sample biography of a nigerian woman

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7 Pioneering Women of Nigerian Art

Get to know some of nigeria's women artists and their impact and contribution to the nation's history over the years., yemisi shyllon museum of art, pan-atlantic university.

Invisible Hands exhibition poster Original Source: Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art

#1: Ladi Kwali

Hadiza Ladi Kwali (c.1925-1984) was a native of Kwali in the Gwari region of Abuja, where pottery was the indigenous occupation of the people. As a child, Ladi learned pottery from her aunt who taught her the traditional method of coiling. She would make various utensils including cooking pots, bowls, water jars, flasks etc decorated with geometric, figurative patterns like fish, birds, crocodiles, snakes, lizards etc which were symbolic motifs of ornamentation.

Vessel (1960) by Ladi Kwali Royal Ontario Museum

Ladi caught the attention of Michael Cardew, an English studio potter and Pottery Officer in Northern Nigeria Department of Commerce and Industry who saw her incredible pots at the house of the Emir of Abuja. In 1954, she joined Cardew’s Pottery Training Centre as the only female potter and was exposed to the western techniques of pottery making. Her style evolved into a fusion of both western and traditional Gwari techniques of pottery making. Through Cardew, Ladi became known to the world as her works were widely exhibited in galleries in Europe and America.

She was also featured in exhibitions held to mark Nigeria’s independence in 1960. Though without any formal education, Ladi was a delight to behold at demonstrations and workshops across the globe where she amazed everyone with her knowledge, skill and character. She became Africa’s best-known and foremost potter. In 1963, she was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE); an honorary doctorate degree by Ahmadu Bello University in 1977; and a national honour of the Officer of the Order of Niger (OON) in 1981.

#2: Susanne Wenger

Susanne Wenger, also known as Adunni Olorisha of Osun, was an Austrian-Nigerian painter, sculptor and textile artist born in Graz, Austria in 1915. After moving to Nigeria in early 1950, Susanne dedicated the rest of her life to learning the rich culture and tradition of the Yoruba people. 

Susanne Wenger The Centenary Project

Susanne Wenger also supported and promoted the local art tradition of the people and its indigenous artists through the Oshogbo Art Workshops in the 1960s. She led the restoration of numerous sacred groves and shrines of worship of the Yoruba gods in and around Osogbo in what was known as the  “Sacred Art Movement”. 

"Tief in Dir bist Du oh Mensch der Gott” (Deep within yourself you, oh human, are the god) by Susanne Wenger Original Source: Susanne Wenger Foundation

Susanne and a team of local artists gifted in different techniques of sculpting built solid monumental structures and sculptures at the sacred groves and shrines of worship of the people. She also made contributions to Yoruba literature by consistently writing and publishing books both in English and Yoruba languages. 

Palms of Destiny (1993) by Susanne Wenger Original Source: Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art

In 2008, she was declared a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR), a national honour by the Nigerian Government in recognition of her contributions and support to the Yoruba art, culture and history.

Agbasaga of Ogidi land, chief Nike Davies-Okundaye (2019) The Centenary Project

#3: Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye

Born in 1951, Nike Davies-Okundaye is one of Nigeria's most well-known batik and Adire artists. She has exhibited internationally, and is a champion of supporting African artists and women. She founded the Nike Art Galleries in Oshogbo, Ogidi, Abuja and Lagos.

Cycle of Life (1980) by Nike Davies-Okundaye Original Source: Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art

Mama Nike, as she is fondly called, spent three years producing this textile which is titled 'The Cycle of Life'. It was created while training at the Oshogbo School of Art under the tutelage of Ulli Beier and Susanne Wenger.  The motifs and symbols depicted in the work tell the story of the pattern of life.

#4: Chief Constance Afiong ‘Afi’ Ekong

Constance Afiong Ekong (1930-2009) was also known as 'Afi,' and an exceptional painter. She was an artist, designer and patron of the arts. She studied art and costume history in England in the 1950s, becoming the first female Nigerian artist trained abroad. She was the first woman to have a solo exhibition in Nigeria in 1958 at the Lagos Festival of Arts Exhibition Centre. 

Afi rose to fame when her works were featured in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. She produced Cultural Heritage , a weekly television programme promoting Nigerian art and artists in the 1960s. She was part of the founding members of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) in 1964. In 1965, she opened The Bronze Gallery in Lagos which was the first private art gallery in Nigeria.

Afi was honoured with “The Star of Dame Official of the Human Order of African Redemption” in recognition of her works on promoting art and women’s education in West Africa by President William Tubman of Liberia in 1962. In 1963, she was featured in an essay in the New York Times as example of the “New African Woman”.

#5: Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu

Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu (1921-1996) was an artist, art educator and one the female pioneers of Nigerian modernism in art, whose career stood out as a result of her influence on other notable Nigerian artists. Clara started out as a teacher in mission schools between 1945-1950 before she moved to England to further her art education on scholarship. She obtained a National Diploma in Design (NDD) from the Chelsea School of Art, London in 1954 and an art teacher’s diploma from the Institute of Education, University of London in 1955. She became the first female and only Nigerian art lecturer at the Nigerian College of Art, Science and Technology (NCAST) in 1955. 

During her time at NCAST, she taught the students (Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrapkeya, Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko etc) who went on to form the Zaria Art Society and were founders of post-colonial modernism in Nigerian art. In 1975, she was appointed state adviser for FESTAC by the federal government. Clara held solo exhibitions in the US and London and participated in numerous group exhibitions including the Independence Exhibition, Lagos (1960) and FESTAC ’77, Lagos (1977) among others. She was awarded a Fellow of Asele Institute, Nimo in 1985.

#6: Princess Elizabeth Olowu

Born 1945, Princess Elizabeth Olowu is the daughter of Oba Akenzua II of Benin and a sculptor. As a child, Elizabeth took interest in the objects in the royal court of Benin and started learning the skill of bronze sculpting alongside her mother. 

Despite superstitious believes discouraging women from venturing into such a sacred craft of men, she was encouraged by her father to chase her dreams and passion. Elizabeth is regarded as Nigeria’s first female bronze caster.  Her focus and desire as an artist is to "liberate womenfolk from the shackles of men, deprivation and taboos" and she expresses this in her works. 

#7: Asabi Bakare

Abigail Eebudola Bakare (1909-2018) was a known merchant and textile artist who learned the art of Rire and Adire (Indigo Dyeing and Tie-and-dye) from her mother. Alongside her sister, she built a successful business enterprise from the trade. Her first major breakthrough as an artist came during her participation in a workshop organized in 1975 by Augusta Sandstrom, a lecturer at the Fine Art Department of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. As a reward for her performance, she was selected to travel abroad to showcase her works. 

Bakare gave series of lectures in different institutions across Europe and America, demonstrating how Africans made their clothes before the advent of Europeans through the Adire textile. In 2017, she received the Adire Celebrity Award from the Nigerian institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in recognition of of her immense contribution over the years towards the growth and development of Adire fashion in Nigeria and globally.

Solomon Nkwagu , Visitors' Services Manager, Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art. Voice over by Olufisayo Bakare , Curator of The Invincible Hands Exhibition, Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art.

Tour The Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art

Adire: the art of tie and dye, the centenary project, aftershocks: japanese earthquake prints (1 of 3), royal ontario museum, 7 highlights at the yemisi shyllon museum, nigerian party jollof: the king of rice, aftershocks: japanese earthquake prints (2 of 3), prince yemisi shyllon: championing nigerian art, the masters of nigerian art, aftershocks: japanese earthquake prints (3 of 3), bruce onobrakpeya's rebellion, a close-up on aso-oke of the yoruba, blue whale project.

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Unsung Heroines: The brave women who contributed to Nigeria's development

From the first woman to attain the rank of Major General in the Nigerian Army to the first female senator in Nigeria...

Nigeria has a rich history that is full of brave and intelligent women who have contributed immensely to the growth and development of the country.

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Unfortunately, many of these women have been forgotten and their contributions have been overlooked. In this article, we will highlight six such women who deserve to be remembered for their outstanding achievements.

From the first woman to attain the rank of Major General in the Nigerian Army to the first female senator in Nigeria, these women have left a lasting legacy that continues to inspire young Nigerians to fight for equality and justice.

Aderonke Kale

Aderonke Kale was appointed as a Major General in the Nigerian Army in 1994, becoming the first woman to attain the rank.

Before her promotion, Kale had a distinguished military career, serving in various capacities in the Nigerian Army, including her role as the Director of Army Public Relations.

Kale's promotion to the rank of Major General also sends a positive message about gender equality and women's leadership in Nigeria. Her accomplishment demonstrates that women can excel in male-dominated fields such as the military and that their talents and abilities should be recognised and rewarded regardless of gender.

Franca Afegbua

Franca Afegbua was the first female senator in Nigeria, briefly serving in the Senate in 1983 before Muhammadu Buhari’s military government took over. Her accomplishment paved the way for other women to enter politics and become active participants in Nigeria's political landscape.

As a senator, Afegbua was known for her strong stance on issues of women's rights and social justice. She was a passionate advocate for the empowerment of women and was instrumental in pushing for legislative reforms that would improve the status of women in Nigerian society.

During her tenure in the Senate, Afegbua sponsored several bills and motions aimed at promoting gender equality and women's rights. One of her notable achievements was the establishment of the National Centre for Women Development, which provides training and support for women in various aspects of development. On Monday, March 13, 2023, Franca Afegbua was confirmed dead at the age of 81, after a period of an undisclosed illness.

Janet Mokelu

Janet Mokelu was a Nigerian politician and activist who played a significant role in the struggle for Nigerian independence. Born in 1918 in Jos, Plateau State, she was the daughter of a prominent politician and was schooled in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

Mokelu, who worked closely with Margaret Ekpo, was a vocal advocate for women's rights and was instrumental in the 1951 establishment of the Nigerian Women's Party (NWP) which fought for the rights of women and children. She also played a leading role in the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) and was a staunch supporter of the Nigerian independence movement.

Mokelu championed equity and authored various progressive bills, including one advocating for equal pay for married women. In 1949, she led a protest against the Enugu State Police Command which had killed 21 miners demanding their allowance. Mokelu mobilised women to demand justice and the prosecution of the policemen involved, while also condemning colonial policies.

She advocated for women's rights to vote and be voted for. Our mothers started voting seven years before their counterparts in the United States of America who had to wait until 1965. She was a strong advocate for women's suffrage and her legislative record reflected her commitment to gender equality.

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba was a prominent Nigerian feminist and politician born in 1933 in Kano, Nigeria. She was a pioneer in the fight for women's rights and social justice in Nigeria.

Her accomplishments include joining the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) in 1953, becoming the first woman to contest for a parliamentary seat in Nigeria in 1957, and 1960, and becoming the first woman to be elected to the Northern Regional House of Assembly. She was a champion for the education of women, the end of discriminatory practices against women, and the empowerment of women in political and social spheres.

She was imprisoned several times, harassed, and even beaten for her activism. Sawaba died on October 9, 2001, at the age of 68, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire young Nigerians to fight for equality and justice.

Margaret Ekpo

Margaret Ekpo was a Nigerian women's rights activist and politician who is best known for her role in the struggle for Nigerian independence. Born in 1914 in Creek Town, Cross River State, she was the daughter of a trader and a schoolteacher.

Margaret was a vocal advocate for women's rights and was instrumental in the establishment of the Aba Women's Riot in 1929, which protested against unfair taxes and colonial policies. She also played a leading role in the NCNC and was a staunch supporter of the Nigerian independence movement.

In addition to her political work, Ekpo was a successful businesswoman and was the first Nigerian woman to open a boutique in the city of Aba. She was also a co-founder of the Women's Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu, which provided education and training for women in business and entrepreneurship.

Ekpo passed away on September 21, 2006, at the age of 92, in her residence in Calabar, Nigeria.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian feminist, politician, and activist who played a significant role in Nigeria's struggle for independence. Born in Abeokuta in 1900, Ransome-Kuti was the daughter of a Yoruba aristocrat and a granddaughter of a renowned anti-colonialist. She was educated in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, where she studied at the University of Manchester.

Ransome-Kuti was a vocal advocate for women's rights and was instrumental in the 1946 establishment of the Abeokuta Women's Union (AWU) which fought against oppressive colonial policies. She also played a leading role in the Nigerian Women's Union (NWU) which fought for the rights of women and children.

In addition to her advocacy work, Ransome-Kuti was an active politician and served as a member of the Western Region House of Assembly. She was also a member of the NCNC and was a staunch supporter of the Nigerian independence movement.

Sadly, Ransome-Kuti's life was cut short in 1978 when she was thrown down from a window, as Nigerian soldiers raided the home of her son, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

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Leading Ladies Africa – 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria 2020

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

Now in its fifth consecutive year, Leading Ladies Africa in conjunction with YNaija presents its #100Women list, chronicling 100 of the most inspiring, influential, powerful and innovative women in Nigeria. “We’re thrilled to be able to show the world the diversity and multifacetedness of what it truly means to be a Nigerian woman,” says FRANCESCA URIRI, Founder, Leading Ladies Africa. “Nigerian women all over the world, in politics, business, social enterprise public policy, the corporate space, the creative sector are present and redefining what leadership and excellence means. This list reflects that diversity and acts as a catalyst to motivate a new generation of female changemakers, innovators and disruptors. This year, we are asking how we can actively challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, celebrate and recognize the contributions as well as impact of Nigerian women. What do we need to do to help create and maintain a gender equal world? These and many more are what this 2020 list hopes to highlight,” she said

Grace Ihejiamazu Founder of iKapture Networks, Grace has reached over 3000 young people since inception. One of the services offered by ikpature is the YLEAD, a six-weeks program aimed at equipping young people in their transitional years with necessary skills. She is also the founder of Opportunity Desk, a platform that provides mentorship, training and information on relevant learning and growth opportunities for youths.

Hajia Lami Tumaka Former Director of Special Duties NIMASA. Before her retirement, Hajia Lami worked with NIMASA for 22 years. She joined the services of the then National Maritime Authority (NMA) as Chief Research Officer and saw her rise to the rank of Director has been characterised by several awards and accolades from within and without especially in the field of Public Relations which has defined most of her stay in the Agency.

During her leadership, she remedied crises that threatened to erode the confidence of stakeholders in NIMASA, the apex maritime regulatory Agency in the country. Her human-faced Public Relations practice even earned her international recognition when she won an award as one of the most outstanding Public Relations Practitioners in Africa.

Ifeyinwa Ighodalo Upon realizing her passion for interiors, Ifeyinwa established Design Options Limited. in 1987. Since inception, it has grown to become and is now widely recognized as one of Nigeria’s very best in its area of expertise, in recognition of which it was honoured with the 2004 St. Moritz Style Award for Interior Design. She is a volunteer mentor for the mentorship programme of Fate Foundation.

Ijeoma Igbaji Ijeoma is the founder/CEO of dynamic gifts and surprises company, White Rabbit Favours. Since being launched in 2013, the company has served over a thousand clients. The company packages and delivers cakes, fresh flowers, balloons, chocolates, jewellery, wine, champagne, cars, Spa vouchers, shopping vouchers, gift certificates etc for every occasion and celebration. WR Saxophone or violin serenade for classic birthday surprises is also included.

Intisar Bashir Kurfi Founder of Ifrique Collections and Designs Limited. Intisar works to promote SDG 6, which is providing clean water and sanitation through Sustainovation Solutions. The company now produces interlocking tiles and eco-friendly toilets using wastes from pep bottles and used sachet water plastics. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of ICO Conferences & Events, an international conference production and event management company based in South Africa and Nigeria.

Irene Ochem Irene is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF), a non-profit women empowerment organization that works to promote and support women enterprise and innovation in Africa. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of ICO Conferences and Events, an international conference production and event management company.

Jade Rawa Jade is the founder and creative director of the ready- to- wear Afrocentric fashion brand, Melia by Jade. Successfully making fashion that cuts across all social status, she gives a percentage of her sales to organisations that look after women with breast cancer.

Jadesola also has vast experience in media, television production and public relations spanning almost a decade across different organisations in Nigeria. She started out as the Media Officer at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and currently works as a Policy & Partnership Associate at All On – a Lagos-based impact Investment firm.

Jemima Osunde Jemima is an actress, model and presenter who came into limelight after playing Leila in the television series, Shuga. Jemima holds a degree from the University of Lagos in Physiotherapy, which she practices in addition to her acting career.

Joana Nnazua Kolo Humanitarian, advocate of good governance and youngest serving commissioner in Kwara State, Joana is a 2018 graduate of Library Science from Kwara State University and is believed to be the youngest commissioner in the history of Nigeria. A grassroots mobiliser and an ardent advocate of community development, Joana was nominated for appointment two weeks before the end of completing NYSC.

