B'Dora Mnemon

Labotsibeni Mdluli: The Swazi Queen Regent Who Shaped Modern Eswatini

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

Labotsibeni Mdluli (c. 1859–1925) was the Ndlovukazi (Queen Mother) and Queen Regent of the Swazi kingdom, now Eswatini. After the death of her son Ngwane V in 1899, she ruled as regent for her grandson Sobhuza II until 1921, combining indigenous Swazi principles of dual sovereignty, rainmaking power, and strategic diplomacy with modern land purchases and education. Her regency secured the survival of the Swazi monarchy under colonial pressure and laid the foundations for modern Eswatini.

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Ethiopia’s Empress-Regents: Eleni, Mentewab, and Taytu Betul — Power, Piety, and Diplomacy in the Solomonic Court

| Queens & Empresses |

Between the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries, three Ethiopian women—Eleni, Mentewab, and Taytu Betul—exercised sovereign or near-sovereign authority as empress-regents. Rooted in the office of the itege and the practice of regency, they shaped diplomacy, war, and dynastic survival in the Solomonic state. This article examines their political structures, succession roles, military leadership, and enduring legacies.

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The Installation of a Rain Queen: Seclusion, Sacred Beads, and the Making of Modjadji

| The Rain Queens |

The installation of a Balobedu Rain Queen is a transformative ritual process of seclusion, sacred bead transmission, and rainmaking empowerment that creates the living sovereign known as Modjadji. This article examines the oral traditions, succession mechanisms, regalia, and political meanings of one of Africa’s most enduring female dynasties.

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Sobekneferu: The First Female Pharaoh of Egypt and the End of the Twelfth Dynasty

| Queens & Empresses |

Sobekneferu ruled as pharaoh at the end of Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, c. 1806–1802 BCE, and is widely regarded as the first woman in recorded African history to assume the full fivefold royal titulary of a male king. Her brief reign closed the Middle Kingdom’s golden age and set a precedent for later female rulers such as Hatshepsut and Tausret. This article examines the evidence, succession mechanisms, ritual authority, and legacy of her sovereignty.

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The Ohemaa and the Akwasidae Festival: Ritual Co-Sovereignty in Asante

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

The Ohemaa, or Asantehemaa, is the female co-sovereign of the Asante Kingdom, occupying the silver stool as the counterpart to the Asantehene’s Golden Stool. Her authority is publicly renewed during Akwasidae, the great Adae festival held every forty-two days at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi. This article examines the historical foundations, political structures, succession mechanisms, and living ritual complex through which the Ohemaa exercises complementary sovereignty.

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The Mokhoba: The Rain Queen’s Consort and the Matrilineal Politics of Royal Reproduction

| Succession & Matriliny |

The Mokhoba is the designated male consort in the Balobedu (Lovedu) royal system, whose reproductive role with the Rain Queen’s ceremonial wives ensures the matrilineal continuation of the Modjadji dynasty. Unlike a king-consort, he holds no autonomous political authority and is ritually subordinate to the queen’s sovereignty. This article examines the office, its mythological foundations, succession mechanisms, and the gender dynamics that make it a distinctive feature of African royal reproduction.

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The Lunda Mwadi: Queen Mother and Guardian of the Lunda Empire’s Royal Lineage

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

The Lunda Mwadi was the queen mother of the Lunda Empire, a Central African polity that flourished from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. She controlled royal succession, rainmaking, and ancestral ritual, serving as the living embodiment of the matrilineage from which all kings were chosen. This article examines her political, spiritual, and enduring legacy.

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Rain as Revenue: Tribute, Trade and the Political Economy of Rainmaking in Precolonial Africa

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

In precolonial Africa, rainmaking was not only a spiritual practice but a political-economic institution. Rainmaking authorities—often queens and ritual sovereigns—converted control over rainfall into tribute, labour, trade privileges, and diplomatic power. This article examines the evidence, institutions, and transformations of rain-based revenue systems, with particular attention to the Balobedu Rain Queens and comparative cases from the Venda, Shona, and Tswana-speaking polities.

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