The Indian-African Political Dynamic
Posted: Sunday, June 13, 2010

THE EDITOR: Many Africans, especially those who have traditionally supported the PNM, are concerned about a possible racist, Indian backlash from this People’s Partnership government. In examining these concerns we also have to understand the difference in the dynamics of racial politics today. We have to examine the significance of Jack Warner as chairman of the UNC (an Indian-based political party) and Cabinet minister in the People’s Partnership government. We also have to look at the shortcomings of the PNM as it pertains to race relations.

When supporters and members of political parties say, ‘we in power’ or ‘we lost power’ we have to be reminded that they are emotionally tied to these political parties. They share a communal sense of well-being. As with all political parties, the supporters also live vicariously through their party’s oligarchy. Most grassroots supporters in Trinidad and Tobago are comforted with a sense of inclusion through seeing their racial kind in leadership.

Many Africans remember the “Is We Turn Now” language and conduct from many Indians when the Panday-led UNC was in government during the period 1995 to 2001. Having seen political power for the first time many Indians in their exuberance were openly spewing their racial dislike for Africans. One must also remember that Basdeo Panday solidified himself as the political leader of Indians by appealing to them on a racial level at every turn. He convinced many Indians that they were under a constant racial assault from the PNM. So in many respects, Africans do have reason to be distrustful of Indians in leadership.

This People’s Partnership government is somewhat different, besides the obvious fact that it is led by an Indian woman who has broad appeal across racial lines. At this point in time, this government does not have the appearance of being an extremely elitist, Indian-controlled coalition. The UNC and the People’s Partnership coalition both have a better image today and this is largely due to the presence of one man: Jack Warner. He is the only African in a leadership position in the alliance, who, by virtue of being relatively financially independent and powerful in his own right, will not be seen as a stooge of the Indian elite or anyone else. Without Warner, all the other Africans in the coalition could be considered subordinates to Indian elites.

If Warner is ever forced out of that party or demoted in government then the People’s Partnership would be led by several elitist-type Indians who were staunch defenders of Basdeo Panday’s failed leadership. They did not take a stand with Warner in calling for UNC’s internal party elections which eventually ended Panday’s political control and which made the UNC attractive to the wider populace for a chance in government.

It is in this light that Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who herself did not take an early stand to remove Panday, must unequivocally defend Jack Warner except if he flagrantly breaks the law.

Many Africans, who are supportive of this partnership, for now, are cautiously keeping an eye on how they deal with Jack Warner and how they control Indian racism.

Of course, because of how Jack Warner invested in Chaguanas and other parts of Trinidad, many poor Indians and Africans are grateful to him and defend him as their representative. This is a welcoming sign because poor Indians are usually the force behind the Indian elites, and with their support behind Jack Warner, he cannot be easily discarded.

Having said this, I am personally not too bothered by some of the racist comments that I hear from some Indians. I am sure that there are racist Indians in the People’s Partnership government. But many Indians, including the ones who spew racial venom, are quite aware that this People’s Partnership victory was dependent on several African factors – Jack Warner’s leadership and finance, and the increased support from Africans on the ground. For this government to survive they will need the ongoing support of Africans in and out of government.

I have also long heard many Africans utter racist comments about Indians. Christian-Africans through the PNM have dominated political power in this country for a long time and have even marginalized other Africans who promote African awareness. Many Christian-Africans consider any indigenous form of worship to be evil, so their prejudice is not only towards Indians but even other Africans who engage traditional African religious practices. They, like ex-PM Manning, consider the wearing of traditional African clothes on a regular basis to be backward (they make a costumed allowance for the Emancipation celebrations). This Christianized-African PNM dominance has also contributed to Indians holding firm to what they perceived as their only political vehicle, the UNC and its earlier manifestations. It is no surprise that even when Indians were disappointed in Basdeo Panday, they did not throw their support behind the PNM. PNM represented a dominant African-based political force over them.

African PNM supporters should not be in the position they are today of feeling threatened by racist Indians. PNM has been in political power the longest and if they were unable to make their support base feel better about themselves and to be in a position to challenge and defeat any racist group in Trinidad and Tobago, it is their fault. If the PNM government did not allow the education system to comprehensively address racism, then guess who is to blame? It is foolhardy for PNM members to feel that maintaining PNM in power at any cost is about resistance to Indian racism. Their complacency in the PNM is why the party always played down the concerns of African activists who sought to engender African consciousness. PNM’s inability to consider African-centred folks to be worthy of promotion in the political landscape is partly responsible for their party members’ low self-image.

There is a history of PNM disrespecting and disregarding African activists even while facilitating Indian culture in the state media in an attempt to woo Indian voters. This foolish policy that denied Africans and allowed Indians to use the state media, inadvertently allowed Indian activists to use the same state media to consolidate their political forces against the dominant PNM. PNM members were never interested in what was being presented under the guise of Indian cultural programs. They smugly thought that PNM would be in power forever.

While Indian activists stepped up their campaign of building political awareness and started challenging the status quo in the early 90′s, Christianized PNM supporters were caught unaware. They could not decipher which Indian concerns were legitimate and which were illegitimate. The presence of Dr. Cudjoe only helped a little except that Africans who gravitated to him were mostly interested in rivaling Sat Maharaj and other Indians. This is not sufficient to raise the consciousness of Africans so they could liberate themselves while preparing them to guard against both external and internal threats.

Africans who feel threatened this time around can use this time to learn the many lessons that they have traditionally neglected – especially African history – to first raise their awareness to become more creative and more astute financially and politically. If they do this while aligning themselves with other progressive Africans they would never have to feel threatened by anyone.

PNM members (most of whom are Christians) have to be a lot more honest and stop only looking at racism in the context of what some Indians spew and do, but also look at themselves and see how they are racist towards Indians too. They also have to examine their prejudices toward other Africans who adhere to African traditions.

By HERU

In Ancient times Nile Valley Afrikans oriented their temples to the south because it was the place of their origins. All the earliest Kemetic temples were oriented with the “Holy of Holies” (The most sacred part of the temple where the deity was said to reside) facing south. The Peraa’(Pharoah’s) mummy when buried was oriented towards the south as well for that reason. Not everyone follows or always followed the European model of the world.  Click image for more

The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies

In the 21st dynasty of the Pharaos, 3,000 years ago, there took place one night at a temple, the funeral of Henut Taui – the Lady of the Two lands.

Compared to the great rulers of Egypt, her burial was a modest affair. But just like the Pharaos, she too was mummified, and her body placed in the depths of a desert tomb, in the belief it would give her immortality.

