Women who ruled over Africa

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. From reinmaking queens to dogged isolationists, the lives and reigns of Africa's female rulers have long been shrouded in mystery, misunderstanding and misogyny. Over the centuries and across the continent, these individuals navigated the rigid traditions of their own cultures to wield power even to the detriment of their subjects. Paula Ackpan's new book, When We Ruled, traces the lives of twelve powerful African women, challenging prevailing narratives to reveal a continent shaped by matriarchy and contested memories. Danny Bird spoke to her to find out more.

I want to start by talking about the women at the heart of your book. Many of them were figures of high social status wielding immense power. Could you tell me about some of these individuals and the time span you cover in your book? My book spans about the last 1,000 years, beginning with 12th century princess Moremi from Offa but came to rule in IlaIfe in present-day Nigeria.

And then we go through to the 17th century with Njinga, who's the ruler of Matamba and Ndongo, which is now present-day Angola, who was this gender-blurring ruler and was requiring that people address them as a king as well as a queen, for example. We have Ranavaluna of Madagascar, present-day Madagascar, but it was the kingdom of Imarina. And she is remembered as quite a huge villain, including amongst her people. And that is down to the very anti Christian

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