Nwando Achebe

Endowed Professor

Academic Leader

Feminist Scholar

Multi-award-winning Historian


Book Cover of Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens

Drawing from distinctly African source materials and methods, Achebe’s groundbreaking historical account examines the shared power, influence, and authority that uniquely African, female-gendered entities—people, diviners, and deities—exert across Africa’s interconnected physical and spiritual worlds.

Praise

A brilliant, thoroughly engaging and accessible book, “Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa” is a fascinating and quick read that shows the many, many ways that women across the African continent have always led and continue to lead. It lays permanently to rest the notion of African women as passive or powerless and shows that women play key roles in every sector of society.

The Washington Post

Mandates a rethinking of African historiography.

Obioma Nnaemeka, Chancellor Professor, Indiana University

An invaluable guide to the roles played by African women in politics, economics, and religion, past and present.

Jonathan T. Reynolds, Regents Professor, Northern Kentucky University

A seminal work of meticulous scholarship, “Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa” is a unique and extraordinary study that is especially well organized and presented.

Midwest Book Review

Honors

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