Black Women Do: Leaders of the African diaspora series 1

Queen Amanirenas - Kush (Sudan)

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As a teenager, Queen Amanirenas ascended to the throne.Her reign began about 4 years after the death of Julius Ceasar and during the rule of Cleopatra in Egypt. She protected her people from Roman expansion and was able to successfully negotiate a treaty that saw some land restored and Rome retreating back North. Considering that going to war with Rome usually ended in a resounding defeat, the fact that treaty terms was favorable to Kush makes it quite a remarkable achievement.

Sugar Pie DeSantos - United States

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Sugar Pie is African American and Filipino. While a teenager Peylia Marsema Balinton honed her craft with the likes of singers like the infamous Etta James. As an artist, she became the highest paid writer and the most famous for Chess Records. She's written well over 100 songs with some recorded by artists like Minnie Riperton, Fontella Bass, The Whispers and so many more. She's even had a song featured in the movie, "The Hurricane" called "Do I Make Myself Clear" with Etta James.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - United States

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Rosetta Tharpe born Rosetta Nubin was a child prodigy who started singing and playing guitar at an early age. She travelled with her mother who was also a singer as a gospel act. Throughout her career, she's credited with developing gospel/pop sound, British blues, R & B and is considered by many as the God Mother of Rock and Roll. Her song

"Strange Things Happening Everyday" is considered by many as the FIRST

Rock & Roll record made. She is buried in the West Oaklane section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sanite Bélair - Haiti/Ayiti

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The very first "country" in the Western sense (while fully acknowledging

Native Americans communities/kingdoms) in the Americans was Haiti. Born from a slave rebellion that many believe started in the woods after a Vodou spiritual ceremony led by Muslim cleric and Vodou priest Dutty Boukman, it went on to become a revolution which would result in the defeat of the French and a free Haiti. Suzanne "Sanite" Bélair became a Sergeant and Lieutenant during the French revolution. After being captured by the French army, Sanite and her husband were both sentenced to death. Petitioning to die as her husband did by firing squad (women were beheaded at the time) she met death proclaiming her wish for a "Free Haiti" and an end to slavery.

Mama Tingo - Dominican Republic

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Mama Tingo was born Florinda Munoz Soriano in the Dominican Republic. Despite being unable to read and write she became a leader and activist for farmers after the land she'd worked for decades was stolen by a landholder. As a member of the Federation of Christian Agrarian Leagues she was at the forefront of the fight to reclaim land taken by wealthy landowner Pablo Diaz. Diaz used violence to hold on to the land that he'd dispossessed over 350 families from. Mama Tingo organized the families and went to the government to to bring awareness to their plight. Many would not listen because they were poor and she was Black. Finally succeeding to get a hearing on Diaz's actions (many believe that he was backed by the government and that this was a diversion tactic), she was lured away from the hearing after learning that her pigs had been set loose. When she arrived, she was shot by someone Diaz hired. It is believed that she fought back with her machete but ultimately succumbed to her wounds.

Queen Nzinga - Ndongo & Matamba (Angola)

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Queen Nzinga (she has many names including her baptized name of Ana De Sousa) was born to a royal family. Her father became king while she was young and because she was a girl and not an official heir (as she had brothers) she was spoiled and trained well. She received education, was taught to read and write in Portuguese and was also given formal military training. After her father's death, her brother took the throne and had many of his challengers put to death including Nzinga's son. He also had his sisters sterilized. Nzinga was initially exiled but was called on to return and negotiate with the Portuguese who were enslaving her people and trying to push further inland. Nzinga used this as an opportunity to gain influence with the Portuguese (through baptism and diplomacy) and eventually became Queen after her brother died of mysterious causes (he had been depressed after the Portuguese went back on the treaty Nzinga had negotiated). After trying a number of tactics including winning battles against the Portuguese, she had to regroup in another terristory called Matamba. She helped many Africans who were formerly enslaved and encouraged those enslaved in Portuguese territory to escape and join her army. She was an excellent military strategiest and leader.

