Post on 17-Jan-2023
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QUEEN MOTHERS IN AFRICAN SOCIETIES
Beverly J. StoeltjeIndiana University
Queen mothers of Africa, warrior queens and other
titled women have held positions of authority and exercised
leadership throughout the history of African societies.
Particularly visible in the historical record is Queen Njinga of
Ndongo and Matamba (Angola) who lived through an especially
turbulent era, at times opposing the Portuguese but negotiating
with them in other instances. Through her astute leadership, she
not only survived but succeeded in creating a kingdom (1624-
1663). Another historical female leader of significance in
West Africa was Yaa Asantewaa, the queen mother of Ejisu. She
inspired and led the Asante of Ghana against the British in 1900
after they had captured the Asantehene and Asantehemaa (king and
queen mother of the Asante) and removed them to the Seychelles.
Although it was their military leadership that has endowed these
women with recognition, the authority they wielded was based on
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the position they occupied in the political order of the society
in which they lived.
A position of female authority is characteristic of many
African societies, and through it women often play a
significant role in political leadership. These female leaders,
like their male counterparts, are chosen from a select group of
individuals who occupy a privileged position in a hierarchical
society. While matrilineal societies afford women leaders
greater authority than patrilineal ones, generally, royal women
hold positions of authority in the latter as well. The term dual
gender system refers to those societies in which the political
system includes one or two female leaders who occupy positions of
authority in parallel with the male leader. These female roles
are complementary to rather than the same as the male roles. In
many societies the female leaders can assume the male position,
that of chief, under special circumstances, either as a regent
or, in some instances, she assumes the position permanently.
A significant number of precolonial societies were
structured on this dual gender principle, but the changes
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resulting from colonization and modernization have weakened the
role of female authority considerably. The position has
disappeared in some cases, or survives only as a vestige, or the
current status is not known. In the following discussion the
examples of queen mothers have been documented by scholars; but
we do not always know the dates in which it was an active
political role or the status of the position today.
In her impressive 1971 survey article (“The Role of Women in
the Political Organization of African Societies”) Annie M..D.
Lebeuf acknowledges the variation characteristic of African
political systems and presents examples of women who have
exercised leadership through their positions of authority.
Notable among precolonial political systems are those based on
joint sovereignty. Queen mothers together with chiefs constitute
the two sovereigns.
Generally defined in terms of kinship, the woman in the
dual gender system represents the figure of mother, whether or
not she is the biological mother of the king. The majority of
the societies with joint sovereignty are matrilineal, though some
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patrilineal societies have specific roles of authority defined
for royal women.
Though the term, queen mother often raises objections in
Africa today because it does not represent a direct translation
from the native language of any society, it is the term widely
used in English to describe the female counterpart to the chief
throughout Africa. In contemporary African societies, the
relationship will likely be that of aunt-nephew, uncle-niece,
sister-brother or cousins. Though rare, the relationship of
biological mother-son does still occur as it has most recently in
the case of the Asante in which The Asantehemaa is the actual
mother of the Asantehene, enstooled in 1999. In most instances,
however, the female is regarded as the metaphorical mother, and
she advises and guides the chief in all affairs. For this reason,
perhaps, the term for these female leaders has most often been
translated as queen mother.
Each society defines the role of female authority, or queen
mother, with particular practices that may differ from others.
Yet, there are a cluster of characteristics which are widely
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associated with the role wherever it occurs in Africa. These
concern the relationship between the queen mother and her chief,
their complementary duties and responsibilities, the space they
occupy, and the conceptualization of the roles. The two leaders
are expected to work together for the welfare of their
communities, but they each hold their position independently of
the other. Though they must belong to the same kin group, they
may be selected at separate moments in time and on the basis of
their own qualifications for leadership from among those who
qualify for the position. (A queen mother is not a wife to the
male leader.) Their dual leadership operates, then, in parallel.
The concept of motherhood, a powerful force in African
societies, shapes the role of queen mother and many of its
functions. Especially important in this capacity, the queen
mother has responsibility for the welfare of women in her domain.
While the functions vary from one society to the next, this
responsibility may extend to the supervision of women’s labor,
and it almost certainly determines that queen mothers are
important figures in dispute settlement. Women, and sometimes
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men as well, bring disputes and conflicts arising from everyday
life to the queen mother for litigation and resolution.
To some observers the queen mother’s most significant
political role concerns the selection of a new chief. Most
societies organized on a dual gender system endow the queen
mother with the authority to nominate a qualified person to the
elders. Depending on the traditions of specific locations, the
new chief may be selected because he is the son of a queen
mother, but in some instances she must nominate an individual
from her kin group who is not her son. Once the queen mother and
elders have agreed, the individual will undergo the important
rituals that will confirm him as king or chief; from that time
the queen mother will advise him on political matters as well as
those concerning religion, custom and law.
