HATSHEPSUT

In relating OUR STORY we must realize that OUR STORY did not begin when we were brought to the shores of America. Our story contains not only great deeds of black men but of great black women as well. This is the story of one of those great black women....

Hatshepsut, meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies, of ancient Egypt is considered on of the greatest female rulers of all time. She was the first woman in recorded history to confront and literally destroy the theory of male superiority.

Hatshepsut was the elder daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, the first king and queen of the Thutmoside clan of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Thutmose I and Ahmose are known to have had only one other child, a daughter, Akhbetneferu, who died in infancy. Thutmose I also married Mutnofret, possibly a daughter of Ahmose I, and produced several half-brothers to Hatshepsut: Wadjmose, Amenose, Thutmose II, and possibly Ramose, through that secondary union. Both Wadjmose and Amenose were prepared to succeed their father, but neither lived beyond adolescence.

Royal lineage was traced through the women in ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut could trace her female ancestry to her jet-black Ethiopian grandmother, Nefertari Aahmes. Marriage to a queen of the royal lineage was necessary, even if the king came from outside of the lineage as happened occasionally. Secondary unions to other women in the royal family assured that there would be heirs from the lineage of women who could became the royal wives. This is the reason for intermarriages. The royal women also played a pivotal role in the religion of ancient Egypt. The queen officiated at the rites in the temples, as priestess, in a culture where religion was inexorably interwoven with the roles of the rulers.

Upon the death of her father in 1493 BCE, Hatshepsut married her half-brother, Thutmose II, and assumed the title of Great Royal Wife. Thutmose II ruled Egypt for 13 years, during which time it has traditionally been believed that Queen Hatshepsut exerted a strong influence over her husband. It is generally believed that Thutmose II was overweight, sickly, and a weakling, allowing Hatshepsut to run the affairs of the monarchy unopposed during their 13 years of marriage. When Thutmose II died, he left behind only one son, a young Thutmose III to succeed him. The latter was born as the son of a lesser wife of Thutmose II rather than of the Great Royal Wife, Hatshepsut, as Neferure, Hathshepsut's daughter was. Due to the relative youth of Thutmose III, he was not eligible to assume the expected tasks of a Pharaoh. Instead, Hatshepsut became the regent of Egypt at this time, assumed the responsibilities of state, and was recognized by the leadership in the temple.

Upon the death of Thutmose II Hatshepsut startled all Egypt by declaring she was now a man. She seized the throne, started to dress as a man, and donned a fake beard. Hatshepsut crushed all opposition by announcing that she was not the daughter of Thutmose I, but was the virgin birth son of Amen and her mother Ahmose. She declared that Amen appeared to her mother in a "flood of light and perfume" and through Immaculate Conception produced a male child (herself). From then on her statues and sculptured portraits depicted her with a beard and male features. Hatshepsut became firmly entrenched as King/Pharaoh for the next 21 years as her popularity increased along with Egypts prosperity. She opened trade to neighboring lands, and her reign was generally peaceful.

She later commissioned her Black architect boyfriend, Senenmut to build the colossal Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak, which became a strong hold for her detractors. She then commissioned Senenmut to build another magnificent temple called Deir el Bahari out of sheer rock cliffs that looked down on the temple of Amen-Ra. Del el Bahari is considered one of the world's most remarkable architectural achievements. As a final blow to her opposition Hatshepsut ordered the creation of two of the largest obelisk the world had ever seen. She purposely made the obelisk larger than the the Temple of Amen-Ra so that the roof would have to be removed to accommodate them. She made the obelisk more conspicuous by encasing the tops in a mixture of silver and gold. This made the obelisk so brilliant in the sunlight that whenever anyone saw the city, the most brilliant sight was her obelisk, not the Temple of Amen-Ra.

Hatshepsut died under mysterious circumstances. It is believed that Thutmose III upon coming of age to become Pharaoh, decided to seize political power from Hatshepsut and had her killed. Thutmose declared Hatshepsut a "non-person" and had her image erased from many Egyptian artifacts. It is believed that Neferure, Hatshepsut daughter later became the royal wife of Thutmose III.

Hatshepsut's rule was one of the most prosperous times in ancient Egypt. Memories of Hatshepsut persisted for many centuries after her tenure as Pharaoh. Hatshepsut was a great Black woman during Africa's "Golden Age".