include the Congo–Kasai–Ubangi river system and floodplains, the Gulf of Guinea islands (São Tomé, Príncipe), the Atlantic mangrove–estuary belt (Cameroon–Gabon), the Mayombe and Plateaux Batéké uplands, the Cameroon Highlands, and the northern savanna fringe toward Lake Chad. Coastal enclaves linked river mouths to Atlantic shipping; inland, long dugout routes knitted forests and savannas.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age persisted with modest cooling and altered rainfall seasonality. Equatorial belts stayed wet but saw longer dry spells in some decades and heavier peak rains in others, shifting planting calendars and fish migrations. Along the lower Congo and coastal estuaries, storm surges and high‐flow years reworked bars and channels; interior floodplains rose and fell with amplified river pulses, redistributing fertile silt—and risk.

Subsistence & Settlement

Forest and riverine economies diversified and intensified. Multicropped gardens—plantain/banana, yam, taro, oil palm, groundnuts, and fast‐spreading cassava (more entrenched after mid-16th century)—anchored household food security. Floodplain rice and sorghum expanded on northern fringes; fisheries (smoked/dried) were critical protein stores. Hunting and gathering (duiker, bushpig, honey, wild fruits, kola) remained vital. On São Tomé and Príncipe, 16th-century sugar estates (enslaved labor) peaked, then waned as Brazil rose; cacao and provisions supported island subsistence. Settlements ranged from riverbank towns and hill‐foot clusters to dispersed hamlets along canoe landings and caravan paths.

Technology & Material Culture

Ironworking supplied axes, hoes, knives, spearheads; blacksmiths retained ritual standing. Canoe carpentry produced high-freeboard dugouts for rough reaches; basketry and pottery stored grain and palm oil. Courtly centers commissioned raffia textiles, carved ivories and woods, copper/brass regalia, and body adornments. Firearms and powder—imported via the coast—entered inland markets, selectively augmenting traditional arms. Mission workshops at coastal courts introduced new liturgical objects, writing tables, and dress, while local artisans adapted them into established aesthetic repertoires.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

The Congo–Kasai–Ubangi remained the great arterial network for palm oil, salt, smoked fish, raffia cloth, ivory, copper, and captives. Portages over the Livingstone Falls and upland paths across the Mayombe linked interior markets to estuaries. Northward paths brushed the Lake Chad zone for salt–kola exchange. From mid-16th century, Atlantic corridors tightened: Portuguese forts and trading posts along the Kongo–Angola littoral and São Tomé/Príncipe fed sugar, ivory, and a rapidly growing trade in enslaved people toward Brazil, the Caribbean, and Iberia. In the 1640s, the Dutch West India Company briefly seized Luanda (1641–1648), rechanneling Atlantic flows before Portuguese reconquest.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Along the lower river, the Kingdom of Kongo patronized Christian missions while sustaining ancestral rites; Kongo elites adopted baptismal names and court liturgy, yet funerary arts, nkisi power figures, and ancestor shrines persisted. In the south, Ndongo and neighboring polities balanced royal cults with new diplomatic-religious idioms. Court poetry, praise-drumming, and drum speech celebrated lineages and victories; masked initiations ordered life stages across forest regions. On São Tomé/Príncipe, Catholic feast cycles coexisted with African ritual continuities among enslaved communities, generating creolized devotions.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

Firearms, cavalry (where terrain allowed), mercenary bands, and fortified capitals redefined conflict. The Kongo–Portugal relationship oscillated between alliance and war (notably Mbwila, 1665, where the Kongo king fell). In the south, Queen Njinga (Nzinga) of Ndongo–Matamba (r. 1624–1663) forged shifting coalitions with Imbangala companies, Iberians, and Dutch to defend sovereignty and control trade routes. Coastal brokers leveraged forts and shipping calendars; inland chiefs monetized war captives. The slave trade’s profitability deepened raid–tribute–marketfeedback loops, drawing ever wider hinterlands into violence.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Households hedged risk via multicropping (cassava as drought/famine reserve), staggered planting, and smoked/dried fish stores. Floodplain cultivators tracked river pulses; forest farmers rotated fields with longer fallows where possible. Ritual taboos protected key groves and species; initiation societies mobilized labor for clearing, canoe repair, and landing maintenance. Island plantations buffered shortfalls with provisions gardens and inter‐island supply; when sugar booms shifted to Brazil, island economies pivoted to foodstuffs, timber, and shipping services.

Transition

By 1683 CE, Middle Africa was a river-and-Atlantic hinge. The Kingdom of Kongo remained culturally eminent but politically strained; Ndongo/Matamba had proven statecraft under Queen Njinga; Loango and other coastal polities mediated seaboard trade. São Tomé and Príncipe’s sugar phase had crested, even as Luanda anchored an expanding Angolan slave corridor. Inland subsistence systems still fed dense populations, but firearms, mercenary bands, and Atlantic demand had redrawn the map of power—setting the stage for deeper integration into the early modern Atlantic world and its brutal economies.

Kongo faces other challenges in the sixteenth century in addition to the slave trade.

After the death of Afonso in the 1540s, the kingdom endures a period of instability that culminates in an upheaval in 1568.

