5 Most Powerful Queens of Africa You Should Know About

The African continent has been viewed as a dark continent throughout history. It still is considered to be backward and has little light and knowledge.

However, if we look back to history, Africa is the first cradle to civilization. Egypt is considered to be the home to civilization where man began to socialize and came to know the ways of the world.

Throughout history, many great kings and men have been born there and had left mark on history and paved ways for the people to come. In this journey toward greatness, women also stood shoulder to shoulder with men and proved their mettle that women are no less than men.

We have always heard of great kings of the world and even of Pharaohs of Egypt, but today, we will know about the 7 most powerful Queens of Africa who ruled with power, sagacity, and precision.

1. Queen Amina Of Zaria

Amina Tu was the Muslim queen of city-state Zazzau in northern Nigeria. She was born in the mid sixteen century to King Nikatau and Queen Bakwa Turunku of the Hausa Kingdom. She was the most powerful ruler of the Hausa Kingdom, Nigeria, Africa.

From the early ages, she showed remarkable qualities of leadership, wisdom, and greatness. According to anthropologist David E. Jones, Amina grew up in the court of her grandfather and he instructed her in political and state art. she learned the craft of statesmanship from her grandfather from a very early age. She was even allowed to attend serious state matters and was much favored by her grandfather because of her skills and potentials.

Around 1566, her parents died, and her brother became the king. By this time, she had proved her mettle in the field of war and was known far and wide for her deadly warrior skills. Even today women remember her in their traditional songs and praise her skills that she would lead men to war and was capable more than men.

After the death of her brother in 1576, Amina ascended the throne of Zazzau kingdom, one of the original Hausa states. Other Hausa states were Gobir, Katsina, Daura, Rano, Garun Gabas, and Kano.

At the time she became the queen, Zazzau was a powerful kingdom. Her very first call to her countrymen was to ‘resharpen their weapons’. She had a strong and fearsome army consisting of 20,000-foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry troops. Upon ascending the throne, she soon embarked on her expansion mission and conquered large tracks up to Nupe and Kwararafa in Nigeria. Under her rule, Zazzau acquired and controlled more territory than it had ever before.

According to Sidney John Hogben, Queen Amina had a very strange habit of keeping lovers. she would take on a new lover from every town she would conquer. She would spend the night with her new lover and have beheaded him in the morning. It is said that each of her lovers had met the same fate partly because the Queen was not interested in the same object twice and that none should live to tell the story of the night the queen would spend with her lover.

According to one legend, the queen would take out the heart of her lover in the early hours of the morning and the lover would be left to die in front of her eyes. She was not only a deadly warrior, she was a terrible and deadly lover too.

However, as very little is known about the exact date of her birth, her death is also shrouded in mysteries. According to Muslim scholar Dan Tafa, she died her natural death in the place called Attaagar, near the northern frontier of the Zazzau kingdom.

2. Makeda, Queen of Saba

Makeda was a great queen of Saba ( Ethiopia) was a powerful queen of ancient Africa.

She is also mentioned in the old Hebrew Testament and new testament as well as in the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam. Her story has been narrated throughout history for various reasons. Although, the most famous one is her meeting with King Solomon.

She is known by various names in different narratives. For instance, She is known as Queen Sheba, Queen of Saba, Makeda, and as well as Queen Belqis in Arabian narratives.

According to history, she ruled over Ethiopia and Yemen. She was a wise queen and was famous far and wide in her time. She had a son called ‘ Menelik I’. Throughout history, it was believed to be the son of Solomon and Makeda. As the Menelik means ‘Son of the Wise’. However, the source is disputed among historians.

Her linage is considered to the kings and queens throughout Ethiopian history. She was known for her generosity as well as her art of government. Her rule was the most harmonious and prosperous.

She was energetic and took great interest in the commerce of her kingdom. She had expanded her commerce to Palestine and as far as India through sea and land routes. She had built a fleet of about eighty great ships that were worthy to go on longer voyages. She had also maintained a caravan of hundreds of men and camels to go on land routes and take her goods to far off places. Her traders took gold, precious stones, ivory, jewels, and other precious metals for trade purposes.

