Modjadji II

Modjadji II, personally Masalanabo, was the second rain-queen, daughter of the first. Her reign fell in the era of Boer expansion into the northern Transvaal, when the queendom came under mounting external pressure while still commanding wide ritual prestige as the source of rain. She is remembered above all for her death: in keeping with the custom by which the queen must not decline into visible old age or infirmity, she is said to have taken the royal poison at the appointed close of her reign, an act that reaffirmed the sacred logic binding the queen's person to the fertility of the land.

Parentage

• parent: Modjadji IE. J. Krige & J. D. Krige, The Realm of a Rain-Queen (Oxford University Press, 1943). (primary)

Children

• Modjadji III

Domains

• rain
• drought

Powers

• makes the rain
• ends her reign by ritual poison

Relations

• parent: Modjadji IE. J. Krige & J. D. Krige, The Realm of a Rain-Queen (Oxford University Press, 1943). (primary)
• child: Modjadji IIIE. J. Krige & J. D. Krige, The Realm of a Rain-Queen (Oxford University Press, 1943). (primary)

Sources

• Modjadji II (Masalanabo) succeeded her mother as rain-queen in the mid nineteenth century and, in accordance with dynastic custom, ended her reign by ritual poisoning toward the century's close.: E. J. Krige & J. D. Krige, The Realm of a Rain-Queen (Oxford University Press, 1943). (primary)