Karo Omu Karo is the founder of Sanitary Aid Initiative, a humanitarian and advocacy body promoting sanitary health of the girl-child. The organisation aims to provide free sanitary pads and other sanitary products to girls from low-income families across public schools in Nigeria and girls in Internally Displaced Persons Camps across the country. The organization has given out nearly 11,000 pads to girls and women across 9 Nigerian states – all in under 24 months.

Kehinde Smith After graduating from theUniversity in 2012, Kehinde went on to run My Extensionz natural extensions beauty company in the United States and recently, in Nigeria. She intends to use her role as brand ambassador of Revolve Clothing to advocate for more diversity and inclusivity by working with both local and international brands.

Laurie Idahosa Laurie is a pastor, motivational speaker, author, co-founder, Big Ben Children’s Hospital and a mentor. She also trained as a missionary, an Emergency Medical Technician, First Aid and CPR instructor and a Disaster Relief Responder. She has owned several successful businesses. Most recently, she spearheaded the campaign to raise relief materials and funds for the support of Internally Displaced Children.

Lilian Ajayi-Ore

She was a University Faculty at New York University(NYU) SPS and a visiting professor at other universities. Rated by LinkedIn as Top 25 Marketing Professionals in Academia, and nominated by NYU students for the Teaching Excellence Award, Lilian is a doctoral candidate and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education.

Linda Nnodiogu Linda is anti-rape and sexual abuse advocate and author of fiction centred on rape and child abuse. She is also a speaker and co-host of Anambra’s literary debate and individually hosts another literary debate club to encourage reading and communication among children.

Lolo Cynthia Ihesie Lolo is a socio-behavioural communication specialist; gender, sexual and reproductive health advocate; UNHCR Media Influencer and founder of LoloTalks. She works on social issues bordering on social inequality, quality education, quality healthcare and social mobilisation, including a child and youth care while tutoring teenagers, local communities and correctional centres. She created a comprehensive sexuality education toolkit, My Body Is Mine, a human right based and gender-focused approach to sexuality education.

Mercy Chinwo Mercy is a singer, songwriter and actress, rising to fame after winning Nigeria Idol Season 2 in 2012.

Michelle Bello Michelle is an entrepreneur and award-winning filmmaker. In 2007,she produced and directed her first feature film Small Boy. In 2011, she moved back to Nigeria to be part of Nollywood.

Modupe Adefeso-Olateju Mo is an education policy expert with several years of research experience spanning academic and private-sector research. She was Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee which designed, organized and reported the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES20) on Education held in March 2014. As a Centenary Scholar (Africa), she received a PhD in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education (IoE), the University of London.

Mofe Yejide Runsewe Mofe created online travel company, Naija Nomads, after an eye-opening trip to Morocco in 2011 and started her travel platform in 2015 due to lack of Nigerian travellers’ stories. Naija Nomads has evolved from a blog to a full company that provides all kinds of travel needs from content to experiences.

Mofoluwaso Ilevbare Mofoluwaso is a consultant, executive coach and women-in-leadership advocate with multi-cultural experience across Australia, Europe, U.S. India, Middle East, and Africa. Working with Procter & Gamble (since 2002) Australia & New Zealand as its Human Resource Director, her corporate career spans over 18 years. She’s also an author, coach, international speaker and mentor. She also runs Women Connected by Purpose which empowers women and disadvantaged kids in SouthWest Nigeria.

Nancy Isime Nancy is a Nigerian actress, model and media personality. In 2009, she won the Miss Valentine International beauty pageant and began a career as an actress in the TV series Echoes in 2011.

Naomi Osemedua Naomi is the author of Amazon Best Seller, Socially Speaking -My Periscope Miracles, inspirational speaker, reformer, positive change coach and advocate against domestic violence. In 2011, she founded the Nigerian branch of Making a Difference (M.A.D.) Positive International in Abuja to break the silence surrounding sexual abuse and domestic violence. In 2014, she organised Nigeria’s “1 Billion Rising for Justice” to protest against sexual assault against women and also demand justice.

Natasha Akpoti Natasha is a barrister, social entrepreneur and politician. She ran for the post of Kogi Central Senatorial District seat under the Social Democratic Party in 2019 and also contested the Kogi State Governorship election which held in November 2019.

She is the Founder of Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP), a social impact and sustainability firm that provides solutions for the government and corporations to maximise the impact of their social investments. She came to national prominence after presenting an investigative report to the National Assembly on March 1, 2018 on corrupt activities regarding the Ajaokuta Steel Mill. The report detailed the repetitive waste of government funds and embezzlement since the initial construction of the steel mill which has remained moribund despite multiple attempts to get it running.

Ngozi Ejedimu Ngozi is a breast cancer survivor and the founder of WhatCancerNaija, a breast cancer awareness platform that covers everything from prevention and awareness about breast cancer to life after surgery. It evolved from the “Pink Gratitude Project”, an initiative where pink gift bags are given monthly to patients and survivors to encourage and support them during the journey.

Nkasi Obim Nebo Nkasi is the founder of ‘PeachAid Medical Initiative’, an NGO which reduces maternal mortality rates amongst rural communities and Internally Displaced Person Camps by providing free antenatal care to vulnerable women. Her organisation has trained over 2,000 local birth attendants and has also started a free family planning service.

Nkemdilim Begho Nkemdilim is the CEO of Future Software Resources Ltd. (Futuresoft). She is an Obama African Leader and a Forbes’s Top Ten Female Tech Founders in Africa. In 2019, she was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc. She’s a recipient of many awards and regularly volunteers for mentoring and empowerment programmes often sharing her experiences with young Nigerians and less privileged children.

Nnenna Kalu Makanjuola Nnenna is the founder and editor-in-chief of Radiant Health Magazine. Her lifelong commitment to improving health outcomes for Africans began with her work as a pharmacist. Wanting to make a larger impact, she transitioned to the public health sector starting as an intern at the World Health Organization (WHO). Nnenna served as a Global Health Fellow at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she spent a year in Tanzania working to strengthen the laboratory system for HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment monitoring. She continued her public health work at CDC Atlanta and later as a consultant for the D.C. based Advocates for Youth before going on to launch Radiant Health Magazine.

Obis Oragwu Obis inspires her followers every day with her posts. From DIY makeup and style tips for different body types to life lessons about being a mom, Obis helps women across her community and beyond gain confidence and look good while at it.

Obis is also a body positivity advocate and also hosts regular styling classes, shopping guides and skincare lessons for her community. She also helps expectant and new moms feel good about themselves and their bodies through her pregnancy and postpartum styling lessons. She is also the founder of Wardrobe Merchant, a fashion store which serves as an avenue to connect people who want to declutter their wardrobe with others who want to get stylish outfits.

Ogechukwu Anugo-Obah Founder, Body Like Milk, Ogechukwu’s foray into business is an inspiring one. Due to financial instability and the inability to afford basic skincare products, Oge decided to make her own with the last money she had with her (N1,000). She packaged and sold to her first two clients. Fast forward to a month, she ended up selling 50 cups of the cream. Today, she has expanded her range from just skincare products to facial, hair, makeup and fragrances. With the rise in demand, she soon started delivering her products outside of West Africa.

Olarinde Olayemi Ayanfeoluwa Olarinde is a Visual artist and photographer but is more famous for her style, Scribbling. She is a self-taught artist and illustrator who is inspired by a Peruvian artist based in Italy, Erick Centeno.

Olatowun Candide-Johnson Olatowun is a seasoned oil and gas professional, lawyer and compliance specialist turned entrepreneur and Founder of GAIA, a member’s only business and social club for women. She is also the Non-Executive Director, Nigerian Norwegian Chamber of Commerce and Chairwoman, African Delivery Technologies. In 2019, she was appointed as the chairwoman of French start-up “Kwik” ” – an on-demand, last-mile bike delivery service focusing on providing logistic services in West Africa.

Omolola Aneke Omolola is the executive director of the Comprehensive Autism and related Disabilities Education and Training Academy, known as the C.A.D.E.T. Academy, and also the founder of Dewdrops Community Centre for Special Needs, both located in Abuja. Since 2015, Lola hosts a weekly special needs radio show (which currently airs on Kiss FM Abuja), aimed at creating awareness and advocating for children with special education needs and empowering parents and caregivers with relevant information and resources. She has trained and empowered numerous parents, teachers and caregivers locally and internationally and recently authored two books, Special Needs Made Easy (Vol. 1) and Mastering Autism.

Omozino Eguh Founder of Yudimy which uses psychological profiling to help people gain career clarity by matching their natural abilities to viable job roles and career paths, it also helps recruiters and employers make better hiring decisions by hiring candidates that are truly passionate for the role and help parents match their children’s natural abilities to suitable career pathways and subject combinations while preparing them for the future of work.

Braithwaite

Oyinkan Braithwaite Oyinkan is a novelist and writer. In 2014, she was shortlisted as a top-ten spoken-word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam and in 2016, was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She became a literary sensation after releasing her debut novel, “My Sister, the Serial Killer” in 2018. In less than a year, the book has been praised by The New York Times, The Washington Post, respected authors and was longlisted for the highly coveted Booker Prize.

Powede Lawrence-Awujo Powede is a fashion and style influencer, ex-beauty queen, registered nurse and midwife, with a nursing degree from the Niger Delta State University, Bayelsa. The model is also an Aviation pilot with an excellent PR relation. She got certified by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). Asides being a pilot and nurse, she is also the CEO of Tods and Kids, a retail children’s quality clothing store that renders the service of making baby shopping fun for grown-ups. She joined French luxury brand, Lancome in April 2019 as a global partner representing Nigeria. Powede also has a foundation called Powede Lawrence Foundation which aims to advocate for people living with disabilities and the less privileged in the society.

Rahama Sadau Rahama is an actress, filmmaker, and singer. Born and raised in Kaduna, Rahama rose to fame in 2013 after joining the Kannywood movie industry with her first movie, “Gani ga Wane.” She has appeared in many Nigerian movies in both Hausa and English and is one of the few Nigerian actors that speak Hindi fluently. In 2017, she became the first Hausa celebrity to appear in the top ten Hottest Female Nigeria Celebrities.

Sharon Ikeazor Sharon is the current Minister of State and Environment. She is also a lawyer, politician and management consultant. She is the former Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate. During her tenure at PTAD, she was able to identify areas in need of critical changes and took appropriate measures. As part of cleaning the system, she inaugurated the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) to help clean out the system internally by ensuring the activities of staff are internally checked.

Shola Lawal Shola is an independent filmmaker and freelance West African correspondent for the Mail and Guardian, a South African-based newspaper. Her work focuses on development issues, women and the environment. Apart from Mail and Guardian, Lawal’s work have appeared in Al Jazeera, TRT World and IRIN News.

Simi Nwogugu Simi is the Executive Director of Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide. Simi brought Junior Achievement to Nigeria in 1999 after she served as a volunteer in New York and realized that the entrepreneurial training programs were exactly what the large unemployed youth population in Nigeria needed. JAN has reached over 950,000 in- and out-of-school youth in over 29 cities across Nigeria, and some of its alumni are successful business leaders and social entrepreneurs who volunteer their time and resources to ensure JAN’s sustainability. She sits on the Advisory Council of the African Capital Alliance Foundation and is a member of the Global Advisory Committee for Teach For All.

Sola Adesakin Sola is the lead coach and CEO of Smart Stewards. An experienced, versatile chartered accountant with 17 years experience in personal and SMEs finance, she is a personal finance coach, trainer and conference/seminar speaker. Through her blog and The Smart Stewards Academy, she has helped many men and women bounce back from stress to rest and from debt to wealth.

Sola Babatunde Sola is the Founder/Creative Director of OSC Couture and OSC College of Fashion. She is also the Creative Director of One Stop Celebration LTD, a Pan African garment factory and fashion training school. She began her career at FATE Foundation, working through all the departments, and is the present National Publicity Secretary for Fashion Designers Association (FADAN), the Nigerian export promotion council certified exporter, who focuses on training, developing and producing celebrated fashion entrepreneurs that are celebrated in the industry.

Sunmbo Adeoye Sunmbo is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, a Goldman Sachs scholar and an alumni of Lagos Business School. She is the CEO, Esobevents and founder, Esob Academy, where she trains budding event managers in the events planning and styling business. She is also the Founder of Inspiring Change Initiative, a platform where women can interact, learn, grow and those striving to take the lead in their respective businesses and career can be well informed and empowered.

Temi Ajibewa Popularly called ‘The Electric Temi‘, Temi is a highly-sought-after author, speaker, trainer and result-driven coach in the business and personal development niche in Nigeria because of the way she ignites her audience and clients into possibilities. She is a two-time Amazon Bestselling Author and has published three books including A Millennial’s Guide to Mentoring and How To Make Millions Doing What You Love. She is the founder of Ignite Her Africa Community, an online community of over 15,000 savvy and passionate women who want to create wealth and impact doing what they love. She is also the President of The Millionaire Housewife Academy, a foremost edutech enterprise in Africa with the vision to empower housewives and stay-at-home mums to launch profitable online businesses from the comfort of their homes so that they can make empowered decisions, raise strong families and support causes they believe in.

Temi Olajide Temi is a certified child sleep/potty training consultant and child psychologist. She is the co-founder of the Association of Child Sleep Consultants of Nigeria and a member of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants. She is also the Founder of Mummyclinic, an online platform that provides strategies and result-driven solutions to the challenges of child-rearing and helps mothers successfully combine the requirements of life and motherhood while responding correctly to the peculiarities of the digital age. She is the author of Wi-Fi Kids and Analog Parents, a comprehensive book that equips parents on how to raise well-rounded kids in the digital age.

Temilade Openiyi Temilade is a singer, songwriter and upcoming music producer. Better known as Tems, she is far from the typical breakout talents in the Nigerian music industry. She can be described as the Jane of all trades and master of all when it comes to music, because when she puts the act of singing, writing and producing specialities to work, she creates a musical masterpiece, as heard on her debut single, Mr REBEL released in 2019.

Tewa Onasanya Tewa is a Publisher and Mindset Stylist as well as the Founder/CEO, Exquisite Magazine Services Limited, the publishers of Exquisite Magazine a fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazine for women. The magazine organises an annual cancer walk, an event aimed at increasing the awareness for cervical and breast cancer and free screening for people. In 2009, Exquisite magazine started an only female awards ceremony called the Exquisite Ladies of the Year (ELOY) awards. The ELOY Awards is aimed at celebrating women of excellence in different fields, empowering, motivating and inspiring others.

Titi Adewusi Titi is a seasoned Management Consultant with over 18 years experience. She started in the banking sector before she joined one of the Big Four Multinational Audit and Consulting firms where she worked for over 10 years, providing business solutions to clients. She co-founded 9ijakids with two of her sisters with a vision of developing learning games and resources that make learning fun. She is currently the chairperson of Bethesda Child Support Agency, a Lagos based NGO that provides free education to children in poor communities in Nigeria.

Titilayo Medunoye The desire to help new mums who found it difficult to lactate after delivery made Titi become a lactation consultant. Having gone through the same experience which led to depression, she decided to proffer solutions to new mums faced with such challenges; hence, starting Milky Express.

Tobore Mit Ovuorie Tobore is an award-winning investigative journalist with a focus on women and child trafficking. Her investigations have led to policies being changed, as well as lives being impacted positively. For instance, her human trafficking story titled: “Rejected, stigmatized, trafficking survivors shun Libyan horrible experiences, ready to travel again” published April 2018, led to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) taking complete responsibility for all medical and surgical expenses of one of the Nigerian ladies she wrote about in the story. Her five-part series on “How Nigeria ‘Kills’ Children Living With HIV” has been instrumental in breaking the silence that surrounds HIV in the education sector and illustrates how stigma and discrimination still prevail for children living with HIV in Nigeria.

Tola Makinde A seasoned banker, entrepreneur and child-caregiver of children with additional needs, Tola is passionate about helping and supporting kids living with challenges having been faced with the same challenge when her daughter was diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome in 2011. Tola engages in volunteer work, which entails home/door to door visitation of families with kids living with Down’s Syndrome, helping and assisting them cope with the emotional trauma, supporting and providing materials and therapy equipment to aid developmental milestones.

Tolani Alli Tolani is an international documentary photographer, award-winning visual storyteller and personal documentary photographer to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Before her current role, she was the official photographer to former Oyo State Governor, Ajibola Ajimobi. A University of Michigan graduate, Tolani started her photo-journalism journey in 2010. As a cancer survivor and a visionary, Tolani not only fought for her life and won, but she fought for her dreams and is living it.

