African Women Who Led in Faith
3 women in the archive worked for religious leadership. They came from different countries and different centuries, but each of them saw a wrong that others accepted and set out to change it. Read their stories to see how the same cause looked from very different lives.
3 women in the archive
ColonialEmpress Zewditu
Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930, the first woman to head an internationally recognised African state in modern history. She preserved Ethiopian sovereignty during the scramble for Africa.
Pre-ColonialFatima al-Fihri
Tunisian-born founder of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, recognised by UNESCO and Guinness World Records as the oldest existing, continually operating university in the world.
Pre-ColonialNana Asma'u
Scholar, poet, and educator in the Sokoto Caliphate who built one of the earliest known systems of women's education in West Africa, training female teachers who carried learning into rural communities.