I'm teaching East African mythology to 11th/12th graders, and we spent a day looking at contradictory legends about Araweelo, who was said to be Queen of Somalia around 15 AD.

As a English class, we're interested foremost at the importance of these myths to the people and cultures who share them. But many of us were wondering about the historical basis for these myths. Did Araweelo really believe in a matriarchy society? Did she order castrations and hang men by their testicles, or are those tales simply attempts to discredit her? Did she save her town from starvation during a drought? Or was she really a Jewish Ethiopian Queen?