This episode is the first of a new part series on African queenship, which will connected with coming episodes on African monarchy which you can look forward to as well. In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews two scholars who work on African queenship: Professor Nwando Achebe and Lydia Amoah. We discuss the distinctive features of African queenship with many rich and fascinating examples of powerful royal women from across African history from ancient Egypt and Kush to the recent death of the Asantehemaa in Ghana.Guest Bios:Nwando Achebe, University Distinguished Professor, Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History, and Associate Dean for Access in the College of Social Science, is a multi-award-winning historian at Michigan State University. She is the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of West African History, an elected member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Vice President/President-Elect of the African Studies Association.Dr. Achebe received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 2000. In 1996 and 1998, she served as a Ford Foundation and Fulbright-Hays Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her research focuses on the use of oral history in the study of women, gender, and sexuality in Nigeria.Achebe is the author of six books including Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960 (Heinemann, 2005), The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011)—which won three major book awards and Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020).Lydia Amoah just completed a PhD in African Studies form the Institute of African Studies, university of Ghana, Legon. She has a Masters in African Studies and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts. Her work focuses on critical areas such as Akan Customary Law and culture, women's agency, and female traditional leadership, with a strong emphasis on customary dispute resolution and peacebuilding in Ghana. Her doctoral thesis titled Akan Queenmothers and Conflict Resolution in Ghana, A Study of the Asantehemaa’s ‘traditional’ Court, examined how Akan Queenmothers use their customary courts for grassroots dispute prevention, resolve disputes and contribute to peace building in their communities.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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