Chronicles of Africa's most powerful Women sovereigns: Amanirenas, Njinga and Eleni.
Less than six years following their victory over the armies of Queen Cleopatra in Egypt in 31 BC, the Romans marched their forces south to conquer the kingdom of Kush, which was also ruled by a Queen, known to her subjects as Amanirenas and to the Romans as the ‘Candace’.
Amanirenas was the consort of King Teriteqas who died shortly before the Roman invasion. The Queen assumed full control of the kingdom instead of her son, Prince Akinidad, under unusual circumstances just as the kingdom faced its darkest hour. Both Roman accounts and a recently translated Meroitic chronicle confirm that around 24BC, Kush's former capital of Napata was sacked by the Romans (known as the Tǝmeya in local accounts), who were nevertheless forced to retreat north to Qasr Ibrim in Lower Nubia (southern Egypt), having failed to conquer Kush.1
In early 22 BC Meroitic forces re-appeared in Lower Nubia under the command of Amanirenas, who “marched against the garrison [Qasr Ibrim] with many thousands of men.” The Queen sent her envoys to the fort who were then escorted to the emperor Augustus, who had set up camp on the Greek Island of Samos. Augustus submitted to all the demands made by Queen Amanirenas’ envoys and withdrew the Roman border further north to Maharraqa. The Queen, on the other hand, gave the Romans nothing in exchange, choosing to retain the statues (and presumably, captives) taken during earlier raids on Roman territories.2
Amanirenas returned to her capital Meroe, and commissioned the construction of a temple that was painted with images of bound Roman captives kneeling at her feet.3 The Queen, or one of her successors, buried the bronze head of Augustus in its staircase, representing Kush’s victory over a formidable foe. At least six women sovereigns (Kandake) would ascend to the throne of Kush after her.
Meroitic texts and artwork commissioned by her successors; Queen Armanishakheto and Queen Amanikhatashan, borrowed heavily from the iconography of Queen Amanirenas, including depictions of bound Roman captives stabbed with knives or pierced with arrows —pointing to the enduring legacy of Queen Amanirenas on the succession of royal women in the kingdom of Kush.4
watercolor illustrations of captive paintings found in building 292 at Meroe, depicting bound Roman and Egyptian soldiers on the footstool of a Queen and a Meroitic deity. The originals on the right show the detail of the right footstool (top) and left footstool (bottom), and the larger painting of the left footstool. Photos from the University of Liverpool, ca. 1911.
Roman/’Northern’ captives depicted on bronze bells found in the royal pyramids; N.12 and N.18 (belonging to King Aryesebokhe and Queen Amanikhatashan who ruled in the late 1st/early 2nd century AD).5
Roman texts, on the other hand, are replete with assumptions about a woman's inability to rule, and literary impressions of foreign queens like Cleopatra and Amanirenas are almost uniformly negative. In Roman accounts, Amanerinas finds her equivalent in Boudica (d. 61 CE), the warrior queen of Roman Britain, whose armies also fought bravely against the Romans —albeit, with less success, and were equally vilified in Roman accounts. The fact that Boudica's revolt was led by a woman was, according to Cassius Dio, “the greatest cause of shame for the Romans.”6
In the centuries after the fall of Rome, only a handful of women were able to exercise their political agency in medieval Europe. The prevailing cultural assumptions during the Middle Ages and the early modern period held that women in Europe were divorced from the sphere of politics and incapable of military action.7
For this reason, European travelers who visited the west-central African kingdom of Ndongo during the 16th century encountered an unfamiliar political culture, where women were not only active at the royal court and during major public events, but were also present in the military and could occupy the highest office as Queen-Regnants. The most famous of these was Queen Njinga (r. 1624-1663), who in several battles defeated the Portuguese colonial armies. Queen Njinga is fittingly described by the Portuguese as the “cunning Queen, our capital enemy who never tires of looking for ways to ruin us.”8
Like her ancient counterpart in Kush, the famous warrior queen of Ndongo established a precedent in her kingdom that would enable the succession of other royal women to the throne. Queen Njinga would be succeeded by at least 6 Queens, who reigned with full authority while also successfully fending off several invasions by the Portuguese colonial armies of Angola well into the 18th century.
Queen Njinga with captured missionaries, late 17th-century illustration, Virgili Collection (Bilioteca Estense Universitaria).