Tolu Oniru-Demuren Tolu popularly known as Toolz is a big name in the Nigerian media industry. An on-air personality, talk show host and radio presenter, she hosts The Midday Show on Beats 99.9 Fm and anchors her show called The Juice. Prior to settling in Nigeria in 2008, she worked with MTV Europe and Walt Disney Pictures in the United Kingdom. As CEO of Sablier Lingerie and Shapewear, she projects a sense of inclusivity for the modern and discerning African woman. Alongside Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, she hosts a hit talk show and podcast titled “OffAir.”

Tosin Olaseinde Tosin is a chartered accountant with 10 years of experience spanning across accounting, audit, financial management and taxation. Founder/CEO of Money Africa, she has worked as an auditor at Horwath Leveton Boner in Johannesburg, South Africa and got selected as one of the top eight traders in Africa to feature on a stock market trading show that aired in 2012. She also worked as a financial analyst and Senior Financial analyst at CNBC Africa and Bloomberg TV Africa respectively.

Toyin Lolu-Ogunmade Toyin is a human resources specialist by training with over two decades of experience cutting across several sectors including energy, finance, health care, manufacturing and logistics. She is also the Founder/CEO of Precious Conceptions, a holistic Family Building Consultancy. Toyin Umesiri

Toyin is the creative genius and mastermind behind brands such as Nazaru LLC, the Trade with Africa Business Summit and Skincare line. She spent over a decade in America at both Walmart Corporation’s HQ. in Arkansas and Whirlpool Corporation HQ in Michigan. She is a global influencer and a leading figure serving as IATF Ambassador by appointment of the African Export-Import Bank and African Union. She is an inspirational speaker featured as a leading woman in technology on the platform the Spark Women and published in the book: Leading Women. As founder and convener of the Trade with Africa Business Summit, she convenes global leaders, trade experts, policymakers and innovators transforming the continent.

Uduak Akpan Founder, Udy Foods, she is also a video content creator who creatively produces energetic video contents to keep her audience glued and video jingles for other entrepreneurs. Uduak is an inspiration to upcoming entrepreneurs on what it takes to grow a start-up into a successful business. Ugoma Adegoke

Ugoma brings a tireless and energetic presence in her work as a creative entrepreneur and foremost cultural curator, community builder, adventurer, creative force and a dynamic taste-maker. While she trained as an economist and corporate finance professional, she directs the workings of the award-winning design brand, Zebra Living, producing experiential events and programs inspired by Nigeria’s rich cultural and multi-arts heritage, previously under the auspices of The Life House which she co-founded. She is also the founding director and chief curator of Bloom Art; the festival director of Lights Camera Africa Film Festival and the producer of the annual Woman Rising Music Concert and Arts Weekender. The event is an annual commemoration of International Women’s Day and a glorious celebration of women in the arts and women that enable the arts. In 2014, she originated an important art repatriation transaction which saw significant pieces of 1980s modernist Nigerian art worth over 70 Million ($400,000) returned to Nigeria.

Ukinebo Dare Ukinebo is the Managing Director of Edo State Skills Development Agency (EdoJobs). She is also the C.E.O. of Poise Graduate Finishing Academy (PGFA), where she designed the PSENSE employability curriculum.

The PSENSE employability curriculum has achieved a record 87% employment rate and is endorsed by the National Universities Commission in Nigeria for implementation by higher institutions. Uki also serves as the Program Director of Ekobits, an academy that provides ICT and digital design training to youth from disadvantaged communities and connects them to opportunities to earn a good living. Current projects as SSA to the Edo State Governor on Skills Development include EdoJobs, EdoInnovates, Edo Food and Agri Cluster and Edo Production Centre.

Ukonwa Ojo Ukonwa Ojo is the Global Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of MAC Cosmetics. Prior to this role, she served as Global CMO and General Manager for Coty (portfolio including Covergirl, Clairol, Sally Hansen, Rimmel, and Lifestyle Scenting/Fragrances), where she played the most significant role in the brand’s 60-year history that led to the Covergirl brand exceptional facelift and also introduced ‘I Am What I Make Up’.

Yemisi Odusanya Food blogger, vlogger and content creator, Sisi Yemmie, as she is popularly known blogs about food, lifestyle, relationships and parenting. She has addressed mental health issues such as ‘burning out’ and ‘signs you need a mental health break’.

Yewande Akinola Yewande is an engineer who specialises in sustainable water supplies. She works as Principal Engineer for Laing O’Rourke and hosts television shows about engineering for Channel 4 and National Geographic. She started her career at a young age, designing model-sized houses. She is the founder of the Global Emit Project, which mentors young people who are interested in engineering. She is a prominent voice in the movement to increase diversity within engineering.

Yvonne Ofodile Yvonne is the founder of 360 Woman Africa, a personal and enterprise development non-profit for women in Africa. A public speaker and mentor, Yvonne has been recognized by several platforms for her work as a change agent, inspiring young women leaders and businesswomen, and with a deep interest in human capital development and business growth. She is also the Founder of Woman Skill Development Scheme, a platform she set up to challenge women to live their best lives intentionally towards the achievement of their dreams and actively growing the number of women-led/owned businesses and women in leadership positions. Through this platform, she showcases successful people in different walks of life who have against all odds consciously pursued their dreams to set up enterprises and are today celebrated for what they do.

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• Mercy Chinwo
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The First Among Women: Spotlighting Nigerian Heroines Who Have Made Remarkable Impacts In Nigeria’s History

Nigeria, like many other countries in the world, has a rich history of notable Nigerian figures who have contributed to the development and growth of the nation.

However, in the retelling of these stories, the contributions of women are often overlooked or minimized. 

In this article, we have spotlighted a few examples of the remarkable women who have made significant contributions to Nigeria’s history. Their accomplishments serve as a reminder of the important role that women have played in shaping the nation. Their legacies also inspire future generations of Nigerian women to fight for their rights and advocate for social change.

Please, feel free to share this post. Sharing is caring. 

Read Also: 5 Women Making Waves In STEM In Nigeria And Their Top Achievement

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• UN Women HQ

Ten African Women leaders we admire

Date: Friday, 19 March 2021

Partly drawn from global website article  Women leaders we admire   d ate d :  Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Women leaders of today are tenacious and diverse. They are mobilizing the global climate movement, pushing for social protections, addressing the COVID-19 crisis, and dismantling systemic racial discrimination. Across the continent, women leaders improve lives and inspire a better future for all.

Yet, equality is still far off, and progress on women’s participation in decision-making is too slow. Too many people still believe men make natural and better leaders than women, too many institutions are set up to favour and propel men’s leadership, and funding for women’s campaigns and initiatives remain pitifully low. At the current rate of progress, it will take 130 years to reach gender equality in the highest positions of power.

To change course, power must be shared equally, made visible and accountable, at all levels, and that is what’s at the core of feminist leadership.

Leading with feminist principles means redefining value and success, sharing power and credit, building community and relationships, and, ultimately, tackling the roots of oppressive structures and social norms that hold back progress for all people, including women and girls.

We need transformative feminist leadership to face the unprecedented challenges of our times. Here are just 10 African women leaders among many, many others, who inspire us, and this is what they have to say about feminist leadership.

Damilola Odufuwa and Odunayo Eweniyi

Damilola Odufuwa and Odunayo Eweniyi are successful entrepreneurs and young feminist leaders from Nigeria. Recently, both were named in the  Bloomberg 50  list of people who changed global business in 2020 and the  TIME Next 100  list in February 2021.

Odufuwa and Eweniyi joined forces in 2020 to create the Feminist Coalition, which focuses on women’s rights and safety, economic empowerment, and political participation of women in Nigeria. For its first project, the organisation supported the #EndSARS protests that swept Nigeria in 2020 and organized a food drive for low-income women and their families.

“A feminist leader will recognize that all women and all men deserve equal opportunities to pursue fulfilling careers and lives, and put structures in place to help others live up to their potential and drive meaningful change,” says Eweniyi. “A feminist leader is empathetic and understands the importance of intersectionality,” adds Odufuwa.

What can leaders do to lead with feminist principles? Odufuwa says, “employ more women into leadership roles and pay women fairly; be willing to unlearn biases and listen to constructive feedback - then effect change; and be conscious of intersectionality.”

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

As Africa’s first democratically-elected woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf led Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following a decade-long civil war and responded to the Ebola Crisis of 2014-2015. She has won international acclaim for the economic, social, and political achievements of her administration, and, in 2011, she was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her work to empower women.

Today, Sirleaf is an influential voice for expanding women’s political participation and involvement in decision-making processes. “Increasingly there is recognition that full gender equity will ensure a stronger economy, a more developed nation, a more peaceful nation. And that is why we must continue to work,”  she says .

Emtithal Mahmoud

Emtithal Mahmoud is a world champion slam poet and activist for the refugee cause. Born in Khartoum, Sudan, “Emi” – as she is known among her supporters– immigrated to the United States of America as a child with her family. She uses her talents to shine a light on the experiences of millions of refugees worldwide.

“I use my words to raise the alarm on the conflicts of our time...in the hopes that someone might hear something that moves them,”  says Emi . In 2016, she was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and has visited refugee camps in Jordan, Uganda, and Greece, teaching poetry workshops and inspiring countless refugees to share their story.

Meaza Ashenafi

Meaza Ashenafi is the first female Chief Justice of Ethiopia and a trailblazer in many ways, mainly for legal advocacy through her work with Ethiopian Women’s Lawyers Association (EWLA), an organization she co-founded with like-minded young female lawyers. After finishing law school from Addis Ababa University, of which she was the only female graduate from her class year, she served as a criminal court judge, which allowed her to see first-hand how the laws were discriminating against women. 

“When we founded EWLA 20 years ago, we did historic work of getting discriminatory laws, such as family law, citizenship law, pension law repealed. We brought the word ‘Sexual Abuse’ and ‘Sexual Harassment’ into the Amharic Language, as there were no words to describe them then”. 

Chief Justice Meaza is also a co-founder along with other female businesswomen of Enat Bank, the first bank in Ethiopia founded by a female-majority shareholders, which she co-founded after noticing there was lack of financial provision for women.

“Leadership for me is having a vision and striving to achieve it. Women need to believe that they can do whatever they set themselves to do, despite the society’s pressure and people telling them otherwise. You can only have the power to be a change maker if you believe in yourself,” she  says .

Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo-Wondieh

Feminist blogger and humanitarian reporter from Cameroon, Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo-Wondieh is the founder of the NGO Women for a Change and a member of the civil society advisory group to the  Generation Equality Forum .

In her work as an activist and as a reporter, Mbondgulo-Wondieh gives voice to Cameroonian women's perspectives on the country's development.

“We must not lose focus towards accelerating efforts like never before in increasing women’s voices, leadership and agency. The Generation Equality Forum provides us all … an opportunity to ensure that we be the first generation to be serious about realizing an equal future for all,”  she said  in her remarks at the United Nations commemoration of International Women’s Day 2021.

Glanis Changachirere

Glanis Changachirere, Zimbabwean women’s rights activist, is the founding Director of the Institute for Young Women Development (IYWD) and the founding Coordinator of the African Women Leaders Forum. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Zimbabwean chapter of the UN Women-supported African Women Leaders Network.

Raised in the deeply patriarchal, rural province of Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe, Changachirere explains that it was the pain she experienced trying to assert that girls were equal to boys and deserved equal education and career opportunities that motivated her to start IYDW at the age of 26: “As young women, we need to redefine ourselves, both to ourselves and also to the society they need to see a young women in a different way altogether,”  she says .

In 2013, Changachirere received the 30 Under 30 Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy in recognition of her pioneering work on young women’s political participation. Today, IYWD is a movement of 7,000 young women members across rural and mining communities in the country. At the national level, IYWD is working with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission to introduce a Gender Equality Bill to challenge the cultural inequalities and injustices borne by young women in the country.

Farida Charity

Farida Charity, 36 years old, is a community leader and peace advocate supporting peace initiatives in the conflict-affected district of Yumbe, Northern Uganda.

Charity started her activism at a very young age, when she participated in the peace negotiations with the Uganda National Rescue Front which led to a formal ceasefire agreement between the rebels and the government in 2002.

Today, Charity is the speaker of the Yumbe District Council. For five years, she has been using her leadership position to advocate for policies that promote the peaceful co-existence between the refugee and host communities in the district, and to advocate for health services for women and girls. As the chairperson of the Council’s Women Caucus, Charity mobilized fellow women leaders to start mentoring programmes targeted at school-age girls from host and refugee communities, focused on preventing sexual gender-based violence, managing conflict and keeping girls in school.

“The things that women need sound simple but they are big issues especially in rural communities. Women need peace and access to health care services. The most important thing is to have peace, and to look at ourselves as human beings, regardless of gender, political, religious and ethnic backgrounds,” Charity  says . 

Munnira Katongole

Munnira Katongole is a young South African activist fighting for social change and climate justice. She is part of Youth @ SAIIA, the youth development and programming initiative of the South African Institute of International Affairs.

She views climate change as a wake-up call to transform systems of exploitation that maintain discrimination against young women of colour.

Her call: clean energy, sustainable food, collective ownership.

"We can’t, especially now in the face of climate change, be excluded from policy-making settings... To all the young girls of colour reading this... you have every right to take up space. Occupy, fill and cement – unapologetically," Katongole  says.

Alice Banze

Alice Banze, born and raised in Maputo, Mozambique, is a trained social scientist with a 25-year career in civil society organizations (Oxfam, Gender Links) and government. She is the Executive Director of Gender and Sustainable Development Association and a member of the UN Women-supported African Women Leaders Network. In December 2020, Banze was elected member of the National Elections Commission with the support of the Women's Forum, an umbrella grouping of Mozambican women’s rights organizations.

The fact that the Commission is composed of only three women out of 17 should not constitute a reason for alarm, Banze explains: “Things are changing. Similar to the changes in the government, in parliament, in the judicial system and other areas of public life, the Commission will also have a fair representation of women soon.”

Banze dedicated most of her career to training women into leadership positions, and she will not stop until women in Mozambique will have equal representation: “More women in public life is critical because women play such an important role in the development of a country. Besides, there are protocols, treaties, conventions signed by the government to ensure there is 50 per cent representation of women in all decision-making processes at all levels. This commitment  must  be fulfilled,” Banze says. 

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17 Memoirs And Biographies Every Black Woman Should Read At Least Once

Black history is full of inspiring women who have created paths of their own while carving a space for the women who will follow. 

In celebration of Women’s History Month and to give every woman out there a little inspiration to pursue their dreams and goals, we’ve rounded up a list of memoirs and biographies to encourage you to create a path of your own.

This award-winning biography sheds light on the life of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who served as vice-chair for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and was instrumental in creating Mississippi’s Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The biography closely examines Hamer’s history and the risks she took in her quest for equality.

Including a collection of photos and tributes to Lorde after her death, The Cancer Journals is Lorde’s account of coping with breast cancer and a mastectomy. It’s an intense reflection of every feeling Lorde encounters as she battles the illness. Blending politics with her experience, the memoir is essential reading, not just for survivors or those coping with cancer, but every person interested in the politics surrounding a woman’s body. 

Known as one of the most influential women in civil rights, Ella Baker is famous for her work with the NAACP and advocating for grassroots organizing. While Baker avoided the spotlight, her work thrust her into it. Ransby’s biography of the civil rights legend thoroughly examines Baker’s life and political career. 

With HBO’s adaptation starring Oprah Winfrey on its way, now’s the time to dive into The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . Lacks, who was diagnosed with cancer and died at the age of 31, was the progenitor of the HeLa cell line, which has aided the medical community in a number of breakthroughs. The book tells Lack’s story while exploring the disturbing history of experimentation on African Americans.  

Adapted from her TEDx Talk , Adichie shines a light on feminism that’s inclusive, tackling ideas and behaviour that marginalize women. Adichie draws on her own experience as a Nigerian woman and from her observations abroad. It’s a witty, nuanced look at what feminism could be.  

Shakur’s autobiography is an account of the legendary Black Panther’s activism, blending her political and personal life to give readers a clear picture of who she is. Shakur creates a poignant image of life as a Black woman and activist as well as the rise and fall of political organizations. 

One of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Wells was an inspiring woman who was active in pursuing women’s rights and civil rights. A Sword Among Lions examines Wells’ life as a black woman and activist who not only had to face-off against conservatives, but even those who worked alongside her.

Part memoir, part inspirational self-help guide, Year of Yes is Rhimes’ reflection on saying yes to new things and experiences. Who better to take a little advice from than TV’s number one showrunner?

Known as America’s first female African-American millionaire, Madam C.J. Walker created the blueprint for Black women who aspire to run their own businesses and companies. Detailing her rise from the daughter of slaves to millionaire, On Her Own Ground is an inspirational must-read.

