African Women Who Fought for Social Justice
7 women in the archive worked for social justice. 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.
7 women in the archive
ModernBuchi Emecheta
Nigerian-British novelist who wrote about women's lives, race, and migration. Author of The Joys of Motherhood and Second Class Citizen; 20 novels and children's books.
ModernFatima Meer
South African sociologist and anti-apartheid activist who built solidarity between Indian and African South Africans, was banned, detained and firebombed for her defiance, and wrote Nelson Mandela's first authorised biography.
ContemporaryFolorunṣo Alakija
Nigerian businesswoman, philanthropist, and one of Africa's wealthiest women, who built a fashion empire before entering the oil industry, and now dedicates her wealth to education and poverty alleviation through the Rose of Sharon Foundation.
IndependenceMariama Bâ
Senegalese novelist and feminist whose novel So Long a Letter became a landmark of African women's writing. Teacher and advocate for women's education and equality.
ModernMaryam Uwais
Nigerian lawyer and advocate; Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments. Leading voice for children's rights, legal reform, and social protection in Nigeria.
ContemporaryTsitsi Dangarembga
Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker whose debut, Nervous Conditions, became the first novel in English by a Black Zimbabwean woman. Arrested in 2020 for protesting government corruption.
ContemporaryVanessa Nakate
Ugandan climate justice activist who became the leading voice for Africa and the Global South after being literally cropped out of a photo with white activists. She turned that act of erasure into a platform heard at the UN, at Davos and at every major climate summit.