This rebellion will be long attributed by Portuguese sources and others to the invasion by a group of unknown origin called the Jaga.

Others, however, believed that the attack was probably launched by a Bakongo faction opposed to the king that may have been joined or aided by non-Bakongo seeking to gain control over the Kongo slave trade and other trading routes.

In any case, the assault on the capital (which had been renamed São Salvador) and its environs drives the king, Alvaro I, into exile.

The Portuguese governor of São Tome, responding to pleas from Alvaro I, fights the invaders from 1571 through 1573, finally ousting them and occupying the area until the mid-1570s.

A few years earlier, Sebastião, the Portuguese king, had granted the area south of the Bakongo as a proprietary colony to Paulo Dias de Novais, an associate of Portuguese Jesuits and an experienced explorer of the West African coast.

In 1576, in effective control of the countryside and facing no organized Kongo opposition, the Portuguese found the town of Luanda, in effect establishing the colony of Angola.

Other African leaders, however, continue to resist the Portuguese, and the Europeans only manage to establish insecure footholds along the coast.

Concerned that African attacks might impede the stream of slaves to Brazil and Portugal, in 1590 the crown assumes direct control of the colony.

Álvaro I and his successor, Álvaro II, bring stability to the Kongo Kingdom by expanding the domain of their royal authority while keeping at bay encroachment by the Portuguese, whose colony during the late years of the sixteenth century remains confined to the area south of Kongo, but after the death of Alvaro II in 1614, conflicts over access to cultivable land between Kongo and the Portuguese colony of Angola sour formerly amicable relations, and in 1622 the Portuguese governor of Angola launches an attack on Kongo.

Although not entirely successful from the Portuguese point of view, the war has a number of lasting effects. First, the colony captures a large number of slaves, which demonstrates how rewarding slave raiding can be.

Second, the Portuguese come out of the war convinced of the existence of silver and gold mines in Kongo, a belief that encourages a series of conflicts between the colonists and the Kongo Kingdom for the next half century.

The war also creates a xenophobia among the Bakongo of the interior, who drive away many Portuguese.

Because the trading system depends largely on the Bakongo, commerce is greatly disrupted, with effects on the Angolan colony as great as those on the Kongo Kingdom.

Adding to Kongo's troubles in the early 1600s is a general dissatisfaction among the Bakongo with their rulers, some of whom are greedy and corrupt.

Consequently, conflicts arise over succession to the throne, and more and more sections of the kingdom gain substantial degrees of autonomy and establish local control over the trade that had so enriched the monarchy in earlier years.

The manikongo, the powerful King of the Bakongo tribe, controls much of the region of the lower Congo River Basin through affiliation with smaller kingdoms, such as the Kingdoms of Ngoyo, Loango and Kakongo in present-day Cabinda.

Kakongo is, however, an independent state for all intents and purposes from the sixteenth century onward.

Portuguese merchants, interested in the trade in copper, ivory, and slaves begin to establish factories in Kakongo in the 1620s and Dutch and English merchants also visit the kingdom during the seventeenth century.

Its capital is called Kinguele, and is an inland town.

Over the years, the Portuguese, Dutch, and English have established trading posts, logging camps and small palm oil processing factories in Cabinda.

Trade continues and the European presence grows, resulting in conflicts between the rival colonial powers.

Diogo Cão, shortly after making his initial contact with the Kongo Kingdom of northern Angola in 1483, had established links farther south with Ndongo—an African state less advanced than Kongo that is made up of Kimbundu-speaking people.

Their ruler, who is tributary to the manikongo, is called the ngola a kiluanje.

It is the first part of the title, its pronunciation changed to "Angola," by which the Portuguese refer  to the entire area.

Throughout most of the sixteenth century, Portugal's relations with Ndongo are overshadowed by its dealings with Kongo.

Some historians, citing the disruptions the Portuguese caused in Kongo society, believe that Ndongo benefited from the lack of Portuguese interest.

It is not until after the founding of Luanda in 1576 that Portugal's exploration into the area of present-day Angola rivals its trade and commerce in Kongo.

Furthermore, it is only in the early seventeenth century that the importance of the colony Portugal has established comes to exceed that of Kongo.

Although officially ignored by Lisbon, the Angolan colony is the center of disputes, usually concerning the slave trade, between local Portuguese traders and the Mbundu people, who inhabit Ndongo, but by mid-century, the favorable attention the ngola receives from Portuguese trade or missionary groups angers the manikongo, who in 1556 sends an army against the Ndongo Kingdom.

The forces of the ngola defeat the Kongo army, encouraging him to declare his independence from Kongo and appeal to Portugal for military support.

In 1560 Lisbon responds by sending an expedition to Angola, but in the interim the ngola who had requested Portuguese support had died, and his successor takes captive four members of the expedition.

After the hostage taking, Lisbon routinely employs military force in dealing with the Ndongo Kingdom.

This results in a major eastward migration of Mbundu people and the subsequent establishment of other kingdoms.

Following the founding of Luanda, Paulo Dias carries out a series of bloody military campaigns that contribute to Ndongo resentment of Europeans.

