The women history forgot to teach you.
An archive of African women who fought for equality, rights, and change.
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ContemporaryAgathe Uwilingiyimana
Rwanda's first and only female Prime Minister, a chemistry teacher who abolished ethnic quotas in schools, stood against Hutu Power extremism, and was assassinated with her UN guards in the opening hours of the 1994 genocide.
ContemporaryAminatou Haidar
The 'Sahrawi Gandhi', a nonviolent resistance leader who survived four years of secret detention and torture, and whose 32-day airport hunger strike in 2009 forced Morocco into a rare public climb-down before the eyes of the world.
IndependenceAnnie Jiagge
Ghanaian jurist who became the first woman judge in the Commonwealth of Nations and the principal drafter of the 1967 UN declaration that grew into CEDAW, the world's bill of rights for women.
ContemporaryAsha-Rose Migiro
Tanzanian lawyer and diplomat who became the first African woman to serve as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, after breaking a 45-year barrier as her country's first female foreign minister.
ModernBi Kidude
Zanzibar's legendary taarab singer, who ran away from a forced marriage as a teenager, sang barefoot and unveiled when both were scandalous, kept the island's musical traditions alive across a century, and became a world music star in her nineties.
Articles & Explainers
Raising Children at the Crossroads: How Gender, Culture, and Power Meet in African Homes
The lessons that shape girls into future wives and boys into men who expect service do not come from one place. They are built at the intersection of gender, culture, class, religion, and history. Understanding that crossroads is how we raise people instead of roles.
When Men Go to War, Women Suffer: The Rwanda Genocide and What Was Done to Women
In 100 days in 1994, between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped in Rwanda. This is the story of why it happened, what the world did about it, and how Rwandan women rebuilt an entire country from the ruins.
Ten Years in Prison for the Pill That Keeps Nigerian Mothers Alive
Nigeria's Senate is debating raising the punishment for supplying abortion drugs from 3 to 10 years. The pill at the centre of that law is the same one keeping women in villages from bleeding to death after childbirth.
6,400 Miles Past the Moon and Still Not Far Enough
Christina Koch just became the first woman to travel around the Moon. The comment sections proved exactly why that milestone still matters.
What Her Cloth Said When She Could Not Speak
Across East Africa, women have been buying, wearing, and gifting printed cloths that carry messages most people cannot read. A kanga is never just a kanga. It is a letter you wear on your body.
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Across the Centuries
Key moments in African women's history
