Sarraounia Mangou

Sarraounia Mangou was the ruler and priestess of the Azna, an animist group of the Hausa people, in what is now southwestern Niger. In Hausa, sarraounia means queen or female chief, and among the Azna it names a line of women rulers who held both political and religious power. Mangou was the most famous of them. Little is recorded of her early life, and the dates of her birth and death are unknown. Oral accounts say she became queen at about 20 after her father's death.

Her people lived in Lougou, a fortified capital hidden in dense bush. By tradition she was an accomplished archer and herbalist, and legends describe her as having yellow eyes like a panther, the symbol of the Azna, and as a sorceress who could call up fog. She had already fought wars on behalf of her people, driving out Tuareg raiders and Fulani who sought to convert the Azna to Islam.

In 1899 a French military column, the Voulet–Chanoine Mission, was sent to conquer the lands between the Niger River and Lake Chad. After leaving French Sudan in January, the column's captains, Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine, subjected the peoples in their path to extreme violence, looting and killing, and most local chiefs submitted. Sarraounia Mangou did not.

She is said to have sent Voulet a letter full of insults, and on 15 and 16 April 1899 her forces met the French at Lougou and Tougana. The Azna fought hard, and the French lost men killed and wounded, but the fortress was eventually taken. Overwhelmed by superior firepower, the queen and her fighters withdrew, and according to some accounts engaged the French in guerrilla warfare from the bush, raiding their camp at night. After Lougou was stormed Sarraounia disappeared from the record.

The Voulet–Chanoine Mission fell apart soon afterwards, and Voulet and Chanoine were killed by their own soldiers in July 1899 after refusing orders from Paris. Many in Niger credit Sarraounia's resistance, and her reputation for magic, with helping to break the column. She is a national symbol of resistance, and the 1986 film Sarraounia, directed by Med Hondo, retells her story.