Maria Firmina dos Reis - Brazil

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Maria was born to a Brazilian woman (presumably European descended) and an enslaved Black man. She was raised by her mother and other family members and educated at home. Eventually she began teaching and founded a school for poor children that included students from the free African and mixed population in Brazil. In addition to being an educator, she was an artist who wrote many essays, articles, songs, and a book that often ties discussed slavery and its harmful affects on the enslaved. After successfully publishing "Urusla" she became the first Afro-Brazilian woman to publish a novel

and is recognized as the second woman in Brazilian hisotry to do so (she was believed to be the first at one point). After compaigning for the end of slavery for years, Maria lived to see this become a reality when in 1888, Brazil abolishied slavery, 23 years after the United States but without the cost of a bloody civil war.

Queen Nanny - Jamaica

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There is a lot of lore surrounding Queen Nanny, but actual written records are scant. There are rumors that Queen Nanny was born to the Akan people in modern day Ghana and that she may or may not have been enslaved when she arrived in Jamaica. Upon arrival, Nanny joined a Maroon community which was made up of formerly enslaved Blacks who fled plantations. They created their own communities in conjunction with the Arawak and Native peoples already there and were safe havens for enslaved peoples who ran away. These numbers continued to grow, especially after the Spanish was forced to give the island to the British, as many of them freed those enslaved in the process. Queen Nanny is thought to have been a brilliant strategist and implemented guerrilla warfare tactics against the British who tried to subdue the Maroons and take their land. Under Nanny's leadership, the Windward Maroons also developed a long distance communication system by using a horn called the abeng. "This vital instrument of communication would convey complex sets of information over long_distances, without the enemy being able to understand the coded message" (Jamaica Information Service). The Maroon communities eventually settled with the British, with many acquiring land and British recognition of their sovereignty. However, history can be complicated and part of the treaty was agreeing to help the British return enslaved peoples and fight against other Europeans who threatened their control over the island.

Mae Jemison - United States

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Born Mae Carol Jemison to an Alabama family, at the age of three, her parents migrated North as many other families did during the Great Migration to Chicago, Illinois. While in Chicago, Mae's knowledge for the field of Science was cultivated by her Uncle. This led to Mae pursuing an interest in Biomedical Engineering. A child prodigy, Mae graduated high school at 16, went on to pursue degrees in the fields of African American studies and chemical engineering from Stanford University. She then went on to pursue a medical degree from Cornell university, worked as a doctor, joined the peace corps, and then later decided to apply to NASA to become an astronaut. You see, as a child, one of Mae's dreams was to travel to become an astronaut and travel to outer-space. Chosen out of thousands as 1 of 15 to train with NASA, she became the first Black woman astronaut. Her dream was accomplished on September 12, 1992 when she successfully made it to space becoming the first Black woman astronaut. An important quote by Dr. Jemison is "When I'm asked about the relevance to Black people of what I do, I take that as an affront. It presupposes that Black people have never been involved in exploring the heavens, but this is not so. Ancient African empires - Mali, Songhai, Egypt - had scientists, astronomers. The fact is that space and its resources belong to all of us, not to any one group" (Thoughtco).

Mary Jane Patterson - United States

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Mary Jane Patterson was possibly born to an enslaved family or escaped either before or after she was born in 1840. They moved to Ohio where she first attended a year long preparatory program at Oberlin college. Bucking tradition, Mary would forego the usual 2 year track for women at Oberlin and instead complete the four year track of study that was initially created for men. For this field of study, she received a classical education which included Math, Greek and Latin. After graduating with distinction, it is believed that she became the only Black women in the world to acquire a Bachelor's degree during that time period. In 1865, the same year that slavery was abolished, she moved to Philadelphia, which had a substantial free Black population to teach. She found an education home at the prestigious Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth under the tutelage of Fanny Jackson Coppin. That school would later become Cheyney University. She later became a principal in Washington D.C. and served in that role off and on for years. As a supporter of women's rights, she also cofounded the Colored Women's League of Washington.

