Reading paths
A reading path · 6 women · 16 min

Queens who ruled before the colonisers arrived

Three thousand years of African women who held real power: a pharaoh, a Kushite queen who fought Rome to a treaty, a Berber commander, a Benin queen mother, a Hausa conqueror and an Angolan strategist. Read them in order and the map fills in.

  1. Pre-Colonial · Egypt · 1507–1458Hatshepsut
    Portrait of Hatshepsut

    Begin with the pharaoh who ruled Egypt for 21 years and was chiselled out of the record anyway.

    3 min
  2. Pre-Colonial · Sudan · 60 BC–10 BCKandake Amanirenas
    Portrait of Kandake Amanirenas

    Fourteen centuries after Hatshepsut, a one-eyed queen up the same Nile fought Rome to a treaty.

    3 min
  3. Pre-Colonial · Algeria · 650–703Dihya
    Portrait of Dihya

    Amanirenas stopped Rome; Dihya held the Arab armies out of the Maghreb for five years.

    2 min
  4. Pre-Colonial · Nigeria · 1460–1520Queen Idia of Benin
    Portrait of Queen Idia of Benin

    Dihya led from the front; Idia raised an army for her son and Benin invented the title Iyoba for her.

    3 min
  5. Pre-Colonial · Nigeria · 1533–1610Amina of Zazzau
    Portrait of Amina of Zazzau

    A generation after Idia, Amina refused every suitor, took the Zazzau throne and campaigned for 34 years.

    3 min
  6. Pre-Colonial · Angola · 1583–1663Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba
    Portrait of Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba

    Nzinga was born during Amina's reign and spent forty years keeping the Portuguese out of Ndongo.

    2 min