Before there was Major General Birckhead, there was Amanirenas, the Fearless Queen of Kush.

At the time when the Romans had expanded their empire into Egypt, there existed Nubian queens who stopped their powerful armies from stretching into their lands to capture their gold mines and temples. The lands of Kush were south of conquered Egypt (now known as Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan). 

31 BC - almost three thousand years ago - through acts of attrition then negotiation, an African Queen managed to stave off this powerful force. 
The identity she was given, as The One Eyed Queen, speaks to her formidability because the injury she sustained from a Roman soldier during one of her attacks was proof that this queen - like the long line to follow -  took zero nonsense from those who dared threaten her reign.

Ascending to her position after the death of her husband. Queen Amanirenas' three-year war with the Romans began when she received word of Augustus' plan for expansion. She knew the Roman army was much larger than her own and would land a devastating blow, so she decided to strike first. She, her son, and 30,000 soldiers surprised the Romans before they could leave Egypt. The queen and her troops captured three major Egyptian cities - and even took the head of Augustus from one of his statues and buried it beneath the staircase of a temple in their capital city of Meroe... talk about audacity.
Needless to say, Augustus was not happy with this invasion. He retaliated by destroying the capital of Kush, capturing thousands of Kushites then selling them into slavery.
Amanirenas responded swiftly and often, leading several battles against the Romans that eventually led to the Roman Emperor signing a Peace Treaty, vacating Egypt and rescinding a claim for taxes... why would the mighty Roman Empire do this, you ask? It is said, Queen Amanirenas' attacks included the employ of war elephants and lions.

The fact that Emperor Augustus retreated, begs one to wonder, if the mighty Roman Empire that ruled the Mediterranean, much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa relented, what did that say about the Kushite queens who managed to keep their lands in their kingdom (often through battle) for hundreds of years?

Today, only rubble remains, but the story of this great civilization can not be forgotten, particularly due to this queen who reigned about twenty years and her subsequent royals whom eventually rule Egypt for 100 years.