Queen Jumbe-Souli


Queen Jumbe-Souli was ruler of the island of Moheli, in the Comoros archipelago.

Early life

Jumbe-Souli inherited the throne of the island of Moheli after the death of her father, King Ramanateka, also known as Sultan Abderahmane. Ramanateka was a Malagasy prince who ran away from Madagascar after the death of King Radama I. She was also a cousin of King Radama II. She had a sister, Jumbe-Salama, who died young.

Reign

When the missionary David Griffiths returned to Moheli in 1841, expecting to meet her father he in fact found his young daughter Jumbe-Souli on the throne. Jumbe-Souli, like the majority of people on the island was Muslim and did not convert to Christianity.
In 1863, the French government sent a delegation to meet with Queen Jumbe-Souli and the event was recorded by a visiting photographer Désiré Charnay. He recorded that she seemed "melancholy and sickly" and had a number of attendants. She was dressed extremely finely in a "robe of rich Turkish tissue of silk and gold". Her dress covered most of her face, with only her hand visible. The purpose of the visit had been to impress upon the young queen the advantages of becoming a French colony; she resisted. Jumbe-Souli lived in the palace, overlooking the sea, next to which was the garrison - a white building of two rooms, which held 28 soldiers.

Legacy

Queen Jumbe-Souli's date of death is uncertain, but in 1886, Mohéli was placed under French protection by its ruler, Salima Machamba.