David Sweetman (1) (1943–2002)

A brief collection of the histories of a dozen female rulers in Africa, ranging from 15th century BC to 19th century AD. I wish I could assign this book to history classes, because I found it really helpful to beating back the pernicious trope of the African continent as just a bunch of roving tribes with little in the way of courts or dynasties. Intellectually I knew there was more to African history than mud huts and disease, but now that I've read this book, I believe it too.

My favorite of the rulers contained herein is Queen Nzinga of Angola. Nzinga was the kind of ruler who, when the Portuguese did not give her a chair during negotiations, sat on one of her subjects so as not to appear at a disadvantage. She led a fierce guerrilla resistance against the Portuguese for decades. She kept a harem of young men dressed as women who were referred to as her 'wives.' When she finally died, she demanded that her successor be a woman. Badass!… (meer)

I've been meaning to get this biography for ages but didn't get round to it until recently. Sweetman had an opportunity to interview Mary Renault in the early 1980s for BBC's Omnibus and when he started on the biography, Julie Mullard helped him as much as she could. The biography is rather good, although it initially irritated me that he Sweetman didn't give references. Obviously there is a list of sources but not in the text or footnotes, it just felt sloppy. Of course, this biography, unlike Zilboorg's literary biography, is presumably intended for general readers. But this was a good biography and I really enjoyed reading it.… (meer)