In 1622, the Portuguese governor offered her a mat on the floor. She sat on a human chair instead, and that was only the beginning.
Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba, in what is now Angola, held off the Portuguese Empire for almost forty years. She negotiated treaties as an equal, took the title of king when she was told a woman couldn't rule, conquered a new kingdom when she lost her own, and played the Dutch against the Portuguese. She also made hard and ruthless choices, and much of what we know about her was written by her enemies.
She died in her own bed around the age of eighty: never captured, never forced to bow.