Queen Nzinga of Ndongo (Angola) was a powerful monarch who successfully kept the Portuguese out of her land for 35 years.

In order to fight off Portugal, (who wanted to conquer the area to further the slave trade) Nzinga conquered neighboring kingdoms to expand her territory. Nzinga led her warriors in battle until her sixties and defied numerous assassination attempts to die peacefully in her sleep at 81 in 1663.

Nzinga impact was so strong that she prevented the Portuguese from reaching deep into Southwest Africa until her death. Angola would finally be free of Portuguese control centuries later in 1975.