Princess Yennega the Svelte – An inspiring story of courage, feminine strenght and love….
All across the world women are victims of patriarchal taboos, sexism, and the well-too-familiar lack of understanding from their male counterparts. To make matter worse, violence against women is still raging. How many women are still dreaming of the day the world will finally see their full potential, will judge them on their skills and not on their gender? When will sexist jokes stop being part of our everyday routine?
Yes, women are still faced with unacceptable inequalities and discriminations based solely on their gender. However, we should question ourselves about how much we truly want things to change for us, how much we are willing to go the distance to make the changes we need a reality.
Hey ladies, time’s up! Let’s stop being princesses and become the queen in our own life.
If we want things to change for us, we not only have to stand up for ourselves but go to the source of the problem and redefine the concept of independence.
Most modern women including myself love to say that they are independent women, the kind who do not need a man’s help. Nevertheless, if we want to be honest and dig deep within ourselves we’ll find some really shameful thoughts, these kinds of thoughts we don’t want to loudly voice, these thoughts that are real setback on our way to become true independent women.
We will come back to these thoughts. Before that, I’d like to highlight the life of a woman who is a great example of femininity, strength, and independence.
Presenting Yennega the Svelte (who ironically is the Princess of Gambaga, a part of present-day Ghana).
However, the story of her life is more epic than any fairy tales.
As shown in the recent Black Panther movie, the history of Africa is filled with skilled female warriors and fearless women like the Dora Milaje inspired by the Amazon of Dahomey of Benin. The story of Yennega the Svelte is similarly the story of an amazing African warrior and Princess.
A Woman to Look Up To
Although there are some variations in the story of Yennega, Records show that Yennega was the daughter of King Nedega of Gambaga (also called Na Gbewa in other African Oral stories[i]) and has lived between the 14th and 15th centuries. Yennega was very close to her father and as such was raised like a boy. She learned at a very early age the arts of hunting, horse-riding and fighting and grew up to be a tremendous warrior who could use a bow and a spear like no-one-else.
Princess Yennega was brilliant, fearless, and a badass woman referred to as Yennega the Svelte. The kingdom counts many victories because of her. The princess was so phenomenal that her father, the king, wouldn’t let her wed for fear she would leave and the kingdom would lose one of its best warriors.
Feeling betrayed by her own father and with a growing desire to have a family of her own, Yennega found the most inventive manner to show her dad how she was feeling. She planted a field of Ocra in front of her father’s house and let it rot. When her father asked about her behavior, she explained that’s how she felt by not being able to start a family of her own.
Unfortunately, the king wouldn’t agree to let her daughter marry, saying she was still very young. He ordered that she be locked up like you would send a child to her bedroom for misbehaving. So Yennega came up with a plan to break free of her prison and take control of her own destiny.
Doing so, Yennega was technically not a princess anymore. She became a queen from this very moment by taking responsibility and taking charge of her life. Her bravery is an act of defiance against patriarchy.
A legendary woman
Having enough of her father’s mistrust and lack of understanding, Yennega broke free of her prison with the help of some guards. She fled in the middle of the night and galloped till her last strength to a faraway land, the forest of Bitou, in the south west of today’s Burkina Faso. She then faced her destiny and met the man of her life, an elephant hunter named Riale.
From this day on, Yennega added elephant hunting to her numerous skills, worked alongside Riale whom she later intertwined her destiny with. They conceived a son to whom she transferred her bravery, knowledge and wisdom. That’s how she became the mother of the moose people. Yennega had thought her son well! Later on, the boy became the founder of a powerful army and create the Moose kingdom whose descents are still alive today and remember the story of Yennega and her son.
Now let’s get back to these deep shameful thoughts, so deeply rooted and somewhat unconscious.
What are these thoughts or feelings and why do they make us feel so embarrassing?
Princess Yennega and Princess Shuri
They are what I call the princess thoughts.
Remember as a little girl—discussed in details in my recent Black Panther blog– you probably wanted to be a princess and growing up you tell yourself you don’t want anything to do with princesses. But the fact is deep down yourself those feelings linger, sometimes very difficult to identify.
These feelings are not merely about being a princess per se. They represent our unwillingness of becoming an independent woman, of becoming a queen, the responsible adult in our own life.
