For Black history month, I thought it would be empowering to look up a bad ass female ruler for every day of the month. It became difficult to find them so now that I am done, hopefully, this blog will help out the next woman who needs this research. As the month went on, I felt empowered and I saw myself in a different light. Black women, we were Rulers and Gods before we were slaves. We were diplomats, politicians before Michelle Obama. We were a force to be reconded with. We were so powerful, that we were ripped out of the history books. It's time we take back our Thorne.
Hatshepsut
A daughter of King Thutmose I, Hatshepsut became queen of Egypt when she married her half-brother, Thutmose II, around the age of 12. Upon his death, she began acting as regent for her stepson, the infant Thutmose III, but later took on the full powers of a pharaoh, becoming co-ruler of Egypt around 1473 B.C. As pharaoh, Hatshepsut extended Egyptian trade and oversaw ambitious building projects, most notably the Temple of Deir.
This woman didn’t ask for power, she straight up TOOK it.
Eygptusπ
Abraham 23-2523 The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden;
24 When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land.
25 Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government.
Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewa
In 1900, British colonial governor Frederick Hodgson called a meeting in the city of Kumasi of the Ashantehene local rulers. At the meeting, Hodgson stated that King Prempeh I would continue to suffer an exile from his native land and that the Ashanti people were to surrender to the British their historical, ancestral Golden Stool - a dynastic symbol of the Ashanti empire. At this time, Yaa Asantewaa was the Gatekeeper of the Golden Stool. After this meetings, it is reported that the Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa rose and said the following:
"Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our King.
If it were in the brave days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware, leaders would not sit down to see their King taken away without firing a shot.
No white man could have dared to speak to a leader of the Ashanti in the way the Governor spoke to you this morning.
Is it true that the bravery of the Ashanti is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be!
I must say this, if you the men of Ashanti will not go forward, then we will. We the women will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields."
-- Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewa
Warrior Queen Amina of Zaria
Have you heard of the TV series Xena Warrior Princess?
Queen Amina's legendary escapades made her the model for the television series.Although Bakwa's reign was known for peace and prosperity, Amina chose to emerge as leader of the Zazzua cavalry. When her brother Karama died after a ten-year rule, Amina had matured into a fierce warrior and had earned the respect of the Zazzau military and she assumed the reign of the kingdom
The cavalry-trained Queen Amina fought many wars that expanded this southern-most Hausa kingdom. Zaria city was originally surrounded by walls built by Queen Amina. According to legend, she took a temporary husband from the legions of vanquished foes after every battle. After spending one night together, she would condemn him death in the morning in order to prevent him from ever speaking about his sexual encounter with the queen.
According to the Kano Chronicle, she conquered as far as Nupe and Kwarafa, ruling for 34 years.
Today, her memory represents the spirit and strength of womanhood.
(1533-1630s)
Nefertiti
Nefertiti is one of the most well-known black Egyptian queens. She was born in 1370 BC. By tradition, all wives of Pharaoh had to be sacrificed and buried with the governor with the dead king. But the son of the dead, young Amenhotep IV has rescued Nefertiti from this fate and made her his spouse.
She advised her husband to refuse gods of ancestors and accept her own religion. Pharaoh declared the wife as a queen and ordered people listen to her. Nefertiti decided to destroy ancient temples.
People silently accepted new religion and prayed the sunshine each day. The queen often came to a palace balcony and showered Egyptians with gold coins, convincing that these are gifts of new God. In holidays, she artistically addressed citizens, hypnotizing crowd with her speeches.
However, the couple had only daughters and when the sixth girl was born, the king had to take the new wife. She was young Kiya who has given birth to Tutankhamun and provided continuation of the dynasty. Nefertiti had to leave the palace and live out of town, bringing up Tutankhamun as the successor of the throne. Years later, the grieving Pharaoh made his way back to his Nefertiti, pissing off the priest And got them both killed...love makes you defy reasoning.
