South Africa
Queen Modjadji V has thirty-three wives. She is not allowed to marry men, but must choose her "wives" among the eldest daughters of the Lovedu people, while her dynasty has ruled for two centuries. Modjadji V the Rain Queen has mystical rainmaking powers. The Zulu have always feared these queens, who live in the mountains of the Transvaal. They believed they were four-lunged witches, who haunted ponds and marshes. When the ruler died, the empire of the Monomotapa was divided between her two sons. One of them was the sacred king of Mambo. His daughter, Dzuguzini, and her lover had a son out of wedlock. Since she refused to reveal her lover’s name to her father, he expelled her from the kingdom. Before leaving, she stole the sacred beads and the secret of the rain, which she gave to her son as a gift. Later, she admitted that she had a committed incest with her brother the prince. Thus Dzuguzini’s son became the new king of Mambo. Born of incest, the dynasty perpetuated itself by incest. Mugodo, the fifth king in the dynasty, was paranoid. He saw plots everywhere. He murdered his sons, and as his madness worsened, he became convinced that all men wanted to assassinate him. Mugodo had a vision that only a woman born of royal incest could govern the people. Since his eldest daughter refused to commit incest, King Mogodo convinced his second daughter, who was more naive, to do so. She gave him a son whom he immediately strangled with his bare hands. Her second child was a daughter who became Modjadji II, the Rain Queen.

Congo
King of the Yeke, Msiri (king) Munongo has left an indelible mark on the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). He was born in Katanga, a rich province with copper and cobalt mines that sustain the country. In the late 1950s, he and Moise Tshombe founded Conakat, a party of “authentic” Katangans that targeted “foreigners” laboring in the mines of upper Katanga. The workers (especially from the Luba-Kasai ethnic group) were thrown into camps or exterminated. Munongo had the reputation of being violent, hot tempered, and authoritarian. Not surprisingly, he was known as the Terror of Katanga. He also was the Minister of the Interior and the head of State Security in the province. The driving force behind secession, Munongo was the enemy of Patrice Lumumba, a progressive hero who attempted to unite the Congo against the Belgians and counter the secessionist movements in Kasai and Katanga. On January 17, 1961, Joseph Mobutu (later called Mobutu Sese Seko) captured Lumumba, who was gravely ill, and delivered him and two of his companions to Katanga. Munongo and his police force were waiting for him at the Elizabethville (Lumumbashi) airport. He was never seen alive again. To this day, Munongo has been tight-mouthed about the facts surrounding Lumumba’s death. And yet, Munongo’s legend does not entirely do him justice. He can be brilliant, friendly, and cordial. His grandfather made a fortune trafficking in copper and ivory. His caravans at the time traveled all the way to Zanzibar. In 1850, bolstered by his notoriety and his rifles, the future Msiri conquered the kingdoms of Upper Katanga. The former trafficker had himself proclaimed king of the Yeke. For about forty years, the Msiri consolidated his kingdom in the face of constant revolt. At the end of the century, with a stroke of a pen, the kingdom became the private property of Leopold II, the king of Belgium. In fact, Leopold made a gift to himself of the Congo Free State. The Msiri put up a desperate resistance. Finally, he was tracked down and slain by Captain Dobson (in the employ of King Leopold), but not before dealing his assailant a fatal blow.

Nigeria
Oba Olanes Owosofo, Timi of Ede. The Timi of Ede is one of sixteen Yoruba kings permitted to wear the beaded crown. In the past, the people revered the oba (king) as a god. He wore clothes forbidden to common mortals and he alone took shelter under a state umbrella. He appeared in public three times a year, his face veiled by beaded strands hanging from his crown because it was strictly forbidden for anyone to see his face. It was said that the unbearable intensity of his regard would strike anyone blind who chanced looked at him. Day and night, a corps of emese-odi (page-slaves) attended the sovereign. They tasted his meals, rolled around in his bed and if it passed the test, they declared, “there are no scorpions.” Some of his slaves became ambassadors or spies. The senior Odi was the power behind the throne, a fomenter of palace intrigue. In fact, in Yoruba the same word denotes “servant” and “noble.” The oba was a prisoner of his station; he had no real power. He belonged to the kingdom. Every year, the priests consulted the Ifa (oracle) to determine the king’s fate. If it was decided he should die, the chiefs sent him a parrot egg. Then the sovereign had no alternative to commit suicide. When the new king was enthroned, he performed a complex ritual. To unite his soul with the late monarch’s, he ate his predecessor’s heart or kept his head at home. The myth says that at the dawn of time, the world was nothing but a swamp. Oduduwa, son of Olorun, the unique god of the Yoruba, came down to Earth with the help of a chain. He held a handful of earth, a young rooster, and a palm kernel. Oduduwa tossed the earth into the water, and Ife, the first Yoruba kingdom, emerged from the waves. Oduduwa planted the palm kernel in a hole dug by the young rooster and it produced a powerful tree with sixteen branches – the sixteen dynasties of Yoruba kingdoms.

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