Abstract
In December 1671, following months of siege, the troops led by Luís Lopes de Sequeira were able to overtake the capital of the Kingdom of Ndongo. In the process, the king was killed and many prisoners were made. Included amongst the latter were relatives of the sovereign who were deported to Brazil and Portugal. This paper seeks to reconstruct the journey of the princes of Ndongo in exile, analyzing their significance within the context of colonial penetration of the interior of Angola, dilemmas facing authorities in Portuguese America, and metropolitan policies relating to Africans in Portugal. Crossing processes that took place in Angola, Brazil and Portugal, the overarching objective of this paper is to understand the motives through which the inheritors of the Kingdom of Ndongo did not become slaves, as was the case with most of the prisoners taken in that battle.
Keywords
Kingdom of Ndongo; slave trade; Africans in Portugal