Candace
These ruling women come STRAIGHT out of the Bible.Kandake (kendake or kentake), which means “great woman”, was used as a royal title or dynastic name for the queens of MeroΓ«. Kandake is sometimes translated into English as “Candace” (e.g. Acts 8:27). Some of the kandakes ruled in their own right. Others ruled with their husbands: these queens were not merely consorts, they seem to have had equal power with the king. At least one kandake was the ruler while her husband was a consort. Furthermore, some kandakes were warrior queens who led their armies into battle.
There were so many ruling and warrior queens that, like Eusebius, several other writers assumed that MeroΓ« was ruled only by women.
“An impressive series of Nubian warrior queens, queen regents, and queen mothers, known as kentakes . . . are only appearing to the light of history through the ongoing deciphering of the Meroitic script.”
Makeda, Queen of Sheba
One thousand years before Christ, Ethiopian was ruled by a line of virgin queens. Queen Makeda is best known as the beautiful, wealthy and intellectual queen who tested Solomon with riddles but is a mysterious figure. Nevertheless, she has fascinated and inspired African American, Ethiopian, Islamic, and Jewish cultures for nearly three thousand years because she made her appearance in the Biblical Old Testament, the Islamic Qu'ran, and the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings). These three perspectives on the Queen meld to create a picture of one of the relatively rare, powerful female monarchs of the ancient world.In a nutshell
She shows up; she's awed; she's crestfallen; she leaves. Nobody is led in or out of temptation, is distraught or gets killed; there is no evident moral message. It's a love story, it's advice on how a woman should be and it's inspirational. This Solomonic Dynasty ruled Ethiopia for much of the next 2000 years; the last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Sellassie, claimed descent from Solomon and the queen through Menilek.
In Matthew 12:42 (repeated almost exactly in Luke 11:31), Jesus says, "On the Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will stand up and accuse you, because she traveled all the way from her country to listen to King Solomon's wise teaching."
QUEEN KHALIFA (AKA CALIFIA/CALAFIA)
THE BLACK EMPRESS OF CALIFORNIA
Spanish conquistadors told stories about a mystical black Moorish queen (The Khalifa or Calafia) that ruled in the same location as the present day California.Calafia is introduced as "… a regal Moorish black woman, courageous, strong of limb and large in person, full in the bloom of womanhood, the most beautiful of a long line of queens who ruled over the mythical realm of California."
She supposedly commanded a fleet of ships with which she ruled and maintained peace in the surrounding lands and islands including Baja and Hawaii. She reportedly kept an aerial defense force of "griffins", and other fabulous animals which were native to California trained to defend the land against invaders
Check out her exhibit at the African American Historical and Cultural Society Museum in San Francisco.
Queen Nandi
Nandi was the warrior mother of Shaka Zulu. She battled slave traders and trained her son to be a warrior. When he became King he established an all-female regiment which often fought in the front lines of his army.
Queen Nzinga
Queen Nzinga of Angola is one of the most celebrated African women to resist European colonization. Nzinga Mbande led four decades (the 1620s to 1660s) of warfare against the Portuguese in Angola. Her legacy is a controversial and paradoxical one, as she was a proto-nationalist resistance leader, a devout Christian, and Portuguese ally, a superb but ruthless Mbande politician and a vicious slave trader. Despite these contradictions, what remains undisputed is Nzinga’s skill as a negotiator and military strategist: she was directly responsible for limiting the Portuguese colony at Luanda to a few square miles.
Queen Llinga
I couldn't find a picture of her so I just looked up a bad ass female holding a bow with a big sword.
Llinga, a warrior queen of the Congo armed with ax, bow, and sword fought the Portuguese in 1640. Women warriors were common in the Congo where the Monomotapa confederacy had standing armies of women. 
Menen Leben Amede Empress of Ethiopiaπ
She commanded her own army and acted as regent for her son Ali Alulus. She was wounded and captured in a battle in 1847 but was ransomed by her son and continued to rule until 1853.
