The Early History of Ndongo (Angola).
Ndongo is the original name of the vast territory now known as Angola, from the name or title of its ruler (Ngola) when first the Portuguese became acquainted with it. The early history of this region is involved in obscurity, but it seems that its chiefs at one time owed allegiance to the King of Kongo, whose authority was finally shaken off about the middle of the sixteenth century, the King only keeping possession of Luandu island and its valuable njimbu fishery.
Cavazzi, Antonio Laudati of Gaeta, Cadornega, and others, have published long lists of Kings of “Angola;” but nearly all the names they give are not those of the Kings, but the titles which they assumed,390 and by which they were generally known. The full title of the King of Ndongo was Ngola kiluanji kia Samba,391 and that title is still borne by the present ruler, who claims to be a descendant of the kings of old, and whose Kabasa392 on the River Hamba (Va-umba or Umba) still occupies the locality assigned by the missionaries to Queen Nzinga’s Kabasa, where they built the church of S. Maria of Matamba.
Cavazzi’s Matamba, however, included the whole of Queen Nzinga’s kingdom, as it existed in his day, whilst the original Matamba, as also the country known by that name in the present day, had much narrower limits. It was originally tributary to Kongo, but one of its rulers assumed the title of Kambulu, that is, King, and renounced all vassalage to his former suzerain. It existed as an independent kingdom until 1627, when the famous Queen Nzinga took prisoner the dowager Queen, Muongo Matamba, and incorporated this ancient kingdom in her own dominions.393
It may have been a Ngola kiluanji, described by Cavazzi as the son of Tumba ria ngola and of a Ngola kiluanji kia Samba, who first invaded lower Ndongo, and assigned his conquest to one of his sons. But all is uncertainty, and there exists an inextricable confusion in the names of the Kings of upper and lower Ndongo as transmitted to us. One thing, however, is certain, namely, that as early as 1520 the country down to the sea was held by a king bearing the name or title of Ngola.394