Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa

by Nwando Achebe

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 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.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, Feminism

159 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 14, 2020

Reviews

[Wim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic of this book is fascinating: roles and status of women leaders in precolonial in contemporary Africa, starting from a historical analysis based on an African epistemology anchored in the interconnectedness of spiritual and material worlds. Achebe has the merit of showing how many women played important roles in African history by assuming spiritual, political, military and commercial leadership. She demonstrates that gender identities have often been very fluid, with women becoming kings and as 'female husbands' marrying other women, and vice versa. She convincingly arguments how western domination and colonization has destroyed this gender balanced, from imposing a 'male' god to solidifying gender roles.

However, 'Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa' has serious flaws. The book is a series of exemples and anecdotes on women and their achievements (sometimes just a list, as in the case of women ministers in Africa), in which Achebe constantly hops from one country to another, from one historical period to another, without clearly structuring these fragmented facts and bits of anecdotes in a coherent narrative. As with many English-speaking authors, she is heavily biased and mostly writes on former English colonies. The book also contains errors in geography, as stating that Nigeria and Ghana are neighbouring countries, that Gabon is in West-Africa, or situating the Luba-empire in Congo-Brazzaville and in contemporary Zaire (sic).

[Tinea · Rating 2 out of 5]

The smug photo of Isabel dos Santos in the last chapter of this book encapsulates its celebration of elite women without any intersectional power analysis. Most women's names are rattled off context-free in disorganized fashion, jumping between epochs and regions; you'd do as well with a Wikipedia list. Despite Achebe's stated purpose in the book's introduction, without context, it's impossible for the reader to know if these elite women are representative of women's participation and access to economic and political power in their societies or interesting historical anomalies who overcame discriminatory patriarchal structures (the book claims and conflates both).

The few well-developed stories are southern Nigerian and Christian, and there is no mention of famous, influential political activists like Wangari Maathai or Winnie Mandela, which makes the selection of cases feel uneven or biased.

[Calla Reviews (كالا) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a rough read. The author is excessively wordy, and repetitive. Constantly draws false equivalent meanings between things and presents things from an obviously agenda driven view point. Her writing isn't always succinct and clear. It is one thing to have a point of view, quite another to repeatedly express it, without clear and substances evidence.

Some of the people are talked about a bit more in-depth while others are given a paragraph.And I am on the fence about this. So many women were touched on that it is impossible to remember them. When I am reading a book its for two reasons.1.) Knowledge 2.) Entertainment. This book was for knowledge and I hate not being able to remember everyone. BUT. The way its written gives you an opportunity to further research.

After reading this selection I thought. What?? Such a wordy paragraph to simply say " I tried to be as historically accurate referencing locations and dates, as possible
"The chapters within this book have been thematically and roughly chronologically organized, with reference to regional space and time. When and wherever possible, I have sought to establish sustained change over time within reconstructions of particularized narratives. However, due to the regional- and time-specific porosity of certain source material, this has not always been possible. Thus, in those instances, I work to establish change over time by reading and analyzing one regionally based and time-defined case study against another, and in the process, pooling to completeness, an overall historical narrative"

gendered- was repeated to excess as was constituency and it drove me crazy to see one word repeated over 10 times in one paragraph. I will admit that this is probably nitpicking.

Then came another "WHAT moment. Not only a what moment, but I consistently think that this is not true, most African social environments indeed recognize And uphold the biological and gender interconnectedness.
"These transformations are encouraged by a milieu that recognizes that biological sex and gender do not coincide; that gender is a social construct and is flexible and fluid, allowing biological women to become gendered men, and biological men, gendered women. This phenomenon gives rise to distinctive African categories such as female husband, male (less)"

"This fire-making tool symbolizes male and female organs.14 The female image of God is also expressed in metaphors that depict God as dziva/dzivaguru and chidziva chopo. These metaphors associate God with water. Water is regarded by the Shona as a symbol for the universal mother, who is the source of all life. The Shona also have metaphors that clearly depict God as male. One is sororezhou/wokumusoro. Sororezhou means “elephant head” or father, and wokumusoro means “he who dwells on high.” Thus, in Shonaland, God is both male and female."
Thats a big inference to make from a metaphor and I did not agree with it. Just because the God is associated with a feminine symbol does not mean the same as the God being both genders. How did we even come to such a conclusion?

