THE QUEEN WHO BUILT WALLS

THE QUEEN WHO BUILT WALLS

Have you ever wondered what happens when a woman is told you can't do this, this is meant for boys, you can't become a leader, it's a male's responsibility, males are head and females are the neck or tail.Now a young girl experienced all these are her response was "watch me".

Long ago  in the ancient hausa kingdom of zazzau, northern Nigeria, there lived a female whose name travelled through generations. Her name was Amina, before she became a queen,she was a girl, a girl who watched, a girl who listened, a girl who learned. Perhaps that was where has Journey began.

Now imagine zazzau, the voices of traders filling the markets, the smell of food cooking, the sound of horses beneath the morning sun. And somewhere within that Kingdom a young Amina watched. They say a woman should know the sound of a grinding stone better than the sound of a battlefield. They say a woman strength should be quiet. Amina who had all these refused to believe them. Instead she listened when elders spoke about Kingdom trade, war and power.

When she was 16 her mother died and her younger brother karama ruled on the throne. But Amina was not content to simply stand behind the throne. She trained, she went into military, perhaps people wondered "why is this princess training with soldiers"? It is not a woman's place but Amina didn't stop, she knew that sometimes the first step towards becoming powerful is learning how power works. She listened ,she observed ,she remembered and she grew.

Karama ruled on the throne for 10 years and died. Now imagine that moment the kingdom looks towards its new ruler, a woman,a queen and beyond the kingdom they were other powers ,rulers and territories. The world was watching ,and Amina knew something important ,a crown is not simply something you wear ,a crown is something you carry and it carries responsibility ,expectations ,hopes and fears of thousands of people and Amina carried hers. There where other kingdoms trade routes stretched across the land and every ruler knew that wealth could attract enemies, Amina understood this so she prepared, the soldiers prepared ,but Aminas  story is about what came after because conquering land is one thing,holding it is another. Dust rising beneath their feet, horses ,shield ,spares. The people watched from behind and at the front Amina ,not hiding, not waiting for somebody else to lead.

A wall.

It sounds simple ,just earth,stone ,mud, labour ,but to her it was a message ,saying "this is our home ,we will protect what belongs to us". The walls were built high and strong. Amina watched ,perhaps she knew something that many rulers didn't know. A kingdom is not protected only by warriors ,it is protected by preparation, vision and by what you leave behind.

Traditions credited her with leading campaigns that expanded zazzaus influence beyond the walls. Even today, walls associated with her legacy are remembered in parts of northern Nigeria because a wall is not only made of Earth. A wall is made of a decision. The decision that something is worth protecting. Aminas people were not simply building walls  around stones and houses. They were building boundaries around their homes, around their families ,around their future.

Amina refuse to marry and had no children. According to accounts associated with the Kano choronicles, Amina conducted a campaign lasting 34 years and conquered and brought various territories under zazzaus influence. She used her military prowess to expand the territory of zazzau ,to the mouth of the niger in the south ,including Kano and kastina in the North. This military conquest led to Great wealth, both because they opened more trading route and conquered territories had to pay tribute. She initiated the cultivation of kola nut in the area she ruled.

Legend tell of her taking after a battle a man, from among the enemy and spending the night with him ,then killing him in the morning so he could tell no stories. According to legend ,she was killed in a military campaign near bida ,Nigeria.

In Lagos State at the national art theater, there is a statue of Amina.

You do not have to live forever to leave something behind ,sometimes you only have to build something strong enough for the next generation to remember you were here. Amina lived centuries ago and history doesn't give us a perfect record of every moment of her life.

Let me take you somewhere else, imagine a little girl standing beside one of these ancient walls, looks up ,touches the earth with her little hand. Then she asks  an elder "who built this"? And the elder replies "Queen Amina", now the girl  surprisingly asks "a woman?" And suddenly the wall  becomes more than a wall ,it  becomes a lesson.

Sometimes people will tell you ,"you are only a girl" ,"you are too young", "that dream is too big", but history is full of people who were  underestimated.

So the next time someone tells you :you cannot, remember Amina. Not because we know little detail of her life ,but because across generations ,her name survived and somewhere in Southern Nigeria, walls connected to her legacy still remind people, of a woman whose story refused to disappear, she once stood at the beginning of her story and look what she became. She was a girl who watched, then she became a queen who led and eventually she became a story.

So perhaps the question is not, "will people remember me?". The question is , "what will I build that deserves to be remembered?", because kingdoms disappear ,crowns fade, people die but sometimes what you build remains  and sometimes a wall is more than a wall , sometimes it is a woman's answer to everybody who told her she could not, her name was Amina , Queen of zazzau and her story still stand .