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Biography of Buchi Emecheta by Alphonce Baraza

Florence Onyebuchi “Buchi” Emecheta was born on July 21, 1944 in Yaba near Lagos, Nigeria, to Igbo parents, Jeremy Nwabundinke and Alice Okuekwuhe Emecheta. Her parents were from Umuezeokolo Odeanta village in Ibusa, Delta State. [1] Due to the gender bias in her community, Emecheta was kept at home as a child while her younger brother went to school. Although not having gone to school immediately like her brother, Emecheta’s childhood was filled with the stories of her people and culture, told to her by her grandmother. These stories instilled in Emecheta a desire to write her own stories as well as the ones her grandmother told. Thus Emecheta quickly became interested in going to school, and after finally persuading her parents to consider the benefits of her education, Emecheta was granted her wish and began her schooling at Ladilak School and later Reagan Memorial Baptist, an all-girls school. At the age of nine, her father passed away due to complications brought on by a wound he contracted in the swamps of Burma. He had been enlisted for Lord Louis Mountbatten to fight for the British in Burma [2] .

After her father’s death, Emecheta’s mother could no longer support her, and the family was separated. Emecheta was sent to live with her mother’s cousin in Lagos while her younger brother went to live with her father’s brother. According to the cultural custom, Emecheta’s mother was remarried to her husband’s brother. A year later, Emecheta won a scholarship to Methodist Girls’ High school which she attended until she was 16. Emecheta hoped to go on to the University of Ibadan, but that dream was thwarted when she was married off to Sylvester Onwordi to whom she had been betrothed at the age of 11. Together they had four children. Her husband then went to study at London University. Emecheta stayed in Lagos and worked at the American Embassy for two years to support her children while her husband was away. In 1962, she and her children moved to London to join her husband, their father. Together in London they had their fifth child. The names of Emecheta’s children are – Chiedu, Ikechukwu, chukuemeka, Obiajulu, and Chiago.

While in London, she worked as a librarian at the British Museum. Surrounded by books and having had the dream of becoming a writer since childhood, Emecheta began to write in her spare time. However, her husband was suspicious of her writing. When she finally completed her first manuscript, he burned it. After already having a marriage filled with moments of unhappiness and even occasional violence, Emecheta’s husband’s destruction of her manuscript finally led to their separation. After separating, Emecheta continued to work at the library to support her children. In the meantime, she attended classes at the University of London, eventually earning an honors degree in sociology in 1974. Despite the emotional strains, social pressures, and financial difficulties of being an African woman and a single parent in Great Britain, she graduated with her BA Honours. Emecheta speaks openly about the hardships she faced in her autobiography Head Above, stating, “As for my survival for the past twenty years in England, from when I was a little over twenty, dragging four cold and dripping babies with me and pregnant with a fifth one – that is a miracle” [3] (Emecheta 2013,5).

Once her novels began attracting global attention, she began lecturing in U.S. universities such as Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, Yale University, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1980 to 1981, she was senior resident fellow and visiting professor of English at the University of Calabar in Nigeria. From 1982 to 1983 she and her son, Sylvester, started and ran their own publishing company, Ogwugwu Afor, publishing her own work under the company’s name, the first being a novel titled Double Yoke (1982) [4]

Tragically in 2010, Emecheta suffered a stroke.  She passed away at her home in London on January 25, 2017.

Emecheta’s life experiences reflected in her writings are a platform for voicing her desire to achieve human rights for African women.

Her writings have been said to show her as an author who portrays herself through several identities that coincide with one another. Some of the lenses she presents include single African woman, sociologist pulling from urban African ways of life, narrator of African myths that clash with modern society, and the remembrance of enslaved Africans. These lenses suggest that Emecheta’s novels remain grounded in stories from her personal life as well as cultural facts. Her work accurately reflects Igbo society’s attitudes about the necessity of motherhood as well as the double standards for men and women. Emecheta’s most important lens that most people never see, is her identity as a feminist. She doesn’t consider herself a feminist, saying, “I work toward the liberation of women but I’m not feminist. I’m just a woman” [5] . She considers herself simply a story teller. Emecheta explains, “Apart from telling stories, I don’t have a particular mission. I like to tell the world our part of the story while using women’s voices.” [6] Emecheta’s purpose for writing is to inform her audiences about African lifestyle, and the gender discrimination that not only she faced, but that all African women faced and still face to this day in African society.

Throughout her life, Emecheta was subject to gender discrimination and female objectification. She was kept from attending school simply because she was a girl, betrothed as a child, and eventually married to a man who did not respect her – leaving her to find her strength and independence as a single mother and African woman overseas in an unwelcoming society. In most African cultures, women are viewed as the property of their husbands. They do not have a say. Having experienced this herself, Emecheta took it upon herself to speak against it. Despite the obstacles, writing provided a way for her to rise above these gender injustices and expose the truth of the world she was living in. Emecheta’s writing was not only a way for her to send a message to society but also was a way for her to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming an author.

Emecheta highlights retrogressive Igbo cultural norms that prevented women from participation in a wide range of activities said to be the preserve of men. She speaks out against the subjugation of Igbo women in the quest for social change. She talks about her personal experiences ever since she was a little girl. Emecheta published 16 adult novels as well as four children’s books, numerous articles, and produced televised plays. Each of her novels is based on her life experiences.

Her first novel, In the Ditch, published in 1972, is semi-autobiographical. It first appeared as a series of episodes, published in The New Statesman. This novel follows Emecheta’s own descent into the “ditch” of welfare living and enforced dysfunctionality. It chronicles Adah’s (the protagonist’s) struggle to maintain her pride and dignity as a welfare recipient as well as her keen desire for independence for herself and her children. [7]

Her second novel, Second Class Citizen, published 1974, is the sequel to In the Ditch. It showcases a fictionalized portrait of a poor young Nigerian woman struggling to bring up her children in London – thus it echoes the challenges Emecheta herself faced when raising her children. The young woman in the story classifies herself as a second citizen in Nigeria when her parents initially refuse to take her to school and arrange her marriage instead. When the woman goes to London to raise her family, she realizes she is equally a second citizen in England because she is a black African.

The Bride Price, published in 1976 and The Slave Girl, published in 1977, both focus on the role of women in Nigerian society. Later The Joys of Motherhood, published in 1979 depicts an account of women’s experiences bringing up children in the face of changing values in traditional Igbo society. All three novels reveal the honest struggles that Nigerian and Igbo women face both culturally and societally.  Her powerful storytelling in The Slave Girl won her the New Statesman Jock Campbell Award.

Emecheta’s other novels include Destination Biafra, published in 1982; The Rape of Shavi published in 1983, Gwendolen, published 1989 (was published in the US as The Family); Kehinde, published in 1994 and The New Tribe, published in 2000. Destination Biafra is set in the background of Civil War in Nigeria (sometimes called the Biafran War) while The Rape of Shavi is the account of European colonization of African countries. Gwendolen is the story of a young West Indian girl who lives in London. Kehinde depicts the story of a Nigerian wife and mother who comes back to Nigeria after living in London for many years. In the novel The New Tribe, Emecheta highlights the importance of cultural identity and difference, cultural assimilation, responsibility and proper parenting.

Emecheta’s children’s novels include Nowhere to Play, published in 1980; The Moonlight Bride, published in 1980; Titch the Cat, published in 1979; The Wrestling Match, published in 1981. She also wrote plays which include, Juju Landlord (1975), A Kind of Marriage (1976), Family Bargain (1987). Juju Landlord and A Kind of Marriage, performed at the London theatre also shine a light on the inequalities African women face in their day-to-day lives.

Emecheta also authored several influential articles such as: The Black Scholar, November-December, P.51;  “Feminism with a small ‘f’!” in Kristen H. Petersen(ed.), Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writers Conference Stockholm 1988, Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1988, pp. 173-181; Essence Magazine, August 1990, p.50; New York Times Book Review, 29 April 1990; Publishers Weekly, 16 February 1990, p. 73; World Literature Today, 1994, p. 867

Emecheta translated her real life experiences into narrative novels to use these stories as a platform to expose the hardships African women face in their everyday lives, as well as advocate for the rights of African women in Igbo, Nigeria, and ultimately all of Africa.

In each of her writings, Emecheta laments as well as protests the oppression, powerlessness, and voiceless aspects of life that manifest and dictate the lives of women. In The Joys of Motherhood, her magnum opus, Emecheta breaks away from the common portraiture in African writing that narrates a dominantly patriarchal way of life and instead focuses on a matriarchal approach to African life where motherhood is depicted as honorific and central to African societies, communities, and families. According to the protagonist, Nnu Ego, “the joy of being a mother is the joy of giving all to you children” (Emecheta, 1979, 219). Even though the main theme for this novel is that motherhood ultimately leads to and brings ambiguous joy, Emecheta paves a far different path for her protagonist, Nnu Ego, and she shows us two sides to what it takes to be an African mother. Rather than being self-fulfilling and life-giving, Emecheta shows that motherhood and the responsibilities it creates in African communities can turn into a form of enslavement. For example, for Nnu Ego, her life, hope, and identity depend on her ability to bear children. In the eyes of the community, she has no other primary function and no other means of achieving status and respect other than through this motherhood. As an Igbo mother, Nnu Ego is expected to arm her sons for the future at the expense of her daughters. Emecheta shows her readers that Igbo society views girls as having little worth, valuable only for the bride price they will one day fetch when their marriage is arranged. Nnu Ego anticipates and longs for the day when women in her culture will be of prime importance, rather than simply being vehicles that serve and aid men and children at women’s expense. She hopes that women can achieve a life of satisfaction and self-fulfillment. [8] In this novel, Emecheta believes that women deserve to be liberated from the traditional shackles of having to be mothers who are forced and expected to raise their children a certain way according to specific cultural standards, and have to be servants to their husbands.

Continuing her theme of female oppression, Double Yoke illustrates the tragic limitations of Nigerian women in pursuit of academic excellence. The novel, set on the campus of a Nigerian University, tells the story of two female undergraduates who must confront the conflicting demands of tradition vs. modern and progressive society. One of the protagonists, Niko, ends up overcoming these contrasting demands and pursues her education despite the resistance from those who feel a woman’s role and identity is subsumed in traditional marriage. By describing the sexual and cultural politics of Nigerian society, Emecheta once again advocates against female subjugation in Igbo society and champions women’s liberation.

The female students, heroes, and courageous individuals in her novels do not simply lie down and submit to the cultural “norms” and tradition-based confines of their societies. Instead, her characters resist and challenge their predetermined fate, attempting to negotiate for a peace to exist between what they believe and their accepted traditions.

Even though Emecheta’s works are a cry for the rights for African women, these agitations expressed in her writings, aim to improve the quality of life between men and women and their communities. She also writes to proclaim hope for growth and the realization of equality between African woman and men. Emecheta shows her audiences her vision of an Africa where women and men share cultural and societal roles in common and in harmony; an Africa where neither men – nor women, especially - are enslaved by one another.

Emecheta’s hope for this vision to become a reality is the reason she turned her own life stories, and the traditional stories told by her grandmother, into books. She was able to use her voice to elevate and expose the lives of African women, and advocate for freedom of women from cultural and traditional oppression.  Buchi Emecheta inspires women and men to coexist with one another: she encourages men to respect and understand the role of women in the society and encourages women to fight for their freedom, using herself as an example.

This article forms part of the South African History Online and Principia College Partnership Project

[1] Parekh, Pushpa N., and Jagne, Siga F.. 1998. Postcolonial African Writers : A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated. Accessed November 14, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central ↵

[2] Onwordi, Sylvester,  "Remembering my mother Buchi Emecheta, 1944–2017" , New Statesman, 31 January 2017 ↵

[3]Emecheta, Buchi, Head Above Water, p. 5, quoted in Stephen Jantuah Boakye,  "Suspense Strategies in Buchi Emecheta’s Head Above Water" , Language in India, Vol. 13:4 April 2013. ISSN 1930-2940. ↵

[4] "Buchi Emecheta, pioneering Nigerian novelist, dies aged 72" . The Guardian. 26 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017. ↵

[[5] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38757048 ↵

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/books/buchi-emecheta-dead-nigerian-novelist.html ↵

[8] Emcheta, B. The Joys of Motherhood. Oxford, England : Heinemann International, 1994 ©1988. Print. ↵

• Emecheta, Buchi. Head above Water. London: Fontana Paperbacks, 1986.
•  The Joys of Motherhood. New York: G. Braziller, 1979.
•  Grims, William. "Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian Novelist, Is Dead at 72." New York Times, February 13, 2017, sec. B. Accessed November 20, 2017. http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/.
• Makuchi, Nfah-Abbenyi Juliana. Gender In African Women's Writing: Identity, Sexuality, And Difference. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997.
•  Parekh, Pushpa Naidu, and Siga Fatima Jagne. Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1998.
•  Paul, Barnes. "Magil's Survey of Long Fiction." Buchi Emecheta, 2009, 1-6. Literary Reference Center.
•  Topping, Bazin Nancy. "FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES IN AFRICAN FICTION: BESSIE HEAD AND BUCHI EMECHETA." The Black Scholar 17, no. 2 (1986): 34-40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41067258.
• Uba, Josfyn. "Women in Development: Buchi Emecheta." The Sun: Voice of the Nation (Nigeria), September 10, 2014. Accessed November 20, 2017. http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/.

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40 Inspiring Biographies of Remarkable Women

• Monday, March 08, 2021

Biographies and memoirs are raw, real and riveting. We can learn so much about the lives of these strong women from books where human stories intersperse with history, culture and the political climate. Do read and get empowered.

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African biography and historiography.

• Heather Hughes Heather Hughes School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.229
• Published online: 28 August 2018

Biography in the African context can take many forms, from brief entries in a biographical dictionary or obituary in a newspaper to multivolume studies of single individuals. It can encompass one or many subjects and serves both to celebrate the famous and illuminate obscure lives. Biographies can be instructional as well as inspirational. Sometimes, it is hard to draw a line between biography and autobiography because of the way a work has been compiled. An attempt is made to understand this vast range of forms, with reference to social and political biography. The main focus is on work produced since the 1970s, with examples drawn from all regions of sub-Saharan Africa (although Southern Africa is better represented than others, as is English-medium material). Matters that preoccupy biographers everywhere, such as the relationship between writer and subject and the larger relationship between biography and history, are raised. Biography can be an excellent entry point into the complexities of African history.

• autobiography
• life history
• collective biography
• microbiography
• oral testimony
• Nelson Mandela

Writing Biographies of African Subjects

Since the 1970s, biography writing in an African context has come of age. In order to understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to trace the forms it has taken, as well as the themes and preoccupations it has been concerned with. 1 Explored here is the political significance of collective biography, from anthologies of relatively brief biographies (or microbiographies) to more extended treatments, such as the members of one family or representatives of a profession. Also addressed is the range of individuals who have attracted biographical attention, from the very famous such as Nelson Mandela, to the almost forgotten: iron smelters, sharecroppers, and migrant workers. Even within the restricted purview of social and political biography, a wealth of material has been published since the 1970s, of which only a small selection can be included. While an attempt has been made to draw examples from all regions of sub-Saharan Africa, a strong English-medium and southern African bias is evident.

There are some matters that preoccupy biographers everywhere, such as the relationship between writer and subject, not to mention the larger relationship between biography and history. These have a specific resonance in the African case. Indeed, students can enrich their appreciation of African history by sampling the range of biographies written about African subjects.

Each African country will have its own national register of leading citizens across all the fields of human endeavor: politics, education, religion, sport, the arts, health care, business and so on. Prominent individuals from these walks of life will also feature in newspaper obituaries, one of the most ubiquitous forms of the brief biography. In each country, there is probably also a thriving trade in biographical narratives, spoken and written, and in many different languages. Not all of this activity can be covered, as it is simply too widespread. It would also be highly instructive to investigate biography from the perspective of readers and listeners rather than writers. However, discussion is confined to an attempt to highlight key trends in the writing of biography, applicable across a number of regions and beyond the continent itself.

In the 1970s, a series of biographies appeared—three iterations in all—that provide a convenient framework for discussing biography and historiography in African settings. They first came out in the Nigerian historical journal Tarikh , under the editorship of Obaro Ikime. In 1974 , they were collected into a single volume, Leadership in 19th Century Africa , also edited by Ikime. 2 Between 1971 and 1977 , Ikime also oversaw the publication of a largely different selection of thirteen individual biographies. Apart from the fact that each was presented in a separate A5-size paperback, the format was similar to all the others. 3 Altogether, this represents a body of nearly thirty biographies that was widely used in school and college courses. Each section of the essay that follows takes this collective biographical venture as the starting point for further exploration of the nature of biography in Africa.

