Djoumbe Fatima

Who is Djoumbe Fatima?

Djoumbe Fatima, also recorded as Djoumbé Soudi or Queen Jumbe-Souli, was the reigning sultana of the Comorian island of Mohéli (Mwali) for much of the mid-nineteenth century, one of the few women to rule an Indian Ocean sultanate in her era. She inherited the throne as a small child after the death of her father, Sultan Abderahmane (born Ramanateka), a Malagasy prince of Sakalava royal descent who had fled Madagascar and established himself as ruler of Mohéli; her mother, Ravao, was of Merina noble lineage. With neighboring Mayotte having recently come under French control, French authorities took a close interest in Mohéli and arranged for Djoumbe's formal coronation at around the age of twelve, in 1849, alongside a French governess to oversee her upbringing. She later dismissed the governess and, in the early 1850s, married Saïd Mohammed Nasser M'Kadar, a cousin of the Sultan of Zanzibar, who ruled alongside her as prince consort until French pressure pushed him out around 1860. Djoumbe continued to reign, with an interruption, until her death in 1878, navigating the growing French presence that would formally turn Mohéli into a French protectorate in the years after her rule. She is remembered today as a rare female sovereign in Comorian and Indian Ocean history.

Sources: Djoumbé Fatima — Wikipedia · Djoumbé Fatima, the famous queen in Comoros who ruled from the young age of five till her death — Face2Face Africa · Djoumbe Fatima I, Queen of Moheli, Comoros Islands — historical photograph by Désiré Charnay (1863), Getty Images archive