Mariana P. Candido’s book-in-progress, “Beyond Queens and Captives: Women in Angola, 1500-1880,” sheds light on the experiences of women from West Central Africa during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. She explores how the arrival of Europeans, the growth of the slave trade, and the influence of local elites affected both privileged and ordinary women in the region. Notably, alliances between these elites and foreign men gave rise to powerful female merchants known as donas, who controlled trade in the colonial commercial centers of Luanda and Benguela, in present-day Angola. Through profiles of individual women, Candido stresses the role of women in the history of Angola.

(Video thumbnail image: Achille Devéria, portrait of Queen Nzinga (aka Zingha) of Matamba (1583-1663), detail, 1830s. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London)