Makena wa Zuberi (mah-KEH-nah wah zoo-BEH-ree)
First Voice of Azania
Makena wa Zuberi was born along the coral coast of Azania, where the Indian Ocean’s tides carried dhows from Arabia, India, and the islands beyond. Her family were merchants and healers, steeped in the dual arts of trade and medicine, for in Azania commerce was never divorced from care. Her name, Makena, meaning “the one who brings happiness,” seemed prophetic, for even as a child she had a gift for lifting spirits. She grew up amid the mingling of tongues and cultures, learning to speak not only her own Swahili but also fragments of Arabic, Sanskrit, and Persian from sailors who passed through the bustling harbors.
By adolescence, Makena had earned a reputation as a peacemaker. When rival clans quarreled over trade rights or fishing grounds, she was often called to sit in council, her youthful voice reminding elders of the sea’s impartial generosity. At the same time, she apprenticed under her mother as a herbalist, memorizing the uses of roots and resins that grew along the coastal forests. Her vision was always expansive: she believed that Azania’s future lay in weaving together the wisdom of many lands, just as her people’s dhows carried cargo from every horizon.
When she journeyed to Antioch at twenty-five, Makena embodied the spirit of the ocean. She spoke of the Accord as a harbor: a place where vessels of many shapes could anchor without fear, exchange their treasures, and sail again enriched. Her words, carried with lyrical cadence, evoked the salt air and the endless horizon. She urged the assembly to remember that peace was not stillness but motion, that federations must be open to currents lest they stagnate. Delegates later recalled that she wore coral beads at the signing, symbolizing both the sea and the fragility of balance.
After returning home, Makena became a founder of the healer-merchants’ guild, binding together trade and medicine as inseparable duties. She traveled widely along the Swahili coast, teaching that prosperity must be measured not only in wealth but in the health of communities. She died in her forties while journeying inland to aid a drought-stricken village, her passing mourned across Azania. Later generations remembered her as “the Coral Voice,” one who carried the rhythm of the tides into the Accord and who reminded her people that generosity was the truest anchor.
Previously Held Ranks & Titles
Date of Birth
25 Ubuntu 599 zc (Viaje)
Date of Death
01 Sankofa 645 zc (Mila)
Life
599 zc
645 zc
46 years old
Birthplace
Kilwa Kisiwani, Azania
Place of Death
Near Kilwa Kisiwani, Azania
Children
Belief/Deity
Mohammedan + Buddhism + Akan
Continues East African pluralism; justice, mindfulness, and ancestry united.
Other Affiliations
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