The Rain Queen · The One Who Brings Rain

The “Rain Queen” of Limpopo is the head of a tribe that passes the office down through women, and is said to control cloud and rain. She never meets outsiders and rarely appears in public.

The position has been handed down for more than two hundred years, always from mother to daughter. Neighbouring tribes and later the farmers all acknowledged her influence — at the annual rain-making ceremony someone appears on her behalf to “bring” the rain.

In local memory, rain falls wherever she has been.

Folklore / Limpopo · South Africa / Time immemorial