[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":99},["ShallowReactive",2],{"path-/women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers":3,"path-cover-/women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers":49,"path-women-/women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers":52,"path-further-/women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers":89},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"cover":17,"description":18,"extension":19,"further":20,"kicker":23,"meta":24,"navigation":25,"path":26,"seo":27,"slug":28,"stem":29,"steps":30,"__hash__":48},"paths/women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers.md","Queens who ruled before the colonisers arrived",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":13},"minimark",[9],[10,11,12],"p",{},"The colonial story starts with the arrival of Europeans. This one starts long before, with women who commanded armies, built walls and signed treaties in their own names. Read chronologically, from the Nile to the Kwanza, they show how ordinary female power once was.",{"title":14,"searchDepth":15,"depth":15,"links":16},"",2,[],"hatshepsut","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.","md",[21,22],"the-dahomey-amazons","how-colonialism-rewrote-the-rules","One era",{},true,"/women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers",{"title":5,"description":18},"queens-before-the-colonisers","women/path/queens-before-the-colonisers",[31,33,36,39,42,45],{"slug":17,"why":32},"Begin with the pharaoh who ruled Egypt for 21 years and was chiselled out of the record anyway.",{"slug":34,"why":35},"kandake-amanirenas","Fourteen centuries after Hatshepsut, a one-eyed queen up the same Nile fought Rome to a treaty.",{"slug":37,"why":38},"dihya","Amanirenas stopped Rome; Dihya held the Arab armies out of the Maghreb for five years.",{"slug":40,"why":41},"queen-idia","Dihya led from the front; Idia raised an army for her son and Benin invented the title Iyoba for her.",{"slug":43,"why":44},"amina-of-zazzau","A generation after Idia, Amina refused every suitor, took the Zazzau throne and campaigned for 34 years.",{"slug":46,"why":47},"nzinga-ndongo-matamba","Nzinga was born during Amina's reign and spent forty years keeping the Portuguese out of Ndongo.","NRba9_urJ9EvSZFGieVTdrvZpN16Hmf1QW3FgSqbRMk",{"image":50,"ogFocal":51},"/women/hatshepsut.jpg",null,[53,61,67,72,78,84],{"name":54,"slug":43,"image":55,"country":56,"born":57,"died":58,"era":59,"readingTime":60,"ogFocal":51},"Amina of Zazzau","/women/amina-of-zazzau.jpg","Nigeria",1533,1610,"Pre-Colonial",3,{"name":62,"slug":37,"image":63,"country":64,"born":65,"died":66,"era":59,"readingTime":15,"ogFocal":51},"Dihya","/women/dihya.jpg","Algeria",650,703,{"name":68,"slug":17,"image":50,"country":69,"born":70,"died":71,"era":59,"readingTime":60,"ogFocal":51},"Hatshepsut","Egypt",1507,1458,{"name":73,"slug":34,"image":74,"country":75,"born":76,"died":77,"era":59,"readingTime":60,"ogFocal":51},"Kandake Amanirenas","/women/kandake-amanirenas.jpg","Sudan",-60,-10,{"name":79,"slug":46,"image":80,"country":81,"born":82,"died":83,"era":59,"readingTime":15,"ogFocal":51},"Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba","/women/nzinga-ndongo-matamba.png","Angola",1583,1663,{"name":85,"slug":40,"image":86,"country":56,"born":87,"died":88,"era":59,"readingTime":60,"ogFocal":51},"Queen Idia of Benin","/women/queen-idia.jpg",1460,1520,[90,95],{"title":91,"slug":22,"category":92,"readingTime":93,"image":94},"How Colonialism Rewrote the Rules for African Women","History",6,"/articles/how-colonialism-rewrote-the-rules.jpg",{"title":96,"slug":21,"category":92,"readingTime":97,"image":98},"The Dahomey Amazons: Africa's All-Female Army",5,"/articles/the-dahomey-amazons.jpg",1789124430624]