They are deeply rooted in our traditions, our societies, our families and within us, but not very easy to identify.
To illustrate, I asked some women on a Facebook post on one of my female friend’s wall, about whether they would be willing to buy a man an engagement ring if they were richer than their boy friend. My friend replied she would rather wait until the man was rich enough to buy her a ring.
Obviously, it would have been a sacrilege to go against traditions and taboos and be the woman who takes the lead in a traditionally realm of men. We want to be independent women and in the same time we want a man to lead our life. Hmm! Can’t work like this.
Remember most Disney Princesses before Shuri, the princess of Wakanda, their life is ultimately the same routine with some few exceptions. Whatever their skills, bravery, and courage their happily-ever-after always implies a prince-savior, a hero that will save the ‘damsel in distress’ and get the girl in the end.
How many times have we claimed to be independent to finally giving up on our independent desires in front of our male counterparts?
Is it me or all our social and religious institutions seem to have rules meant to keep women at bay. There are places and religions where women cannot go out with their hair or even their faces uncovered. There are religions where women can never be leaders and have to settle for the roles of religious assistants. There are even parts of the world where women are still denied education solely on the fact of being women.
Another fact is women are still largely the group that raises children, and so those who transmit these sexist behaviours and help maintain the patriarchy alive. So why? Have we ever asked ourselves why? Are we that helpless or do consciously or unconsciously we like playing the ‘princess in distress’ as a way to avoid responsibility? Are deeply have these feelings been internalized?
The answers to these questions are not obvious. However, it is clear that if we want to be free of social bondage, we have to be aware of these feelings and work to go pass them. Ultimately, we have to want the change we need.
Women very often paint the portrait of the perfect guy as the Prince charming. A strong but kind man who wears the invisible cape of the hero because they unconsciously desire to be protected. Somehow, we inwardly believe that we are not strong enough.
It’s a good thing some women have tried to defy the conventions and became models we can turn to in our fight to be heard, respected and be seen as equals. We have women who from the dawn of humanity have stepped up and stand up for themselves and those they love.
We are lucky to look up to Yennega. She is an example of a strong woman, a skilled warrior and a person who was not afraid to stand up against patriarchy and shape her destiny. We all have a Yennega inside of us. It’s this flame of courage and strength that we can call upon when the time comes to break free from sexist and patriarchal traditions that keep forcing women into bondage.
Our inner Yennega is this power that pushes us to stop being princesses and become queen in our own life. This power that leads us on the verge of responsibility for ourselves, on the brink of freedom.
Why do we feel so ashamed of these deep-rooted feelings?
The shame comes from received ideas that strength and femininity cannot work hand in hand. We need to review our feminist ideas. A woman can be both strong and completely feminine. Our strength does not need to come from getting rid of or try to weaken our male counterparts.
The feminist revolution should be one that teaches to value differences between men and women, to accept that men and women complement each other instead of being divisive. This is another great lesson from Yennega. She was a brilliant and fearless warrior and a strong woman with an even stronger desire of meeting a man she loves to start a family of her own. To Yennega, Riale was a partner, she learned from him to become an elephant hunter and thought him how to become a warrior. They have a partnership in which they complement each other.
Yennega as strong as she was never denied her feminine nature. Instead, this was part of her strength and what made her become a legendary woman and mother who raised her son to be as a strong a warrior as she was and an even greater leader.
There is nothing wrong with being a woman in charge and being feminine in the same time. We don’t need to mimic men’s behaviour to be strong.
How many times have we seen women in power dress completely like men when they need to deal with difficult work or business-related stuff?
A woman’s strength has to come from within. And it’s only by freeing ourselves from these received ideas (patriarchal or erroneous feminist views), by loving and accepting ourselves that we can accomplish that.
So, ladies, let our inner-Yennega talk and not be afraid of taking the lead in all areas of life including relationship, work, education, religion.
- Why can’t a woman propose to a man or buy him an engagement ring?
- Would it be wrong to see to none become a pope?
- What is wrong with women of all cultures and religions being free of choosing the way they want to dress?
- Why is that in 2018 there is still a huge gap between the salary of men and women?
If we want true equality, we have to be the queen in our own life, strong, responsible, and in control.
[i] Rubel, S. and Joubeaud, E. 2014. Yennega, princess of Gambaga. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Paris.
