Heritage
History
African Queens #4: Ndate Yalla Mbodj
A portrait of the last Lingeer (queen) of Waalo in 19th-century Senegal, Ndate Yalla Mbodj led resistance against French colonial incursion from her ascension in 1846 until her exile and death in 1860. The piece situates her within a matriarchal Wolof tradition where women of royal blood held political legitimacy and military command, tracing her lineage to her mother Fatim Yammar and her son's eventual turn toward anti-colonial struggle.
African Queens #3: Pokou Awura of the Asante and the Founding of the Baoule
This essay traces the life and legacy of Queen Pokou Awura, an Asante noblewoman who, refusing integration into the Asante Confederacy, led her people westward into what is now Ivory Coast. According to legend, at the Komoe River she sacrificed her own son to secure safe passage, an act from which the Baoule people—now Ivory Coast's largest ethnic group—take their name and identity.
African Queens #2: Yaa Asantewaa
Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Asante Empire, led armed resistance against British colonial demands in 1900, most notably when Governor Hodgson demanded the sacred Golden Stool. Her defiant speech galvanized the Asante people to wage a months-long siege that, though ultimately unsuccessful militarily, demonstrated the empire's refusal to submit to colonial rule.
African Queens #1: Queen Nzinga
This essay introduces Queen Nzinga Mbande, the 17th-century ruler of the Kingdoms of Matamba and Ndongo (present-day Angola), who resisted Portuguese colonial conquest through diplomacy and decades of military struggle. It traces her rise to power, her strategic alliances, and her reputation as a fierce military leader who continued fighting into her sixties.