12-year-old queen with mystical powers

Midrand, South Africa: She is a 12-year-old schoolgirl who aspires to become a doctor.

But Masalanabo Modjadji is no ordinary pre-teen — she is South Africa’s only female traditional ruler with claims of mystical rainmaking powers.

Queen Modjadji is the hereditary ruler of the Balobedu, an ethnic tribe in South Africa’s northern province of Limpopo.

She will be formally crowned when she turns 18, having ascended to the throne as a three-monthold infant when her mother, the previous queen, died in 2005. Until her coronation, Masalanabo is not making any public statements.

But after gaining rare access, meeting her in a suburb outside Johannesburg where she lives during term time with her guardian Mathole Motshekga, who speaks on her behalf.

Masalanabo arrived back from school driven in an ordinary sedan car, and quickly swapped her black uniform tracksuit for a black-and-white traditional robe and a multicoloured beaded headband. “She knows that this is her position by birth, so she doesn’t have to hurry,” said Motshekga, describing her as the “earthly representative of the rain goddess.”

“She wants to be wellprepared because the world is modern and her subjects are going to be educated people, so she wants to be educated so that she matches with the times.”

Masalanabo will sit on the dynasty’s throne in her ancestral village of Modjadjiskloof in the fertile valley of Molototsi, 400 km north of Johannesburg. The monarchy, which originated in what is today southeastern Zimbabwe, has been ruled by women for over 200 years. Her mother was the first queen able to read and write. Last year — after a long campaign — the Balobedu queen was officially recognised under South African law for the first time since apartheid.