Queen Amina was a warrior and ruler of Zazzau, a Hausa city-state which dominated the trans-Saharan trade after the collapse of the Songhai empire in what is now Northern Nigeria. She led an army of 20,000 soldiers, conquering towns to the north and south in the Nupe and Jukun kingdoms, and through Kasashen Bauch
Nzinga Mbandi became queen of Ndongo in 1624. She is known for her diplomatic and military strategies in defending her kingdoms against the Portuguese, transforming them into successful commercial states.
Makeda, Queen of Sheba, ruled the Axumite kingdom for more than 50 years. She traveled to Jerusalem to witness the fabled wisdom of King Solomon and bore him a son named Menelik, the first Imperial ruler of Ethiopia.
During her lifetime, Zora Neale Hurston published four novels; Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), Seraph on the Suwanee (1948) and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays. Her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was written in rented a house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in September 1936 and completed in seven weeks.
Nationally, American contralto Marian Anderson broke barriers. Her first record featured spirituals “DeepRiver” and “My Way’s Cloudy.” She was the first African American to perform with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Despite, she was still subject to racial bias.
