Women Kings, Invisible Reigns: Decolonizing Feminism

African womanhood as a lived experience and a symbolic ideology has withstood the trials of time. It has survived slavery, colonialism, and continuous flawed portrayals rampant in Western feminist discourse. The Mandinka word for King is Mansah. Unlike its English counterparts, Mansah has no implicit or explicit gender. Instead, a speaker must take the extra linguistic step of adding the male or female adjective to the word to assert and specify the gender of a Mansah. Mansah Keh translates

Every year, The Republic publishes the most ambitious writing focused on Africa, from news and analysis to long-form features.

To continue reading this article, Subscribe or Register for a Free Pass.

Already a subscriber? Log in.