In an unexpected way, it has. Her mummified body waited throughout recorded history – the Greeks and Romans, the Dark and Middle ages, the Renaissance and Napoleon, until in the early 19th century, her tomb was plundered.

The king of Bavaria bought the ornate sarcophagus with the mummy inside. He gave it to a museum in Munich, where for another century, Henut Taui lay undisturbed.

Then four years ago a German scientist, Dr Svetla Balabanova, made a discovery which was to baffle Egyptologists, and call into question whole areas of science and archeology to chemistry and botany.

She discovered that the body of Henut Taui contained large quantities of cocaine and nicotine. The surprise was not just that the ancient Egyptians had taken drugs, but that these drugs come from tobacco and coca, plants completly unknown outside the Americas, unheard of until Sir Walter Raleigh introduced smoking from the New World, or until cocaine was imported in the Victorian era.

It was seemingly impossible for the ancient Egyptians to get hold of these substances. And so began the mystery -

The mystery of the cocaine mummies.

It was in Munich, in 1992, that researchers began a huge project to investigate the contents of mummies. When as part of their studies, they wanted to test for drugs, it was no surprise that they turned to toxicologist Dr Svelta Balabanova for help.

As the inventor of groundbreaking new methods for the detection of drugs in hair and sweat, she was highly respected in her field. Dr Balabanova took samples from the mummies, which she pulverised and dissolved to make a solution. As she’d done countless times before, she ran the samples through a system which uses antibodies to detect the presence of drugs an other substances. Then as a backup the samples were put through the GCMS machine which can accurately identify substances by determining their molecular weight. As the graph emerged with peaks showing that drugs were present, and as the printer spewed out the analysis of just which drugs, something seemed to have gone very wrong.

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA – Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm:
“The first positive results, of course, were a shock for me. I had not expected to find nicotine and cocaine but that’s what happened. I was absolutely sure it must be a mistake.”

NARRATOR:
Balabanova ran the tests again. She sent fresh samples to three other labs. But the results kept being confirmed. The drugs were there. So she went ahead and published a paper. The reaction was a sharp reminder that science is a conservative world.

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA – Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm:
“I got a pile of letters that were almost threatening, insulting letters saying it was nonsense, that I was fantasising, that it was impossible, because it was proven that before Columbus these plants were not found anywhere in the world outside of the Americas.”

NARRATOR:
From toxicologists to anthropologists – everyone thought the same.

DR JOHN HENRY – Consultant Toxicologist, Guys Hospital, London:
“The first thing you think of is that this is just mad. It’s wrong. There’s contamination present. Maybe there’s a fraud present of some kind. You don’t think that cocaine can be present in an Egyptian mummy.”

NARRATOR:
Yet Balabanova herself had been worried about contamination. First she checked all the lab equipment. But being a forensic toxicologist, that wasn’t all she did. Balabanova had learned her trade from working for the police, and had been trained in the methods they use for investigating a suspicious death. She’d been taught how vital it is when an autopsy is carried out to know wether the victim has consumed or been given any drugs or poisons. And she had also been taught that a special forensic technique exists which can show that the deceased has consumed a drug and rule out contamination at the same time.

So, anxious to ensure that her tests on the mummies were beyond reproach, she used this very technique – it’s called the hair shaft test. Drugs and other substances consumed by humans get into the hair protein, where they stay for months, or after death – forever. Hair samples can be washed in alcohol and the washing solution itself then tested. If the testing solution is clear, but the hair tests positive, then the drug must be inside the hair shaft, which means the person consumed it during their lifetime. It’s considered proof against contamination before or after death.

DR JOHN HENRY – Consultant Toxicologist, Guys Hospital, London:
“The hair shaft test is accepted. If you know that you’ve taken your hair sample from this individual and the hair shaft is known to contain a drug, then it is proof positive that the person has taken that drug. So it is accepted in law. It’s put people into prison.”

NARRATOR:
The hair shaft test on a couple in Jersey [Channel Is.], showed their two sons had drugged them before killing them. And aside from the Newall case , the technique has been used in countless others over the last 25 years. Since it’s also used for drugs tests on addicts, company employees and in sport, to suggest it could produce false results was for Balabanova unthinkable.

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA – Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm:
“There’s no way there can be a mistake in this test. This method is widely accepted and has been used thousands of times. If the results are not genuine, then the explanation must lie elswhere, and not in my tests, because I’m 100 percent certain about the results.”

NARRATOR:
If the fault was not in the tests, what else could lie behind the impossibility of mummies containing drugs from coca and tobacco, from a continent not discovered until over 1,000 years after the end of the Egyptian civilisation? In search of an explanation, we went to one of the UK’s foremost authorities on mummies, a person who had spent years rummaging around in the bodies of ancient Egyptians, Rosalie David.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“When I was informed that cocaine had been found in Egyptian mummies, I was absolutely astounded. It seemed quite impossible that this should be the case.”

NARRATOR:
Sceptical of Balabanova’s results, Rosalie David decided to get some sampless from her own mummies and have them tested especially for ‘Equinox’.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“What we shall do is to provide tissue samples and a hair sample from a number of mummies in the Manchester Museum collection. I shall be very surprised to find they had cocaine in them.”

NARRATOR:
It would be a while before the results came back from the lab. Rosalie David’s motive was not only to independently check Balabanova’s methods. She also wanted to run the same tests but on different mummies. For she had more than one idea about how Balabanova could have got a misleading result.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“There were two ideas that sprang immediately to mind. One was that possibly something in the tests could give a false result. The second was that possibly the mummies that had been tested were not truly ancient Egyptian, that they could be some of these false, relativly modern mummies, and traces of cocaine could be in those individuals.”

NARRATOR:
What Rosalie David was referring to happened in Egypt in Victorian Times. It was a gruesome operation to supply the antique dealers of Luxor.

When 19th century travellers went to Egypt in search of mummies and other valuables, the dealers might not have the genuine article available. And so the crudely mummified body of a recently dead Egyptian might be procured instead. For a shrivelled corpes would greatly increase the value of a genuine but empty sarcophagus.

Sometimes collectors would buy only limbs or other mummified spare parts. These are doubly suspect for the trade in fake mummies, especially separate heads and limbs, has an even older origin.

Eating the flesh of mummies was a common 16th century practice in Europe. People believed that mummies contained a black tar called bitumen, and so thought powder made from the ground up bodies would cure various illnesses.

This is the very origin of the word mummy, from the Persian for bitumen, mummia, and although it made people sick a roaring trade in powdered mummia grew, supplied from body parts and tissue shipped in bulk from Egypt.

The temptation to resort to fakes was high.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“Very soon, the demand outstripped the supply and certainly in the 16th century a French physician undertook a study of this trade. And he found that in fact they were burying bodies of convicted criminals in the sand. They were producing mummies, and these then became a source for the medicinal ingredient.”