Queen Nzinga Mbande (Anna de Sousa Nzinga), hand-coloured lithograph, 1830s, National Portrait Gallery U.K.
African history is awash with stories of powerful women like Amanirenas and Njinga. However, popular writing about women's history in Africa often relies on blanket assertions that either vilify pre-colonial societies as “repressive” or romanticize them as “egalitarian.” But the historical evidence does not sustain the universal validity of either of these claims. Even when the analysis of women's agency is restricted to the political sphere, the sheer diversity and complexity of African societies undermines any universalist approach to pre-colonial African women's history.
The two examples of Kush and Ndongo outlined above, for example, are among the few societies in African history —and indeed in World history— where numerous women are known to have occupied the highest political office and continued to retain their authority over a long period.
In other societies, such as the kingdom of Kongo, women only assumed a direct role in politics following the decline of central authority during the 17th and 18th centuries —contrary to the often-repeated claim that Kongo transitioned from a matrilineal society to a patrilineal society.
In the city-states of the East African coast, the political power of Swahili women declined after the 16th century as the cities transitioned from republics controlled by the heads of powerful lineages —some of whom could be women, to kingdoms or sultanates with hereditary dynasties or lineages.
In the West African kingdom of Benin and the Hausa city-state of Kano, women's direct participation in politics increased after the expansion of central power during the 15th and 16th centuries, following the rise of the powerful Queens Idia and Hauwa, whose legacy resulted in the creation of the permanent office of Queen mother, known as; Iyoba in Benin, and Maidaki in Kano.9
stylized representations of Queen Idia of Benin; Cast bronze head with openwork coral bead net and a Carved ivory mask-shaped pendant, inlaid with iron and bronze, decorated with Portuguese heads. 16th century, Benin City, Nigeria. British Museum.
The participation of women in pre-colonial African politics was therefore determined by several historical processes that were often unique to a given society
This is best exemplified by medieval Ethiopia where Queen Eleni (ca. 1431-1524) became the de facto ruler of the empire and the first woman to hold such a high office. Described by the historian Verena Krebs as “the single most outstanding female political figure of medieval Solomonic Ethiopia,” Eleni presided over a period of revolutionary change in Ethiopia's international standing.10
Not long after the Queen had assumed formal control of the empire in 1508, the Portuguese sent an embassy requesting Ethiopia for military aid in an alliance that would prove consequential to the history of the northern Horn of Africa.
My latest Patreon article chronicles the history of Queen Eleni, from her obscure origins to her rise as one of Africa's most powerful women.
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Les interprétations historiques des stèles méroïtiques d’Akinidad à la lumière des récentes découvertes by Claude Rilly
The Kingdom of Kush by L. Torok pg 451-455, Headhunting on the Roman Frontier by Uroš Matić pg 128-9
The murals from the augustus temple, Meroe by P.L. shinnie and R.J. Bradley pg 167-172, Between Two Worlds by László Török pg 455-456,
on the representations of Roman captive in Meroitic art after Amanirenas, see; The Representation of Captives and Enemies in Meroitic Art by Janice Yellin pg 585-592, on the election iconography of Queen Amanirenas and her immedite successors, see; The image of ordered world in ancient nubian Art by Laszlo Torok pg 217-219.
first photo and illustration: The Royal Cemeteries of Kush by Dows Dunham Vol. IV, pg 138, Plate LV, fig 90, the second photo and illustration (same book); pg 150, Plate LVI, fig 90
Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain By Caitlin C. Gillespie pg 36-37, 70-71, see also; Tacitus and Women's Usurpation of Power by Francesca Santoro L'Hoir
The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800 By William Monter, Women, Diplomacy and International Politics since 1500 edited by Glenda Sluga, Carolyn James, A Companion to Women's Military History edited by Barton C. Hacker, Margaret Vining, Women in the Lusophone World in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period edited by Darlene Abreu-Ferreira, Ivana Elbl
Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen By Linda M. Heywood pg 11-17, 59-60
Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art By Kate Ezra, pg 14, 41, Government In Kano, 1350-1950 M.G. Smith pg 50-51
Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe by Verena Krebs pg 143
This is great for women's history month, definitely sharing, my daughters would love this much thanks.
Important, and necessary, read.