African Women Do Too…

Of the ten worst countries in which to be a woman, 4 are in Africa, including 2 of the top 5 (or 3, depending on which UN/Amnesty International list you read). And yet the historical accounts of powerful and military women aren’t by any means a EuroAsian phenomenon. In Northern Africa, we not only the powerful Queens of Egypt (Hatsheput, Nefertiri, Cleopatra) but also the Nubian Candaces (or Kentakes) of the Kushites. Amanirenas, who took on the might of Rome after Cleopatra’s death, to oust them from Egypt. She failed to conquer, but did manage to negotiate a favourable peace after her defeat – which must have been quite a feat of political manoevring.

She was succeeded by Amanishabheto, who led the Kushites in a series of attacks against Augustus’s attempts to tax the Kushites. In the end, the harassed Romans sued for peace.

Amanishabeto was succeeded by her daughter Amanitore, the last of the great Kushite builders, restoring temples destroyed by the Romans, and building reservoirs to ensure the  water supply for her kingdom.

Yes, all this is ancient history, and historical references are thin oon the ground, coming mostly from Roman and Greek sources, with a couple of references in the Bible (the Queen of Sheba and Tharbis, wife of Moses being the obvious ones). Is there nothing more recent?

Well, in what is now Benin, the Fon tribe had an elite group of women warriors as recently as the late 19^th century. They called them the Mino, recruited them from the royal harem and imbued them with spiritual and religious significance as well as military prowess.

The Europeans who encountered them called them the Dahomeny Amazons, and recorded their discipline and ruthlessness in battle. In the end, it was superior guns that defeated them, but even the French Foreign Legion cited their "incredible courage and audacity." 

So how on earth did Africa go from this to having some of the worst gender inequalities in the world? Second thoughts, don’t answer that.