QUEEN AMINA; THE LEGEND, THE SPIRIT, AND STRENGTH OF AN AFRICAN WOMAN

Whenever the empowerment of women is talked about, there are certain women of strength that are often cited, for instance, Queen Nefertiti of Egypt. These African royalties broke stereotypes and stepped out of the box women have been marked into. They were able to show real feminine energy. One of those queens was Queen Amina of Zaria.

She was known as the warrior Queen and also known as the first queen of a male-dominated society. She expanded the territory of the North African Hausa people. She diverted from her father’s peaceful practices and harnessed her arsenal of military skills with the Zazzau cavalry of which she later became their leader.

Amina was born in the middle of the sixteenth century CE, around 1533 to King Nikatau, the 22nd ruler of Zazzau, and Queen Bakwa Turunku.

When her father died, he was succeeded by Amina’s brother who was a leading warrior in his cavalry. After the death of her brother, Karama in 1576, she ascended to the position of queen becoming the first female leader in a male-dominated society.

When she became the queen she expanded the territory of the Hausa people to its largest borders in history through conquest.

In the pre-colonial era, men did not feel threatened when women were in powerful positions as it was usually understood that they deserved to be there because of age, kinship, or merit and not gender. Sometimes, men who were not performing their duties effectively were ousted by women.

Queen Amina reigned for 34 years and during those 34 years, she continued to fight and expand her kingdom to its greatest in history. Leading an army of 20,000 men, she tried to annex several surrounding cities and ruled Kano and Katsina at the cost of 34 years of almost uninterrupted warfare.

The expansion of her kingdom made it the trading center for all of Southern Hausa land, spanning the traditional east to west trans-Saharan axis and guaranteeing Zaria’s prosperity. She brought so much wealth to her land; the kingdom’s economy was boosted with gold, new crops and slaves. Her people were talented metal workers so she introduced armors which included iron helmets and chain mail to her army.

She fortified her city with strong earthen walls and this even became the prototype for fortifications used in all Hausa States. She built many of these walls around her conquered cities and they were later known as Ganuwar Amina or Amina’s walls. Then, walls were considered prestigious, their sizes considered a measure of a ruler’s ability to command the labor of his or her subjects. Many of these walls are still in existence today. The walls did not only protect Hausa markets from external threats that came from the South but went on to become a long lasting evidence of her glorious reign.

She is also remembered as the revered warrior queen that opened up trade routes and is believed to have initiated the cultivation of kola nuts in the territory she ruled.

Even as a queen, she still led her men to the battlefield and she fought to her death in 1610. Legend records that she died during a military campaign at Atagara, near Bida in Nigeria.

Much of what is known of Queen Amina is based on information relayed in the Kano chronicles, other stories are derived from the oral traditions of Nigeria and as such, some tales about her may be embellished and her tales have assumed legendary proportions in her native land and beyond. Her exploits earned her the denotation “Amina, daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man”.

Her legacy contradicts all stereotypes of women’s leadership in patriarchal African society where the inequality affects all aspects of society. The legacy of women like Amina point to the possibilities that exist for African women to reshape the destinies of their societies and communities. Today, her memory represents the spirit and strength of womanhood.

A statue of Amina has been erected in the modern state of Nigeria, in the center of Lagos; she is seen with a spear in hand and on a horse. This action has immortalized the legendary Queen.