Reprinting here part of an entry that I entered last year on two African Queens, which I offer today as part of the Black Herstory series. Queen Hatshepsut (ruled in Ancient Egypt from 1479 to 1458 BCE) - I've been impressed with this ruler since I got to visit her temple when I vacationed in Egypt in the summer of 2006. And, even though it's hard to imagine such a movie being made that doesn't reproduce those gorgeously junky and overdone "Cleopatra" type productions of the past, let's at least hope that, this time, they get this Nubian queen appropriately represented in all her dark-skinned glory! Besides, any queen who dons a beard and demands to be treated like a man, while also plotting to ensure that her daughter ascends the throne after her, so as to subvert the male dominance of her kingdom, is a woman whose story needs to be told!
Queen Nzinga (1583-1663) - I learned about this African queen, who ruled over what is now Angola, in a Black History lesson. And while I was disturbed by the
way she treated one of her "ladies in waiting" - she turned one of them into a "seat" when the Portuguese, in their attempts to disrespect her when she met with them, expected her to sit on the floor while they sat in chairs - I still like the story of how she led her people in armed resistance against the Portuguese and prevented them from becoming captives in the slave trade. Although she joined the Dutch by way of building an alliance against the Portuguese and even converted to Christianity when she thought it was political to do so, her story reveals some important lessons about resistance and accommodation. She never surrendered.
Reprinting here part of an entry that I entered last year on two African Queens, which I offer today as part of the Black Herstory series. Queen Hatshepsut (ruled in Ancient Egypt from 1479 to 1458 BCE) - I've been impressed with this ruler since I got to visit her temple when I vacationed in Egypt in the summer of 2006. And, even though it's hard to imagine such a movie being made that doesn't reproduce those gorgeously junky and overdone "Cleopatra" type productions of the past, let's at least hope that, this time, they get this Nubian queen appropriately represented in all her dark-skinned glory! Besides, any queen who dons a beard and demands to be treated like a man, while also plotting to ensure that her daughter ascends the throne after her, so as to subvert the male dominance of her kingdom, is a woman whose story needs to be told! 
Queen Nzinga (1583-1663) - I learned about this African queen, who ruled over what is now Angola, in a Black History lesson. And while I was disturbed by the way she treated one of her "ladies in waiting" - she turned one of them into a "seat" when the Portuguese, in their attempts to disrespect her when she met with them, expected her to sit on the floor while they sat in chairs - I still like the story of how she led her people in armed resistance against the Portuguese and prevented them from becoming captives in the slave trade. Although she joined the Dutch by way of building an alliance against the Portuguese and even converted to Christianity when she thought it was political to do so, her story reveals some important lessons about resistance and accommodation. She never surrendered.
