B'Dora Mnemon

Maselekwane Modjadji I: The First Rain Queen of the Lovedu and the Founding of the Modjadji Dynasty

| The Rain Queens |

Maselekwane Modjadji I (reigned c. 1800–1854) was the first Rain Queen of the Lovedu (Balobedu) people in present-day South Africa and the founder of the Modjadji dynasty. Her accession transformed a male-dominated chieftaincy into a female-centred sacred monarchy, in which rainmaking authority became the core of political legitimacy. This article examines her origins, governance, ritual power, and enduring legacy through oral tradition, colonial-era ethnography, and contemporary scholarship.

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Colonial Law and the Criminalisation of Rainmaking: How European Administrators Suppressed and Reshaped Rain Authority

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

This article examines how European colonial legal systems across Africa criminalised rainmaking as witchcraft or superstition, systematically dismantling the spiritual and political authority of rainmakers—many of them women. It traces the precolonial foundations of rain sovereignty, the colonial legal onslaught, acts of resistance, and the enduring legacy of these institutions in postcolonial Africa.

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Kambu and Funji: Royal Sisters, Diplomats, and Ritual Leaders in the Court of Queen Nzinga

| Queen Mothers & Royal Offices |

Kambu (Mukambu) and Funji (Kifunji) were the royal sisters of Queen Nzinga Mbandi of Ndongo and Matamba. As envoys, intelligence gatherers, marriage diplomats, and rainmaking ritual authorities, they sustained Nzinga’s forty-year resistance against Portuguese expansion and anchored the matrilineal legitimacy of her unprecedented female sovereignty.

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Amanitore of Meroë: Co-Ruler, Builder, and the Last Great Kandake of Kush

| Queens & Empresses |

Amanitore was a Kandake of the Kingdom of Kush who ruled from Meroë in the early first century CE, most likely as co-regent with King Natakamani. Her reign marked the final great flourishing of Meroitic monumental building, religious patronage, and royal iconography. This article examines the evidence for her power, the structures of Kushite queenship, and her enduring legacy as a symbol of African female sovereignty.

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How Did the British Colonial Administration Recognize the Modjadji Rain Queens? An Encyclopedic Analysis

| The Rain Queens |

This article examines the negotiated and often contradictory process by which British colonial officials in the Transvaal recognised the Modjadji Rain Queens as paramount chiefs. It explores the archival evidence, colonial source caveats, political and ritual authority, legal constraints, succession interference, and the lasting legacy of that recognition for the Balobedu people.

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Taytu Betul: Empress of Ethiopia and Military Strategist at the Battle of Adwa

| Warrior Women |

Taytu Betul (c. 1851–1918) was Empress of Ethiopia as the wife of Emperor Menelik II and a formidable political and military strategist in her own right. Best known for her decisive role in the Ethiopian victory at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, she helped safeguard Ethiopian sovereignty against Italian colonial expansion. This article examines her genealogical roots, governance, military leadership, diplomacy, and enduring legacy within Ethiopian and African history.

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Harvesting Encephalartos transvenosus in the Modjadji Nature Reserve: Queenship, Customary Law, and Ecological Governance

| Rainmaking & Ritual Authority |

The Modjadji cycad forest is a sacred rainmaking sanctuary governed by the Rain Queen of the Balobedu. This article examines who is allowed to harvest Encephalartos transvenosus within the Modjadji Nature Reserve, how access is mediated by customary authority and state conservation law, and the ritual, legal, and ecological principles that sustain this unique system of indigenous resource governance.

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The Dahomey Amazons: Mino, Agojie, and the Gendered Politics of Power in the Kingdom of Dahomey

| Warrior Women |

The Dahomey Amazons, known in Fon as Mino (“Our Mothers”) and Agojie, were an all-female military corps of the Kingdom of Dahomey. They served as royal bodyguards, palace guards, and frontline shock troops in a centralised monarchy deeply implicated in the Atlantic slave trade. This article examines their origins, organisation, ritual roles, and contested legacy through Fon oral traditions, European travel accounts, and modern scholarship.

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