Dias founds several forts east of Luanda, but—indicative of Portugal's declining status as a world power—he is unable to gain firm control of the land around them.

Dias dies in 1579 without having conquered the Ndongo Kingdom.

Dias's successors make slow progress up the Cuanza River, meeting constant African resistance.

By 1604 they reach Cambambe, where they learn that the presumed silver mines do not exist.

The failure of the Portuguese to find mineral wealth changes their outlook on the Angolan colony.

Slave taking, which had been incidental to the quest for the mines, now becomes the major economic motivation for expansion and extension of Portuguese authority.

In search of slaves, the Portuguese push farther into Ndongo country, establishing a fort a short distance from Massangano, itself about one hundred and seventy-five kilometers east of Angola's Atlantic coast.

The consequent fighting with the Ndongo generates a stream of slaves who are shipped to the coast.

Following a period of Ndongo diplomatic initiatives toward Lisbon in the 1620s, relations degenerate into a state of war.

The Ndongo Kingdom suffers a fate similar to that of Kongo.

Before the Dutch capture Luanda in 1641, the Portuguese had attempted to control Ndongo by supporting a pliant king, and during the Dutch occupation, Ndongo had remained loyal to Portugal , but after the retaking of Luanda in 1648, the ngola judges that the Portuguese have not sufficientiy rewarded the kingdom for its allegiance.

Consequentiy, he reasserts Ndongo independence, an act that angers the colonists.

In 1671 Ndongo intransigence prompts a Portuguese attack and siege on the capital of Pungu-a-Ndondong (present-day Pungo Andongo).

The attackers kill the ngola, enslave many of his followers, and build a fort on the site of the capital.

Thus, the Ndongo Kingdom, which has enjoyed only semi-independent status, now surrenders entirely to Portugal.

Two inland Mbundu states—Matamba and Kasanje—prosper as Portugal becomes preoccupied with the Ndongo Kingdom as a source of slaves.

Little is known of Matamba before the seventeenth century, but in 1621 Nzinga (called Jinga by the Portuguese), the sister of the ngola a kiluanje,  persuades the Portuguese to recognize Ndongo as an independent monarchy and to help the kingdom expel the Imbangala people from its territory.

Three years later, according to some sources, Nzinga poisons her brother and succeeds him as monarch.

Unable to negotiate successfully with a series of Portuguese governors, however, she is eventually removed.

Nzinga and many of her followers travel east and forged alliances with several groups.

She finally ascends to the throne of the Matamba Kingdom.

From this eastern state, she pursues good relations with the Dutch during their occupation of the area from 1641 to 1648 and attempts to reconquer Ndongo.

After the Dutch expulsion, Nzinga again allies with the Portuguese.

A dynamic and wily ruler, Nzinga dominates Mbundu politics until she dies in 1663.

Although she dealt with the Europeans, in modern times Nzinga has been remembered by nationalists as an Angolan leader who never accepted Portuguese sovereignty.

After Nzinga's death, a succession struggle ensues, and the new ruler tries to reduce Portuguese influence.

Following their practice with the Ndongo, the Portuguese force him out and place their own candidate, Kanini, on the throne.

Kanini covets the nearby kingdom of Kasanje—peopled by Mbundu but ruled by Imbangala—for its role in the slave trade.

Once he has consolidated power, in 1680 Kanini successfully moves against Kasanje, which is undergoing a succession crisis of its own.

Kanini's defeat of the Kasanje state madkes his Portuguese benefactors realize that as his empire expands, Kanini is increasingly threatening their own slaving interests.

Subsequently, Kanini defeats a Portuguese military expedition sent against him, although he dies soon after.

In 1683 Portugal negotiates with the new Matamba queen to halt further attempts to conquer Kasanje territory and, because of mounting competition from other European powers, persuades her to trade exclusively with Portugal.

Spain's enemies subject the Portuguese colonies to attacks during the first half of the 1600s when Portugal, at the insistence of Spain, becomes involved in a succession of European religious and dynastic wars.

Holland, one of Spain's most potent enemies, raids and harasses the Portuguese territories in Angola.

The Dutch also begin pursuing alliances with Africans, including the king of Kongo and Nzinga of Matamba, who, angered by their treatment at the hands of the Portuguese, welcome the opportunity to deal with another European power.

When Portugal rebels against Spain in 1640, the kingdom hopes to establish good relations with the Dutch.

Instead, the Dutch see an opportunity to expand their own colonial holdings and in 1641 capture  Luanda and Benguela, forcing the Portuguese governor to flee with his fellow refugees inland to Massangano.

The Portuguese are unable to dislodge the Dutch from their coastal beachhead.

As the Dutch occupation cuts off the supply of slaves to Brazil, that colony's economy suffers.

In response, Brazilian colonists raise money and organize forces to launch an expedition aimed at unseating the Dutch from Angola.

In May 1648, the Dutch garrison in Luanda surrenders to the Brazilian detachment, and the Dutch eventually relinquish their other Angolan conquests.

According to some historians, after the retaking of Luanda, Angola becomes a de facto colony of Brazil, so driven is the South American colony's sugar-growing economy by its need for slaves.