NARRATOR:
Could it be that the mummies Balabanova tested were fakes? Carbon dating on mummies often produces incorrect results, so archaeologists often rely on the provenance – knowing what tomb and excavation the mummy comes from and on examination of the mummification techniques.

So the only way for Rosalie David to check out here theory about fakes was to travel to Munich to see for herself the seven mummies that were the cause of all the fuss.

The Munich mummies as they are known, belong to the city’s Egyptian Museum, which is housed in the old palace of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who started the collection.

Inside the museum, Rosalie David found the sarcophagus of Henut Taui – the Lady of the Two Lands. She discovered from the museum catalogue that the coffin was bought by King Ludwig from an English traveller called Dodwell in 1845. There was no record of an exact excavation, but Henut Taui was said to have come from a tomb reserved for the priests and priestesses of the god Amun in Thebes.

But while being shown the other coffins Rosalie David discovered that apart from Henut Taui, most of the Munich mummies are of unknown origin, and some of the tested mummies turned out to be only detatched heads. According to the museum, research had revealed inscriptions, amulets and complex embalming methods, which the museum claimed proved the mummies were ancient.

DR ALFRED GRIMM – Curator, The Egyptian Museum, Munich:
“The investigation shows clearly that the Munich mummies are real Egyptian mummies, no fakes, no modern mummies. They come from ancient Egypt.”

NARRATOR:
The obvious way to prove this was to show the mummies to Rosalie David, but all the museum would let her see were empty sarcophogi.

DR ALFRED GRIMM – Curator, The Egyptian Museum, Munich:
“On grounds of religious respect we don’t show these mummies here in our galleries. That’s one point. The other is we don’t allow to film the mummies and to show them on TV.”

NARRATOR:
It wasn’t always so, for the mummies had already been shown on television. But this German film [film showing mummified bodies without wrappings] announcing Balabanova’s results has caused quite a fuss. And so now, even though giving access might defeat the accusation of harbouring bogus mummies, it seemed that the museum wanted nothing more to do with the research they politely pointed out was far from respectable.

DR ALFRED GRIMM – Curator, The Egyptian Museum, Munich:
“It’s not absolutely proven and I think it’s not absolutely scientifically correct.”

NARRATOR:
Rosalie had to make do with research papers and books from the museum. Were the Munich mummies fakes? Despite her initial suspicions she decided that on balance, they probably were the real thing.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“From the documentation and the research which has been carried out on the Munich mummies it seems evident that they are probably genuine because they have packages of viscera inside, some with wax images of the gods on them and also the state of mummification itself is very good. I would say that the detatched heads we can’t comment on, but the complete bodies probably are genuine.”

NARRATOR:
And if that wasn’t enough, it turned out that the results from the Munich mummies were not the only evidence from the dead. The anthropologists who originally ordered the tests didn’t continue the project. But Balabanova, alongside her normal research into the metabolism of drugs started requesting samples of other ancient human remains from universities. And it was then that she got more results from Egypt.

She tested tissue from 134 naturally preserved bodies from an excavated cemetery in the Sudan, once part of the Egyptian empire. Although from a later period, the bodies were still many centuries before Columbus discovered the Americas. About a third of them tested positive for nicotine and cocaine.

Balabanova was mystified by the presence of cocaine in Africa but thought she might have a way of explaining the nicotine. As well as Egypt and the Sudan, she tested bodies from China, Germany and Austria, spanning a period from 3700BC to 1100AD. A percentage of bodies from all these other regions also contained nicotine.

[Graph showing presence of nicotine: Percentage of bodies with positive result - Egypt:89% Sudan:90% China:62.5% Germany:34% Austria 100%]

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA – Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm:
“I continued to work on it because I wanted to be sure of my results, and after 3000 samples I, was absolutely certain that the tobacco plant was known in Europe and Africa long before Columbus.”

NARRATOR:
Far from being solved, the mytery that began in Egypt was spreading. Balabanova was suggesting that an unknown type of tobacco had grown in Europe, Africa and Asia thousands of years ago. But every schoolchild knows that tobacco was discovered in the New World. She was asking for a substantial slice of botany and history to be completely rewritten. Would anyone back her up?

Dr Balabonova had told us that we might find the secret of the mysterious presence of nicotine and cocaine in Egyptan mummies in the ancient plants of Africa. Perhaps there had been drug plants which the Egyptians had used but had vanished along with their civilisation. This led to a much more basic question. Were the Egyptians, the great Pharaos and pyramid builders really users and abusers of drugs?

The clues can be found hidden in the walls of the grand temple of Karnak. The entire building is covered depictions of the lotus flower from the tops of the vast columns to the pictograms on the walls. Until recently, Egyptologists took this most commonplace Egyptian symbol to have only a religious meaning. But according to some the true significance of the lotus has been overlooked.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“The lotus was a very powerful narcotic which was used in ancient Egypt and presumably, was widespread in this use, because we see many scenes of idividuals holding a cup and dropping a lotus flower into the cup which contained wine, and this would be a way of releasing the narcotic.

“The ancient Egyptians certainly used drugs. As well as lotus they had mandrake and cannabis, and there is a strong suggestion the also used opium.

“So although it very surprising to find cocaine in mummies, the other elements were certainly in use.”

NARRATOR:
So the Pharaos clearly indulged in drugs. Hashish – which Balabanova also found in the mummies – is an Egyptian tradition which has survived for thousands of years, although nowadays, in public, pipes tend to be filled with nothing more than tobacco.

By contrast, the narcotic blue lotus flower, once so essential at parties, is now on the verge of extinction. And if it could disappear, why not other drug plants? We decided to persue Balabanova’s unusual theory that an ancient species of tobacco might once have grown in the Old World.

Small amounts of nicotine are present in a wide variety of plants and foods, but the high concentrations sought by smokers can only be found in tobacco.

[Graph showing quantities of nicotine: Concentrations in bone samples - Modern Smoker in nanograms/gram :c40ng China:c55ng Germany:c65ng Sudan:c45ng Egyptian Mummies:Off screen!]

The idea of a lost species of tobacco came to Balabanova because the concentrations in the bodies from Asia and Europe were similar to modern day smokers.

But one thing had puzzled her. At 35 times the dose for smokers, the amounts of nicotine she had found in Egyptian mummies were potentially lethal.

But first, Balabanova was baffled, but then she had a thought. The high doses of nicotine in Egyptian bodies could be explained if the tobacco – as well as being consumed – had also been used in mummification.

Over their 3000 year history the Egyptian preists kept the recipe of spices and herbs used to preerve the thousands of people and millions of animals they mummified a closely guarded secret.

