In the first part on African patriarchy ( Read it here : https://www.judicaelleirakoze.org/pre-colonial-africans-were-also-patriarchs/ ). We unpacked the history of the Kingdom of Burundi, the Merina Kingdom and the life of Queen Nzinga. We analysed the narrative of patriarchy as a colonialism product by mapping women’s oppression before colonialism.
A reminder that I do this work because I am committed to the truth of my ancestors. As part of my commitment, whenever I teach on feminism,I do not paint women’s movements with the recorded waves of feminisms documented around white women’s movements. African women have struggled for freedom over centuries. The fact that our ancestors didn’t document their organizing using a language imposed on them doesn’t render their movements irrelevant. Our ancestors relied on oral tradition to preserve memories. Some of the tales were lost as they were told across generations. But History is valid, even untold or unwritten. Therefore today, we have language as a powerful tool. Language connects us and empowers us through our stories. That’s why I believe decolonizing language involves telling our stories with the entire truth. We must preserve these memories by digging, uncovering then mainstreaming. .
In this second part, we are discussing the myth of African matriarchy. I personally think we won’t fully decolonize if we still think pre-colonial Africa was heaven. Kingdoms were messy. They had slavery, women’s oppression, class inequalities, aggressive imperialism within Kingdoms and it was ugly. The goal of this essay is to continue our journey of learning through historical facts that patriarchy was a reality in pre-colonial Africa. Male dominance ruled in most kingdoms as the rule of nature way before the whites walked on our continent.
Ancient Egypt .
We all are familiar with ancient Egyptians queens. We celebrate them and their resilience. We use their stories to affirm matriarchy as a reality that once existed on the African continent. However, at some point we have to be honest with ourselves and unpack how most queens were part of a bigger patriarchal agenda. Ancient Egypt is often highlighted as the quickest example of a matriarchal society. The tales of queens such as Cleopatra, Nerfititi and how powerful they were, have made us picture Ancient Egypt as a feminist Utopia. But, diverse historical diverse archives point to this being false. Ancient Egypt was very patriarchal, sustained by both men and women.
The structuring of Egyptian royalty was meant to focus upon a male king, who was considered to be the earthly manifestation of Horus, a male god. Egyptians believed in Horus as the Patron of the living Pharaoh. Normally, a king would be succeeded by his senior surviving son, but every so often in Egyptian kingdom like many other kingdoms, a woman rose to power, sometimes acting as regent for a young son, but at other times taking the throne completely. Ancient Egypt didn’t choose the first woman as Pharaoh out of empowerment to achieve gender equality. She happened to be their last resort. King Amenemhat IV was the seventh pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt (c. 1990–1800 BC) during the late Middle Kingdom period (c. 2050–1710 BC). He died without an heir. His sister, Princess Sobekneferu then took over and became the first known woman, who reigned as an actual pharaoh and not as a regent. It is evident that it’s the absence of a male heir that made Sebeknefru the closest in line of succession. Unfortunately, she died without an heir and the end of her reign concluded Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty which inaugurated the Thirteenth Dynasty.
The second woman Pharaoh was Queen Hatshepsut. She was the fifth ruler of the 18th Dynasty,and daughter of King Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose. As was common in Egyptian royal families, she married her half-brother, Thutmose II, who had a son, Thutmose III, by a minor wife. When Thutmose II died in 1479 B.C. his son, Thutmose III, was the appointed heir. However, Hatshepsut as the main Queen, became regent due to the boy’s young age. After 7 years, Queen Hatshepsut took the place of Thutmose III and declared herself Pharaoh. She became the second historically-confirmed female pharaoh, the first being Sobekneferu. Knowing that her power grab was highly controversial, Queen Hatshepsut fought to defend her legitimacy, pointing to her royal lineage. She sought to reinvent her image and ordered that she be portrayed as a male pharaoh, with a beard and large muscles. All of this so patriarchy can give her a chance! Queen Hatshepsut reigned for 23 years and disappeared in 1458 B.C after Thutmose III ( whom she stole the throne from), accessed the throne after he led a revolt. King Thutmose III had Hatshepsut’s shrines, statues and reliefs mutilated. He took his revenge and ordered Hatshepsut to be erased from certain historical and pharaonic records. In all the 3000 years of Ancient Egypt, Queens Sobeknefru and Hatshepsut were the only women to become Pharaohs and attain full power of the position. The next woman to become Pharaoh was Queen Cleopatra, fourteen centuries later.
Queen Cleopatra, the legend, is another case on her own but I would argue that she doesn’t represent the reality of matriarchy. She indeed used patriarchy to accumulate power for herself. She came from a royal powerful family that used incest to keep power among themselves. Cleopatra is probably the only woman in ancient Egypt who used her reproductive power like a man to create her legacy. Cleopatra used her productive womb to have children with two Roman Kings. She had one child with Julius Caesar, three children with Mark Antony. She then carefully placed each child in charge of a different part of her growing Eastern Empire, in competition with the Western Roman Empire. As Julius Caesar’s mistress, Cleopatra accumulated immense social power . She is also well known for her intelligence and her elegance. Cleopatra used her beauty to forge alliances with powerful men for her survival and to expand her family’s empire. And this is the very core of patriarchy even when powerful women are the gatekeepers.
