Nzingha

This is the story of a young girl who lived in Africa near the end of the 1500's. Nzingha was a member of the Mbundu kingdom of Ndongo. She was growing in in a time where the slave trade was just getting under way, and the Portuguese were making inroads into their territory.

This is again a culture clash type of story. She has to decide whether or not the Portuguese priest who has become known to their tribe is to be trusted or not. She has to watch for enemies within as well as enemies without her own family. She also has to avoid becoming a prisoner herself, someone who could be sold into slavery, shipped overseas and end up spending the rest of her life in the New World.

The novel does bring up the point, sometimes overlooked, that some African tribes sold other Africans (usually prisoners) into slavery themselves. The entire affair was run at the top by whites, of course, but there was some cooperation among the black tribal leaders themselves in this process. Of course it was the type of cooperation given under the point of a gun, to cooperate or be shipped off themselves.

The very idea that any one human being has the right to sell another human being into slavery should be an idea that is absolutely abhorrent to anyone.

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