Case file · Sacred site

Queen Nzinga's footprints at Pungo Andongo

Angolan tradition says hollows in the giant Black Rocks of Pungo Andongo are the footprints of Queen Nzinga (Ana de Sousa Ginga) of Ndongo and Matamba.

1671 CE · -9.67, 15.58 · status: legend

The account

The rocks sheltered the last capital of the Kingdom of Ndongo, taken by the Portuguese in 1671, when many inhabitants were enslaved. The footprints tie the landscape to the queen who fought Portuguese expansion for decades.

The sceptical view

The hollows are natural weathering features; their meaning is cultural memory.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: Black Rocks at Pungo Andongo
Open it in the living atlas