B'Dora Mnemon

Shanakdakhete: The First Woman to Rule Kush as Sole Sovereign

| Queens & Empresses |

Shanakdakhete, reigning from Meroë around 170–150 BCE, stands as the earliest documented woman to hold sole sovereign power in the Kingdom of Kush. Her adoption of the full royal titulary, including the title qore, and her monumental building projects at Naqa reveal a ruler who consolidated political, military, and ritual authority. This article examines the archaeological and textual evidence for her reign, the matrilineal succession system that enabled her rise, and her enduring legacy as a forerunner of the later kandakes.

Read More →

Matrilineal Succession in the Balobedu: How the Rain Queen’s Heir Is Chosen

| Succession & Matriliny |

The Balobedu people of present-day South Africa maintain one of Africa’s most distinctive systems of female-centred sovereignty. Supreme authority is vested in the Modjadji, the Rain Queen, whose heir is chosen through matrilineal descent rather than patrilineal inheritance. This article examines the ritual, political, and social mechanisms that govern how the heir is selected, trained, and installed, and how the institution has survived colonial and postcolonial transformations.

Read More →

Iyalode: The Yoruba Female Chief and the Architecture of Women’s Power

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

The Iyalode is the highest-ranking female chief in many Yoruba polities of southwestern Nigeria, an office rooted in economic authority, public motherhood, and complementary governance. This article examines the origins, political functions, succession mechanisms, legal powers, and modern legacies of the Iyalode, drawing on oral traditions, praise poetry, and critical historiography. It centres the Iyalode as a key architect of women’s power in Yoruba political thought.

Read More →

The Agojie of Dahomey: Fon Women’s Regiments and the European ‘Amazon’ Gaze

| Warrior Women |

The Agojie—elite women’s military regiments of the Kingdom of Dahomey—were central to West African sovereignty from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. This article examines their origins, political role, martial prowess, and the distorting lens of European ‘Amazon’ imagery, centring Fon epistemologies and oral traditions alongside archival evidence.

Read More →

The Ritual Role of Modjadji Cycad Leaves and Cones in the Rain Queen’s Rainmaking Ceremonies

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

The Modjadji cycad (Encephalartos transvenosus) is not merely a botanical emblem of the Balobedu Rain Queens; its leaves and cones are active ritual instruments in rainmaking ceremonies. This article examines their documented and oral uses, symbolic meanings, and contemporary significance amid conservation and cultural revival.

Read More →

The Modjadji Cycad Forest and the Installation of a New Rain Queen: Ritual Landscape, Succession, and Sovereign Legitimacy

| The Rain Queens |

The Modjadji Cycad Forest in Limpopo, South Africa, is the sacred ritual landscape where a new Rain Queen of the Balobedu people undergoes seclusion, ancestral validation, and rainmaking instruction. This article examines the forest’s role in succession, its contested status as of 2026, and the oral traditions that sustain its authority.

Read More →

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

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

Yaa Asantewaa, Ejisuhemaa of the Asante Confederacy, led the 1900 War of the Golden Stool against British colonial forces. Drawing on the constitutional authority of the Akan ohemaa, she mobilised military resistance and became an enduring symbol of anti-colonial leadership. This article examines her genealogical roots, political office, military strategies, and legacy through oral and written sources.

Read More →

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.

Read More →

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.

Read More →