The high levels of nicotine in tobacco can kill bacteria. Could it have been one of their secrets?

Balabanova looked through old literature about the bodies of the great Pharaos and queens themselves. No longer under the care of the preists the fragile royal mummies are now kept in strict atmospheric conditions in the Cairo museum.

But Balabanova discovered a story from the days when scientists could still tamper with them – a story that had almost been forgotten.

Ramses II died in 1213BC, a few hundered years before Henut Taui. When he was mummified, every possible skill and every rare ingredient was used by the embalmers to try to preserve his body for eternity. For where Henut Tuai was only a preistess, Ramses was arguably the mightiest of all the Pharaos.

His imposing image adorns most of Egypts famous sites for he presided over the Golden Age of it’s civilisation, and as a skilled military commander, won the conquests that made it into a powerful empire.

What interested Balabanova was what happened to Ramses 3000 years later, when he went on his final royal visit.

“Les chercheurs francais ont realise de nouvelles descouvertes en etudient la momie du pharon Ramses II.” [Excerpt from TV France]

On september 26th, 1976, amid all the pomp and circumstance – due a visiting head of state – French TV cameras recorded the arrival of the mummy of Ramses II at an airport in Paris. An exhibition about him at the museum of mankind was planned.

But the body was found to be badly deteriorated, so a battery of scientist set about trying to repair this damage.

The bandages wrapped around the mummy needed replacing, so botanists were given pieces of the fabric to analyse what it was made of. One found some plant fragments in her piece, and took a closer look. Emerging on the slide, according to her experience, were the unmistakable features – the tiny crystals and filaments – of a plant that couldn’t possibly be there.

DR MICHELLE LESCOT – Natural History Museum, Paris:
“I prepared the slides, put them under the microscope and what did I see? Tobacco. I said to myself, that’s just not possible – I must be dreaming. The Egyptians didn’t have tobacco. It was brought from South America at the time of Christopher Columbus. I looked again, and I tried to get a better view and I thought, well, it’s only a first analysis. I worked feverishly and I forgot to have lunch that day. But I kept getting the same result.”

NARRATOR:
Amid a storm of publicity. people alleged – just as they did with Balabanova’s results – that this must be a case of contamination. It’s a view shared today by Ramses’ keeper at the Cairo museum, who suspects there is a straightforward explanation.

PROF NASRI ISKANDER – Chief Curator, Cairo Museum:
“According to my knowledge and experience, most of the archeologists and scientists, who worked on these fields, smoked pipes. And I myself have been smoking pipes for more than 25 years. Then maybe a piece of the tobacco dropped by haphazard or just anyway and to tell this is right or wrong we have to be more careful”

NARRATOR:
To combat the allegations of careless smoking Michelle Lescot extracted new samples from deep inside the body of Ramses’ mummy and took care to document it with photographs. And as far as she was concerned, these samples again gave the same result – tobacco.

So was Lecot’s discovery the proof Balabanova needed for an ancient species of tobacco? For a second opinion, we went to the herbarium at the Natural History Museum to find an expert on tobacco who had seen Lescot’s published work. She argued that Lescot’s evidence would only identify the family from which tobacco comes, and not the specific plant.

DR SANDY KNAPP – Natural History Museum, London:
“I think that they had a certain amount of evidence, and they took the evidence one step farther than the evidence really allowed them. Sometimes you can only go so far down the road towards telling what something is, and then you come against a wall an you can’t go any farther, otherwise you start to make something up.”

NARRATOR:
Sandy Knapp thought the plant from Ramses was more likely to be another member of the tobacco family, which is known to have existed in ancient Egypt, such as henbane, mandrake or belladonna.

DR SANDY KNAPP – Natural History Museum, London:
“I think it is very unlikely that tobacco has an alternative history, because, I think we would’ve heard about it. There’d be some use of it present in either literature, temple carvings, somewhere there would’ve been evidence to point and say ‘Ah, that’s tobacco’, but there’s nothing.”

DR MICHELLE LESCOT – Natural History Museum, Paris:
“I’ts true that the official theory is tobacco originates in South America. It’s also true that there are species in Australasia and the Pacific Islands. There could have been other varieties, ancient varities that once existed in Asia. Why not Africa? Varieties that have now disappeared so it’s not sacrilege to challenge the official theory.”

NARRATOR:
The jury was still out on the vanished species of tobacco though Michelle Lescot was convinced that her identification had been correct. But she couldn’t help with the cocaine, for it seemed not even one botanist believed in a disappearing coca plant.

DR SANDY KNAPP – Natural History Museum, London:
“Finding cocaine in these Egyptian mummies – botanically speaking – is almost impossible. I mean, there is always a chance that there might be some sort of plant there, but I think there is some sort of mistake. There is something wrong there. I can’t explain it from a plant point of view at all.”

NARRATOR:
For thousands of years people in the Andes have been chewing coca leaves, to get out the cocaine with it’s stimulant, anaesthetic and euphoric properties. There are actually species of the coca family which grow in Africa, but only the South American species has ever been shown to contain the drug. Since cocaine is not in any other plants, Balabanova was completely mystified, but she thought she might have just one possible idea.

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA – Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm:
“The cocaine of course remains an open question. It’s a mystery – it’s completely unclear how cocaine could get into Africa. On the other hand, we know there were trade relationships long before Columbus, and it’s conceivable that the coca plant had been imported into Egypt even then.”

NARRATOR:
An ancient Egyptian drug trade stretching all the way across the Atlantic Ocean? This was an idea so far-fetched it could only be considered once all the others had been eliminated, the idea that the Egyptians had been able to obtain imports from a place thousands of miles away from a continent supposedly not discovered until thousands of years later.

Was it possible that coca – a plant from South America had been finding it’s way to Egypt 3,000 years ago?

If the cocaine found in mummies could not be explained by contamination, or fake mummies or by Egyptian plants containing it, there appeared to be only one remaining possibility… An international drug trade who’s links extended all the way to the Americas.

To obtain incense, myrrh and other valuable plants used in religious ceremonies and herbal medicines, it’s true, the Egyptians were prepared to go to great lengths.

Even if traders, like today, made all sorts of exotic claims for the source of their products, there is, nevertheless, clear evidence of ancient contats as far east as Syria and Iraq. The extended north into Cyprus, south into Sudan and Somalia and west into Lybia, but America? To the majority of archeologists, the idea is hardly worth talking about.

PROF JOHN BAINES – Egyptologist, Oxford University:
“The idea that the Egyptians were travelling to America is, overall, absurd. I don’t know of anyone who is professionally employed as an Egyptologist, anthropologist or archeaologist who seriously believes in any of these possibilities, and I also don’t know anyone who spends time doing research into these areas because they’re perceived to be areas with any real meaning for the subjects.”

