Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa. Nwando Achebe

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      Whereas the vast majority of African groups describe a gradual formulation of the world or universe in stages, the ancient Egyptians reference a time before creation, a time before the appearance of land and light, during which four pairs of male and female forces emerged out of chaos. This is in agreement with the African belief in the importance of dualities and balance in their worlds. The male and female forces appeared simultaneously. Nun (m) and nunet (f) represented the watery expanse, and lack of solidity. They were the god and goddess of the ocean. Heh (m) and hehet (f) represented unending time, a lack of time. They were charged with raising the sun. Kek (m) and keket (f) represented darkness or a lack of light. Their mission was to produce the gloom of the night in which light would emerge. Finally, tenem or amun (m) and tenemet or amaunet (f) represented a lack of direction, wandering. They were the forces of mystery or the hidden. These eight forces that existed before creation, or the Hermopolitan Ogdoad, represent the Egyptian early stage of creation, which continued with the emergence of Ra and the first generation of deities.

      Creation proper was then ordered by the ancient Egyptian principal Creator God, the Sun-God, Ra. Ra was also called Atum, Atem, or Tem, the “Complete One,” who created, completed, or finished the world. This universal God of the Egyptians rules heaven, earth, and all other gods. Atum is connected to a pair of male and female forces: Shu, the air and moisture that carry the sky, and Tefinut, the female supplement of Shu. Shu and Tefinut are offshoots of Ra or Atum; they are expressions of Atum’s function.²³ South of Egypt, in the land of the Nubians, the Great Creator God of the Shilluk people of Sudan is Juok. Juok is formless and invisible, and like air is believed to be everywhere. Juok is more powerful than any deity or human, and is worshipped through Nyakang, the first king and founder of the Shilluk nation.²⁴

      To summarize, the dual nature of God is consistent with the broader cosmological principles of numerous African nations—that of a duality, a pairing and/or balancing of opposite forces (the idea that male and female principles make a complete whole). The Igbo of eastern Nigeria express this concept in the adage, “where one thing stands, something else will stand beside it.” It is this duality, this complementarity, this balance, that is symbolically expressed in most facets of African religions, culture, and sociopolitical organization. And the most powerful of these spiritual forces is the genderless African Great God—the highest-ranking monarch of the African spiritual political constituency.

       Great God’s Helpers: Goddesses

      Great God’s helpers are the lesser gods and goddesses. They are personifications of natural phenomena. They are powerful and worshipped. The Egyptian goddess hathor is a prehistoric goddess from whom all other gods and goddesses derived. Usually depicted as a woman with the head and ears of a cow, she personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood.²⁵ The Egyptian goddess nut is the goddess of the sky. She regulates the times of the day by swallowing the sun in the evening and giving birth to it in the morning. Nut is hathor’s sister and is wife to geb, the Egyptian god of the earth. With geb, nut gave birth to the gods and goddess osiris, horus, seth, and isis. Nut belongs to the first family of the deities in Egypt.²⁶ Nut’s daughter, isis, is a goddess of healing. Her Pylon Temple was a great center of healing.²⁷ Another Egyptian goddess, qadesh (the holy one), is the goddess of love, sensuality, and fertility. She is most commonly depicted riding on the back of a lion, sometimes standing up, holding snakes, lotus buds, or papyrus plants—all symbols of fertility. Egyptians also worshipped qadesh as the goddess of nature.²⁸

      Figure 1.1. Narmer Palette, Egypt, ca. 3100 BCE—Royal Ontario Museum. Photograph by Daderot, 20 November 2011.

      In Nubian country, buk is the river goddess of the Nuer of Sudan. She is believed to be the daughter of fireflies and guardian against crocodile attacks. Her presence is invoked by the sacrifice of a goat. Among the Dinka of the Sudan, buk is known as abuk or acol. Abuk or acol is a patron goddess of Dinka women as well as gardens. Her emblems are a small snake, the moon, and sheep.²⁹

      In the western part of the continent, the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria worship a river and fertility goddess called oshun. She lives in a shrine in Oshogbo, Yorubaland, under which the Oshun River runs.³⁰ Oshun controls the Oshun River, which gives fertility to barren women who bathe in its water and pray to her. The goddess is celebrated annually in a nine-day festival.³¹ In neighboring Benin, among the Fon, the goddess most closely identified with motherhood and childbearing is minona or fa. She exists in a paradoxical space: on the one hand, she is constructed as a goddess of mothering, birth, and nurturance; on the other hand, she is constructed as a goddess of witchcraft and death.³² In her latter role, she is the patron goddess of witches, to whom she gives power.³³

      Among the Baga people of Guinea, nimba is the goddess of fertility, mother of the earth, and protector of pregnant women. She is the most important deity of the Baga.³⁴ Nimba is represented by a mask, which is also called d’mba.³⁵ She is powerful and beautiful and presides over all agricultural ceremonies. Nimba represents the joy of living. She is the promise of an abundant harvest. Nimba’s presence is exemplified in all aspects of Baga life. She is present at weddings and showers and blesses new unions. She is present at harvest time to celebrate the fertility of crops. She is also present at funerals to usher the dead into the world of the ancestors.³⁶

      On the southern tip of the continent reigns mbaba mwana waresa, a Zulu goddess of the harvest, rain, and agriculture. She governs storm clouds, lightning, and thunder. The Zulus attribute the invention of beer to her. She also reigns over rainbows, which are a symbol of the connection between heaven and earth. The Zulu call on mbaba mwana waresa when they want guidance in making important decisions.³⁷ South Africa’s neighbor, Zimbabwe, has a goddess called dzivaguru. She is the earth goddess of the Korekore people. A powerful deity who ruled both heaven and earth, she is the oldest of all Korekore deities, and the goddess of great wealth and medicinal power. She is depicted wearing goatskins and bearing many medicinal substances. Her sacred creatures are golden sunbirds.³⁸

      All these African goddesses, to varying degrees, served centrally important leadership roles in their societies. Their counsel was sought in everyday life, and they acted to enforce morality and build cooperation among societal groups. Most goddesses were highly complex and influential forces with particular functions, like protection and fertility, and met the needs of the peoples who worshiped them. As supernatural and authoritative forces, these goddesses influenced human life and reflected the values and traditions of their societies. They manifested their supernatural power to provide meaning, order, and ethics. In short, they were influential and authoritative leaders in the African spiritual political constituency.

       Great God’s Helpers: Oracles

      Oracles are forces that predict the future and explain the past. They also, through their priests and priestesses, adjudicate and settle cases, and take care of other societal needs. In Arochukwu, eastern Nigeria, existed an all-powerful female oracle called ibiniukpabi (in Ibibio, “Drum of the Creator God”). She was known to the British as the Long Juju. The oracle originally belonged to the Ibibio and Efik peoples of the neighboring region. However, in the sixteenth century, the Aro seized control of the oracle, transforming it into a dreaded and powerful institution, whose power, authority, and influence were felt all over Igboland and beyond.

      One of the reasons for ibiniukpabi’s success was the fact that the new Aro custodians of the oracle were careful not to pit ibiniukpabi against the most powerful of all СКАЧАТЬ