The Expansion of Biography

The timing of Ikime’s biographies is significant. This was a period of dramatic expansion of African history into university and college courses in Europe, North America, and across independent Africa. In the post–Second World War period, it was an area of inquiry that had to push its way in. Not only did proponents have to demonstrate to their peers that researching and teaching Africa’s past were legitimate scholarly activities, they also had to challenge a more pervasive mindset that clung to a notion of African inferiority and passivity. These biographies were self-consciously presented as a means of asserting African agency in the making of a rich and long history. It is what African American scholars have long called “race vindication.” 4 Ikime was explicit on this point: the 1974 collection was meant to demonstrate “the variety of types of leadership which Africa boasted even in a century which, until recently, used to be regarded as a century of European activity and African slumber.” 5

Moreover, there was something deliberate about the geographical spread of the biographies. Although revealing a strong West African orientation, every part of the continent was represented, from the Mediterranean littoral to the southeastern seaboard. The message was clear: that across this expanse was a sense of a shared past and a common experience. While the threatened loss of autonomy and subjugation to European rule was a critical moment in African history, it was but one element in a complex interplay of forces stretching further back in time, such as state building and the desire for modernization and reform.

This was a time when a Pan-Africanist view of an essential African unity seemed a vital ingredient of decolonization, not only of territory but also of minds. In more recent decades, the origins of this idea have been questioned. Kwame Anthony Appiah has, for example, argued that it was a product of the European (not the African) imagination that “the cultures and societies of sub-Saharan Africa formed a single continuum” before becoming so deeply embedded in African thought. 6

The Power of Collective Biography

There had long been a desire by educated, middle-class Africans and African Americans both to rescue from neglect and to highlight the talents, achievements, and autonomy of Africa’s people throughout its complex history; the vehicle of collective biography seemed entirely appropriate for this purpose. One remarkable example from the early 1930s is T. D. Mweli Skota’s The African Yearly Register, Being an Illustrated National Biographical Dictionary (Who’s Who) of Black Folks in Africa . 7 It includes sections on both the living and the late; in the latter particularly, it contains entries from every region of the African continent: the “national” in the title has a distinctly Pan-African flavor. It sought to convey a sense of determined survival in the face of adversity and how individuals were attempting to avoid a white world of oppression by following “progressive” callings such as traders, lawyers, and pastors in independent churches. Sadly, despite the promise of its title, it seems to have appeared only two or three times. Johannesburg-based Skota sorely lacked sponsorship at a time when segregationist rule was being applied ever more harshly and it proved impossible to sustain his biographical dictionary. 8

As early as the first decade of the 20th century , W. E. B. du Bois had been planning a collective biography along similar lines. 9 His ambition was delayed until 1962 , when Kwame Nkrumah invited him to an independent Ghana to realize the work, with the financial backing of the Ghana Academy of Sciences. Du Bois made clear his approach to compilation of his intended multivolume Encyclopaedia Africana : “While there should be included among its writers the best students of Africa in the world, I want the proposed Encyclopaedia to be written mainly from the African point of view by people who know and understand the history and culture of Africans.” 10 Already in his nineties Du Bois did not survive long enough to see his vision into print; the first volume eventually appeared in 1977 , followed by two more by 1995 . 11 In all, these covered some 650 individuals (the vast majority of whom were no longer alive) in eight countries. Yet another unrelated collective biography appeared in the 1970s, the Dictionary of African Historical Biography . 12 Its cut-off date was 1960 , thus serving once again to underline the depth and continuities of African history.

The 1990s saw the launch of a further large-scale biographical endeavor: the electronic/online Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB). Overseen by the Centre for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University School of Theology, its purpose is to gather the biographical detail of those who have shaped the character and growth of Christianity in Africa. Foreign missionaries may have brought Christianity to Africa, but Africans have been the main agency in its propagation; the resulting growth and variety constitute remarkable social phenomena. The DACB is notable for its methodology and goals. Oral as well as written sources are represented; although mainly in English, it is multilingual and covers the earliest times onward, over the whole continent. It works in partnership with universities and theological colleges, many of them in Africa, and crowdsourcing is encouraged, despite its acknowledged challenges:

While scholarly exactitude marks some of the entries, a large number have been contributed by persons who are neither scholars nor historians. The stories are non-proprietary, belonging to the people of Africa as a whole. Since this is a first generation tool, and on the assumption that some memory is better than total amnesia, the checkered quality of the entries has been tolerated and even welcomed. 13

A recent addition to collective biography is the monumental Oxford Dictionary of African Biography (ODAB). 14 The editors, eminent scholars Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, consciously place themselves in the tradition of Du Bois’s Encyclopaedia . In their preface, they claim for the ODAB

the most comprehensive continental coverage (including Africa north of the Sahara) available to date, a degree and depth of coverage that will dramatically increase our understanding of the lives and achievements of individual Africans who lived across the full range of continental Africa from ancient times to the present. The publication of such a reference work, we perceived, could have a transformative impact on teaching and research in African studies, narrating the full history of the African continent through the collective lives of the women and men who made that history. 15

The print edition contains over two thousand entries, while entries will continue to be added to the online edition, eventually totaling some ten thousand.

The quintessential form of collective biography is thus the biographical dictionary, presenting a number of microbiographies based on a common theme. Such themes might include eminence or belonging, which provide a criterion for appreciating the collection as a whole. 16 In the context of Africa, this form has been powerfully deployed as a practical expression of solidarity, a rejection of foreign oppression, a declaration of unity of purpose, an assertion of pride—nothing less, in sum, than a rehumanization of the subject.

Biography as Instruction

There is a further dimension of biography that threads its way from Ikime’s collection to the ODAB: a didactic/instructional purpose. Although intended for a wide readership, adult as well as child, Ikime’s biographies were envisioned as particularly suitable for classrooms. As such, they represent an attempt to produce patriotic historical narratives, showcasing real individuals whose achievements would instruct as well as inspire the young. All over the continent, the tradition of biographical series—inherently or explicitly collective, for both children and adults—has continued. Examples include the Kenyan Sasa Sema series, They Fought for Freedom series (mostly South African subjects), UNESCO’s series Women in African History, the Voices of Liberation series published by South Africa’s HSRC Press (South African and African figures) and the volume African Leaders of the Twentieth Century , a compilation of four titles from Ohio University Press’ Short Histories of Africa series. 17

The series Panaf Great Lives focused on leaders of liberation movements who supported the radical transformation of African society. Kwame Nkrumah had founded Panaf Books in 1968 , following the coup in Ghana and the refusal of his London publishers to handle his books thereafter. Panaf Books was based in London and managed by June Milne, who had been Nkrumah’s research assistant since the late 1950s. Its main business was to continue to publish and promote Nkrumah’s works. It also issued Panaf Great Lives, which were extended, anonymously-authored biographies cast in a heroic mold, of revolutionary leaders such as Eduardo Mondlane, Patrice Lumumba, Frantz Fanon, Sékou Touré, and Nkrumah himself. They appeared throughout the 1970s. 18 Nkrumah’s biography seems to have been the only one also to be published in the format of a schools edition. 19

Leaders and Followers, Men and Women

African biographies, according to one scholar, tend to be divided into two types: those about individuals deemed to be significant for some reason—the leaders—and those of “ordinary” people. 20 This may help to identify certain biographical characteristics, such as that leaders’ stories emphasize the exceptional and unusual, whereas those of the ordinary are assumed to be representative of many experiences: of slaves, peasants, urban workers, market women, or miners. Yet it also presents the difficulty of knowing where to draw the line between them, or to understand features they share in common; some “ordinary” lives turn out to be anything but. For this reason, it is preferable to place biographical stories along a continuum, from well-known to little-known subjects, rather than into either/or types.

The biographical subjects of Ikime’s collections were chosen for one quality: leadership. Many became kings or chiefs “in times of crisis . . . by appealing directly to the populace over the heads of the traditional king-maker class.” 21 Control over trade, not least in slaves, was often a vital ingredient. Most had to confront the pressures of colonial advances on their territories. Together, they demonstrated many creative responses to the challenges facing them. It was their public deeds that mattered and that had made them powerful, exemplary, or exceptional on the historical stage.

They were also all male; either there was insufficient knowledge at the time about women who had played significant leadership roles, or they had not been considered significant enough for inclusion. In any case, in the 1970s overwhelming maleness dominated scholarship, as well as understandings of African leadership. It took until 1984 for Heinemann, the publisher of one of Ikime’s series, to bring out a volume entitled Women Leaders in African History to redress this imbalance. 22 The most ancient of the twelve leaders featured was 15th-century bce Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt; the most recent was Nehanda of Zimbabwe, who lived toward the end of the 19th century . Like their male counterparts, they were somehow extraordinary, perhaps even doubly so, given the subjugation of women in many of the societies represented.

Herbert Macaulay’s story was alone among the Ikime biographies as someone who had risen to leadership by virtue of his Western education and involvement not in armed resistance to colonial rule but in the growth of nationalism as an oppositional force. Macaulay established the Nigeria National Democratic Party in the early 1920s and dominated Lagos politics for the following two decades. He is regarded by many as the founder of Nigerian nationalism. His solitude in the collections seems to suggest that it was conceptually difficult to fit “new Africans” into a historical framework that stressed continuity and indigenous response to change. 23 After all, they embraced a religion and politics that were considered profoundly disruptive , as they themselves knew all too well. As a young Aina Moore mused:

Opinions vary with regard to the status of the so-called ‘educated African’. While some regard him as the greatest enemy of his country, from which he becomes detached, and for which he can only develop a sophisticated form of patriotism: others look upon him as the means of creating a link between two different countries of such different culture, with both of which he is acquainted. 24

A 1979 addition to Heinemann’s African Historical Biographies series, Black Leaders in Southern African History slipped two further examples into a selection otherwise dominated by “traditional” leaders: Tiyo Soga, the first African to be ordained in South Africa, and John Tengo Jabavu, best known as a newspaper editor and politician. 25

Biographically speaking, “new Africans” seemed to fit better into a framework that privileged modernity over tradition and the promise of an independent future over the reassurance of a continuous past. Probably the most famous “new African” of the first half of the 20th century was James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey (b. 1875–d. 1927 ). Born in the Gold Coast (later Ghana) and educated by Wesleyan missionaries, Aggrey traveled to the United States to complete his education. He attended Hood Theological Seminary and later Columbia University, where his abilities as an educationist and communicator were recognized. He supported the stirrings of African nationalism but also distanced himself from anti-white hostility and even from Gandhi’s passive resistance campaigns. His stance was most likely responsible for the invitation to join the Phelps-Stokes Commission to Africa—he traveled widely on the continent, attracting huge attention everywhere—as well as for Edwin Smith’s biography, which appeared in 1929 . 26

Other in-depth biographies of prominent figures appeared before the notable expansion of the 1970s. Reflecting the long engagement of Europe with the southern tip of the continent were a number of biographies of white South African politicians, such as the voluminous studies of Jan Smuts (the anti-colonial rebel who became a world statesman) and those of leading liberals such as Saul Solomon and Jan Hofmeyr. 27

Since the 1970s, biographies of historic and contemporary African figures have increased greatly; women leaders especially have attracted more attention. In common with Smith’s study of Aggrey, there is something of a hagiographic, or saint-like, quality about many of them, especially since the subjects are portrayed as setting out to conquer tyranny or hardship in their quest for success or social justice. 28 Autobiographical memoirs have likewise grown in volume, many of them the reflections of a first-generation nationalist leadership that had experienced mixed fortune. 29 As the promises of nationalism have soured, a more critical strand of biography has also developed, in which leaders are treated as human rather than hero and as fallible as well as formidable. 30 It is, needless to say, far less tricky to write in this vein about figures of the past than of the living. As Kirk-Greene remarked, “When we look for worthwhile biography of Africa’s current heads of state from an African scholar, the cupboard is exceedingly bare . . . wisely, and often well, African would-be biographers turn to fiction.” 31

Mandela: Mortal or Miracle Maker?

The case of Nelson Mandela reveals the reverential as well as the critical possibilities of writing about a living subject. Because he became a world, and not just a South African or even African, figure (“the most celebrated leader so far to have emerged from the African continent,”) a veritable biography industry grew up around him, which shows little sign of shrinking, despite his death in 2013 . 32 Mandela was imprisoned from August 1962 to February 1990 , a period Coetzee has called “the years of silence and facelessness.” 33 Nothing circulated inside South Africa and little about him surfaced elsewhere, beyond a collection of his speeches and writings that came out in 1965 , No Easy Walk to Freedom , and the stories of those who visited him in jail. 34 After all, he had no formal leadership role, and Oliver Tambo (also the subject of an acclaimed biography) was the ANC’s most senior representative in exile. 35 It was a matter of only four years before his release—though of course no one was to know that at the time—that a major biography affirming his stature appeared in 1986 , followed two years later by an authorized biography with a similar purpose. Authors Mary Benson and Fatima Meer had known Mandela since the 1950s. 36 Both biographies became source books for the worldwide campaign to release Mandela, thus playing a crucial role in boosting his stature as a worthy statesman-in-waiting.

Mandela’s presidency of the Republic of South Africa was bracketed by two major life-writing events. In 1994 , as he assumed office, he published an autobiography co-written with Time editor Richard Stengel: Long Walk to Freedom . 37 It offered an opportunity to cast both himself and the African National Congress as having moved beyond a bruising liberation struggle to readying themselves as a responsible and visionary future government. 38 Anthony Sampson’s huge Mandela: The Authorised Biography was published in 1999 , as Mandela vacated the presidency. 39 It became—and remains—one of the most respected Mandela biographies. Sampson, too, had known Mandela since the 1950s and had helped him to draft his statement from the dock during the Rivonia trials. By the time his book came out, Mandela had been lionized—the only figure who could and did save South Africa from civil war, the figure who stood for conciliation in conflict-ridden trouble spots everywhere, and one of the most famous people on the planet. Like the Benson and Meer biographies, Sampson reveals a deep admiration for his subject. However, he grounds Mandela as a shrewd politician, too: “He would sometimes change his clothes three or four times a day – from a suit for a business breakfast, to an open shirt for a crowd, to a woolly cardigan for a visit to old people. He even appeared in camouflage battle-dress . . . to appeal to guerrilla voters.” 40 Sampson also presents a frank account of Mandela’s dysfunctional family life, which had in any case been regularly aired in the popular media.

Stengel later wrote his own Mandela’s Way , notable mainly for the way in which a figure like Mandela could be used to generate another kind of literary industry. 41 Each of its fifteen “lessons” begins with a stylized biographical anecdote, which sets the scene for a Mandela saying, or piece of advice, on how to live a life of goodness. It also claims to present Mandela’s innermost attitudes to other prominent figures, such as murdered South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani. Appearing after Mandela’s retirement from public life, it was difficult for its claims to be confirmed. Nevertheless, Mandela’s Way attracted the admiration of the likes of Bill Clinton, Henry Louis Gates, and Richard Branson and helped to stimulate an extensive Mandela-themed self-help literature, particularly in the United States. 42

Tom Lodge’s biographical treatment of Mandela sets out to understand a complex human subject—one, he argues, who had been deeply complicit in the making of the saintly, larger-than-life image that came to define him. 43 It focuses on key phases of Mandela’s life and how these shaped elements of his character. For example, Lodge attributes his poise and emotional self-sufficiency (even vanity) to his secure, privileged childhood and his respect for order and discipline to the years spent at boarding school. Lodge also tries to get at what he calls the “interior thinking and intimate voices” that were deliberately suppressed, or deemed unimportant, in other Mandela biographies. 44 When the contents of Mandela’s letters from prison are set alongside what is known of the wider evidence, his acute feelings of powerlessness as a husband and father are revealed, just as his family is becoming increasingly unruly. Although subtitled A Critical Life , Lodge commends Mandela on several points, including his consolidation of representative institutions while in power and his dignified exit from office. Yet what makes this an important study is his insistence that the preoccupations of an individual’s private life and thoughts are fundamental to an appreciation of the public celebrity; above all, this rescues the biographical subject from over-representation. 45

Ordinary Lives?

Precisely because of their everyday-ness, the public and private lives of the less famous may be constituted rather differently, at least for purposes of biography: in some cases, the “private” is their story. 46 Ikime in any event was not concerned with them; yet it is arguably in this sphere that some of the most original approaches to biography in Africa have emerged, some of them predating the rise of African history. A much-admired and enduring example is Mary Smith’s Baba of Karo , first published in 1954 and re-issued several times thereafter. Smith, an anthropologist, was researching the secluded lives of Muslim women among the Hausa of northern Nigeria. The result, focusing on one woman, Baba, was explicitly intended to be representative of Muslim women in general, although the individual character of Baba is evident throughout the narrative (and she sometimes contradicts what the introduction announces as the general lot of Muslim women). Baba related her story to Smith, who then arranged the study as a life account, starting with Baba’s childhood and adolescence and continuing through her marriages, childbirth, and widowhood. 47

Wright has used life histories in a similar way, to explore the extent to which an individual woman’s life “can be taken to dramatise or generate hypotheses about elements in the experience of women more generally.” 48 Her aim in focusing on the life of master iron smelter Mzee Stefano Malimbo in Ufipa, Tanzania was, however, to resist portraying him as representative—“the erasure of the identity of individuals, who are subsumed into categories of craftsmen and ritualists rather than men with choices and activities beyond iron-working.” 49 Through Stefano’s story, she showed that what kept smelting alive in Ufipa, long after it had collapsed elsewhere, was a distinct moral economy that supported this important local craft.