NARRATOR:
But on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where the moving current of the Gulf Stream arrives in Mexico directly from the west coast of Africa, there is a professionally-employed anthropologist who does seriously beleive in such possibilities.

PROF ALICE KEHOE – Anthropologist, Marquette University:
“I think there is good evidence that there was both trans-atlantic and trans-pacific travel before Columbus. When we try to talk about trans-oceanic contact, people that are standard archeologists get very, um, skittish, and they want to change the subject or move away. They suddenly see a friend across the room – they don’t want to pursue the subject at all. They seem to feel that it’s some kind of contagious disease they don’t want to touch, or it will bring disaster to them.”

NARRATOR:
Why was the mere contemplation of voyages before Columbus or the Viking crossings to America, thought to be some sort of curse?

It was in 1910 that some early antropologists began to theorise that the stepped pyramids in Mexico might not have been the invention of the American Indians. Could the technology have come from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, from Egypt, where there were also stepped pyramids?

After spotting other trans-atlantic similarities, anthropologists began to argue that all civilisation was ivented in Egypt and later handed down to what they regarded as primitive societies. The implication that Old World culture was superior was thought acceptable at that time.

But the arrival of modern dating techniques showed that the similarities were far more likely to be independant developements. For example, the Egyptians abandoned pyramids with steps in favour of smooth ones 2,000 years before the first stepped pyramids occur in the Americas. What’s more, the suggestion that American Indians couldn’t build their own civilisations became highly unpopular.

Despite a breif revival in the 1970′s when anthtropologist Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic in a primitive reed boat, research into ancient contact with America was frowned on, even if connected with theories of cultural superiority.

But the idea that the ability of the ancients to cross the oceans might have been underestimated continues to be quietly whispered about. Over the years evidence has grown which suggests it might be time to look again at such voyages. To imagine that the Egyptians, who apparently only sailed up and down the Nile or into the Red Sea, might get as far as the Americas perhaps sounds fantastical. But in science, what is one day thought absurd, can next day become accepted as fact.

[Picture of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland]

One senior academic thinks it’s important to remember that before the discovery of this Norse settlement in Newfoundland in 1965 theories about Viking voyages to America were dismissed as nonsense.

PROF MARTIN BERNAL – Historian, Cornell University:
“What we’ve seen is a shift from the idea of Viking landings in America being seen as completely fantastic or partisan, to being accepted by every scholar in the field.”

NARRATOR: The fact that evidence of the Viking crossings was hidden has encouraged Martin Bernal to contemplate even earlier voyages that are likewise dismissed as impossible.

PROF MARTIN BERNAL – Historian, Cornell University:
“I have no reason to doubt that there were others – but what they were, and how much influence they had on American society is open to question. But that trans-oceanic voyages are possible – or were possible – seems to me to be overwhelmingly likely.”

NARRATOR:
A likelihood Bernal believes is reinforced by some Roman jars found in 1975 in a place called the Bay of Jars in Brazil. It’s been suggessted that a Roman galley could be buried under the sea. But he interpretation of such finds is heavily disputed.

PROF JOHN BAINES – Egyptologist, Oxford University:
“They would fit the possibility that there was the odd ship that by mistake ended up on the other side of the Atlantic. What they’re not going to fit is the idea of sustained two way contact, because there is a huge amount of historical evidence from the Roman world, but there is nothing to suggesst such contact existed.”

PROF MARTIN BERNAL – Historian, Cornell University:
“They can’t have been planted because the bay was known as the Bay of Jars since the 18th century, so that Roman jars had been turning up, and this links up with indirect Roman documentary evidence of contact.”

NARRATOR:
The Bay of Jars is only one of several oddities claimed as evidence of trans-atlantic contacts. Also in Brazil, there is an inscription said to be in an ancient Mediterranean language. Meanwhile, in Mexico, there are 3,000 year old figurines with beards, a feature unknown in native Americans plus colossal statues that are said to look African, and an apparent picture of a pineapple – an American fruit – has been found in Pompeii.

But if tobacco from Mexico or coca from the Andes was carried across an ocean, it apparently need not have been the Atlantic. According to Alice Kehoe, a number of other American plants mysteriously turn up outside the “sealed” continent. But they are found on the other side of the Pacific.

PROF ALICE KEHOE – Anthropologist, Marquette University:
“The one that absolutely proves trans-pacific vaoyaging is the sweet potato. There are also discoveries of peanuts more than 2,000 years ago in western China. There is a temple is southern India that has sculptures of goddesses holding what looks like ears of maize or corn.”

NARRATOR:
And if American maize might have got as far as India, why couldn’t tobacco or coca have reached Egypt? They could have come across the Pacific to China or Asia and then overland to Africa. The Egyptians need not have travelled to America at all, or known where the plants had originated, but could have got them indirectly, through a network of world trade. But any ancient trade route that includes America is unacceptable in archeology.

PROF JOHN BAINES – Egyptologist, Oxford University:
“I don’t think it is at all likely that there was an ancient trade network that included America. The essential problem with any such idea is that there are no artefacts to back it up that have been found either in Europe or in America. And I know that people produce examples of possible things, but they’re really very implausible.”

NARRATOR:
Yet discovery of minute strands of silk found in the hair of a mummy from Luxor could suggest the trade stretching from Egypt to the Pacific. For silk at this time was only known to come from China. Martin Bernal argues that it would be a pity to replace earlier cultural arrogance with an arrogant belief in progrss.

PROF MARTIN BERNAL – Historian, Cornell University:
“We’re getting more and more evidence of world trade at an earlier stage. You have the Chinese silk definitely arriving in Egypt by 1000BC. I think modern scholars have a tendency to believe rigidly in progress and the idea that you could only have a worldwide trading network from the 18th century onwards, is our temporal arrogance – that it’s only modern people that can do these things.”

NARRATOR:
The evidence for ancient trade with America is limited, and most of it is disputed, but it can’t be completely ruled out as explaining the apparent impossibility of Balabanova’s results, results that at first seemed so absurd many thought they would be explained away by a simple story of a botch-up in a lab, results that still without firm explanation continue to crop up in unexpected places.

For in Manchester, the mummies under the care of Rosalie David, the Egyptologist once so sure that Balabanova had made a mistake, produced some odd results of their own.

ROSALIE DAVID – Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum:
“We’ve received results back from the tests on our mummy tissue samples and two of the samples and the one hair sample both have evidence of nicotine in them. I’m really very surprised at this.”