Leader of Sierra Leone πΈπ±
Madam Yoko was a leader of the Menmadamyokode of Sierra Leone. She ruled and led the army of the fourteen tribes of the Kpa Mende Confederacy, the largest tribal group in 19th century Sierra Leone. At that time at least 15% of all the tribes in Sierra Leone were led by women, today approximately 9% have women rulers. Her birth name was Soma, which she changed to Yoko after her Sande initiation She was born around 1849 in the Gbo Chiefdom. She used her leadership of the Sande to augment her political contacts. In 1878 Yoko became the chief of Senehun and was recognized as the Queen by the British.
Queen Tiye
(also known as Tiy, 1398-1338 BCE) was a queen of Egypt of the 18th dynasty, wife of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of Akhenaten, and grandmother of both Tutankhamun and Ankhsenamun. She exerted an enormous influence at the courts of both her husband and son and is known to have communicated directly with rulers of foreign nations. The Amarna letters also show that she was highly regarded by these rulers, especially during the reign of her son.
πQueen Ranavalona I of Madagascarπ
AKA "Ranavalona the Cruel"
With little more than a life of poverty and hard, back-breaking labor ahead of her, Ranavalona caught kind of a sweet break when her father somehow managed to uncover a murder conspiracy aimed at assassinating King AndrianampoinimerinandrianAfter spending her time making powerful friends, she dodged her brother in law’s attempt to kill her and seized the palace. With loyal warriors from her village, She had them kill the shit out of anyone who tried to enter the gates.
Ranavalona already kind of hated her in-laws, but after she was in control she decided to go out of her way to make sure that no one - especially them - messed with her.
1st: she killed every member of the royal family that she could get her hands on, starting with the rightful heir to the throne and ending with some guy who knew a guy that used to be Facebook friends with the King's second cousin. In 1828, the 46-year old peasant girl became Supreme Ruler of Madagascar.
Dihya (Algerian Arabic: Ψ―ΩΩΩΨ§, Berber:
Daya Ult Yenfaq Tajrawt, Dihya, or Damya)
Berber queen, religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to Arab expansion in Northwest Africa, the region then known as Numidia, known as eastern Algeria today. She was born in the early 7th century and died around the end of the 7th century in modern day Algeria.
Queen Amanirenasπ
She was Queen Mother of the Meroetic kingdom of Kush. When the Romans invaded her neighbors and decided to tax her people, she led her armies into war against them. After 5 years of battling against the Romans, Amanirenas defeated them and forced them to withdraw the tax which had threatened the Kushite kingdom.
Queen Nanny
Queen Nanny is credited with being the military leader of the Windward Maroons who employed clever strategies which led to their repeated success in battles with the British. She was a master of guerrilla warfare and trained Maroon troops in the art of camouflage. Oral history recounts that Nanny herself would cover her soldiers with branches and leaves, instructing them to stand as still as possible so that they would resemble trees. As the British soldiers approached completely unaware that they were surrounded they would swiftly be picked off by the Maroons.
A famous legend about Queen Nanny is that during 1737 at the height of the Maroon resistance against the British, Nanny and her people were near starvation and she was on the brink of surrender when she heard voices from her ancestors telling her not to give up. When she awoke she found pumpkins seeds in her pocket which she planted on the hillside. Within a week the seeds grew into large plants laden with pumpkins that provided much-needed food for the starving community. To this day, one of the hills near Nanny Town is known as ‘Pumpkin Hill.’
A famous legend about Queen Nanny is that during 1737 at the height of the Maroon resistance against the British, Nanny and her people were near starvation and she was on the brink of surrender when she heard voices from her ancestors telling her not to give up. When she awoke she found pumpkins seeds in her pocket which she planted on the hillside. Within a week the seeds grew into large plants laden with pumpkins that provided much-needed food for the starving community. To this day, one of the hills near Nanny Town is known as ‘Pumpkin Hill.’
