Muxima Ayo

The country around Muxima lies in Kisama, south of the Kwanza River. Its local rulers, known as sobas, maintained separate centres of authority and resisted Portuguese attempts to extend control inland. In eastern Kisama, Kafuxi Ambari defeated Portuguese forces in 1594, protecting his territory from their advance. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Kisama's rulers remained formidable opponents of the colonial authorities, at times cutting the land route between Luanda and Benguela.