Other studies throw light on the extraordinary quality of the lives not only of the lesser known but often largely forgotten. Shepperson and Price’s classic study, Independent African , traces the life and career of John Chilembwe, the unlikely leader of a short-lived insurrection against colonial rule and white settlement in Nyasaland in 1915 . 50 Henry Muoria, press secretary to Kenya’s President Jomo Kenyatta, spent most of his career in exile working on the London underground; his life and prolific works show what an extensive contribution he made to Kenya’s print culture. 51 Lisa Lindsay has pieced together the remarkable career of James Churchwill Vaughan, born to a freed slave in South Carolina. In the 1850s, Vaughan migrated to Liberia but disliked it intensely and took a post with a white American mission among the Yoruba. He escaped enslavement himself in a local civil war, and after further serious setbacks finally set himself up in business in Lagos. By the time of his death in 1893 , his family was far more prosperous than the Vaughan relatives he had left behind in America. 52

Closer to contemporary times, and probably as close one can get to the other end of the range of biographical narrative, is van Onselen’s minutely detailed study of the life of Kas Maine, an African sharecropper in South Africa. For, as he points out at the start, “this is a biography of a man who, if one went by the official record alone, never was.” 53 Yet through years of collecting oral testimony and filling out the social history of the Highveld, van Onselen was able to track the wanderings of a poor but proud and endlessly resourceful family who were pushed from one white farm to another and then into a “homeland.” One knows that this is the story of so many countless black farming communities; yet the strength of the study is its rare emphasis on the everyday details of just one man’s life—the preoccupations of raising crops and livestock, the skills of negotiating with brusque white landowners and storekeepers, the difficulties of moving possessions from one tenuous arrangement to the next, the tensions between generations as the young fell out with the elders, the need to hone arts such as cobbling and herbalism to keep body and soul together during hungry times.

The range of women’s stories is no less remarkable. McCord’s account of the life of Katie Makhanya reveals an accomplished singer from the Eastern Cape whose high point had been an overseas tour with an African choir in the 1890s; they sang for Queen Victoria. 54 Edgar and Sapire reconstruct the life of Nontheto Nkwenkwe, a prophetess whose following was so extensive in the Ciskei region of South Africa that the authorities became alarmed at her ability to unite Africans in common cause against injustice. She was arrested in 1922 and spent her remaining years in isolation in a mental asylum. Though incarcerated 600 miles from home, her supporters attempted to visit her several times but were turned back. 55 A near contemporary of Nkwenkwe, Christina Sibiya was one of the wives of the Zulu king, Solomon kaDinuzulu, in the 1920s. Brought up a Christian, she was pressured into marriage and endured much abuse before escaping the royal court and struggling to maintain a livelihood. She regained some social status when her son, Cyprian, succeeded to the Zulu kingship on Solomon’s death. 56

Insightful use has been made of extended collective biography, too. An early example is Margery Perham’s Ten Africans , appearing in 1936 . Perham explained in her introduction that the context was “the peculiar condition of empire under which we control the destinies of people we do not understand.” 57 Her task was therefore to acquaint readers with the variety of African lives so they might understand them better within the framework of a benign trusteeship. Six of the stories were told to interlocutors, and four were provided by the informants themselves. Perham warned her readers that some of the contributors had harsh things to say about their encounters with colonial rule. It was rare then for Africans to give voice to their conditions of life in biographical or autobiographical form and as such, the accounts of these eight men and two women are a valuable snapshot of life in “British” Africa in the 1930s.

Collective biography has been employed in more recent times as a means for deepening understanding of social history. Iliffe’s study of East African doctors explores the ambiguities of medical professionalism in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania and the determined efforts of doctors to look to the interests of their patients against great odds. 58 Also in East Africa, Geiger has shown how a focus on the biographies of Tanganyikan African National Union (TANU) women challenges many of the received wisdoms about the contribution they have made to nationalist movements. Women moved between kin groups on marriage, which gave them a more expansive, “trans-ethnic” perspective than men. Thus, far from a nationalist organization like TANU “teaching” them nationalism, they were able to help create it in various ways, such as through their dance groups, which were fundamental in building mass organization. 59

In southern Africa, Bozzoli and Nkotsoe studied a group of twenty-two elderly women in order to understand how gender had affected their lives, choices, and consciousness. Most had been born into moderately well-off peasant families in the early 20th century ; in the post–First World War period, they were among the first generation of BaFokeng women to have gone out to work, predominantly as domestic workers in the white homes of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Nearly all of them married and revealed the novel approaches to the relationship they had developed, such as “bringing something into the marriage themselves” from their earnings—their choice was furniture. 60 In later life, most returned to Phokeng to look after grandchildren, as their own children were by now locked into the same oscillating pattern of migrant labor.

In what he calls a “social biography,” Werbner traces the history of several generations of the Lupondo family of Matabeleland. It stretches from the time when their chiefdom was incorporated into Southern Rhodesia, through the armed struggle that brought independence to the renamed Zimbabwe and the subsequent vicious civil war between rival nationalist organizations. To survive was to endure physical as well as psychological dislocation: eviction and resettlement, bitterness and disillusionment. Personal loyalties became as important as struggles over land. What makes this “social” is not merely the large cast of characters involved; it is also the way in which Werbner weaves together the perspectives of different family members: “the history of a family, seen from within, can never be a single account.” 61

Which lives might be considered “representative,” and which “exceptional,” is never a fixed matter. For one thing, scholarly conceptions about the relationship between individual and society are dynamic: “self” and “identity” have become ubiquitous concepts with obvious implications for the way in which individual agency is portrayed; this was not the case in the 1970s. For another, individual lives, as well as biographical studies about them, grow and recede in importance according to the preoccupations of the times.

Biography and the Production of African History

An attempt has been made to identify the most prominent characteristics of biographical writing in an African setting and to convey something of the richness of the characters who have become biographical subjects. Some of the broader issues for the study of biography include: what its relationship to history is; how one defines biography; and hence how one conceives the relationship between writer and subject.

The Relationship Between Biography and History

Ikime’s purpose in releasing his biographical collections in the 1970s was clear: to underline “the essential factor of continuity in African history.” 62 Biography, then, was being harnessed to historical purpose. In a similar vein, one of the editors of the Dictionary of African Historical Biography explained that it had been intended as an entry point into African history. Biography was the chosen mode because “individual biographies are units to which any person can relate, and that they serve as useful foundations upon which to build broader historical understanding.” 63

These two examples demonstrate something unusual about history and biography in Africa. The hostility that historians of other places have until recently displayed toward biography—“the profession’s unloved stepchild, occasionally but grudgingly let in the door, more often shut outside with the riffraff”—never took hold in this context, where history writing and biography have always tended to enjoy a mutually supportive relationship. 64 Rotberg has expressed probably the most extreme position on the matter: “Biography is history, depends on history, and strengthens and enriches history. In turn, all history is biography.” 65

In part, this support can be attributed to a more open and interdisciplinary approach to history writing, drawing liberally on archaeology, linguistics, literary forms, and anthropology, for example. It may also be due to the strength of a narrative tradition in African historiography: that “all human enterprise necessarily rests on a narrative sense of its actors’ place in a fruitfully linear, or redemptively recursive, sense of time.” 66 Much biography writing shares these narrative assumptions. Like scholarly history and biography themselves, narrative largely originated outside of Africa; and, in fact, a substantial portion of biographical and historical production about Africa still occurs outside the continent. Yet, like history and biography, narrative has been extensively indigenized. This indigenization was evident in the Ikime biographies but is also a characteristic of much history writing on the continent. It also fed into a thriving literary tradition.

Narrative is not the only quality that draws biography and history together. Biography works on a conceptual level, too: it enables emotional connection with historical subjects and makes links between phenomena that may otherwise remain isolated. When subjects travel widely—even crossing oceans—the biographer is forced to follow. As Lindsay noted of her appropriately named Atlantic Bonds , pursuing “Church” Vaughan and his family enabled her to connect what had previously been disconnected histories, unfolding simultaneously in the American South and in West Africa. It also meant giving a history to the rather static concept of “the African diaspora,” so that its changing meaning over time and place could be understood. 67 In similar vein, the point was recently made that biography

offers a particularly useful approach to the examination of practices and experiences of boundary crossing in imperial and colonial history. Biographies can alert us to how ‘ordinary’ individuals and groups commuted between different spaces, jurisdictions, milieus, identities and even temporalities . . . into which they were categorised according to the ideologies and rules of well-ordered colonial worlds. 68

It is this capacity to “connect the disconnected” that led van Onselen to call biography “history without boundaries.” 69

What, Then, Is Biography?

It is some years since Hilda Kuper, a leading anthropologist of her generation, defined biography as “stories about someone by someone else.” 70 This formulation posits a clear distinction between the “about” and the “by”; many examples of biography writing fit such a description. Yet Kuper was also aware that biography is a highly mediated affair, involving as it does a relationship of power between writer and subject, particularly in cases where the subject is living and complicit in the undertaking. Someone’s life history, which is a portrayal of self, akin to autobiography, is recorded, translated, reorganized, and interpreted by someone else as biography. 71 This has been an issue for as long as biographies—especially those based on oral testimony—have been written. Yet awareness of authorial position in relation to a subject’s life has been a characteristic of biography writing only in more recent times. 72

Although in the 1930s Rebecca Reyher felt great empathy with her subject, Christina Sibiya, both were immersed in a racial and social hierarchy that assumed white power and black subservience. Reyher was a temporary American visitor in Zululand, dependent on a white male interpreter to collect Sibiya’s testimony. The result, she declared, was that “I have recorded it as she told it.” 73 Reyher also employed the novelistic device of first-person dialogue to tell Christina’s story. McCord did the same for Katie Makhanya—both authors were accomplished storytellers—although McCord was a Zulu speaker and had a long family connection to Makhanya, thus altering the balance between interlocutor and subject. 74 Moreover, McCord problematized her role as the writer of Makhanya’s story in ways that Reyher was unable to do. Nevertheless, this form of expression prompted a debate about the limits to the use of evidence, in the context of relations of power and powerlessness across cultural, racial, and linguistic divides. 75

The question of authorial responsibility is not restricted to the use of oral testimony. A study of what are called “tin trunk texts”—letters, diaries, and notebooks kept safe by their owners long after they were produced—reveals “the imagining of new kinds of personhood” all over colonial Africa. 76 Their subjectivity strongly suggests that these are autobiographical texts. Yet their presentation is mediated by the scholars who have combed through them and in some cases have interviewed their prolific authors. These complications have led some to elide the categories of biography and autobiography as auto/biography, which is a reminder of the messiness that always seems to characterize the space between writer and subject. 77

Whatever sources have been used in the construction of biography, this discussion assumes that the products take written form. Rathbone argues that written biography and autobiography are comparatively recent imperatives in Africa, “a direct consequence of the arrival and expansion of Western Christianity and especially that of Protestant Christianity from the end of the eighteenth century .” 78 This is possibly more a reflection of the state of knowledge than of the production of biography; research on the older indigenous literate cultures is already changing this view. Several biographies of African women, written by Africans, were produced before the 19th century . One of these, on the life of 17th-century Ethiopian woman Walatta Petros, was originally written in Ge’ez and has recently been translated into English. 79 There is also a case for taking a broader view of what biography and autobiography mean in Africa—whether oral traditions that perpetuate the memories of notable figures ought to be included in autobiographical traditions—although this debate is beyond the scope of this article. As an example, Fall recounts a project in Senegal that valorizes oral/life testimony as a form of autobiography in its own right, rather than serving only as a source for written works. 80

In her Biography: A Very Short Introduction , Lee sets out ten rules for biography. Starting with the basic requirements of nonfiction (everything relevant should be included, and everything should be evidenced), she ends with the tenth rule: “there are no rules for biography.” 81 She is referring to the shape-shifting, provisional nature of the form. There is one “rule” she omits that in an African setting is particularly relevant. In fact it seems so obvious that it has gone unmentioned by virtually every writer on the subject of biography: one’s subject must be named . Even if one chooses to preserve that subject’s anonymity, one must have been able to identify that subject and trace them back through the archival record. It is (for example) what allowed Iliffe to produce his study of African doctors, so that, in the words of one reviewer, “We can no longer imagine the medical history of East Africa as the story of named European doctors and anonymous African assistants .” 82

The reason this is such a pressing matter in ex-colonial settings is that it is remarkable how infrequently administrators, missionaries, and the like actually named individual Africans, unless for official purposes such as tax collection or court appearance. Letters, diaries, and published and unpublished reports far more often referred to “a native pastor nearby,” or “our most outstanding native pupil,” and so on. For complex reasons, few Africans have left collections of papers neatly lodged in libraries and archives. Pursuing a subject therefore also involves pursuing their fragmentary traces across vastly scattered repositories; when potential subjects are not named, the task is rendered even more challenging. There are related sensitivities with regard to naming, or more specifically name-changing, as a tool of colonial and missionary control, which have implications for biographical practice in Africa. 83

The Promise of African Biography

In common with its phenomenal growth elsewhere, Africa-related biography is alive and well. While there are well-established traditions of biography writing in some parts of the continent, much biography continues to be produced outside it. This observation requires some qualification, however. For one thing, it is based only on English-language sources, extensive though these are. Knowledge of indigenous forms of biography is, as yet, incomplete; one feels that the study of biography in Africa has only just begun. The centuries-old Ge’ez biographies of women’s lives anticipate even more remarkable discoveries to come. “Tin trunk” archivy will, if scholars are receptive to its possibilities, reveal treasures of personal memoir that challenge current generalizations.

The supportive association struck up between history and biography will continue to enrich both. As more biographies appear, more individuals will find a mention in historical narratives, which will stimulate more research on individual lives. Only by keeping close company can practitioners of biography and history continue to debate the extent to which individuals make history and history makes individuals.

Discussion of the Literature

The field of biographical writing in Africa is dominated by actual biographies of individuals or groups. Much of this work has been contributed by scholars based in Europe and North America, most of whom are not themselves African. This observation is not meant in any way to invalidate their work. On the contrary, it is to acknowledge the contributions they have made toward uncovering the lives of important African figures, both in the past and the present and whether famous and forgotten. At the same time, it is possible to identify well-established traditions on biography writing on the continent, such as in South Africa and Ethiopia.

Much biographical writing in English dates from the 1970s, although a few examples, now considered “classics,” were published before that. Examples of these earlier texts include Shepperson and Price’s Independent African and Perham’s Ten Africans . These examples indicate two strong characteristics that developed in later work: individual and collective biography. The possibilities of individual biography are demonstrated in Africa’s most famous figure, Nelson Mandela. Collective biography has taken multiple forms, from microbiography to the study of social history.

Examples of microbiography include the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB) and the Oxford Dictionary of African Biography (ODAB). The DACB is an initiative of the Centre for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University School of Theology. Its purpose is to gather the biographical details of those who have shaped the character and growth of Christianity in Africa. The ODAB, the most ambitious collective biographical project on Africa to date, aims to collect ten thousand entries for its online edition, covering the whole of Africa and through all historical times. Examples of the use of collective biography in writing social history include Iliffe’s East African Doctors and Werbner’s Tears of the Dead .

Since the 1970s, biographical studies of African subjects have multiplied. Probably the most famous subject has been Nelson Mandela, around whom a biographical “industry” has developed. Two of the best-known biographies are those by Anthony Sampson and Tom Lodge. Many “ordinary” people have also been the subjects of biography.

Women have received less biographical attention than men, although they have been active in writing autobiographical memoir. One of the more famous is Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

It is generally believed that written biography is a recent development in Africa and a product of missionary and colonial conquest. However, evidence is emerging of far older biographical traditions among Africa’s indigenous literate communities. The most celebrated to date is the 17th-century biography of Ethiopian Walatta Petros. A further point to consider is whether, in Africa, oral traditions that perpetuate the memories of notable figures ought also to be included in narrative auto/biographical traditions.

It is important to keep in mind that writing biography involves a relationship of power between writer and subject and that biography and autobiography may have many of the same characteristics. This is especially the case when oral testimony (a form of autobiography) is used to gather evidence from living subjects.

Biography in Africa has enjoyed a close relationship with history writing. In addition, there is a growing critical literature on biography.

