Queen Modjadji VI, who died Sunday at age 27, was the youngest of South Africa’s rain queens, one in a line of matriarchal monarchs stretching back at least 200 years and probably beyond in the mists and myths of African legends.

The rain queens, believed to have been blessed with the powers to control the rains and rivers, were immortalized by the 19th-century adventure writer Rider Haggard in “She,” the classic novel about a beautiful, immortal queen with supernatural powers ruling a hidden kingdom. The story gave rise to the phrase still used today: “She who must be obeyed.”

Queen Makobo Modjadji was the first of that line to receive a formal education although she admitted in a rare interview that she had never read Rider Haggard. She was enthroned two years ago after the death of her grandmother Modjadji V, in an elaborate formal ceremony conducted in the royal kraal deep in the forested mountains and valleys of the northeastern province, now named Limpopo.

Traditional drums beat far and wide for the ceremony, which was attended by royal families and dignitaries from all corners of southern Africa though, for the Balobedu people of the 140 villages that make up the tiny kingdom, the celebrations were clouded not by rain but by controversy and scandal.

The new queen, being a thoroughly modern young miss who preferred to visit discos in the nearby towns wearing T-shirts and jeans, had a child – a boy – by her long-standing boyfriend, a respectable young man with a good job in local government. But he was a commoner of whom the Royal Council disapproved.

By strict custom, the rain queen must remain unmarried, living a mostly reclusive life in the royal kraal attended by a number of “wives” – ladies-in-waiting who fulfill the household chores and functions on her behalf. Should she wish for male companionship, a suitor of royal blood must be chosen and thoroughly vetted and approved by the Royal Council. The tribe then prays for a girl-child as the hereditary succession is matriarchal.

The origins of the Modjadji royal line stretch back to the 16th-century Karanga kingdom of Monomatapa in what is now southeastern Zimbabwe. Centered on what are now the renowned Zimbabwe Ruins, the Monomatapa empire was known to have traded gold and ivory with India and China and to have reached an astonishing level of civil order and development.

Oral tradition holds that the son of a Monomatapa ruler had a relationship with his sister, Dzugundini, and produced an heir. His half-brothers plotted to kill the heir to prevent him succeeding to the throne. The old king, anxious to avoid a civil war, gave Dzugundini a magic horn for making rain and defending herself against enemies, advising her to take her child and followers southwards to establish their own kingdom.

The resulting tribe, known as the Balobedu, settled in the fertile Molotsi Valley in the northeastern corner of what became South Africa where the northernmost slopes of the Drakensberg Mountains drop down towards the low veldt. In the early 19th century, the tribe was ruled by Mugudo, a descendant of Dzugundini.

Warned by his ancestors of family rivalries, he killed his sons and married his daughter, founding a dynasty of women. If the queen gave birth to a son, that child was strangled. Her first daughter, Modjadji, started the matrilineal tradition.

She remained in complete seclusion deep in the misty forests of an area that normally has an above-average rainfall; but in periods of drought, ambassadors and supplicants came from afar to consult and to beg her to use her powers to summon the rains. So respected were the rain queen’s powers that warring tribes never troubled the Lobedu tribe or even Shaka, the Zulu warrior king, but sent emissaries to seek her blessings.

Christian missionaries sought to debunk the myths of the rain queen but South Africa’s ruling National Party promoted the role of traditional leaders, seeing their powers as a way of promoting apartheid. The rain queen was given a government salary. Her son was made a member of the Lebowa homeland parliament.

Queen Modjadji V, Mokobo’s grandmother, was deeply suspicious of the African National Congress as it moved towards power. She viewed it as a force that would mobilize the youth against traditional leaders and undermine their authority. When the ANC-controlled provincial government came to power, it was sympathetic and supportive of the Modjadji royal household, not least because it was keen to promote tourism to the scenically spectacular region based around the myths and legends of the rain queen. The Balobedu area is rich in cycads, the ancient tree ferns almost as mystic as the Queen herself. To preserve the giant of the species, encephelartos transvenosus, the Modjadji Nature Reserve was established with her blessing.

Mokobo Constance Modjadji was born in the royal village in 1978, daughter of Princess Makheala, who had been heir to the throne until she died two days before the old Queen in 2001.

Makobo, who attended high school and enjoyed the life of a modern teenager, found herself the new, reluctant heir to the rain queen’s throne, even though she secretly shared the scorn and skepticism of her contemporaries in the supernatural powers that supposedly came with the throne.

On ascending the throne,Queen Modjadji obeyed the demands of the Royal Council to continue the line, and she attended meetings of local tribal council and traditional leaders. But soon she was dogged with ill health.

Staff at the Polokwane Medi-Clinic declined to discuss her illness, but local rumors had it that her symptoms were those of the complications caused by the HIV/AIDS virus that is ravaging much of South Africa.

She is survived by her son, who is thought to be 8 years old; since he is the offspring of her commoner lover, the boy is not recognized by the deeply-traditional Modjadji Royal Council.