5 Most Powerful African Queens You Should Know About
In this article, I'll be taking you through the history lane and we'll be looking at 5 of the most powerful African queens the world has ever seen.
Africa does not come lacking as it has brought forth some of the world's greatest leaders.
And it might surprise you that some of these greatest leaders has been women who once ruled with great wisdom, precision and power.
Although the new generation might never have heard about these powerful African queens because they rule during the ancient times.
These women had such powerful leadership qualities, wisdom, integrity that they left a mark even after their deaths.
In this century, we can arguably say that the world lacks selfless leaders who would put the wellness and interest of the people first.
Follow up this article till the end and we shall enlighten you about these great legends that should never be forgotten.
1. Queen Aminatu
Her unique personalities of precision and assertiveness were said to have been passed down from her mother, who built the capital of Zazzau, which was one of the original states of Hausaland in the sixteenth century.
Amina was a Hausa Muslim a historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (present-day city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigeria.
She might have ruled in the mid-sixteenth century. A controversial figure whose existence has been questioned by some historians, her real biography has been somewhat obscured by subsequent legends and folk tales.
After the death of her brother Karami in 1576, Amina ascended to the position of queen.
Zazzau was one of the original seven Hausa States (Hausa Bakwai), the others being Daura, Kano, Gobir, Katsina, Rano, and Garun Gabas.
Before Amina assumed the throne, Zazzau was one of the largest of these states. It was also the primary source of slaves that would be sold at the slave markets of Kano and Katsina by Arab merchants.
Only three months after being crowned queen, Amina waged a 34-year campaign against her neighbors, to expand Zazzau territory.
Her army, consisting of 20,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry troops, was well trained and fearsome.
In fact, one of her first announcements to her people was a call for them to “resharpen their weapons.”
She conquered large tracts of land as far as Kwararafa and Nupe.
Legends cited by Sidney John Hogben say that she took a new lover in every town she went through, each of whom was said to meet the same unfortunate fate in the morning: “her brief bridegroom was beheaded so that none should live to tell the tale.”
2. Yaa Asantewaa of the Asante Kingdon, Ghana
Yaa Asantewaa led the Ashanti rebellion which was the fight against British colonialism in 1990.
Beginning in March 1900, the rebellion laid siege to the fort at Kumasi where the British had sought refuge. The fort still stands today as the Kumasi Fort and Military Museum.
After several months, the Gold Coast governor eventually sent a force of 1,400 to quell the rebellion. During the fighting, Queen Yaa Asantewaa and fifteen of her closest advisers were captured, and they, too, were sent into exile to the Seychelles.
The rebellion represented the final war in the Anglo-Asante series of wars that lasted throughout the 19th century.
On 1 January 1902 the British fully seized the land that the Asante army had been defending from them for almost a century, and the Asante empire was made a protectorate of the British crown.
Yaa Asantewaa died in exile in the Seychelles on 17 October 1921. Three years after her death, on 17 December 1924, Prempeh I and the other remaining members of the exiled Asante court were allowed to return to Asante.
Asantewaa understood the ramifications of British occupation. She is seen by Ghanaians today as a queen mother who exercised her political and social clout to help defend her kingdom.
The role she played in influencing the Ashanti men to battle the British appears to be a function of her matriarchal status.
The experience of seeing a woman serving as political and military head of an empire was foreign to British colonial troops in 19th-century Africa.
Yaa Asantewaa remains a much-loved figure in Asante history and the history of Ghana as a whole for her role in confronting the colonialism of the British.
3. Makeda, Queen of Sheba
Little has been verified about the Queen of Sheba's life—in fact, even such basic details as her given name and the exact location of her kingdom remain uncertain.
Tradition places her date of birth in the latter half of the 11th century BCE and her death in approximately 955 BCE; although her kingdom is referred to as both to the south and to the east of Israel.
Scholars generally believe her to have ruled an area in northern Africa roughly equivalent to modern-day Ethiopia, a country which claims her the progenitor of their long-ruling Solomonic dynasty.
Both Jewish and African traditions include stories about the Queen of Sheba. The ruler of a wealthy nation in southern Arabia, the queen had heard tales about the great wisdom of Solomon, king of the Hebrews. Curious, she decided to go to Jerusalem to meet him.
According to the book of Kings in the Bible, the queen arrived in Jerusalem and asked King Solomon a series of difficult questions. He responded wisely to each one. The queen presented Solomon with many gifts and returned to her home.
In an African version of the story, the Queen of Sheba is an Ethiopian ruler named Makeda. She traveled to Jerusalem to visit Solomon. She was so impressed by his wisdom that she gave up her religion and adopted Judaism.
After six months, Makeda told Solomon she wanted to return home. The king gave her a ring to remember him. He also told her that if she became pregnant and had a male child, her child would become king of Ethiopia.
Nine months later, Makeda bore a son whom she named Menelik. When Menelik was a young man, she sent him to Jerusalem to visit his father. Solomon recognized the young man as his son because of the resemblance between them.
Solomon embraced and blessed Menelik, who became the king of Ethiopia and the legendary ancestor of later Ethiopian kings.
4. Kandake – the empress of Ethiopia
Candace of 332 BC has a particular story that still should stand tall today.
According to historians, she was tactical and fierce, as well as uniting. She was known to have excellent military commanding skills, which saw her become one of the strongest and fierce female military tacticians.
Despite the lack of knowledge of these Queens this legend made it’s way out.
Her actual name was said to be Amanirenas. She was blind in one eye due to losing it in a battle with the Romans. She was known to be a fierce, tactical and uniting leader.
Alexander the Great had reached Kemet (Ancient Egypt) and was gearing up to battle into Ethiopia. Alexander never fought Candace though and there are a few accounts as to why.
Upon hearing Alexander the great coming Empress Candace, or Amanirenas, gathered her black troops, lined them up across the first cataract along with herself and stood on top of two African Elephants on a throne and waited for Alexander to show up.
Alexander the “great”, didn’t want to chance a loss and give up his undefeated winning streak.
He definitely didn’t want to lose it to a woman so once seeing the black Queen on her Elephants and her black armies along with her, Alexander the “great” halted his armies at the first cataract, and turned back up into Egypt.
Once he saw the deadly military tactician in all her glory and her black army with the latest iron weapons, he decided against an invasion and turned around.
5. Queen Nefertiti
One of the most mysterious and powerful women in ancient Egypt, Nefertiti was queen alongside Pharaoh Akhenaten from 1353 to 1336 B.C. and may have ruled the New Kingdom outright after her husband’s death.
Her reign was a time of tremendous cultural upheaval, as Akhenaten reoriented Egypt’s religious and political structure around the worship of the sun god Aten.
Nefertiti is best known for her painted sandstone bust, which was rediscovered in 1913 and became a global icon of feminine beauty and power.
Akhenaten’s transformation of religion brought with it radical changes in artistic conventions. Departing from the idealized images of earlier pharaohs, Akhenaten is sometimes depicted with feminine hips and exaggerated features.
Early images of Nefertiti show a stereotypical young woman, but in later ones she is a near mirror image of Akhenaten. Her final depictions reveal a regal but realistic figure.
On the walls of tombs and temples built during Akhenaten’s reign Nefertiti is depicted alongside her husband with a frequency seen for no other Egyptian queen. In many cases she is shown in positions of power and authority—leading worship of Aten, driving a chariot or smiting an enemy.
Nefertiti disappears from the historical record around the 12th year of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign. She may have died at that point, but it is possible she became her husband’s official co-regent under the name Neferneferuaten.
Credit: Wikipedia
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