This book uses Sierra Leone to explore gendered political authority, illuminating the roles it plays in women"s history, political history, and political transformation. Sierra Leone is in many ways an exceptional case, for in contrast to other areas where colonialism destroyed female leadership, colonial agents within the region accommodated extant hierarchical structures, including female leaders who controlled land, people, and armed men. Author Lynda Day shows that women chiefs in this region demonstrate a distinct model of female political leadership, combining elements from both complex state-based political systems and parallel lineage-based gendered systems. Through this unusual combination of means of legitimization, they set themselves apart from other female political authority figures in West, Central, and Southern Africa.