ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Njinga, Queen of Angola/Njinga, Rainha de Angola (Graciano 2013) resolves the tension among feminist conceptualisations of the figure of Njinga, patriarchal interests and nation-building goals in Angola. The story of Njinga, the seventeenth-century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms, located in present-day Angola, provides a significant resource for promoting an awareness of the history of women’s political leadership and struggle for political legitimacy in Angola. However, Njinga’s story also became helpful in maintaining the ruling elite’s positions in the postcolonial nation-building project. This chapter demonstrates that nation-building and succession politics may have shaped the representation of Njinga in Njinga, Queen of Angola. The film emphasises royal blood as a prerequisite for acquiring a leadership position while at the same time morally justifying Njinga’s authority by stressing her selfless love and commitment to her people and land and also that she would have been her father’s choice of successor. As such, political legitimacy is extended not to all women but to elite women whom the patriarch approves.