Queen Zewditu
The first female head of an internationally recognized state in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the first Empress regnant of the Ethiopian Empire perhaps since the legendary Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, her reign was noted for the reforms of her designated heir Ras Tafari Makonnen (who succeeded her as Emperor Haile Selassie I), about which she was at best often opposed, due to her conservatism and strong religious devotion.Zewditu would be the last monarch of direct agnatic descent from the Solomonic dynasty. She was a compassionate and kind woman even when treated badly.
Queen Nenzima of the Mangbetu peoples
Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Nenzima, a younger sister of the nineteenth-century ruler, Mbunza, was the wife of Okondo and was reported to be the most powerful person in the court in the first decade of the 20th century.
Empress Menen Queen
Empress Menen Queen of Ethiopia married 47 yrs to the 225th king of kings lord of lords Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie. They produced 6 children. She was referred to as a "God Fearing" Empress who was always praying to God. She was actively involved in humanitarian work and always mindful of the poor sick and homeless.She built many churches with proceeds from her own account and gave away large parcels of her personal estate land. She had a Warm Compassionate Spirit was loved by all.
Nyabingi Priestess Muhumusa
Muhumusa and Kaigirwa were feared leaders of the East African Nyabingi priestesses group that was influential in Rwanda and Uganda from 1850 to 1950. In 1911 Muhumusa proclaimed “she would drive out the Europeans” and “that the bullets of the Wazungu would turn to water against her.”She organized armed resistance against German colonialists and was eventually detained by the British in Kampala, Uganda, from 1913 to her death in 1945. She became the first in a line of rebel priestesses fighting colonial domination in the name of Nyabingi, and even after being imprisoned she inspired a vast popular following. The British passed its 1912 Witchcraft Act in direct response to the political effectiveness of this spiritually based resistance movement.
In August 1917, the “Nyabinga” Kaigirwa followed in Muhumusa’s footsteps, and engineered the Nyakishenyi revolt, with unanimous public support. British officials placed a high price on her head, but no one would claim it. After the British attacked the Congo camp of Kaigirwa in January 1919, killing most of the men, Kaigirwa and the main body of fighters managed to evade the army and escape.
However, the British captured the sacred white sheep and burned it to dust before a convocation of leading chiefs. After this deed, a series of disasters afflicted the district commissioner who killed the sheep. His herds were wiped out, his roof caved in and a mysterious fire broke out in his house. Kaigirwa attempted another uprising, then went into the hills, where she was never captured.
Tarenorerer
Tarenorerer of Emu Bay in northern Tasmania was an indigenous Australian leader of the Tommeginne people. In her teens, she was abducted by Aborigines of the Port Sorell region and sold to white sealers on the Bass Strait Islands, where they called her Walyer.She became proficient in speaking English and took particular notice of the use and operation of firearms. In 1828, Tarenorerer returned to her country in the north of Tasmania, where she gathered a group of men and women from many bands to initiate warfare against the invading Europeans. Training her warriors in the use of firearms, she ordered them to strike the luta tawin (white men) when they were at their most vulnerable, between the time that their guns were discharged and before they were able to reload.
She also instructed them to kill the Europeans’ sheep and bullocks. G. A. Robinson, who was charged with rounding up the Aborigines, was told by sealers that Tarenorerer would stand on a hill to organize the attack, abuse the settlers and dare them to come and be speared.
Princess Yennenga
Also known as Yennenga the Svelte, was a legendary African princess, considered the mother of the Mossi people of Burkina Faso. She was a famous warrior whose son Ouedraogo founded the Mossi Kingdoms.
Dzugudini
Rain Queens of the Lovedu
Grand-daughter of "the famous ruler Monomatapa," was the founding Rain Queen of the Lovedu. Her royal father was angry that she bore a child out of wedlock. Oral tradition says her mother taught her the art of rain-making and gave her rain charms and sacred beads. Then she fled south with some supporters. They settled peacefully among the Sotho. In the early 1800s, a leadership crisis was resolved by an accession of the first Mujaji, a Rain Queen with both political and ceremonial power. Chiefs presented her with wives. She had no military, but even the Zulu king Shaka paid her tribute because of her rain power. Her successors have less authority but still, preside over womanhood initiations and other important rituals.