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA – Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm:
“The results of the tests on the Manchester mummies have made me very happy after all these years of being accuesed of false results and contaminated results, so I was delighted to hear nicotine had been found in these mummies, and very, very happy to have this enormous confirmation of my work.”

NARRATOR:
The tale of Henut Taui shows that in science facts can be rejected if they don’t fit with our beleifs while what is believed proven, may actually be uncertain.

Little wonder then, that a story that began with one scientist, a few mummies and some routine tests, in no time at all could upset whole areas of knowledge we thought we could take for granted.

Africa’s Warrior Queens: Gender Roles, Political Leadership and Societal Development

Nana Yaa Asantewa was a great African queen who led a rebellion against British imperialism in Ghana during 1900. The Africans in the region fought decades to reverse the rise of colonialism.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Africa’s Warrior Queens

Gender Roles, Political Leadership and Societal Development

by Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor
Pan-African News Wire

One major recurrent feature of African history is the existence of women rulers throughout various regions of the continent. Since the period of ancient dynastic Egypt, there have been notable women who have led monarchical societies and exercised political, economic as well as military power.

It is also of great significance that there were women rulers of highly developed African societies who led anti-slavery and anti-colonial resistance to the onslaught of European imperialism. Questions related to whether the women may have only represented the ruling groups within the society or whether they were more compassionate and egalitarian in their style of leadership, does not necessarily distract from their important place in history that distinguishes this social phenomena from other societies in Europe and Asia.

According to the web site “African Women Warriors” located at http://www.geocities.com/jywanza1/AfrikanWarriors.html

“Matriarchal warrior tribes and matrilineal tribal descent are a continuing theme in African history and in some cases survived into modern times. One of the great African warrior queens of the ancient world was Majaji, who led the Lovedu tribe which was part of the Kushite Empire during the Kushite’s centuries long war with Rome. The empire ended in 350 AD when the Kushite stronghold of Meroe fell to repeated Roman assaults. Majaji led her warriors in battle armed with a shield and spear and is believed to have died on the walls of Meroe.

“The Egyptian warrior queens included Ahotep, the 7 Cleopatras and Arsinoe II & III, all of who descended from the royal house of Kush. They ruled Egypt and led her army and navy through Roman times. A succession of Ethiopian Queens and military leaders known as Candace were also descended from the Kush. The first Candace, leading an army mounted on war elephants, turned back Alexander’s invasion of Ethiopia in 332 BC. In 30 BC Candace Amanirenas defeated an invasion by Patronius, the Roman governor of Egypt and sacked the city of Cyrene.

“In 937 AD Judith, Queen of the Falash, attacked Axum, sacred capital of Ethiopia, killing all the inhabitants including the descendants of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.”

In this essay five women will be noted for their leadership roles in African history during very important periods of social transformation within the societies they came out of and took over either through inheritance or political struggle.

Hatshepsut: A Ruler in Ancient Egypt

Hatshepsut is often considered the first woman ruler of ancient Egypt. She was born during the 15th century BC, the daughter of Tuthmose I and Ashmes, who were of royal lineage. She was one of three children who survived the childhood deaths of her brothers.

Even though her father Tuthmose I had a son by a commoner Moutnofrit, Tuthmose II, Hatshepsut ruled as a result of her political acumen and personal capability. Tuthmose II died early of cancer after claiming authority for three or four years. Hatshepsut was able to garner enough support among the key elements within Eygptian society to take control as pharaoh. Her rule lasted approximately 15 years. Her death is reported to have occurred in 1458 BC.

In an article by David Bediz entitled “The Story of Hatshepsut” he states that:

“Although there were no wars during her reign, she proved her sovereignty by ordering expeditions to the land of Punt, in present-day Somalia, in search of the ivory, animals, spices, gold and aromatic trees that Egyptians coveted. These expeditions are well documented in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of her temple. With these inscriptions are included incised representations of the journey, including humorous images of the Puntites and their queen, at whom the Egyptians no doubt looked while restraining a giggle; the queen has folds of fat hanging over her knees and elbows, her back is crooked and she has an acquiline nose. To the short, thin Egyptians she was probably quite a sight.”

During Hatshepsut’s rule she constructed many monuments and works of art unrivaled by any other queen to come in Egypt. She erected an enormous temple in the Valley of the Kings near a large plateau at Deir-el-Bahri just adjacent to the Nile River from Thebes.
http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/story.html

Queen Mantatisi (1781-1836): Commander of the Batlokoa (The Wild Cat People) of Southern Africa

Perhaps one of the most well-known and feared women military leaders during the early 19th century was Mantatisi who was born the daughter of Chief Mothaba of the Basia in the Harrismith District of the later Orange Free State. She became the wife of Mokotjo, the chief of the neighboring Batlokoa. Mokotjo died while their son Sekonyela was still to young to take over control of the chieftiancy. As a result Mantatisi assumed control and acted as regent for Sekonyela.

Reports claim that Mantatisi was a tall attractive woman who bore her husband four sons altogether. After her husband’s death a series of military encroachments by the AmaHlubi clans who were fleeing their homes in neighboring Natal. According to historians of the region, Mantatisi commanded the Batlokoa into the Caledon Valley where they drove out the more peaceful Sotho clans living in the area. Her troops seized the crops and cattle of the people they attacked leaving a trail of destruction and devastation.

Her reign of military conquest extended as far as central modern day Botswana. At the height of her military and political power her army was estimated to contain forty thousand fighters. However, she eventually suffered a series of defeats beginning in Bechuanaland in January of 1823. Peter Becker describes the developments during this period when he states that:

“Meanwhile Mantatisi was approaching with forty thousand men, women and children. It was January 1823, the time of the year crops were ripening and food was usually plentiful. But the Wild Cat People were compelled to live frugally, for so great had been the chaos brought about by lifaqane in general and the plundering of Mantatisi, Mpangazita and Matiwane in particular that entire tribes had vanished from their settlements even before they had tilled their fields in preparation for planting. Indeed, the Central Plateau swarmed with hunger-stricken stragglers and small, detached parties of bandits. Apart from roots, bulbs and berries, there was little food to be found in the veld, certainly not enough to feed so large a horde as that of Mantatisi.”

Nonetheless, the most prosperous of the Bechuana chiefs, Makaba of the Bangwaketsi, made a firm decision not to surrender to Mantatisi without a struggle. The same above-mentioned author, Peter Becker, continues by saying that:

“Meanwhile, the old Chief had decided not to surrender to Mantatisi without a fight. He called up every available warrior, garrisoned every pass leading to his capital, and with the guile for which he was famous, prepared traps into which he planned to lead his aggressors.

