Month: October 2026

The Tangena Ordeal and Female Political Control in Nineteenth-Century Imerina: Judicial Ritual, Royal Authority, and the Queens of Madagascar

| Succession & Matriliny |

The tangena ordeal was a judicial poison ordeal in the Kingdom of Imerina, used most intensively under Queen Ranavalona I to adjudicate guilt, purge political rivals, and reinforce royal authority. This article examines the ordeal as an indigenous legal and ritual technology embedded in Merina concepts of hasina, ancestral justice, and female sovereignty. It critically assesses colonial sources, explores the gendered dynamics of queenly power, and traces the ordeal’s abolition and contested legacy.

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The Chewa Mwali: Female Rainmakers and Matrilineal Chiefs in Malawi

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

The Chewa Mwali is a female ritual-political office among the Chewa-speaking peoples of Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique, combining hereditary rainmaking authority with matrilineal chieftaincy. This article examines the Mwali’s cosmological foundations, complementary governance, succession mechanisms, rainmaking rituals, colonial suppression, and modern legacy, centring indigenous concepts of power and oral tradition.

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What Happened to African Rainmakers When the Rains Failed? Regicide, Deposition, and the Scapegoat King

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

Across several African polities, the power to bring rain was a measurable test of sovereignty. When rains failed persistently, rainmaking kings, queens, and sacred rulers could face deposition, exile, or ritual regicide. This article examines the evidence, mechanisms, and transformations of that accountability, centring African epistemologies and oral traditions while reading colonial sources critically.

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Yaa Asantewaa, Ejisuhemaa: Queen Mother, War Leader, and the Asante Resistance of 1900

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

Yaa Asantewaa (c. 1840–1921) was the Ejisuhemaa, or Queen Mother of Ejisu, in the Asante Empire. In 1900 she mobilised the last major armed resistance against British colonial conquest in West Africa, leading the War of the Golden Stool. This article examines her constitutional authority, matrilineal succession, military leadership, and enduring legacy through oral traditions and colonial archives.

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The Sacred Python in Balobedu Royal Ritual: Symbol of Rain, Fertility, and the Modjadji

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

The sacred python is central to Balobedu royal ritual as the living embodiment of rain, fertility, and the spiritual authority of the Modjadji Rain Queen. This article examines the python’s role across oral tradition, rainmaking ceremonies, royal regalia, and contemporary cultural revival, grounding each claim in documented ethnography and indigenous knowledge.

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The Agojie of Dahomey: Female Soldiers and Royal Authority in the Kingdom of Dahomey

| Warrior Women |

The Agojie, or ‘king’s wives,’ were an elite corps of female soldiers in the precolonial Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), serving as palace guards, tax enforcers, and shock troops from the eighteenth century until the French conquest in 1894. This article examines their origins, political integration, military prowess, gender dynamics, and enduring legacy, drawing on oral traditions, colonial accounts, and modern scholarship to present a nuanced portrait of women’s sovereignty and martial authority in West Africa.

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The Sokoto Caliphate and the Transformation of Female Sovereignty in Hausaland

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

The Sokoto Caliphate (1804–1903) reshaped Hausaland’s political landscape, transforming pre-jihad female offices such as Magajiya and Iya into new forms of Islamic scholarship and educational leadership. This article examines the evidence, structures, and legacies of women’s sovereignty before, during, and after the caliphate, centring figures like Nana Asma’u and the Yan Taru movement.

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Mkabayi kaJama: The Zulu Princess Who Made and Unmade Kings

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

Mkabayi kaJama (c. 1750–c. 1843) was a Zulu inkosazana, regent, and royal councillor whose strategic interventions shaped the succession of the early Zulu kingdom. As daughter of King Jama kaNdaba and sister of Senzangakhona, she installed her brother and later her nephew Shaka, and ultimately sanctioned the conspiracy that ended Shaka’s reign. Her life exemplifies the often-unwritten constitutional powers of senior royal women in precolonial southern Africa.

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The Dahomey Amazons (Mino): Female Warriors and the Military Power of the Kingdom of Dahomey

| Warrior Women |

The Dahomey Amazons, or Mino, were an elite corps of female soldiers in the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin) from the seventeenth century until 1894. They served as a standing army, royal guard, and ritual force, wielding real military and political power within a centralised African state. This article examines their origins, organisation, combat record, gender dynamics, and complex legacy, drawing on Fon oral traditions and critical scholarship.

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The Incwala Ceremony and the Ndlovukazi’s Ritual Authority: Rainmaking and Kingship Renewal in Eswatini

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

The Incwala is the most sacred national ceremony of Eswatini, a first-fruits and kingship renewal ritual held at the summer solstice. Its performance depends on the joint ritual authority of the Ngwenyama (king) and the Ndlovukazi (Queen Mother), whose rainmaking powers and custodianship of sacred medicines are constitutive of the ceremony. This article examines the Incwala and the Ndlovukazi’s ritual authority through indigenous concepts of dual sovereignty, oral tradition, and documented ceremonial practice.

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