Primary Sources

There are no “natural” repositories of African biography; on the contrary, because few African figures have bequeathed their papers to collections, biographers of particular subjects will more often relate the challenges of searching across regions and continents for the odd fragment of information. Such is the nature of the “archive” for African biography. Having noted the difficulties, it is also necessary to mention the rewards: these are very great, when one is able—with enough perseverance—to piece together bits of a jigsaw that no one had bothered to try assembling before. The length of lists of archival and other sources in most African biographies will provide an indication of what is involved.

Acknowledgments

The writer would like to thank Brian Willan and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments on an earlier draft.

Links to Digital Materials

• African Biography on the Internet (Columbia University). Extensive list of resources on mostly artistic and political figures; some links may not work.
• Biographical Resources: An African and African Diaspora Approach: Online Resources (Cornell University). Despite the title, this focuses heavily on African American history but contains a few good Africa-specific resources as well.
• Dictionary of African Christian Biography (Boston University).
• Dictionary of African Biography . This is a subscription-only reference; the online version is continually being extended.
• Lisa Lindsay discusses her biography of James Churchwill Vaughan on Episode 93: Atlantic Bonds and Biography: from South Carolina to Nigeria , African Online Digital Library (Michigan State University).
• Heather Hughes discusses her biography of John Langalibalele on Episode 54: Political Biography , African Online Digital Library (Michigan State University).
• There is a wide range of individual biographical shorts on African leaders and unsung individuals on the CCTV channel .

Further Reading

• Gälawdewos . The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: A Seventeenth-Century African Biography of an Ethiopian Woman (Trans. W. L Belcher and M. Kleiner ). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.
• Ikime, Obaro . ed. Leadership in 19th Century Africa. Essays from Tarikh . London, UK: Longman, for the Historical Society of Nigeria, 1974.
• Iliffe, John . East African Doctors: History of a Modern Profession . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Lindsay, Lisa . Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
• Lodge, Tom . Mandela: A Critical Life . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Mathaai, Wangari . Unbowed: One Woman’s Story . London, UK: Arrow, 2008.
• Perham, Margery . ed. Ten Africans . London: Faber & Faber, 1936.
• Smith, Mary . Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Muslim Hausa . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981.
• Van Onselen, Charles . The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, A South African Sharecropper 1894–1985 . Cape Town: David Philip, 1995.
• Werbner, Richard . Tears of the Dead: The Social Biography of an African Family . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, London, 1991.

1. One of the earliest means by which Africans were introduced to western audiences was the slave, or ex-slave, narrative, telling the experiences of individual lives. In many ways these form a separate genre on which there is an extensive literature, and for that reason are not covered in the present article. See for example William L. Andrews and Henry Louis Gates , eds., Slave Narratives (New York: Library of America, 2000).

2. Obaro Ikime , ed., Leadership in 19th Century Africa: Essays from Tarikh (London: Longman, for the Historical Society of Nigeria, 1974). The three sections of the volume, together with the chapters in each section, are as follows: state and empire builders, John D. Omer-Cooper, “Shaka and the Rise of the Zulu”; John D. Omer-Cooper, “Moshesh and the Creation of the Basuto Nation—the First Phase”; G. O. Ekemode, “Kimweri the Great: Kilindi King of Vuga”; Charlotte A. Quinn, “Maba Diakhou Ba: Scholar-Warrior of the Senegambia”; R. Griffeth, “Samori Toure,” in Reformers and Modernisers ; R. T. Tignor, “Muhammed Ali, Moderniser of Egypt”; R. Pankhurst, “Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia”; G. M. Uzoigwe, “Kabalega and the Making of a New Kitara,” in Resisters and Collaborators ; J. D. Omer-Cooper, “Moshesh and the Survival of the Basuto Nation—the Second Phase”; C. C. Wrigley, “Apolo Kagwa: Katikkiro of Buganda”; E. A. Ayandele, “Abdel Kader and the French Occupation of Algeria, 1830–1847”; Ian Henderson, “Lobengula: Achievement and Tragedy’”; E. J. Alagoa, “Koko: Amanyanabo of Nembe”; and Philip Igbafe, “Oba Ovonramwen and the Fall of Benin.”

3. The African Historical Biographies were published by Heinemann Educational Books, London, under the general editorship of Obaro Ikime. The author, title, and date of each volume are as follows: R. H. Kofi Darkwah , Menelik of Ethiopia (1972); Anthony J. Dachs , Khama of Botswana (1971); Obaro Ikime , Nana of the Niger Delta (1972); Peter Sanders , Moshweshwe of Lesotho (1971); Philip Aigbona Igbafe , Obaseki of Benin (1972); K. Yeboa Daaku , Osei Tutu of Asante (1976); Tekana N. Tamuno , Herbert Macaulay: Nigerian Patriot (1976); Obaro Ikime , Chief Dǫghǫ of Warri (1976); Adeleye Ijagbemi Naimbana of Sierra Leone (1976); E. J. Alagoa , King Boy of Brass (1975); Ngwabi Bhebe , Lobengula of Zimbabwe (1977); A. C. Unomah , Mirambo of Tanzania (1977); and R. Kent Rasmussen , Mzilikazi of the Ndebele (1977).

4. V. P. Franklin and Bettye Collier-Thomas , “Biography, Race Vindication and African American Intellectuals,” Journal of African American History 87 (2002): 160–174.

5. Ikime, “Introduction” to Leadership in 19th Century Africa , xvi.

6. Kwame Anthony Appiah, cited in Cheryl-Ann Michael , “African Biography: Hagiography or Demonization?” Social Dynamics 30, no. 1 (2004): 3.

7. T. D. Mweli Skota , The African Yearly Register: Being an Illustrated National Biographical Dictionary (Who’s Who) of Black Folks in Africa (Johannesburg: Orange, 1932).

8. Tim Couzens , The New African: A Study of the Life and Work of H. I. E. Dhlomo (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1985).

9. See Jonathan Fenderman , “Evolving Conceptions of Pan-African Scholarship: W. E. B. du Bois, Carter G. Woodson and the ‘Encyclopedia Africana,’ 1909–1963,” Journal of African American History 95, no. 1 (2010): 71–91.

10. William Edward Burghardt du Bois, “ A Statement Concerning the Encyclopaedia Africana Project, 1 April 1962 .” In fact this had been a feature of Ikime’s collective biographies as well, with African authors (only just) outnumbering non-African ones.

11. Lawrence Henry Ofosu-Appiah , ed., The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography: Volume 1, Ethiopia-Ghana (New York: Reference Publications, 1977); Lawrence Henry Ofosu-Appiah , ed., The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography: Volume 2, Sierra Leone-Zaire (Algonac, MI: Reference Publications, 1979); and Keith Irvine , ed., The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography: Volume 3, South Africa—Botswana-Lesotho-Swaziland (Algonac, MI: Reference Publications, 1995).

12. Mark Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen , Dictionary of African Historical Biography (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978). Mention should also be made of the African Biographical Archive : Victor Herrero Mediavilla , ed., African Biographical Archive / Afrikanisches Biographisches Archiv (Munich: K.G. Saur Verlag, 1995–1999). Many English, French, and German publications were searched, resulting in a biographical compilation of many thousand entries. Sheldon’s more recent dictionary, although not confined to biography, contains a wide range of women’s microbiographies. See Kathleen E. Sheldon , Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005).

13. Dr. Jonathan Bonk, project director .

14. Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates , eds., The Oxford Dictionary of African Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

15. Preface to the Oxford Dictionary of African Biography .

16. Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and Mikel Urquijo , “Collective Biography and Europe’s Cultural Legacy,” The European Legacy 20, no. 4 (2015): 373–388. On collective biography as method, see also Angela Jones , “Lessons from the Niagara Movement: Prosopography and Discursive Protest,” Sociological Focus 49 (2016): 63–83.

17. Columba Kaburi Muriungi , “Let’s Sing Our Heroes: A Comparison of Biographical Series for Children in Kenya and South Africa,” Literator: Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies 25, no. 3 (2004): 181–197. “They Fought For Freedom” was published in the 1990s by Maskew Miller Longman under the general editorship of John Pampallis; the UNESCO Women in African History series is published jointly by UNESCO and HarperCollins; titles in the Voices of Liberation series include Albert Luthuli, Ruth First, and Patrice Lumumba (Pretoria, South Africa: HSRC); and African Leaders of the Twentieth Century (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2015) include Steve Biko, Emperor Haile Selassie, Patrice Lumumba, and Thomas Sankara. These have also been published in the Pocket Biographies series by Johannesburg-based Jacana Media.

18. Information obtained from Panaf Books (regrettably this website is no longer available) and personal communication with R. Molteno, London.

19. Editors of Panaf Books , Forward Ever: The Life of Kwame Nkrumah (London: Panaf, 2006).

20. Susan Geiger , “Tanganyikan Nationalism as ‘Women’s Work’: Life Histories, Collective Biography and Changing Historiography,” The Journal of African History 37, no. 3 (1996): 466.

21. J. B. Webster, “Preface” in Leadership in 19th century Africa , ed. Ikime, viii.

22. David Sweetman , Women Leaders in African History (London, UK: Heinemann Educational, 1984).

23. The term “new African” was coined by South African writer Herbert Dhlomo in the 1940s and has been popularized by the work of Ntongela Masilela through his New African Movement website. It has a clear South African focus, although the attributes that Masilela identifies in his subjects are much more widely dispersed on the continent. The term is introduced to succinctly express the alternative source of leadership that became available with the spread of missionary activity and Western education. It makes no assumptions about the way in which such individuals related to broader African (and indeed international) society.

24. “The story of Kofoworola Aina Moore, of the Yoruba Tribe, Nigeria,” written by herself, in Margery Perham , ed., Ten Africans (London, UK: Faber & Faber, 1936), 323. This memoir was written at the end of Moore’s studies at Oxford. On her return to Nigeria, she became a prominent educationist and was active in the women’s movement and various other civic organizations. She married Sir Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola, later Chief Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court. Her period at Oxford is remembered on the TORCH website.

25. Donovan Williams , “Tiyo Soga 1829–71,” in Black Leaders in Southern African History , ed. Christopher Saunders (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1979), 127–141; and L. D. Ngcongco , “John Tengo Jabavu,” in Black Leaders, ed. Saunders (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1979), 142–156. Williams had published a more extended biography two years earlier: Donovan Williams , Umfundisi: A Biography of Tiyo Soga, 1829–1871 (Alice, [South Africa]: Lovedale, 1978).

26. Edwin Smith , Aggrey of Africa: A Study in Black and White (London: Student Christian Movement, 1929).

27. H. C. Armstrong , Grey Steel (J.C. Smuts) (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1939); F. S. Crafford , Jan Smuts: A Biography (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1946); William Keith Hancock , Smuts: The Sanguine Years, 1870–1919 , Vol. 1 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1962); William Keith Hancock , The Fields of Force, 1919–1950 , Vol. 2 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1962); W. E. G. Solomon , Saul Solomon: The Member for Cape Town (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1948); and Alan Paton , South African Tragedy: The Life and Times of Jan Hofmeyr (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965).

28. On hagiography, see Michael, “African Biography.” Examples include William Edgett Smith , Nyerere of Tanzania (London, UK: Victor Gollancz, 1973); Basil Davidson , Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah (New York, NY: Praeger, 1974); and Thomas Tlou , Neil Parsons , and Willie Henderson , Seretse Khama 1921–1980 (Johannesburg: Macmillan, 1995). Probably because theirs was the longest struggle for freedom on the continent and attracted such a high degree of international attention, the biographical representation of African nationalist and freedom fighter figures from South Africa is extensive. See, as examples, Brian Willan , Sol Plaatje: A Biography (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1984); Bongani Ngqulunga , The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley kaIsaka Seme (Cape Town: Penguin, 2017); Benjamin Pogrund , How Can Man Die Better: The Life of Robert Sobukwe (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1990); Donald Woods , Biko (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1987); and Alan Wieder , Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2013). Women’s biographies include Marieke Faber Clarke with Nyathi Pathisa , Lozikeyi Dlodlo Queen of the Ndebele (Bulawayo [Zimbabwe]: Amagugu, 2010); Nwando Achebe , The Female King of Colonial Nigeria, Ahebi Ugbabe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011); Linda Heywood , Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017); and Helen Cooper , Madame President. The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2017).

29. Examples of autobiographical memoirs include Nnamdi Azikiwe , My Odyssey (New York, NY: Praeger, 1970); Oginga Odinga , Not Yet Uhuru (London, UK: Heinemann, 1967); Mamphela Ramphele , A Life (Cape Town: David Philip, 1995); Wangari Mathaai , Unbowed: One Woman’s Story (London, UK: Arrow, 2008). Emperor Haile Sellassie’s autobiography, originally published in Amharic, appeared in English in two volumes, each with a different translator/editor: The Autobiography of Emperor Haile Sellassie I “My Life and Ethiopia’s Progress” 1892–1937 , ed. and trans. Edward Ullendorff (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976); My Life and Ethiopia’s Progress: Haile Sellassie I, King of Ethiopia , ed. and trans. Harold Marcus with Ezekiel Gebissa and Tibebe Eshete (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994).

30. Janet G. Vaillant , Black, French and African: A Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990); and Heather Hughes , First President: A Life of John L. Dube, Founding President of the ANC (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2011). For an example that demonstrates the exceedingly complex and painful engagement with the vagaries of nationalist movements, see Jocelyn Alexander , “Loyalty and Liberation: The Political Life of Zephaniah Moyo,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 11, no. 1 (2017): 166–187.

31. Anthony Kirk-Greene , “His Eternity, His Eccentricity, or His Exemplarity? A Further Contribution to the Study of H.E. the African Head of State,” African Affairs 90, no. 359 (1991): 166. Although the remark was meant to underline the dangers of writing about the living, one might add that biographers (Africans and others) based in better-resourced institutions in North America and Europe, tend to dominate the field of subjects, alive and dead, because researching and writing biography is often a long and costly task. For a notable critical treatment of a living subject, which possibly confirms Kirk-Greene’s point, see John Iliffe , Obasanjo, Nigeria and the World (Woodbridge, UK: James Currey, 2011).

32. Urther Rwafa , “Theorising Mandela,” Journal of Literary Studies 33, no. 4 (2017): 90.

33. Carli Coetzee , “Mandela’s Meanings: A Translated and Adapted Life,” Altre Modernità 12, no. 11 (2014): 15–28.

34. Nelson Mandela , No Easy Walk to Freedom (London, UK: Heinemann, 1965).

35. Luli Callinicos , Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains (Cape Town: David Philip, 2004).

36. Mary Benson , Nelson Mandela: The Man and the Movement (London, UK: Penguin, 1986); and Fatima Meer , Higher than Hope: “Rolihlahla We Love You” (Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1988). Re-issued as Higher Than Hope: The Authorised Biography of Nelson Mandela (London, UK: Penguin, 1990).

37. Nelson Mandela , Long Walk to Freedom (Randburg [South Africa]: Macdonald Purnell, 1994).

38. Author Mandla Langa produced a kind of sequel to the 1994 autobiography by assembling Mandela’s notes from his time in office, as well as a draft memoir Mandela had been working on. Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa , Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years (London, UK: Pan Macmillan, 2017).

39. Anthony Sampson , Mandela: The Authorised Biography (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1999). This time, the study was endorsed directly by Mandela, rather than via Winnie Mandela, as had been the case with the Meer study; the couple divorced in 1996.

40. Sampson, Mandela , 487–488.

41. Richard Stengel , Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lesson on Life, Love and Courage (London, UK: Virgin, 2010).

42. Steve Davis , “Struggle History and Self-Help: The Parallel Lives of Nelson Mandela in Conventional and Figurative Biography,” African Studies 73, no. 2 (2014): 169–191.

43. Tom Lodge , Mandela: A Critical Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

44. Tom Lodge , “Secrets and Lies: South African Political Biography,” Journal of Southern African Studies 41, no. 3 (2015): 688.

45. This is Boehmer’s criticism of Mandela’s treatment; see Elleke Boehmer , Nelson Mandela: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3–7. Other recent biographies of South African politicians have adopted this approach to great effect. See, for example, Lindie Koorts , D.F. Malan and the Rise of Afrikaner Nationalism (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2014).

46. Gunner argues that the public and private should be seen as “densely overlapping,” rather than separate spheres. Liz Gunner, “‘Let All the Stories Be Told’: Zulu Woman , Words and Silence.” Afterword to Rebecca Hourwich Reyher , Zulu Woman: The Life Story of Christina Sibiya (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of Natal Press, 1999), 199.

47. Mary Smith , Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Muslim Hausa (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981). Whether this counts as “biography” or “autobiography” is considered in the article.

