In “Elite Women in the Kingdom of Kongo,” John Thornton discussed how most often women’s power in Africa focuses on the role of senior women. In the Kingdom of Kongo during the 16th and 17th centuries women initially exercised power indirectly through influence on male relatives. However overtime after a great civil war broke out in the mid-1600s, women began to exercise more open and clear power. Many women took effective control of some sections of the country and were working less through male relatives. Elite women were different from other common women in Kongo society. Elite women never took formal control of the state. The most common way that elite Kongo women exercised influence was by working through the sway of husbands, sons, or