Among the most essential of the queen mother’s duties will
be the performance of powerful rituals honoring her ancestors and
the deities of her culture. Consistent with traditional religious
practices in each location, such rituals are generally believed
to provide protection for her people, and will probably be
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performed in her palace if she has one, or in the compound of her
kin group. Queen mothers have their own palaces, or compound
where they live and hold court, resolve disputes, and may provide
protection for individuals who are at risk of losing their lives.
In addition to her own space, a queen mother will have her own
entourage and household servants. As the female leader in her
society the queen mother enjoys many privileges and assumes many
responsibilities. This position extends to the domain of
marriage and sexuality. Generally, queen mothers are allowed to
exercise sexual freedom, much the same as royal males and unlike
other women of her society. Economically, both the chief and
queen mother should receive support from the financial resources
of the royal position. These may include the resources of
specific villages or lands that have been designated for the
queen mother or chief.
While female leaders have received scant attention from
scholars and writers, a careful search nevertheless reveals that
this institution is quite widespread throughout sub-Saharan
Africa, so much so that this brief article cannot mention each
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and everyone. In some cases, female leaders may have ceased to
exist, but were strong institutions in the past, having been
destroyed by colonization and modernization. Other societies may
have continued the institution but they may be only barely
visible to outsiders. A few societies discontinued the practice
and have now reconstituted it. In a few instances, the Akan of
Ghana in particular, the institution has been continuous through
time with no breaks in history, though it must be emphasized
that all institutions of female leadership were affected
negatively by colonialism.
Among those societies that are believed to have functioned
with dual gender systems in the past is Ruanda where the mother
of the king shared responsibilities of power with him. In another
example, the Bemba of Zambia define a female ruler who is either
the mother or the oldest uterine relative of the king. She
participates in tribal council, governs several villages and
enjoys sexual freedom. Also regarded as the mother of the
kingdom is the female leader of the Lunda of Zaire. A kinswoman
of the chief she takes part in administration, has her own court,
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her own officials and collects her own taxes.
Shifting our focus to Cameroon the queen mother (mafo) )of
the Bamileke, who is the mother of the fong or mfong (the chief),
has been considered by some scholars to be an equal to him. She
has her own residence and her own estates (which can serve as
refuge since they are outside the jurisdiction of the king), and
she directs female activities which means that she controls the
agriculture of the whole community since the women are the
farmers. She takes part in the administrative council and
presides over the women’s secret societies. Like many other
queen mothers, she can exercise sexual freedom. Her children
belong to her and not to the father, as do other children of the
society. Among the neighboring Kom, one of the independent
kingdoms of the Tikar people, the queen mother’s position is very
similar to that described above for the Bamileke who share the
Cameroonian grasslands with the Tikar. The Kom are a matrilineal
society, however, unlike most of the other Tikar and Bamileke
who are patrilineal in descent. The nafoyn (the queen mother) was
usually not married but enjoyed the privileges of sexual freedom,
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according to Nkwi. Moreover, some scholars argue that she had
the choice of whether or not to have a husband. Her children
belonged to her and not to their father. This situation has
been explained in terms of a mid-19th century decree prohibiting
queen mothers from marrying. Intended to counter the
implications of brideprice (a fee paid at the time of marriage by
the husband) that endowed the husband with rights over the
children, the decree ensures that no man/husband/father could
marry a woman who might become the mother of a Fon (king) and
thus create the situation where a man would have the right to
command obedience from the king because of the conditions of
marriage. Shanklin reports that the queen mother of the present
day continues to direct women as a work force on her farms,
adding to her economic power. Among the queen mother’s
responsibilities, her ritual duties are particularly important.
The significance of her ritual powers serves as strong evidence
for the argument that complementarity was and continues to be the
organizing principle for the ritual sphere in Kom society.
Complementarity in one domain suggests the same in other domains,
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including the political, especially since sources have reported
that in the past the queen mother sat with village leaders and
challenged them at times. Considering the full range of a queen
mother’s powers, the argument that the Kom were organized by a
dual gender system seems persuasive (Lebeuf) (Nkwi) (Shanklin)
(Bascom). In the past, according to Caroline Ifeka, Grassfield
royal women were more visibly powerful than they are today. The
royal women of Bamum (another Grassfield polity), like royal men,
killed fearlessly and were killed. In still another of the many
Grassfield groups, the Nso’, queen mothers perform a variety of
constitutional functions including the role of interrex. More
importantly, Ifeka emphasizes that a dual gender system, based on
a complementarity of both mystical and political power, defines
the entire Nso’ social system, encompassing all ranks from
commoners who use titles to demonstrate respect to the ‘mother’
(yeela’) and ‘father’(taala’) of the compound to the Fon and his queen
mother (yeefon) (his real mother).
