Ngoyo

Ngoyo was a kingdom of the Woyo people on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, in the south of what is now Cabinda, just north of the mouth of the Congo River. Its rulers styled themselves nfumu nsi, lords of the earth, claiming descent from the earliest settlers of the region. In the thirteenth century Ngoyo formed part of a confederation led by Vungu, and by the sixteenth century it had become one of the small coastal states, alongside Kakongo and Loango, that grew rich from trade with Europeans. The capital was Mbanza Ngoyo, and the kingdom's fortunes rested on the coast's beaches and lagoons, where salt, raffia cloth and ivory were exchanged for goods brought by Portuguese and Dutch ships. In the 1630s Ngoyo was invaded by the neighbouring kingdom of Soyo, whose ruler's son was installed as king. Relations with Soyo remained close and often turbulent for the rest of the century, and in the 1680s English merchants were active on the coast. By 1700 Cabinda had become the leading slave port north of Luanda, and Ngoyo's economy came to depend heavily on the sale of captives. In 1783 Ngoyo joined Kakongo in destroying a Portuguese fort, but the costs of kingship and the shrinking pool of claimants weakened the state; in the 1830s the nobles failed to elect a new king and the kingdom effectively disintegrated. In 1885 Ngoyo signed the Treaty of Simulambuco and became a Portuguese protectorate.