 |
| Nubian Queen. A 16 x 20 acrylic painting by Mark Phillips |
Great women are rarely represented in history. Very little is heard or read about African queens.
Very seldom do we read about great African men and leaders in history books, but as for African women… it is more like never.
Very seldom do we read about great African men and leaders in history books, but as for African women… it is more like never.
How many have heard of the great warrior queen of Nubia, Amanishakheto, who defeated a Roman army?
Who has heard of this woman who led her people with a strong arm, and built pyramids in Meroë?
How many of you know that two great African queens have been cited in the Bible?
Most people know about the Queen of Sheba who was the queen of a kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia and gave birth to a son to the Great King Solomon (Solomon was taken by her beauty). The second queen, who most people ignore or forget, is the Candace, or queen, of Nubia, Amanitore, (Successor to Amanishakheto). She is mentioned in Acts 8:26–40, or should we say her finance minister is, and so by association, she is cited.
I was surfing the internet some months ago and I came across a black and white photo of a black woman that just shouted “Queen” to me. This painting is based on this photo. It is about 80% finished. I plan to spend the next few months completing this. This may well be my “Mona Lisa”!
Bear with me while I do my little part is correcting the neglect that has been shown to our African history. The internet is a powerful force and I hope that each one reading this would use the social media buttons at the bottom of this post and share it with your friends. Based on past posts, over 4,500 people will read this blog post and if everyone shares, it will go some way towards ensuring that our children can receive the knowledge that will make them proud of their heritage and by so doing alleviate some of the mental damage done to people of African descent by the systematic subjection to a system of physical and mental slavery that is still ongoing today..
Well, let me tell you about the great Candace (Kandake or queen) of Nubia, Amanishaketo (also written Amanishaket) who reigned from around 10 BC to 1 AD.
I would be pleasantly surprised if you knew that Nubia is a kingdom with 3 times as many pyramids as Egypt. The Nubians were well known for their military genius, and Egyptian pharaohs will sometime hire Nubian mercenaries to fight their battles. Theirs was a civilization of strong queens such as Amanishaket, and Amanitore.
The general public is familiar with Egypt and the pharaohs but is not so aware that there was a highly important, sophisticated, and independent ancient civilization in Nubia, which is south of Egypt in present-day Sudan. For over a century, Nubian pharaohs dominated Egypt, and their kingdom extended from Lake Chad and well into the middle east.
Candace Amanishaket was an extremely wealthy and powerful queen. She succeeded to Candace Amanirenas who was also a great warrior queen (and will be the subject of another post). She built considerable pyramids and temples at Wad Ban Naqa, where she was buried with great treasures. Her residence and several temples were based there. Her palace is one of the largest treasures identified at Wad ban Naqa. It was 61 m long and covered an area of 3700 m2 with the ground floor made up of over 60 rooms. The palace originally had a second floor as indicated by the remains of columns found on the ground floor, and may have contained an atrium or other structure.
 |
| Amulet of Amanishakheto |
Amanishakheto defeated a Roman Army sent by the first emperor of the Roman empire, Augustus, (who broke a peace treaty) to conquer Nubia. She drove them back for 3 years until Augustus admitted defeat. She was a strong, and powerful woman, and a great pyramid builder. Her tomb at Meroë was one of the largest ever built. She is often depicted on pyramid murals as a massive, powerful woman, covered with jewels, elaborate fringed, tasselled robes, and carrying weapons in one hand, preparing to lead her army against others.
Please check out the video below.
Please check out the video below.
If you are interested in reading about another great woman check out one of my earlier posts. CLICK HERE.
"I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been." William Golding
As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate the comments and the kind words of encouragement. Until next time when I will share some more of my work and a little about what makes me tick, please leave a comment. And, I will really appreciate if you share this post with your friends. To make sure that you don't miss any future posts, Please enter your email address in the subscribe by email box on the right.
No comments:
Post a Comment