Abena the Redeemer
Abena the Redeemer, born Abena Jefferson, was the first Witch of the South and played a pivotal role in Oscar Diggs’ conquest of Oz. Though dubbed Abena the Wicked in the early days of her reign over Quadling Country, the Quadlings banned the use of that moniker once they realized that Abena had been pressed into Diggs’ service by one of the mind-manipulating Imperial Hats.
Following Glinda’s defeat of Abena in 145 and the removal of the hat which had so ensared her, Abena expressed immediate remorse. The child of Earth-666 refugees who had themselves descended from enslaved African Americans, she was mortified at the role she’d played in the subjugation of the Quadlings and enraged at the continued rule of Oscar Diggs. Almost immediately, she sought to atone for her sins—never mind the fact that Glinda and the Quadlings kept trying to reassure her that none of what she’d done had been her fault.
Abena became one of the founding members of the Garde de Glinda and acted as Glinda’s most trusted lieutenant for the rest of her life. A thorn in Oscar Diggs’ side for the sixty-four years, she used the protection afforded to her by being part of Glinda’s garde to become Diggs’ most vocal critic—not just in Oz, but throughout the whole of Eden.
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