The population of São Salvador has dispersed into the mountaintop fortresses of the rival kings: the Mountain of Kibangu east of the capital and the fortress of the Águas Rosadas, a line founded in the 1680s from descendants of Kinlaza and Kimpanzu, the region of Mbula or Lemba where a line founded by the Kinlaza pretender, Pedro III rules; and Lovota a district in southern Soyo that shelters a Kimpanzu lineage whose head is Doña Suzanna de Nóbrega.

Finally, D Ana Afonso de Leão will found her own center on the Mbidizi River at Nkondo and guide her junior kinsmen to reclaim the country, even as she seeks to reconcile the hostile factions.

In the interim, however, tens of thousands fleeing the conflict or caught up in the battles are deported as slaves to English, French, Dutch and Portuguese merchants every year.

One stream leads north to Loango, whose merchants, known as Vili (Mubires in the period) carry them primarily to merchants from England and the Netherlands, and others are taken to Luanda where they are sold to Portuguese merchants bound for Brazil.