African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 770
Although queen mothers have not enjoyed the same privileges of education that their
male counterparts have, the culture is now encouraging education and is placing educated
women on the stool as queen mothers whenever possible. Due to contemporary
influences, then, it is not unusual today to observe queen mothers participating in efforts
to bring education to illiterate queen mothers, to support young women’s football teams,
or to organize events that illustrate the need for planned parenthood. In contemporary
African societies, the role of traditional authority seems to be expanding as indigenous
systems exercise flexibility in regard to modernization, and as the state slowly recognizes
the need to cooperate with traditional systems. It appears that the twenty-first century
version of this encounter may be more hospitable to female authority than the colonial
encounter, with the value of queen mothers as female leaders being recognized in the
indigenous sociopolitical system.
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