Especially well known among the queen mothers of Africa is
the mother of the king in Swaziland, the Ndlovukazi (also the
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Indlovukati). Like other queen mothers she has her own residence,
her own court and officials, and functions in complementary
relations to the king. Metaphors for her include the Great She
Elephant, the Earth, the Beautiful, and the Mother of the Country
while the king is the Lion, the Sun, the Great Wild Animal. The
king owes his position to the queen mother, usually his
biological mother. She is expected to train him and hand over
power to him when he reaches maturity. In spite of their close
relationship, they serve as a check on each other’s powers.
Hilda Kuper (1963) described the political structure of the Swazi
as a dual monarchy, a system in which the power and privilege of
each monarch was held in check by the other. For example, the
male monarch is revitalized in the annual ritual of kingship, but
it is held at the home of the queen mother; moreover, he is
entitled to use the royal cattle but if he wastes the national
wealth, she can rebuke him publicly. Mahmood Mamdani also notes
the restriction placed on administrative authority when he
describes the queen mother’s position as strategic enough to act
as a check on any absolutist royal pretensions the king might
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develop. For example, in the past the king controlled the army,
but the commander-in-chief resided at the queen mother’s village.
The Ndlovukazi can act as regent, in place of a dead King,
until a new one is prepared to assume the position. During a
particularly crucial era in Swazi history (1889-1921) the Queen
Mother Labotsibeni Mdluli held this position for a lengthy period
and was in full charge of the political affairs of the polity.
Described as “a woman of outstanding intellect” and “the
shrewdest and most astute of the Regents who ever controlled the
destinies of the Swazis,” she is credited with having protected
the Swazi from the colonials during that period and with bringing
new order and strength to the monarchy. Especially important,
she laid the groundwork for independence so that when her
grandson, Sobhuza II, became king, he could bring the country to
independence in 1968.
History points to the Kpojito as one of the most interesting
Queen Mothers of the past. The female leader in the Fon kingdom
of Dahomey (dated from the 17th century until the dissolution of
its monarchy by the French in 1900), she was the wealthy and
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powerful double of the King of Dahomey. According to Edna Bay
(1998:72 and 1997), the term Kpojito translates as the one who
whelped the leopard (the leopard represents the king), but she
was not necessarily the biological mother of the king. Bay
explains that she could hear appeals from the court of the
minister of religion, with final appeal to the king himself, and
that she acted as intercessor with the king, pleading on behalf
of his subjects. She had her own entourage separate from the
king, but she was forbidden all contacts with men. Supported by
tributary villages and plantations of slaves, she was reported to
be very wealthy. After death a female descendant in her family
of birth replaced her, and she was honored in annual rituals.
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only woman who went to war, oral tradition credits her with
having raised an army and employed magical powers to aid her son
in defeating his enemies (1997:74-76). However, a special problem
developed in Benin. According to Bay the king was considered to
be divine, and therefore he could not prostrate himself before
any person; yet a child was required to subordinate himself
before his/her mother. The resolution of this problem was that
the queen mother and her son, the king, could never see each
other again after he became king, though she is believed to have
exercised considered political power from her palace (1998:79)
Other West African societies also operated with dual gender
systems prior to colonialism. Of particular note were the female
leaders among the Igbo, known as the omu (the male leader was
the obi). Kamene Okonjo (1976) tells us that the omu, like the
male obi, had her own cabinet of councillors (generally women),
and they could challenge male authority if necessary. Among the
duties of the female leader and her councillors was oversight of
the community market, a predominantly female space. Their
oversight included judging cases of dispute that occurred in the
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market. The precolonial Yoruba, too, recognized female leaders,
although a patrilineal society. Many women were endowed with the
title Iyalode (a woman designated as a political leader) for their
contribution to war efforts, states Bolanle Awe . The Iyalode, like
the Igbo omu was considered the head of market women, but the
title indicates responsibilities much broader than just the
market. It translates to “mother in charge of external affairs”
(Awe:144). And indeed, the Iyalode of each town was a chief in
her own right with her own servants, drummers and bell ringers,
and she held jurisdiction over all women. (Each Yoruba town
created a more specific title as well for their female leader).
She seems to have acquired her office through achievement as a
leader rather than heredity. Women brought their quarrels to her
court for resolution, and she met with groups of women to
determine their stand on various political and economic issues.
