The abusua, or matrilineal clan, is the foundation of Akan political legitimacy, making the queen mother (ohemaa) a co-sovereign who controls royal succession, ritual power, and the continuity of the state. This article examines how Akan matriliny shapes queen mother authority from mythological origins to modern Ghanaian governance, centring oral traditions and African scholarship.
The abolition of African kingdoms under colonial rule and their subsequent revival in the postcolonial era did not simply extinguish women’s traditional offices; it transformed, submerged, and sometimes reanimated them. From the rain-making queens of Balobedu to the queen mothers of Asante and the market queens of Onitsha, women’s sovereignty was embedded in spiritual, judicial, and economic systems that colonial administrators often misunderstood or deliberately dismantled. This article examines what happened to these offices when kingdoms were banned, how they survived in memory and practice, and what restoration has meant in the twenty-first century.
The Ohemaa is the female sovereign or queen mother of an Akan state, whose authority derives from the matrilineal abusua and whose stool constitutes one half of a dual-gender governance system. This article examines her origins, political structures, succession mechanisms, legal authority, regalia, colonial encounters, and modern legacies. It centres Akan epistemologies and oral traditions alongside written sources to explain how and why these women held real political power.
The Asantehemaa is the female co-sovereign of the Asante Kingdom, genealogical head of the royal Oyoko clan, and a decisive voice in the nomination of the Asantehene. This article examines the office’s origins, matrilineal succession mechanisms, legal authority, ritual power, colonial encounters, and enduring political influence in modern Ghana.
This article examines the diplomatic and ritual exchanges between the Rain Queens of Balobedu and the Zulu and Swazi kingdoms of southern Africa. It explores how the Modjadji’s rainmaking authority shaped inter-state relations, tribute systems, and political legitimacy from the precolonial era through colonial disruption.
The Iyoba of Benin, created in the early sixteenth century for Queen Mother Idia, institutionalised women’s sovereignty as a constitutional co-ruler with her own palace, court, tribute base, and ritual authority. This article examines the office’s origins, governance, legal powers, regalia, ceremonies, colonial transformations, and enduring legacy in the Benin Kingdom.
The rainmaking rituals of the Balobedu Rain Queen, Modjadji, centre on sacred pots, potent herbal medicines, and consecrated drums that together constitute a living system of female spiritual sovereignty. This article examines the ritual complex through oral tradition, ethnographic record, and contemporary practice, highlighting indigenous epistemologies and the political power embedded in rainmaking authority.
The Asantehemaa is the senior female co-sovereign of the Asante Kingdom, holding constitutional, spiritual, and judicial authority that parallels and checks the Asantehene. Rooted in the matrilineal Oyoko clan and the founding traditions of the Golden Stool, her office embodies the dual-gender principle of Asante governance. This article explores her origins, powers, succession, and enduring legacy.
Taytu Betul (c. 1851–1918) was Itege (Empress) of Ethiopia as consort of Emperor Menelik II, a formidable political strategist, military commander, and diplomat who co-founded the modern capital Addis Ababa and helped orchestrate Ethiopia’s victory at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. Her power was not ceremonial but rooted in landholding, court alliances, intelligence networks, and direct command of troops, making her one of the most consequential women in African political history.
This article examines how the Modjadji Rain Queens of the Balobedu people navigated South Africa’s apartheid racial order, preserving women’s sovereignty and rainmaking authority despite legal and administrative attempts to reduce them to tribal chiefs. Drawing on oral traditions, colonial archives, and recent scholarship, it analyses the political, ritual, and succession strategies that enabled the institution to survive and adapt from 1948 to the post-apartheid recognition of Queen Masalanabo Modjadji VII.