ABSTRACT
South Africa and Nigeria share a lot of things in common. The South African dimension sees modern governance as an entity that bolsters inalienable human rights and the imperative of democracy. The data presented in this chapter emphasizes the different ways in which female traditional rulers exercise authority. The issue of women in traditional rulership is given prominence by the African traditions and customs, but the advent of colonialism altered this in favor of male rulers whom they turned into autocrats by empowering them more than their female counterparts. Today three categories of women traditional rulers exist in Nigeria: substantive women traditional rulers, dual-sex rulership, and regency. Indepth research into the origin of women traditional rulers in Nigeria shows that most of Nigeria's great kingdoms had female rulers in the past, before they gradually lost out to their male counterparts in power struggles.
