Ondonga

Ondonga was one of the kingdoms of the Owambo, whose communities occupied the plains south of the Kunene. Seasonal watercourses and shallow depressions, known as oshanas, fill during the rains and shape the landscape of this country. Its rulers belonged to a matrilineal dynasty, and their authority rested among a network of neighbouring Owambo kingdoms. Around 1820, Nangolo dAmutenya succeeded his uncle as king. Tradition remembers his reign as a time of greater unity, strength and prosperity for Ondonga. Its people traded with neighbouring regions, linking the kingdom to communities in southern Angola and farther south.