Today in our Pan-African series we look at some of the greatest African warriors of all time, since time in memorial the African continent produced great warriors who have propelled to served their time and defended their people, these have propelled the African continent to its current position today, and some of the military tactics used by African military were initiated and discovered by some of these African warriors.
In addition, these warriors were not only great combat people, but they were also great leaders who ruled and led their people with wisdom and great strategies.
1. Habbinal of Carthage
Habbinal of Carthage was considered one of the greatest great African warriors not only in Africa but also across the globe. Hannibal was from a background of fierce warriors, his father, brother, and his two young siblings were also notable warriors. Carthage had been settled by Phoenicians as a city-state in North Africa near the current Tunis.
Under his command ship, he led his army in conquering most of the nations that faced the Mediterranean; he used elephants to help his soldiers cross over the Pyrenees and the Alps. According to reliable sources, most Roman families lost at least one family member to Hannibal militias in what was dubbed the world’s first Great War.
2. Mansa Kankan Musa
Mansa Kankan was one of the greatest, wealthiest African fighters whose sovereignty lasted from 1312AD to 1337AD. Mansa was also the tenth sultan of the Mali Empire.
Under his reign he conquered more than 24 cities, it is therefore not surprising that this great warrior earned many nicknames and titles including the high conqueror of Ghanata and the lion of Mali.
3. Queen Amina
Queen Amina also known as Aminatu was a reknown female warrior of the Zaria in what is known today as Nigeria. This warrior queen was able to rule Zaria emirate for more than 34 cities, she was a determined warrior never satisfied with her conquest wars. Right from a tender age, she showed interest in making and wielding weapons, her love for machetes was unmatched.
To keep her authority she prevented her female warriors from getting married, she left behind a left a legacy of planting kola nuts in her kingdom.
4. Samori Ture
Samori Ture was born in Sanakoro, a village in the southern east of Kankan currently known as Guinea. He initiated and employed various military warfare and diplomacy to handle the French that had been colonizing the western African region at the time.
Ture became a well-known leader training and commanding a growing and growing disciplined army that enabled him to expand his conquest, building a united empire called the Mandinka Empire. By 1874 he declared himself a faama (monarchy) and established his capital at Bisandungu in present-day Gambia. In the 1880s he expanded his mandate from Bamako to the frontiers of British Sierra Leone, he further conquered Liberia in the east and Sudan on the eastern frontier.
5. Shaka Zulu
Shaka Zulu ka Senzangakhona was the king’s most influential, monarch, of Zulu; he ordered wide-reaching reforms that re-organized the Zulu military into a formidable force.
As a warrior, he refined amabutho (ibutho) military system, as a king Shaka preferred to apply pressure diplomatically with an accusational strategic assassination. His military reforms were entirely based on building the Zulu empire. He initiated propagandistic political methods that up to now have been used in the African political arena.
He developed standard tactics that the Zulu used in every battle; he divided his army into regiments. He further fought for extermination, incorporating the ruminants of the Zulu into the Zulu.
6. Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa
Yaa Asantewaa was named Queen Mother of the Ejisuhene (part of the Asante or Ashanti Confederacy) by her exiled brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese. Prior to European colonization, the Ashanti people developed an influential West African empire.
At this time, Yaa Asantewaa was the Gatekeeper of the Golden Stool. After this meeting, the Ashantehenes of the federation gathered to discuss British development. Upon hearing some of the Ashantehenes entertain surrender to the British demands, it is reported that Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa rose and said the following:
“Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our King.If it were in the brave days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware, leaders would not sit down to see their King taken away without firing a shot.
No white man could have dared to speak to a leader of the Ashanti in the way the Governor spoke to you this morning.Is it true that the bravery of the Ashanti is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be!
I must say this, if you the men of Ashanti will not go forward, then we will. We the women will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.”
— Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewa
The Ashanti-British “War of the Golden Stool” was led by Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa with an army of 5,000. While Yaa Asantewaa was captured by the British and deported, her bravery stirred a kingdom-wide movement for the return of Prempeh I and for independence.
Kamukama Rukundo Clinton is a Ugandan pan-Africanist, author, and columnist for 1cananews who can be contacted via +256704393540 or rukundopeter33@gmail.com
Source:
Kamukama Rukundo Clinton
Via:
1cananews
