in honor of independence day, I wanna do a quick thread on my most favorite somali icon, queen araweelo

not many people know of her existence but they should cuz my girl was legendary, the blueprint!! living around 15 ad, she was the eldest daughter of a king that had only daughters, thus making her the heir.

she was married however there was inter-clan feud at the time which her husband, along with many, died in. during those times, it was taboo for widowed or divorced women to marry again so she was seen as a women with no value

araweelo fled after being shunned by society and her family into the woods where she meet other women who shared the same story as her & together they formed a small village, ruled by women only!

their small village grow over time and became more famous as they warded off attacks from men who wanted to disrupt their way of life, the village grew in size as many came to seek araweelo and her warriors protection

soon enough they were known all over east africa in somalia, djibouti and parts of kenya & ethiopia! araweelo was given the title of queen of peace and prosperity and she firmly believed in female empowerment

araweelo demanded that women let go of the “womenly” role in society and declared all domestic duties to be the work of men, which created a huge role reversal in their society

of course plenty of men hated araweelo because they liked things the way it was before, but my queen had a simple solution to all men who disobeyed her or disrespected women, they were either castrated publicly or hung by their genitals-

araweelo passed away at the age of 40, she was said to have been murdered by a male warlord who wanted control over her land, however her legacy lives on today in the spirits of many young somali women!!!

some if not most men still hate her and to this day, rocks are thrown at her makeshift grave where araweelo is said to be buried. while men threw rocks, women put green grass around it as a sign of respect for the queen

this thread is long ik but I hope you learned something new today I wish more people knew about the history and story behind queen araweelo!!! happy independence day folks