THE PANTHER QUEENπ
Queen of the Azna's, a subgroup of the Hausa, who ruled in the Niger Republic, during the late 19th century. According to legend, she was born with yellow eyes, like those of a panther. Her people recognized this as the sign of the panther, and the panther became the symbol of the Azna's. She was 20 years old, when she became Queen, due to her father's death.Sarraounia means "Queen" or "Chiefess", and among the Azna people of Lougou and surrounding Hausa town and villages, the term refers to a lineage of female rulers, who exercised political and religious power. Sarraounia fought the French colonial troops at the Battle of Lougou in 1899. She mobilized her people and resources to confront the French forces of the Violet- Chanoine Mission, which launched a fierce attack on her fortress capital of Lougou. Overwhelmed by the firepower of the French, she and her fighters retreated tactically from the fortress and engaged in a protracted guerilla battle which eventually forced the French to abandon their project.
Soooo there WAS a black panther in real life, google it!
England’s first Black Queen,
Sophie Charlotte
The Queen is known to have supported and been taught music by Johann Christian Bach. She was extremely generous to Bach’s wife after Bach’s death. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at aged eight dedicated his Opus 3 piece to the Queen at her request. Also an amateur botanist, Queen Charlotte helped to establish Kew Gardens bringing amongst others the Strelitzia Reginae, a flowering plant from South Africa. The Queen who had the first one in her house in 1800 introduced the Christmas tree to England. It was said to be decorated with, ‘sweetmeats, almonds, and raisins in papers, fruit and toys. Also, the Queen Charlotte Maternity hospital was established in London. Set up as a charitable institution, it is the oldest maternity care institution in England.
The Black Spartans of Dahomey
Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, was a leader of the Dahomey Amazons under King Gezo. In 1851 she led an army of 6,000 women against the Egba fortress of Abeokuta. Because the Amazons were armed with spears, bows, and swords while the Egba had European cannons only about 1,200 survived the extended battle. In 1892 King Behanzin of Dahomey (now Benin) was at war with the French colonists over trading rights. He led his army of 12,000 troops, including 2,000 Amazons into battle. Despite the fact that the Dahomey army was armed only with rifles while the French had machine guns and cannons, the Amazons attacked when the French troops attempted a river crossing, inflicting heavy casualties. They engaged in hand to hand combat with the survivors eventually forcing the French army to retreat. Days later the French found a bridge, crossed the river and defeated the Dahomey army after fierce fighting. The Amazons burned fields, villages, and cities rather than let them fall to the French but merely delayed Dahomey being absorbed as a French colony.
πMichelle Obamaπ
First Lady of the United States
In a country that was made on the backs of slaves, I had to give my last black queen spot to America’s first black FLOTUS, Michelle Obama. In additions to first, she was the only First Lady to have two Ivy League degrees, and built a successful career, first as a lawyer, and then in the private sector, which she maintained throughout her husband’s early political career.A few of her other accomplishments besides having relationship goals include but certainly not limited to:
In 2010, she launched Let’s Move!, bringing together community leaders, educators, medical professionals, parents, and others in a nationwide effort to address the challenge of childhood obesity. Let’s Move! Has an ambitious goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. Whether it’s providing healthier food in our schools, helping kids be more physically active, or urging companies to market healthier foods to our children, Let’s Move! is focused on giving parents the support they need to make healthier choices for their kids.
In 2010 she passed The School Lunch program with bipartisan support. The program provides free and reduced-price meals to more than 21 million low-income children, now requires districts to serve more fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy products.
The First Lady worked with the US Tennis Association to build or refurbish more than 6,200 kid-sized tennis courts across the country, sign up more than 250,000 kids to complete their PALAs, and train 12,000 coaches to help kids learn the sport of tennis.
#Africa #blackwarriors #blackqueens #blackrulers
