All Hail the Queen: Queen Nzinga Mbande that is!

Black history did not begin with slave traders, colonizers, and the middle passage. Contrary to popular belief Christopher Colombus did not discover the US, the first Africans were not brought here on slave ships and Africans lived civilized, ordered, and educated lifestyles prior to outside colonizers. African's had strong governments, educations systems, and advance medicine. Some of the noted rulers were women, such as Queen Nzinga Mbande.

Queen Nzinga (Nzinga Mbande), the monarch of the Mbundu people, was a resilient leader who fought against the Portuguese and their expanding slave trade in Central Africa.

By the time of her death in 1663, Matamba was a formidable commercial state that dealt with the Portuguese colony on an equal footing.