Imbangala

The Imbangala or Mbangala were 17th century groups of Angolan warriors and marauders who founded the Kasanje Kingdom.

The Imbangala were people, possibly from Central Africa, that appeared on the scene in Angola during the early 17th century. Their origins are still debated. There is general agreement that they were not the same Jagas that attacked the Kingdom of Kongo during the reign of Alvaro I.

In the 1960s it was determined that oral traditions of the Lunda Empire suggested that both groups of Jaga marauders originated in the Lunda Empire and had fled it during the 17th century. Another theory is that the Imbangala were a local people of southern Angola originating from the Bie Plateau or the coastal regions west of the highlands.

The first witness account of the Imbangala, written by an English sailor named Andrew Battell, who lived with them for 16 months in around 1600–1601, places them firmly in the coastal regions and highlands of modern Angola, just south of the Kwanza River. Their leaders told Battell that they had come from a place called "Elembe" and that they had originated from a "page" in its army. Battell's story was published by Samuel Purchas partially in 1614 and fully in 1625.

The Imbangala were a fully militarized society based entirely on initiation rites as opposed to the customary kinship rites of most African ethnic groups. To keep kinship from replacing initiation, all children born inside a kilombo were killed. Women were allowed to leave the kilombo to have their children, but when they returned the child was not considered an Imbangala until undergoing initiation. In almost Spartan-like program, children were trained daily in group and individual combat.

During training they wore a collar which could not be removed, even after initiation, until they had killed a man in battle. Aside from infanticide rituals, the Imbangala covered themselves with ointment called maji a samba believed to confer invulnerabliity as long as the soldier followed strict set of yijila codes. The yijila required the infanticide, cannibalism and an absolute absence of cowardice.

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