Female Monarchs And Merchant Queens In Africa

An unapologetically African-centered monograph that reveals physical and spiritual forms and systems of female power and leadership in African cultures. Nwando Achebe’s unparalleled study documents elite females, female principles, and female spiritual entities across the African continent, from the ancient past to the present. Achebe breaks from Western perspectives, research methods, and their consequently incomplete, skewed accounts, to demonstrate the critical importance of distinctly African source materials and world views to any comprehensible African history. This means accounting for the two realities of African cosmology: the physical world of humans and the invisible realm of spiritual gods and forces. That interconnected universe allows biological men and women to become female-gendered males and male-gendered females. This phenomenon empowers the existence of particular African beings, such as female husbands, male priestesses, female kings, and female pharaohs. Achebe portrays their combined power, influence, and authority in a sweeping, African-centric narrative that leads to an analogous consideration of contemporary African women as heads of state, government officials, religious leaders, and prominent entrepreneurs.

In this unapologetically African-centered monograph, Nwando Achebe considers the diverse forms and systems of female leadership in both the physical and spiritual worlds, as well as the complexities of female power in a multiplicity of distinct African societies. From Amma to the goddess inkosazana, Sobekneferu to Nzingha, Nehanda to Ahebi Ugbabe, Omu Okwei and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. Chronologically and by theme, Achebe pieces together the worlds and experiences of African females from African-derived sources, especially language. Achebe explores the meaning and significance of names, metaphors, symbolism, cosmology, chronicles, songs, folktales, proverbs, oral traditions, traditions of creation, and more. From centralized to small-scale egalitarian societies, patrilineal to matrilineal systems, North Africa to sub-Saharan lands, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa offers an unparalleled history of the remarkable African women who occupied positions of power, authority, and influence.

Featuring contributions from some of the most accomplished scholars on the topic, Holding the World Together explores the rich and varied ways in which women have wielded power across the African continent, from the precolonial period to the present. Suitable for classroom use, this comprehensive volume considers such topics as the representation of African women, their role in national liberation movements, their experiences of religious fundamentalism (both Christian and Muslim), their incorporation into the world economy, changing family and marriage systems, impacts of the world economy on their lives and livelihoods, and the unique challenges they face in the areas of health and disease. Contributors: Nwando Achebe, Ousseina Alidou, Signe Arnfred, Andrea L. Arrington-Sirois, Henryatta Ballah, Teresa Barnes, Josephine Beoku-Betts, Emily Burril, Abena P. A. Busia, Gracia Clark, Alicia Decker, Karen Flint, December Green, Cajetan Iheka, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth M. Perego, Claire Robertson, Kathleen Sheldon, Aili Mari Tripp, Cassandra Veney

This is a brilliant and refreshing book, which gives ample and well-deserved voice to women...It is a book that will definitely be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of history, anthropology, political science, religion, and political economy. It is a must read for scholars and students in Women's Studies Programs. - Felix K. Ekechi; Professor Emeritus(History); Kent State University This orginal and insightful work's sensible and balanced view of Igbo women's power and authority is modulated by a profound understanding of the ways in which women negotiated indigenous cultural spaces and at the same time negotiated with and refashioned pre-colonial and colonial contexts. Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings is a major event in African gender studies publishing. - Obioma Nnaemeka; Professor of French, Women's Studies, and African/African Diaspora Studies; Indiana University, Indianapolis Nwando Achebe's book is rich in accounts of the life histories of recent powerful goddesses that were constructed by the Nsukka Igbo from the late 19th century... She] recounts these case studies with passion and fascination. This is another important addition to the growing literature in Igbo studies, gender studies and African historiography. - Ifi Amadiume; Professor of Religion and African and African American Studies; Dartmouth College A] landmark in African historiography. In the best tradition of the discpline, Dr. Achebe] reminds us after all that history, however academically grounded, should aim to delight as well as educate. Nwando Achebe is ahead of her generation not only in the depth of her sensibility but in the facility with which she represents the structures of feeling of her Igbo society. - Isidore Okpewho; Distinguished Professor of the Humanities; State University of New York, Binghamton There is an adage that the Igbo have no kings. Farmers, Traders, Warriors and Kings focuses on an area in Igboland where, contrary to this popular belief, Igbos not only have kings, but female kings. It is an area where women served as warriors and even married many wives. Because women in Nsukka Division served as prominent actors in a complex set of interactions, relationships and manifestations unmatched elsewhere in Igboland, the author argues that researchers cannot adequately analyze the landscape of Nsukka Division (or any other African society, for that matter) without investigating the central place of women and the female principle in the spiritual world of the society. The author examines the political, economic, and religious structures that allowed women and the female principle to achieve measures of power and looks at some of the ways they reacted and adjusted to the challenges of European rule. Such an investigation into the history of this gender dynamic yields important results for both African History and Women's Studies. Achebe focuses on the evolution of gender politics and female power in Nigeria's northern Igboland over the first six decades of the 20th century. This time period, approximately 1900-1960, is important because it allows for the exploration of continuity and change in Nsukka women's activities, as well as the female principle, over three periods: late pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Nigeria. Along the way, she raises and answers questions relating to scholarship on women, sex, and gender in Africa by uncovering the complexities of the Igbo gender construct, arguing, for example, that sex and gender did not coincide in northern Igboland. Consequently, women were able to occupy positions that were exclusively monopolized by men in other societies, and men, likewise, occupied positions that would have otherwise been monopolized by women. Expanding on this premise, the author calls for a revision of traditional classifications of African women

While providing critical perspectives on women, gender, sex and sexuality, and the colonial encounter, she considers how it was possible for this woman to take on the office and responsibilities of a traditionally male role.

Leandra Ruth Zarnow tells the inspiring and timely story of Bella Abzug, a New York politician who brought the passion and ideals of 1960s protest movements to Congress. Abzug promoted feminism, privacy protections, gay rights, and human rights. Her efforts shifted the political center, until more conservative forces won back the Democratic Party.

An updated and comprehensive single-volume history covering all periods from human origins to contemporary African situations.

Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018 A Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and the Observer A black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in the hall of a Gloucestershire manor house. A Moroccan woman is baptised in a London church. Henry VIII dispatches a Mauritanian diver to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose. From long-forgotten records emerge the remarkable stories of Africans who lived free in Tudor England… They were present at some of the defining moments of the age. They were christened, married and buried by the Church. They were paid wages like any other Tudors. The untold stories of the Black Tudors, dazzlingly brought to life by Kaufmann, will transform how we see this most intriguing period of history.