Open Rise

In Nigeria’s conservative Islamic north, women are barred from ruling, except in the kingdom of Kumbwada. Here, an ancient curse keeps males off the throne, according to locals. Male pretenders who dare to try will be buried within a week.

The last man who wanted to overturn the tradition of female rulers was the queen’s father, Prince Amadu Kumbwada, 58 years ago. All he did was say he wanted to succeed his mother, then still alive. He was immediately taken ill.

The prince was rushed to a distant kingdom, where he eventually recovered. He never returned.

“There has never been a male ruler,” the queen says, chuckling, a sound like dry, crackling paper. “Even my father just voiced his desire to be chief, but it almost killed him.”

Her grandmother, on the throne for 73 years, died when she was 113.

Hajiya was a child when her father tried and failed to become his mother’s successor. She was too young to feel any sense of rivalry, but old enough to believe the curse would kill him.

She points up to the nail-pocked iron roof with a mischievous smile, to indicate that it’s God’s will.

“It’s a women’s affair,” the 65-year-old monarch says. “Women are the rulers and they rule as effectively as men, sometimes even better than men.”

These are alien pronouncements in a part of Nigeria where women typically are relegated to second place and strict Sharia, or Islamic law, is the rule.

— LA Times, April 6, 2010