Among the matrilineal Akan of Ghana, the queen mother
(ohemaa) is a thriving institution in contemporary society. As
with the other examples cited above, the queen mothers of the
Akan have suffered a loss of their power since colonialism
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because the colonial forces failed to recognize female authority.
Yet, Akan queen mothers have unbroken continuity with the past;
they continue to exercise their authority in Ghana today,
especially in the Ashanti region (Stoeltje 1997; 1998). In fact,
the dual gender system has proven to be so attractive that
neighboring patrilineal societies, ones that have never had
queen mothers (the Ga and the Ewe), have begun to create the
position in the past decade.
The Asante (the largest of the Akan societies) replicate
this dual gender system throughout the Ashanti region so that
every paramountcy is led by a queen mother and chief (ohemaa and
ohene), and every village and town has both a chief and a queen
mother (odikro and oba panin). The Asantehene and the Asantehemaa are
the King and Queen Mother of Asante, and they occupy the position
of greatest authority in the Asante system. Next in the
hierarchical system are the paramountcies, each of which has a
powerful chief and queen mother; small towns and villages are
located within a division and serve a particular paramountcy,
but each of them has its own chief and queen mother.
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Consequently, then, Ghana has many queen mothers today of
differing status. To explain that a chief and queen mother each
have their own authority, it is said that the chief and the queen
mother each have their own stool. “The stool” is the symbol of
authority in all Akan societies, functioning much like “the
throne” for European monarchies.
A queen mother of the Asante (and the other Akan groups) is
considered to be the mother of the chief and of the particular
clan, whether or not she is the biological mother of the chief.
Like the queen mothers of other societies, she has specific
responsibilities associated with the role of mother/ female
leader. When the position of chief becomes vacant, she nominates
an individual from the royal family to become the new chief. Her
nomination goes to the elders of the royal family and ultimately
to the sub-chiefs (who represent the clans other than the clan of
the royal family). Once the new chief has been enstooled, the
Queen Mother is expected to advise him, drawing upon her wisdom
and knowledge, and he is expected to consult her. Her
responsibilities also encompass the welfare of the women in her
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domain. One of her major responsibilities includes the
settlement of disputes. The Asantehemaa maintains her own court
with elders (predominantly male) that meets once a week to hear
cases brought primarily by women concerning the conflicts of
everyday life. Other queen mothers hear cases as well but with a
smaller court. A queen mother has her own living space separate
from the chief, and she will meet with people to resolve disputes
and conduct other business at her own “palace.”
The queen mother and the chief must both be members of the
same royal family, so they will be sister-brother, uncle-niece,
aunt-nephew, cousins or distant relatives, and in some instances,
mother-son. Queen Mothers are not only expected to have
children, but it is unlikely that a woman would be chosen, from
among those qualified, for the position if she did not have
children because of the importance of the concept as well as the
reality of Motherhood.
However, a queen mother can be married or not. She may also
divorce, and she may remarry if she wishes. Unlike every other
woman, a queen mother can exercise freedom in matters of
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sexuality, whether or not she is married. In this domain, as in
other domains of her life, she has autonomy. Her position as
symbolic mother of the clan and of the chief and her position as
procreator are enhanced by her autonomy with regard to matters of
sexuality, procreation and marriage. These combine with her
political, ritual and juridical authority to create a position
(like that of chief), that integrates elements of kinship,
politics, and religion together, creating strong positions of
traditional leadership that have endured, with modification,
through colonization and modernization.
Most African societies display flexibility, adaptability,
and creativity in their political and religious systems. Among
the Asante.this is illustrated by the fact that some of the most
well educated and wealthy individuals in the society also hold
positions as chiefs. The King of the Asante, Osei Tutu II,
enstooled as Asantehene in 1999, was an active and well educated
businessman in London when he was nominated by the Asantehemaa,
his biological mother, for the position. Enthusiastically
received by the Asante people, he has established an Asante
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Educational Fund for the enhancement of the schools in Asante
and has given it a high priority.
Although the queen mothers have not enjoyed the same
privileges of education that their male counterparts have, the
culture is now encouraging education and is placing educated
women on the stool as queen mothers whenever possible. Due to
contemporary influences, then, it is not unusual today to observe
queen mothers participating in efforts to bring education to non-
literate queen mothers or to support young women’s football
teams, or to organize events that illustrate the need for
planned parenthood. In contemporary African societies today the
role of traditional authority seems to be expanding as indigenous
systems exercise flexibility in regard to modernization, and the
state slowly recognizes the need to cooperate with traditional
systems. It appears that the twenty first century version of
this encounter may be more hospitable to female authority than
the colonial encounter, recognizing the value of queen mothers as
female leaders in the indigenous sociopolitical system.
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