“Since her flight from the Harrismith District Mantatisi had managed to brush aside all opposition in the teritories she traversed, but now in the stifling bushveld of Bechuanaland she was to come face to face with a foe whose fighting forces were as numerous and also better fed than those of the Wild Cat People. The vanguard of Manatisi’s army strode into ambuscades; large groups of men topped headlong into concealed pitfalls and met their death beneath volleys of barbed javelins. A battle broke out, in the course of which hundreds of the invaders were massacred. Before the situation could develop into a rout Mantatisi suddenly disengaged her armies and retreated with her hordes to the east. Thus Makaba became the first Sotho chief to repulse the formidable Wild Cat Army, and to this day he is spoken of as the ‘Man of Conquest.’”

After Mantatisi’s son Sekonyele reached maturity he took control of the Batlokoa social structures and military. Eventually they would be conquered by the Basotho King Mosheshoe I. In the work known as “Chronicles of Basutoland: A Running Commentary on the Events of the Years 1830-1902 by the French Protestant Missionaries in Southern Africa,” a correspondence from church operatives in Basutoland stated the following in regard to the fate of the Batlokoa under Sekonyela the son of Mantatisi:

“There is no doubt that Moshoeshoe would have preferred to win his old adversary to his side but Sekonyela is irreconcilable as well as dangerous. With the British about to retire from the Sovereignty, Moshoeshoe is faced with the prospect of the inevitable alliance between Sekonyela and the Boers. Before it is too late, Sekonyela must be destroyed. Fortunately, the latter chooses this very moment to goad Moshoeshoe to retaliation and thus plays into his hands, once again, but for the last time.

“Moshoeshoe, a man of peace, for the first time in this record appears in the unusual role of a fighting general and at once reveals himself a master. Now at last he is free to deal with his traditional enemy, an enemy whom he has spared for years. Unfortunately, this meant the end of the Batlokoa tribe as such and their crushing defeat will simultaneously rid Moshoeshoe of their presence and clear the field for further penetration by their common foe, the insatiable land-devouring Boer.

“Moshoeshoe…gentle and humane by nature, has seen his power grow from year to year, and he may be described to-day as stronger and, at the same time, more influential and wealthy than any other chief in Southern Africa.”

Women in the Anti-Colonial Struggle

Queen Nzinga(1583-1663 AD) of Ndongo and Matamba: Fought to Halt Portuguese Colonialism

Nzinga was born in 1583 AD in the area now known as Angola in the southwest region of the African continent. She was reported to have first become involved in politics as an ambassador for her brother in negotiations with the Portuguese colonialists. The Portuguese had set up a slave fortress at Ambaca that was built on the land of the Ndongo kingdom.

Her negotiations with Portuguese Governor Joao Correia de Sousa was initially successful in that he agreed to her terms for resolving their differences. The purpose of the negotiation was to seek the withdrawal of the Portuguese colonialists from their land and the return of the Ndongo people who had been captured and enslaved.

Although she converted to Christianity during this period in order to consolidate the treaty with Portugal, it was reported in later years that she was highly critical and condemnatory of European Christians and their motives in Africa. Despite the signing of a treaty with Portugal, the Europeans never honored its terms. Consequently war would erupt after she assumed control of Ndongo around 1624.

The battles between the Ndongo and the Portuguese would continue for decades. Queen Nzinga launched attacks against the Portuguese occupation of Ambaca. She was eventually forced to flee to the east in 1627 and re-occupy the island of Kidonga where she had been ousted by the Portuguese in 1624. By 1631 she had taken over the neighboring kingdom of Matamba in her continuing efforts to battle the encroachment of the Portuguese into the interior of this region.

Queen Nzinga would later form an alliance with the Kongo people who worked in conjunction with the Dutch West India Company. Even in 1644 she attacked the Portuguese again and defeated them at Ngoleme. However, by 1646, with the capture of her sister, she was defeated at Kavanga. Her sister was able to secretly correspond with Queen Nzinga revealing the war plans of the Portuguese. When this was discovered by the colonialists her sister was reported drowned by the Portuguese military in the Kwanza River.

As a result of her alliance with the Netherlands, reinforcements were sent to Queen Nzinga’s army. She would route the Portuguese and seize their capital at Masangano in 1647. Despite a Portuguese retaliation causing Queen Nzinga to flee, her retreat led to other battles well into the 1650s. Even into her sixties, Queen Nzinga would continue attacks on the Portuguese fortresses leading her own troops in battle. She would eventually sign a peace treaty with the Portuguese in 1657.

In her later years she would devote her time to re-integrating former slaves back into African society. She died peacefully at the age of eighty on December 17, 1663 in Matamba. In modern Angolan political life, Queen Nzinga is remembered for her enormous military and diplomatic skills. A major street in Luanda, the capital of Angola, is named after her. A statue of her is located at Kinaxixi at a massive square. Angolan women view the area as ideal for marriage and many couples exchange vows there on Thursdays and Fridays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nzinga_of_Ndongo_and_Matamba

Mbuya Nehanda (Charwe Nyakasikana)(1862-1898): Spirit Mediums & the Anti-Colonial Revolt in Mashonaland (Zimbabwe)

The struggle in Zimbabwe goes back for over 100 years to reclaim the land and culture of the Mashona and Ndebele peoples whose populations constitute the majority of Africans living in this region of sub-continent. One of the key figures in sparking an anti-colonial revolt during the last decade of the 19th century, was Mbuya Nehanda who in all likelihood had accumulated some status and clout prior to the 1896-97 rebellion in Mashonaland.

Nehanda was considered a powerful spirit medium who dedicated her life to the preservation of traditional African culture. During the late 19th century in the hills around Mazoe, Zimbabwe, there resided numerous sub-chiefs including the Wata and Chidamba. In the area, according to the Anglican Church maps after 1888, there was a village called Nehandas.

The historical sources on Zimbabwe say that the original Nehanda was a child of Mutota who was the initial Monomatapa (ruler) who resided in the escarpment North of Sipolilo in the early 15th century. Mutota was the founder of the Mutapa state and also had a son called Matope. Nehanda in 15th century Mutapa became so powerful that it was believed that her spirit lived in other humans over the generations. Even 500 years later it was taught that the spirit of the original Nehanda occupied Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana as the woman incarnation of the oracle Nyamhika Nehanda.

Nehanda and her spirit companion Kaguvi were cited as the important figures in the First Chimurenga during 1896-97. Kaguvi was considered the spirit husband of the former great Shona medium Nehanda and this consequent historical connection influenced Mbuya Nehanda to teach the philosophy of resistance to British imperialism. This important role of Kaguvi and Nehanda can never be minimized in assessing anti-colonial history in Zimbabwe.