There is also Queen Nerfititi, one of the most idolized queens. She is my favorite even though there is not much known about her. She was a leader of the people. She stepped up as the wife of the king and served people. She is known to be so disinterested in her personal power. Unfortunately Queen Nerfititi acted mostly in the shadow of her husband King Akhenaten even when she took over after his death.
These queens are the recorded ruling queens of ancient Egypt, the ones who accessed the Pharaoh title. However they were placeholders for a much larger scheme of power that is dependent on masculinity. They were there to make sure the next male in line could step into the power circle. They were there at a moment of crisis to protect the patriarchy when something went wrong with the succession from man to man. As soon as a male heir was available, they were removed.
Another sad reality is that upper class women enjoyed almost the same rights with men, and yet these rights were not extended to other social classes.
Matrilineal societies
Whenever we unpack about ancient african history, it is necessary that we find our own ways of articulating these stories outside of western terminology. We have to develop ways of highlighting movements, cultural change and growth particular to our contexts. Therefore whenever we talk about the status of women in ancient african kingdoms, we should not speak of women as a homogenous group. Using the status of royal and aristocratic women who had considerable political authority and social power as the ultimate proof of the so claimed matriarchy, erases diverse gender and class relations of many societies. Ancient societies like the Akan people in Ancient Ghana or the Pabir Kingdom in Northeast Nigeria are often used as an example of matriarchy
The Akan kingdom occupied South Ghana, and they were a matrilineal people. In the Akan culture, queen mothers ruled alongside with Kings. The Akan Oheema (queen or woman chief) was in charge of choosing the King in case the position was vacant. The thing is a woman in Akan culture could only become an Oheema after menopause because women were restricted from many ritual activities and from military action during menstruation. Not every woman had the opportunity to be the Chieftess. You had to be born in a lineage of rulers or chiefs. The Oheema had a council of female chiefs whose offices were hereditary just like her. Some positions in the Ohemaa’s court were by designation made by her. The Oheema presided over a system of female stool-hooders which existed at village level. Every village head (odikuro) had a village queen mother, also called an Oheema. Every office in the Akan Kingdom had a male with a female counterpart. This practice of maintaining parallel, separate hierarchies for women and men was a particular unicity of the Akan kingdom politics. Day to day affairs were handled separately: women in their hierarchy and men in their own. Domestic issues involving both sides like marital conflict, rape,etc were handled by the female stool-holders while political issues of national importance like trade and warfare were handled by male stool-holders. It is patriarchy that confines women to domestic issues while men are seen as natural leaders who can handle toughest issues. The hardest pill to swallow from societies like the Akan Kingdom is that older males dominated, while also respecting the necessary representation and voice from all segments of society.
The Pabir Kingdom in Northeast of Nigeria was very patriarchal even with the maigira ( female monarch). To hold such a title, you had to have a connection with a former king so only daughters of kings were eligible . The Maigira had her own council but it was mainly made of men. Her councillors were chosen by the maigira herself but her chief minister, the dalta, was chosen by the King. The maigira was not involved in the selection of the new king. Her work just involved the 7 day transition from Prince to King, she would lead with him once he was once chosen. Once the new king was instated, she would submit to him and serve him. In the Pabir Kingdom, a woman was not allowed to be king. As a woman, she was forever excluded from holding royal power. As you can see, even this privileged woman was denied a certain power because of her gender. However women in the Pabir Kingdom were ruling in their own houses. They handled the domestic work while the men took care of more prominent matters.
The reality of these matrilineal societies used to justify matriarchy, is the lack of critical analysis. By definition, ‘matriarchy’ is a form of social organization where the power lies in the hands of women, whereas matrilineal descent is an anthropological term that refers to a specific form of inheritance in which property is transmitted through female lineage. The key is realizing that property was not transferred from one woman to another but rather through a woman’s male descendant. And that was another way men were dominating over women.
There are still many kingdoms to read and study about but I hope this serves as a foundation of the different realities of Ancient Africa.
Open References
1. Read about Queen Sebeknefru https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sebeknefru
2. Read about Queen Hatshepsut https://www.ancient.eu/hatshepsut/
3. Read about Queen Cleopatra: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cleopatra-queen-of-Egypt
4. Journal Article : Crossing the barrier of Time. The Asante woman in Urban Land development by Seth Opuni Asiama
5. Journal article: The Queenmother, Matriarchy, and the Question of Female Political Authority in Precolonial West African Monarchy by Tarikhu Farrar