Historic African kingdom of the Mbundu people, located northeast of Luanda , Angola.
A strong state in the early 16th century, it came into conflict with the Portuguese colonists of Angola. About 1630 it was conquered by Nzinga, ex-ruler of Ndongo , who strengthened it and stopped Angola's eastward expansion in the 1670s. A 1684 treaty remained in effect until the Portuguese seized part of Matamba's territory in 1744. The rest of it, assigned to Angola by European treaties of 1870–1900, remained a self-governing kingdom until it was occupied by Portuguese troops in the early 20th century.