The resistance fighters and their supporters in Mashonaland believed that both Kaguvi and Nehanda were the voices of God, also known as Mwari. They both preached that the origins of problems within the homeland resulted from the settlements established by the British which sought to encroach on greater portions of land occupied and utilized by the African people. According to Kaguvi and Nehanda, Mwari had decreed that the Europeans be driven from the country.

As a result of Nehanda’s role in the First Chimurenga, an arrest warrant was put out for her capture. Kaguvi and Nehanda were charged with the murder of a puppet African police officer and a British colonial agent. They were both sentenced to hang in 1898. At the hanging it required three attempts before Nehanda died. Her last words before death were reported to have been that: “My bones will rise again.”

During the imprisonment of Nehanda and Kaguvi, the Europeans attempted to have both of them converted to Christianity. Even though Kaguvi was reported to have converted, Nehanda emphatically refused to accept what she considered as the belief system of the colonialists.
http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/nehandambuya.htm

Yaa Asantewaa (1850-1920): State Building and the 1900 Asante War of Resistance Against British Imperialism

The west Africa nation of Ghana is considered historically the fountainhead of the anti-colonial struggle in Africa and the Diaspora. This is the direct result of the triumph of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister and later President of the First Republic of Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s. Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) led the years-long battle for national independence that reached fruition on March 6, 1957.

Yet over a half-century earlier a great African warrior Queen Yaa Asantewaa has been recognized by historians as a major contributor to the efforts by African people to prevent the consolidation of British imperialism in what was then known as the Gold Coast (today Ghana). Yaa Asantewaa was born into the royal Asona clan of Edweso and in 1887 when the female stool of Edweso was vacated, Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese, who was then Edwesohene, utilized his traditional authority to place Yaa Asantewaa as successor to Nana Ampobin I as Edwesohemaa.

After her appointment to the position of the Edwesohene she performed her functions very effectively. Later when her brother died in 1894, Yaa Asantewaa used her prerogative as Queen-mother to select her grandson to take over the position vacated by his uncle. In 1896 she reached an agreement with the British and signed a Treaty of Protection. At the same time she worked between 1896-1900 to resist European commercial and mining agents who sought to encroach further into the territory of the Edweso.

Yaa Asantewaa opposed both the European commercial agents and their allies among the neighboring people of Kokofu. She eventually challenged the efforts of the colonialists in the British courts established in Kumasi after the deportation of the Asantehene in 1896. The British sought to prevent any effective resistance to their growing colonial rule in the area. They would impose taxation and alien rule on the people which caused great consternation and outrage among the Asante.

In March of 1900 the British formerly announced to the Asante Chiefs that the leadership of the nation would not be allowed to return and assume their rightful authority. The British demanded that the Golden Stool, which is considered the soul of the people, be surrendered. Wilhelmina J. Donkoh in her article entitled: “Yaa Asantewaa, A Role Model for Womanhood in the New Millennium,” points out that:

“This was the environment in which Nana Yaa Asantewaa, the only female present at the gathering in her capacity as the caretaker of the Edweso State rose up and defied British authority by questioning the Governor. She inquired of the Governor, whether he had seen the Asantehene before coming to Kumasi, that since the Asantehene was the traditional custodian of the Stool, he was the appropriate person to disclose its whereabouts. She then turned on her male counterparts who had been stunned into silence, and taunted them about their manhood.”

Donkoh in the same above-mentioned article continues by illustrating her direct role in commanding the resistance war of 1900 against the British. She also notes that her actions defied Akan values that call for the woman to be submissive and quiet in public. Consequently, she was not at all concerned about being described as an “obaa Kokonyini” (a female cockerel) or an “obaa sagyefoo” which in essence means a female redeemer in the times of war.

Donkoh relates Yaa Asantewaa’s leadership style during the resistance war of the people against the British in 1900:

“From various accounts, Yaa Asantewaa comes across as a ‘Mother Courage’ figure as well as an astute tactician and able military leader. For example, her taunts challenged some of the men to act. Eyewitness accounts from Edweso indicate that she herself did not physically take up arms to fight. Her role has been described as being mainly inspirational.

“Yet all accounts acknowledge her to be the leader of the resistance supported by some male leaders–Kofi Fofie of Nkonson, Antoa Mensa, Kwame Afrifa of Atwima and Osei Kwadwo Kromo. She was known to have visited the soldiers in the battlefield to ascertain how they were faring. She also gave directions and advice as well as supplied gunpowder.”

Donkoh also stresses that Yaa Asantewaa’s role was not totally without precedent within her people’s history:

“It should be pointed out that in Asante history, there, have been many instances when women have excelled in a public capacity. There is, for example, the case of the Asantehemaa Adoma Akosua, who in 1814, was left in charge of the affairs of the Asante nation while the Asantehene Osei Bonsu went to the coast to visit his troops on the battlefield there.

“In the period, Adoma Akosua received a Dutch embassy with which she discussed trade. There is also the brief diplomatic career Akyaawaa Oyiakwan, a daughter of the Asantehene Osei Kwadwo (1764-77), who headed two different diplomatic missions that successfully negotiated the Maclean treaty in April 1831 with the British and with the Danes at Christianborg Castle in August of the same year.

“In addition, is the example of the Dwabenhemaa Ama Seiwaa who in 1843 took over as chief of the Dwabeii and led her people back to Asante from exile in Akyem Abuakwa in the south east of the Gold Coast after the death of her two sons in succession.

“Indeed, her daughter, Nana Afrakoma Panin and her granddaughter Nana Akua Saponmaa both held the dual offices of Dwabenhemaa and Dwabenhene concurrently. However, the difference between all these examples and the case of Nana Yaa Asantewaa was that the latter took on the might of the technologically superior British.”

Conclusion

This brief survey of the role of five African women within their societies during the ancient, pre-colonial and colonial eras illustrate quite clearly that the assumptions around the strict divisions of labor and political power among traditional African nations depart significantly from those in Europe and Asia. The lives, contributions and accomplishments of these women also defy the stereotypical notions of the role of females within traditional African societies prior to the advent of colonialism and national independence.

The political imperatives of the twenty-first century require that further scientific research be conducted into the role of women in African history and societies. This can be done by a more objective approach to the existing data and artifacts available on the pre-colonial period as well as utilizing the vast oral histories within African societies themselves.

Genuine national independence of the continent and the former colonial territories require the total emancipation of all oppressed sections of society. For Africa will never reach its full potential without the complete liberation of women. Consequently, the reconstruction of African history and the role of women within it will make a significant contribution to the realization of a society devoid of all forms of exploitation and oppression.
———————————————————————————
Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire.