Four Queens Graced Brooklyn

As this year's Women's HerStory Month flows toward a close on the stage of Life, I complete my trilogy story of the Nana Harriet Ross Tubman Honor in Ghana (via its pioneer birth in Brooklyn) by sharing my contemplations of four wonder-full ancestral queens who graced Brooklyn soil, touching each other's lives profoundly even though somewhat briefly. 

The photo collage quartet tells the story far better than I the ancestral storyteller can; however, just as you sit with friends and family as they point out the who's and wherefore's in the family photo album, I'll do the same for you in terms of this collage of queens.

Now the first portrait here is the artwork created by Tennessee visual artist, Sylvia Sterling, in honor of Nana Tubman's posthumous Enstoolment (a
sacred ritual of honor in Ghana) in 2000. She is most probably the first and only artist to paint Nana Tubman in the regal garments of a queen.  The middle portrait, of course, is of the statue created in 2005 by gifted Ghanaian sculptor, Opoku Biney, which stands proudly in Aburi, Ghana. 

It was financed by John Watusi Branch, Executive Director, of the Jamaica, Queens' Center for Culture/Afrikan Poetry Theatre--a fitting accompaniment for the street named in Nana Tubman's honor on August 15, 2005.

The regal personage on the top row, far right is Nana Osei Boakye Yiadom II who so kindly facilitated our Nana Tubman Honor in Ghana and officiated at the celebratory ceremonies both in Brooklyn on June 10, 2000, and in Aburi, Ghana, her region of rulership as Ghana's first female Chief (after the great Nana Yaa Asantewaa). 

Although Nana Yiadom is a highly respected Chief, I include her among the four queens who have graced Brooklyn because prior to being drafted to the chieftancy, she was among the revered queen mothers there in Ghana.  (The photo is quite tiny but if you look at the bottom of the Tubman statue, you will see a group of Ghanaian queen mothers in a procession celebrating the Tubman presence in her ancestral homeland of Ghana.  You can view a larger photo of these queen mothers at: http://amasewa.tripod.com/NanaHarrietTubman.index.html)

Queen Quet (Marquetta L. Goodwine), enstooled "Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation", is depicted in the scenic photo on the bottom left.  A  noted scholar, organization founder and tour leader, and ancestral mover and shaker in preserving and globally promoting the Gullah-Geechee heritage and cultural traditions, Queen Quet lived and served in Brooklyn for many years prior to relocating to her birthplace of St. Helena Island, South Carolina.  

The first known woman to organize and lead a military expedition, Nana Tubman along with fiery abolitionist, Col. James A. Montgomery, liberated over 750 Gullah-Geechee freedom seizers during the Combahee River Raid of June 2, 1863.  

She went on to serve and teach business skills to those formerly enslaved persons during the Civil War era.  It is fitting that a thoughtful-visaged Queen Quet is facing Nana Tubman's photo from those days; as Queen Quet, a former Brooklynite, often seems to synchronistically appear whenever Nana Tubman's legacy is being highly lifted. 

She, like Gullah-Geechee descendant and contemporary contributor John Watusi Branch, rewards  in the currency of deep ancestral pride and support this 19th century servant and sacrificer for her people.  You can learn more about the Gullah Geechee Coalition work and the historical tours hosted by Queen Quet and the Gullah-Geechee Coalition she co-founded at: www.gullahgeecheenation.com.   

John Branch's organizational work and contributions are available for viewing at www.afrikanpoetrytheater.com.  Now note the last but far from least  queenly image (bottom right) of Ms. Paulette Copes Johnson, great grandniece of Nana Tubman.

Ms. Copes Johnson has devoted decades of her life to lecturing about her esteemed kinsperson and leading tours at the Tubman Museum in her home city of Auburn, New York, the last site of Nana Tubman's enduring love and service: www.harriethouse.org. She became a proud queen mother gracing Brooklyn in 2000 when enstooled into queen motherhood as a familial representative of Nana Tubman.
 
I don't know how many American Presidents have trod on Brooklyn soil, but I do know that in these contemporary times at least four accomplished ancestral queens have graced Brooklyn soil.  Two of them during their lifetimes have even advanced to chieftaincies. Now that's some deep women's history--or as they say "herStory" for the children and the elders.
 
copyright (c) L. Cousins-Newton 2013