Unknown Gender History: Queen Mother Nyirauhi V Kanjogera, Serial Killer

EXCERPT: King Msinga, the only remaining potentate in Central Africa. While Msinga is the nominal king the ruler of the kingdom is said to be his mother whose chief claim to fame is the fact that she poisoned six of her relatives in order to insure the safe reign of her son Msinga, is described as quite an enlightened person. His mother is a giant of a woman being more than six feet tall. [Ring Lardner, “Has Rough Interview With Noted Professor After Weathering a Storm in Home. He Rejects the Official Theory,” Salt Lake Tribune (Ut.), Jan. 9, 1927, p. 27]

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1895-96 Reigning Umugabekazi Nyirauhi V Kanjogera of Rwanda
1896-ca. 1916 Regent
1916-31 Reigning Umugabekazi

She became Umugabekazi (Queen Mother) by the death of her husband King Kigeri IV Rwabigi and twice acted as regent for her so, Yuhi V Musinga (1896-31). Rwanda was a Belgian colony at the time.

[From: “Famous African women, leaders, and professionals from 1623 present," http://en.convdocs.org/docs/index-61644.html?page=6 ]

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EXCEPT: Many are the failed experiments in democratic government, frequently imposed or inspired by foreign powers, that have littered the African continent in particular since the middle decades of the 20th century.

Consequently, the reign of Mibambwe IV was not a long one, and he was duly replaced on the throne in 1896 by Yuhi V Musinga (r. 1896-1931), another of Mwami Kigeli's sons by his wife Kanyogera (Nyirajuhi V), in what has come to be known as the Coup d'Etat of Rucunshu. In accordance with Rwandan royal tradition, the ousted king was put to death for the benefit of the nation, the kalinga was presented to the new monarch and the supreme authority passed naturally into the hands of the successor designated by the abiru.

[From: Stewart Addington Saint-David, The Kings of Rwanda: Fathers of a Nation, PART II: Rwandan Abami of the Colonial Era (ca. 1895-1959 http://www.kingkigeli.org/innerblue2.html ]

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