"The Dogon believe that Amma holds the world firmly in both hands. Although commonly written about as male, the metaphor of Amma as the God who gives life and fertility invokes the female principle. To this end, the Dogon consider Amma to symbolize both male and female principles. Amma is therefore more appropriately characterized as genderless or as being of dual gender"
Another leap made from a metaphor. Just because the Amma has female qualities does not mean its of dual gender. Secondly genderless is not the same as being dual gendered. One has 2 properties, the other has none.

Then this......when did the Oracle become an institution?This should have definitely been written better
"Oracles are forces that predict the future and explain the past. They also, through their priests and priestesses, adjudicate and settle cases, and take care of other societal needs. In Arochukwu, eastern Nigeria, existed an all-powerful female oracle called ibiniukpabi (in Ibibio, “Drum of the Creator God”). She was known to the British as the Long Juju. The oracle originally belonged to the Ibibio and Efik peoples of the neighboring region. However, in the sixteenth century, the Aro seized control of the oracle, transforming it into a dreaded and powerful institution, whose power, authority, and influence were felt all over Igboland and beyond".

"One of the reasons for ibiniukpabi’s success was the fact that the new Aro custodians of the oracle were careful not to pit ibiniukpabi against the most powerful of all Igbo deities, ani." This information would have been okay had she clarified why she added it. I don't understand this random fact, that was just thrown in. Nothing before or after supported why this statement was made.

And another assertion that is not supported by facts.
"(In Africa, sex and gender do not coincide; instead,) gender is flexible and fluid, allowing women to become men, and men, women, thus creating unique African categories such as female husband, female son, and male priestess."

[Joshua Sprinkle]

Disorienting. Based on the cover alone, I can imagine someone musing that this book would be a hyper-feminist reimagining of African history based on some sort of gender biased yada yada yada.

SO far from the truth.

This book does not spare any detail or offer any commentary; it simply outlines stories and facts that will significantly change how you think about history.

The female slaves that were owned by queens were not treated any better than the ones owned by kings. In fact, I found it shocking how regard for human life seemed to be a barrier to success for some of the figures mentioned. Some compelling and redeemable imaginations of self-sacrificial death arose, and many stories that seemed impressively well researched, with few to no sources.

I'm not even sure how many stars to give it. It blindsided me and made me think about history much differently. I wanted to assume that there was an invisible and forgotten undercurrent of neat women in African leadership, but they did not meaningfully distinguish themselves from male cruelty or rule.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book itself is a really interesting case study, dropping dozens of names of examples of the various African cultures and peoples and the role of women in their societies.

Unfortunately that's where it stops. So far it is mostly describing, appearing to be a "nice to know".
While the book is not running short on listing all various examples and approaches to compare them, it shows a huge lack especially when it comes to modern day societies and the role of women; stating the facts and how it is (/supposed to be), but not mentioning at all the possible struggles of those old roles of female power in a modern, "westernized" world.

Same for the second chapter. While giving highly interesting yet short bios of various famous African merchant women, it only shows their bright side and rise, leaving out all the problems they might have had to face on their way.

Even worse, at one point (p. 166) the author is bringing up a highly questionable female pastor and televangelist, that published books like "Living free: Overcoming Masturbation" and present her as an good example, praising her for having won many awards.

All in all, this book for sure has some inspiring biographies amongst the long list of names it is dropping, yet unfortunately the author fails to spark enthusiasm, as the mentioned women are way too short described.

[Ploni Almoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Virkelig spændende emne! Kvinder i Afrikas historie, og deres rolle i den politiske, spirituelle og ikke mindst økonomiske sfære (som såkaldte Merchant Queens…)

Virkelig ringe udførsel, mange repetitioner, dårlig historiefortælling (bogen føles nærmest som et opslagsværk - det er muligt at huske eller engagere sig i det uendelige persongalleri).

Men mest af alt en grundlæggende mangel på analysekraft?? Achebes Grundtese om at afrikanske kvinder til alle tider kan samles i en for forbundet spirituel magtenhed virker ekstremt uunderbygget! Er Hatsheput i oldtidens Egypten og direktøren for et sydafrikansk mineselskab anno 2020 virkelig en del af samme urgamle afrikanske tradition for at bringe kvinder til magten? Jeg er ikke overbevist!

[Nicola Royan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book demonstrates the significance of extraordinary women throughout a long history of Africa. Because of its breadth and length, there is no space for deep context, or broader women’s history and experience. But it’s an exhilarating ride.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very a pretty quick read. I wanted to like it more. I am not sure if it’s just that I am wishing for documentation that just isn’t there or what. It was a good start but I definitely felt like I wanted more

[Lious Moco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really Intriguing book replete with instructive data.