Political African Women of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries
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Works of Art (9)
Essay
As leaders, priestesses, traders, cultivators, oracles, wives, and mothers, women have occupied key roles in the developments that have shaped the course of African history. The turbulent years following West and Central Africa’s initial contact with Europe were marked by the emergence of women revered for their formidable political skills and social vision. We know of these women today largely through oral histories, artworks, and, significantly, contemporaneous European documents. There can be no doubt that important and celebrated women existed in other periods of African history, but prior to the era of contact with Europe, written records of their names and achievements simply do not exist. Indigenous narratives about them have not survived to the present day, or have yet to be recognized and recorded. As the study of African history continues, however, the identities of other notable African women will surely be revealed.
Alexander Ives Bortolot
Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
October 2003
Citation
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Political African Women of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pwmn/hd_pwmn.htm (October 2003)
Further Reading
Schwarz-Bart, Simone. In Praise of Black Women, vol. 1, Ancient African Queens. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
Additional Essays by Alexander Ives Bortolot
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Ana Nzinga: Queen of Ndongo.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Art of the Asante Kingdom.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Asante Royal Funerary Arts.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Asante Textile Arts.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “The Bamana Ségou State.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Dona Beatriz: Kongo Prophet.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Exchange of Art and Ideas: The Benin, Owo, and Ijebu Kingdoms.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Gold in Asante Courtly Arts.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Idia: The First Queen Mother of Benin.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Kingdoms of Madagascar: Malagasy Funerary Arts.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Kingdoms of Madagascar: Malagasy Textile Arts.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Kingdoms of Madagascar: Maroserana and Merina.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Kuba Kingdom.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Luba and Lunda Empires.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Origins and Empire: The Benin, Owo, and Ijebu Kingdoms.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Portraits of African Leadership.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Portraits of African Leadership: Living Rulers.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Portraits of African Leadership: Memorials.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Portraits of African Leadership: Royal Ancestors.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Trade Relations among European and African Nations.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “The Transatlantic Slave Trade.” (October 2003)
Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Ways of Recording African History.” (October 2003)
Related
Primary Essays
Secondary Essays
- African Influences in Modern Art
- Antelopes and Queens: Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan: A Groundbreaking Exhibition at the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1960
- Eighteenth-Century Women Painters in France
- Exchange of Art and Ideas: The Benin, Owo, and Ijebu Kingdoms
- Kongo Ivories
- The Portuguese in Africa, 1415–1600
- Trade Relations among European and African Nations
- The Transatlantic Slave Trade
- Tutsi Basketry
- Ways of Recording African History
- West Asia: Postmodernism, the Diaspora, and Women Artists
- Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France
- Women in Classical Greece
Chronology
Keywords
Artist / Maker
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