Josina A. Machel - Mozambique

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Josina Abiathar Muthemba Machel was born to an assimilado family (a Portuguese term for an African that they considered "civilized" and eligible to full rights as a Portuguese citizen).

Due to this status, Josina was sent to primary school and acquired a high level of education. Despite the fact that her family were assimilados, they spoke out against Portuguese colonization and Josina continued with that tradition in primary school. Due to her political activity which was spurred by the anti-African education that she was receiving, Josina Mutemba Machel was forced to flee her country after joining FRELIMO. FRELIMO fought against the colonization of Mozambique by the Portuguese and wanted a free Mozambique under African control. In the organization, she received formal military training and became a well respected leader. During 1968 she helped the Women's Branch of the group evolve into a de facto social services program in liberated areas of the country. They organized health centers, schools, and child care centers. They also helped families whose homes were destroyed due to fighting. In addition to that, they provided support to wounded soldiers and families impacted by the raging war of independence. Josina married Samora Machel (one of the leaders within FRELIMO) and in 1969 gave birth to a son. Shortly thereafter, she started to develop pains in her abdomen and on April 7, 1971 Josina died of cancer.

While she didn't live to see the eventual end of Portuguese rule in Mozambique a few years later, her husband went on to become the first president of a free Mozambique! He honored her by naming his daughter, with his new wife after her. April 7th, the date of her death marks National Women's Day in Mozambique and she also has a school named after her in Mozambique's capital as Well as a hospital named in her honor in Angola.

Ida B. Wells - United States

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Ida B. Wells was born into slavery on July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her parents, James and Lizzie Wells were very active in politics and education. They were members of the Republican Party, members of the Freedman's Aid Society and also helped to found Rust College. Today, Rust College is one of the few HBCU's created prior to 1869 that still exists. Ida was educated at this University but could not finish due to the untimely death of her parents at 16. As a result, she convinced a school that she was 18 and began working as a teacher to support her siblings. She eventually decided to move her family to live with an Aunt in Tenessee and reenrolled in college at Fisk. During this time, she became one among a list of women who refused to give up their seat on transportation decades before Rosa Parks. While on the train in the first class section (which she'd paid for) they made her give up her seat and forced her to sit in the African Americans only section. She sued and initially won but the decision was overturned by the Tenessee Supreme Court. This led Ida to begin writing about race and would eventually lead to her creating her own newspapers, advocating for Blacks to move North and investigating lynchings in America. She became the foremost knowledgeable person in the country 

publishing a book called "A Red Record", which brought to light the horrific acts African Americans went through with lynchings. This activism was spurred by the murder of close friends due to lynching. She was also one of the  founders of the the NAACP and  one of the first women suffrage groups. She also advocated fiercely for woman's rights. (Ida B. Wells National Park Service).

Luísa Mahin - Brazil

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There is a lot of mystery that shrouds Luisa's beginnings. She might have been born in Bahia or she could have been born in Guinea to a royal family.

Whatever her origin, she ended up enslaved in Brazil which was the country that the majority of trafficked Africans found themselves enslaved in.

Due to Luisa's religion (many sources states she was Muslim) it is believed she could read and write in Arabic. This became a valuable tool during many of the numerous rebellions by enslaved Black people in Brazil and in particular Bahia. Luisa would often use her store as a way to pass messages back and forth regarding details of the rebellion.

The fact that it was in Arabic made it hard to decipher should the note fall into the wrong hands. Not much is known of her fate after the last large rebellion but her son did go on to become a writer and had this to say. about his mother:

"I am the native son of a black African woman, free, of the Nagô nation, whose name is Luiza Mahin, pagan, who always refused baptism and christian doctrine. My mother was short, thin, beautiful, the color of jet black unglazed, teeth white like snow." Haughty, generous, a sufferer, and vengeful" (Luiz Gama).