As an African American woman, I have heard of Queen Njinga and read only a little about her online, I love seeing her story told on screen and truthfully. The series touches on the huge difference between slavery within Africa and European chattel slavery, particularly Portuguese, putting the myth that Africans practiced the same brutal type of slavery or even invented it to rest. Folks can argue all they want but it's undeniable that the Portuguese and eventually the British, French, destroyed West African villages and stole human beings for their abundant wealth. Colonization and converting Africans to Christianity to trick them into back breaking servitude was the norm with the Europeans. Certainly, some African tribes sold others rival tribes into the trade, there's no question about that. However, the majority of slaves were stolen, kidnapped, villages raided, only a small percentage were sold by Africans. Queen Njinga was a masterful leader, like so many others in Africa, who worked hard to try saving as many of her people as she could from the evils of chattel slavery. I'm only on the second episode and can't wait to finish!
Review of African Queens: Njinga
