Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa. Nwando Achebe

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СКАЧАТЬ oral traditions, and traditions of creation, to record the worldview and experiences of African women who did not leave written evidence of their lives in their own voices.

      Regrettably, this African-/gendered-centered source material is not evenly or consistently distributed across the continent. Thus, this narrative, in places, may seem to privilege one African region—for instance, the privileging of West Africa in the “Merchant Queens” chapter—over some others. When documenting early African women and gendered worlds, this lacuna is further amplified by an unevenness of available source material across time and space, resulting in histories that may appear incomplete and regionally fractured or unbalanced.

      The chapters within this book have been thematically and roughly chronologically organized, with reference to regional space and time. When and wherever possible, I have sought to establish sustained change over time within reconstructions of particularized narratives. However, due to the regional- and time-specific porosity of certain source material, this has not always been possible. Thus, in those instances, I work to establish change over time by reading and analyzing one regionally based and time-defined case study against another, and in the process, pooling to completeness, an overall historical narrative.

      While paying homage to the diversity of lived experience on so vast a continent, I have necessarily, in this short history, had to generalize certain African gendered realities that read true across regions and periods. I have done this not to be reductionist about the complexities of African realities but rather to present an overall narrative that is uncompromised in its accessibility and scope.

      From Amma⁴ to inkosazana,⁵ Sobekneferu⁶ to Nzingha,⁷ Nehanda⁸ to Ahebi Ugbabe,⁹ the kandakes of Meroë¹⁰ to Omu Okwei,¹¹ and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. It centers the diverse forms and systems of leadership, as well as complexities of female power at the highest level, in a multiplicity of distinct African societies.

      I use the terms “female principle” and “female spiritual principle” to speak to—and give voice to—the totality of leadership and authoritative roles occupied by female entities in Africa. These terms are inclusive and speak to the manifestations of all dimensions of femaleness in society, be they in the human, seen, world (female principle) or the spiritual, unseen, world (female spiritual principle). In the human world, the female principle is embodied in women’s roles as overseers and females of privilege, including women leaders of their people or wives of male leaders. These women exercise great power, authority, and influence publicly, temporally, and in spiritual/religious spheres. My focus on the female spiritual principle (i.e., female spiritual monarchs like rain queens, spirit mediums, priestesses, goddesses, masked spirits, sangomas, female medicines, and prophetesses) is informed by African cosmology, which recognizes the existence of two distinct but interconnected worlds—the human visible or physical world, and the more powerful and commanding spiritual invisible world. This understanding consequently allows me to underscore the power, influence, and authority of the African Great God, a spiritual force that in most African cosmological reasoning inhabits a space that is neither male nor female but is essentially a balance of male and female forces, male and female principles.

      The terms “African females” and “(wo)men” also encourage an investigation into the place and power of gendered females and males in African societies. These “gendered females” include biological males who transform themselves into women. “Gendered males” include biological females or (wo)men who transform themselves into men. These transformations are encouraged by a milieu that recognizes that biological sex and gender do not coincide; that gender is a social construct and is flexible and fluid, allowing biological women to become gendered men, and biological men, gendered women. This phenomenon gives rise to distinctive African categories such as female husband, male priestess, female headman, female king, and female pharaoh.

      In political matters (chapters 1 and 2), as in African cosmology, Africans recognize two political constituencies—the human and the spiritual. The gods and goddesses, or put differently, spiritual monarchs, were the real rulers of African communities and towns, and human beings were merely there to interpret the will of the spirits.¹² These spiritual monarchs occupied the spiritual political constituency and wielded supernatural power in the human world over human beings. Conversely, the female principle of (wo)men leaders, including queens, queen mothers, princesses, merchant queens, and female kings, are highlighted in my discussion of African (wo)men’s leadership roles in the human political constituency. Throughout the narrative, the connection between African worlds and political constituencies is documented.

      In economic matters (chapter 3), African women owned the marketplace. They controlled it and defined its rules and regulations. The marketplace, although physically located in the human world, is connected, in important ways, to the spiritual world, in the sense that most African markets have a market deity in charge of the market. Thus, whether African women engage in local or long-distance trade, pottery making, weaving, or farming, the most accomplished of these women, otherwise known as merchant or market queens, understand, nurture, and subsume the power inherent in upholding the interconnectedness between the physical and spiritual worlds, often translating these connections into powerful expressions of economic power.

      Let me now say a word or two about my conceptualization of power, influence, and authority. What are the differences among them? In this book, I use the term “power” to mean the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. “Influence” means the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something. And “authority” means the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. It is my contention that African females, (wo)men, and the female spiritual principle have always held power, influence, and authority. And it is the myriad ways in which the totality of elite African (fe)male expression and manifestation has held power, influence, and authority that is the subject of this book.

       The African Worldview: A Case for African Centeredness and Balance

      Where one thing stands, something else will stand beside it.

      —Igbo proverb

      The African world is a world of dualities. African people identify two worlds: The human or physical/visible world is made up of the heavens, earth, and waters. It is the world of human beings and of natural forces and phenomena. The nonhuman or spiritual/invisible world is a world of divine beings, of good and bad spirits, and of departed ancestors. It is the unseen world, the world that we cannot see. These worlds are not separate, but like two halves of a kola nut, they are connected, and make up one continuous, complete, and whole African world. The visible and invisible worlds commune and interact with each other.

      The African world is cyclical. This is why most Africans believe in reincarnation—the never-ending cycle of life. A person is born, grows old, dies, and is reborn, and the cycle continues. The pouring of libation to the ancestors in Africa symbolizes the establishment of a connection between the physical human world (where libation is poured) and the spiritual nonhuman world of ancestors and spirits who inhabit the bowels of the earth. Ancestors (the reborn) also appear in the human world during periods of crisis or celebration. They are able to influence the fortunes of the living. They appear as masked spirits who protect the society as community guards or police; as courts of arbitration, which provide binding spiritual justice in trials among human beings; or as entertainers, enthralling viewers with the beauty of the masquerade dance during celebratory periods in the life of the community, such as festivals.

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