Quibala

Quibala lies in the high country south of the Kwanza, where the northern slopes of Angola's central plateau meet lower valleys. Its rulers commanded a strategic position between the plateau and the river country. In the 1670s Portuguese forces took the stronghold of Quibala, deposed Ngunza a Mbamba and installed a chief sympathetic to their slave-trading interests. Relations later deteriorated, but Quibala remained an important centre from which local rulers exercised influence over the surrounding lands.