Till the Ethiopian people’s revolution in 1974, the Ethiopian emperors of the Solomonic line traced their lineage to the Menelik, son of the queen of saba.

3. The Candaces of Meroe

The Candaces of Meroe was the first queen of Meroe, Egypt. Her name was Shanakdakhete and she ruled around 170 BC in Meroe.

She was a powerful queen and a war warrior herself. She was extremely tactful in devising her war strategies. She would appear in her battle dress and have trained herself in advanced fighting techniques. She was much faster in her movies and could outdo many men in a battle.

She was not only a warrior but also a great ruler and economist. During her reign, Meroe expanded its border. She conquered many other places and took on an enlargement mission as every king and queen wish to acquire more land. She was not behind anyone in this passion and wanted even more.

She also traded with other countries extensively and acquired many precious metals and gold filed up. Due to her vast trading capacity, her kingdom’s economy boomed.

She also performed religious functions and considered herself as the ‘Son of Ra and Ma’at, the two gods of Egyptians.

4. Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt

Neferneferuaten Nefertiti was the queen of Kemet, Egypt, and was the Great Royal Wife of Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, the great king of the time. She was the queen at a time when ancient Egypt was going through its wealthiest period.

Although she and her husband ruled the vast Egyptian kingdom during its wealthy time. The death of her husband caused a steady decline in her kingdom. She ruled the kingdom alone after her husband, but then nothing was the same. Her trade with other countries declined and the wealth diminished a lot.

Throughout her rule, she had held many titles as:

• Hereditary Princess (iryt-p`t)
• Great of Praises (wrt-Hzwt)
• Lady of Grace (nbt-im3t)
• Sweet of Love (bnrt-mrwt)
• Lady of The Two Lands (nbt-t3wy)
• Main King’s Wife, his beloved (Hmt-nswt-‘3t mryt.f)
• Great King’s Wife, his beloved (Hmt-nswt-wrt mryt.f)
• Lady of All Women (Hnwt-Hmwt-nbwt)
• Mistress of Upper & Lower Egypt (Hnwt-Shm’w-mhw)

5. Yaa Asantewa, Queen of Ashanti Empire, Ghana

Yaa Asantewa was a queen mother of the Ashanti Empire, Ghana. She become queen when her grandson was exiled by the British to Seychelles in 1896. she tried to bring her grandson, the king, she held a meeting with chiefs of her kingdom to devise the ways.

The British also demanded the ‘Golder Stool’ a symbol of the Ashanti empire's holiness and strength. That stool was considered holy and they respected it to the core. It was considered a divine authority. When the British pressure mounted, Yaa Asantewa called on her chiefs as not to behave like cowards and be ready to fight.

Or if they are afraid of fighting the British, they should change their loincloths for her undergarments. With this taunt, the chiefs got ready for the fight. She fired a gun in front of the men to declare war on the British and to dramatize her determination for war.

She led the anti-British war, the War for Golden Stool, also known as Yaa Asantewaa War with the army of 5,000 men. The war began in March 1900 and went on for a month.

Later on, she was captured along with her advisers and was sent into exile to Seychelles. The area came under the direct control of the British after the queen's mother surrender.

The war was the final war Anglo-Asante series of wars and ended the long struggles of Ghanian people against the colonial British power.

Conclusion

Throughout human history, women are considered to be weak physically and emotionally. However, there are thousands of instances that this is not a blind truth. Women are also as capable of ruling, power, strength, and possessing and demonstrating war and political skills as men.

These African queens amply support my argument and if they are studied in detail, you will feel awe and wonder at their sagacity and strength of character.

They were not the queens at ease. They had faced many threatening situations and dire consequences throughout their rules. However, most of the time, they triumphed.

There are many other great women in history and even today who showed resilience and strength of character. The common women of today are not less than the queens of the past. She has to strive and to fight for her place to survive and that too all alone. No armies are supporting them but they are their armies. Their strength and will to fight the situations and win is their destiny.