48. Wright, cited in Susan Geiger , “Women’s Life Histories: Method and Content,” Signs 11, no. 2 (1986): 339.

49. Marcia Wright , “Life and Technology in Everyday Life: Reflections on the Career of Mzee Stefano, Master Smelter of Ufipa, Tanzania,” Journal of African Cultural Studies 15, no. 1 (2001): 18.

50. George Shepperson and Thomas Price , Independent African: John Chilembwe and the Nyasaland Rising of 1915 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1958).

51. Wangari Muoria-Sal , Bodil Folke Frederiksen , John Lonsdale , and Derek Peterson , eds., Writing for Kenya: The Life and Works of Henry Muoria . (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic, 2009), 1–424.

52. Lisa Lindsay , Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017).

53. Charles van Onselen , The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine A South African Sharecropper 1894–1985 (Cape Town: David Philip, 1995), 3.

54. Margaret McCord , The Calling of Katie Makhanya: A Memoir of South Africa (Cape Town: David Philip, 1995).

55. Robert Edgar and Hilary Sapire , African Apocalypse: The Story of Nontetha Nkwenkwe, a Twentieth-Century South African Prophet (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1999).

56. Reyher, Zulu Woman .

57. Margery Perham, ed., Ten Africans , 9.

58. John Iliffe , East African Doctors: History of a Modern Profession (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

59. Geiger, “Tanganyikan Nationalism as ‘Women’s Work’.”

60. Belinda Bozzoli with Mmantho Nkotsoe , Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900–1983 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational, 1991), 109. Previously, men would have exchanged bogadi (bridewealth cattle or equivalent) with a woman’s father before marriage; the woman herself would not have been expected to contribute a dowry.

61. Richard Werbner , Tears of the Dead: The Social Biography of an African Family (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, London, 1991), 109. A further collective biography of note is Sandra Rowoldt Shell , Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves From Ethiopia to South Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2018).

62. Ikime, Leadership in 19th Century Africa , xiv.

63. R. Kent Rasmussen , “Foreword to the First Edition,” in Dictionary of African Historical Biography , ed. Mark Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987), vii.

64. David Nasaw , “AHR Roundtable Historians and Biography; Introduction,” American Historical Review 114, no. 3 (June 2008): 573.

65. Robert Rotberg , “Biography and Historiography: Mutual Evidentiary and Interdisciplinary Considerations,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40, no. 3 (2001): 305. Among Rotberg’s several biographies, see The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).

66. John Lonsdale , “Agency in Tight Corners: Narrative and Initiative in African History,” Journal of African Cultural Studies 13, no. 1 (2000): 8.

67. Lisa Lindsay in conversation with Peter Limb and Laura Fair, Episode 93 of Africa Past and Present: The Podcast About African History, Culture and Politics .

68. Achim von Oppen and Silke Strickrodt , “Introduction: Biographies Between Spheres of Empire,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 44, no. 5 (2016): 718.

69. van Onselen, The Seed is Mine , ix.

70. Hilda Kuper , “ Biography as Interpretation ,” Eleventh Annual Hans Wolff Memorial Lecture, African Studies Programme, University of Indiana (April 21, 1980): 25.

71. Kuper, “ Biography as Interpretation ,” 28.

72. For a useful account of so-called positionality (albeit from a geographical perspective) see Kim V. L England . “Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality and Feminist Research,” Professional Geographer 46, no. 1 (1994): 80–89.

73. Reyher, Zulu Woman , 9.

74. McCord recorded Makhanya’s story in 1954, although the book it was based on came out in 1995, when McCord herself was in her eighties.

75. See, for example, Stephan Meyer , “Collaborative Auto-biography: Notes on an Interview with Margaret McCord on The Calling of Katie Makhanya: A Memoir of South Africa,” Oral Tradition 15, no. 2 (2000): 230–254.

76. Karin Barber , “Introduction,” in Africa’s Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 3.

77. See, for example, Judith Lutge Coullie , Stephan Meyer , Thengani Ngwenya , and Thomas Olver , eds., Selves in Question (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006).

78. Richard Rathbone , “African Biography,” Contemporary Review 293, no. 1702 (2011): 339.

79. Gälawdewos , The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: A Seventeenth-Century African Biography of an Ethiopian Woman ( W. L Belcher and M. Kleiner , Trans.). (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015).

80. Babacar Fall , “Orality and Life Histories: Rethinking the Social and Political History of Senegal,” Africa Today 50, no. 2 (2003): 55–65.

81. Hermione Lee , Biography: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 18.

82. Steven Feierman , “Collective Biography of African Doctors,” Journal of African History 41, no. 3 (2000): 516. Emphasis added.

83. Meghan Healy and Eva Jackson , “Practices of Naming and the Possibilities of Home on American Zulu Mission Stations in Colonial Natal,” Journal of Natal and Zulu History 29, no. 1 (2011): 1–19.

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10 Biographies and Memoirs of Black Women Everyone Must Read

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10 Books by Nigerian Authors with Feminist Themes

Sarah Ullery

Sarah suffers from chronic sarcasm, and an unhealthy aversion to noise. She loves to read, and would like to do nothing else, but stupid real life makes her go to work. She lives in the middle of a cornfield and shares a house with two spoiled dogs and a ton of books.

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On April 14, 2014, 276 Nigeria girls were abducted from their secondary school by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The girls were held in captivity, forced to become the terrorists’ wives, and many bore their abductor’s children.

It is easy to hear this news and make assumptions: Nigeria is not a safe place for women, or Nigeria is not a feminist country. In college I read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , and that book depicted a Nigeria that was hard on women. Okonkwo, the main character, was violent, ambitious, and misogynistic. His violence and intolerance became more pronounced as he struggled to retain his masculine authority in a world that was changing. It was a book that I had to read more than once, and I appreciated its importance, but never truly enjoyed it.

Things Fall Apart was about imperialism, not about feminism. Obviously. Okonkwo was not a feminist. So it is now striking to juxtapose Achebe’s classic to Nigeria’s modern feminist writers. Women like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lola Shoneyin, and Ayobami Adebayo. Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions were a balm to many American women’s souls after the 2016 election. She has established herself as a leading feminist voice around the world, encouraging women to stand up for their autonomy, to have ambition, and demand equality:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you would threaten the man. Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.” (from We Should All Be Feminists )

But Adichie is not alone. I have found myself buying more and more books by Nigerian female authors; one of my favorite books of 2017 was The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives . I considered that book to be the response to Achebe’s Okonkwo that I’d been searching for.

I have also been transfixed by @bitsofborno on Instagram, which has documented life in Borno state, the location of Chibok, where the 276 school girls were abducted, and are now being returned. The account and pictures are taken by Fati Abubakar, who documents both the positive and negative aspects of Borno. She often profiles the girls who have been returned to Borno from Boko Haram. It is a beautiful account, and has secured my fascination with Nigeria and its many contradictions.

View this post on Instagram googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(inside2);}); ‘I had the baby by myself at home a month ago. I couldn’t afford to go the hospital. Lagos is expensive. And the women leader here who usually delivers babies here wasn’t around. I’ve still not been to the hospital. My baby is generally doing well but I’ve worried about this boil on her chest. We are hoping to find some money so we can have check ups in the clinic’ #bitsofborno #displacement #resettlement A post shared by Yerwa (@bitsofborno) on Mar 31, 2018 at 3:56pm PDT

Contradiction underscores weakness. Contradiction breeds argument, and dissent. And dissent can lead to change.

“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”

I will follow where these women lead.

10 Books by Nigerian Authors With Feminist themes:

The secret lives of baba segi’s wives by lola shoneyin.

An absolute gem of a book. I recommend it to everyone. It gave me goosebumps when I read it the first time. Shoneyin is a poet, and this is her debut novel. Please God let her write more! I will buy anything she writes. Anyway, enough fawning—what’s it about? It’s about polygamy. Yeah, that’s right, friends, this feminist novel is about polygamy. I don’t think I should say more, because the ending really surprised me, and I want you to be completely ensnared like I was!

“A real woman must always do the things she wants to do, and in her own time too. You must never allow yourself to be rushed into doing things you’re not ready for.”

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

This was nominated for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize last year, and it didn’t win, which is a crime. This book was amazing. It dealt with very similar themes to Lola Shoneyin’s book, and I was worried that would diminish its power, because I loved Baba Segi’s Wives so much, but it really stood out as an original. This was a punch in the gut book, and again, one of the best books I read last year.

“If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love.”

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie has been called “the 21st Century Daughter of Chinua Achebe” which I find really fascinating. I think, maybe, she’s earned that title because of the themes in this book. Half of a Yellow Sun  is about a secessionist state in Africa called Biafara, and the civil war that it triggered. But never doubt Adichie’s feminist convictions:

“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?” Aunty Ifeka said. “Your life belongs to you and you alone.”

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

This was a book I struggled to read. It is hard and its subject matter is depressing, but that does not take away from its importance. Just know—if you are bothered by stories of mental illness or sexual violence, this might not be the book for you.

“Sometimes, you recognize truth because it destroys you for a bit.”

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

This book is about contradiction. It is about a Nigeria that has progressed after years of war, but still maintains injustice and prejudice. It is a heartbreaking book about love and identity.

“I suppose it’s the way we are, humans that we are. Always finding it easier to make ourselves the victim in someone else’s tragedy.

Though it is true, too, that sometimes it is hard to know to whom the tragedy really belongs.”

Everything Good Will Come   by  Sefi Atta

This book feels like a combination of Stay With Me , Under the Udala Trees , and Half of a Yellow Sun . It begins after the Biafra War and follows two girls as they try to find independence in a Nigeria that does not allow women much power. Both women try to defy the traditional system that stymies their independence and leaves them with little control over their own lives. This book focuses on class and feminism.

On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe

This book reminds me of so many stories I’ve read recently about immigrant women from Africa and the lives they are forced into when they seek asylum in European countries. This story is about African women who live in Belgium and become sex workers in order to save up enough money for family, and to pay back their traffickers. The four main characters all have secrets that they do not share until one of the four girls is murdered. A truly harrowing, heartbreaking read about the true tragedy of being an immigrant in an unfriendly world.

Daughters Who Walk This Path   by  Yejide Kilanko

This book is about sexual assault and violence that Nigerian women have endured silently for too many years. It is about a vibrant Nigeria that continues to evolve and become more modern, but still maintains currents of extreme violence.

“I will remember that love is much more than intense feelings. For feelings can be fickle and change so swiftly just in the course of one day. Know this then, my love. Know that this choice to forever link my life with yours was mine alone to make.”

Second Class Citizen   by  Buchi Emecheta

I haven’t read this book, but it is about a woman who defies tradition to find independence for herself and her children in Nigeria. The author, Buchi Emecheta, died last year, but throughout her career she wrote over 20 books that covered themes of feminism and childhood slavery.

“God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage? she prayed desperately.”

Purple Hibiscus   by  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This book describes the beauty and culture of Nigeria with tenderness. Again, this book is about upheaval in Nigeria, and it is quite a page turner. This is Adichie’s stunning debut novel; a great portend of things to come.

  “There are people, she once wrote, who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.”

I fall in love with places. I’ve never been to Nigeria, but because of books I can imagine its sounds and colors and people, and I can love Nigeria like I love an idea.

And when it is reported that even more girls have been abducted by Boko Haram (many have been returned) it is hard not to observe the contrasts of Nigerian society, but hope through voices like Chimamanda Adichie, Yejide Kilanko, Chika Unigwe, Sefi Atta, Chinelo Okparanta, Akwaeke Emezi, Ayobami Adebayo, and Lola Shoneyin Nigeria can achieve meaningful change for its women, and find peace.

If you’d like to know more about the Chibok girls’ abductions, there’s a very slim book called The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria by Helon Habila. It has in-depth reporting on the kidnappings, and intimate access to the families of the girls who were abducted.

“My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.”  (from We Should All Be Feminists )

For more books by and about Nigerians, check out this article about Cassava Republic Press , a publishing house located in Nigeria.

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10 Activists in Nigerian History Who Represent the Resilience of Its People

Author: Akindare Lewis

Civic Space

Oct. 1, 2020.

On Oct. 1, 1960, Nigeria officially declared its independence from the United Kingdom. 

In his speech, then prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa said: "When this day in October 1960 was chosen for our Independence, it seemed that we were destined to move with quiet dignity to our place on the world stage.” 

“Recent events have changed the scene beyond recognition, so that we found ourselves today being tested to the utmost,” he continued. “We are called upon immediately to show that our claims to responsible government are well-founded, and having been accepted as an independent state, we must at once play an active part in maintaining the peace of the world and in preserving civilization.”

He added: “I promise you, we shall not fail for want of determination. And we come to this task better-equipped than many."

In the 60 years since, Nigerians have created a huge impact on the world, grown to become Africa’s largest economy, and today it is the most populous Black nation on earth. 

But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had its struggles. Nigeria has had several coups, a civil war, pogroms, ethnic clashes, and the country is still dealing with corruption and a 10-year battle with the terrorist organisation, Boko Haram. 

One thing that has survived all of these problems is the resilience of the Nigerian people. Over the country’s 60-year history, its people have constantly demonstrated strength and will to surmount the most daunting challenges. And that is worth celebrating. 

In honour of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary, here are 10 activists in Nigerian history whose impact on society is the very representation of Nigerian resilience:

1. Wole Soyinka (Nobel Laureate, Political Activist)

Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, listens during award ceremonies for the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 2, 2013. Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, listens during award ceremonies for the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 2, 2013. Image: Steven Senne/AP

“The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.”

As the son of Grace Eniola Soyinka, who helped Funmilayo-Ransome Kuti launch the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU) — which led the women’s riots against colonial taxation in 1946 — Wole Soyinka has activism in his blood. 

His achievements in literature and political activism confirm this. As a 33-year old graduate in 1967, he was imprisoned by the Nigerian military government for 22 months for speaking out against the Nigerian civil war; and in 1994, he fled the country after the dictatorship in power charged him with treason for criticising the military junta. 

In both instances, Soyinka continued to criticise the undemocratic governments of the day and call out the oppression of Nigerians. Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, Soyinka has continue d to activate political discourse around the needs of the average Nigerian and the corruption of the polity. 

Even during his acceptance speech when receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 (the first African to do so), he took the opportunity to focus the world’s attention on the continuing injustice of white rule in South Africa and dedicated the award to then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela.

For all his contributions to Nigerian society, Soyinka is indeed a symbol of Nigerian resilience and a true generational impact leader. 

2. Ken Saro-Wiwa (Writer, Businessman, Environmental Activist)

“I tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die.”

Even though he became an activist towards the end of his life, Kenule “Ken” Saro-Wiwa had always believed in one Nigeria and stood against ethnic undertones of his day. Saro-Wiwa was proud to be a Nigerian, and he wanted to help create a country where all Nigerians had equal access to state support.

His poems, books, and other works such as his long-running satirical TV series Basi & Co simply told the story of Nigerians being Nigerians. It’s impossible to tell which ethnicity any of the characters on Basi & Co were, for example. 

In 1990, years after serving as the civilian administrator for Bonny Camp during the civil war, Saro-Wiwa started to dedicate himself to the amelioration of the problems of the oil producing regions of the Niger Delta. He focused on his homeland of Ogoni, a minority ethnic group; and launched  the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to campaign for social, economic, and environmental justice in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

Saro-Wiwa spoke out against the Nigerian military regime and the Anglo-Dutch petroleum company Shell for causing environmental damage to the land of the Ogoni people in his native Rivers State. Despite various campaigns by the military government, Saro-Wiwa stayed resilient in pursuing his mission and as a result of mounting protest, Shell suspended operations in Ogoni lands in 1993.

Saro-Wiwa was executed on Nov. 15, 1995, along with eight other members of MOSOP, after the military government found them guilty (via secret trial) of the murder of four Ogoni elders during a political rally. Later known as the Ogoni Nine , the accused Ogoni leaders denied the allegations and said they were being framed. 

Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth the day after the execution, following international condemnation of the executions. The country wouldn’t return until May 1999 when it returned to civilian rule. 

3. Gani Fawehinmi (Human Rights Lawyer, Activist)

Gani Fawehinmi, a Lagos attorney and opposition leader, is welcomed by demonstrators during a pro-democracy rally on Friday, June 12, 1998, in Lagos, Nigeria. Gani Fawehinmi, a Lagos attorney and opposition leader, is welcomed by demonstrators during a pro-democracy rally on Friday, June 12, 1998, in Lagos, Nigeria. Image: AP Photo

“Should I be faced with a tussle between the rich and the poor, I will dig and dig, till I find the law for the poor!”

Up until he actually started practising law, all Ganiyu “Gani” Oyesola Fawehinmi wanted was to be a successful lawyer. But when he started practising in Lagos in 1965, he soon realised that he also wanted to affect the lives of everyday Nigerians and leave a legacy of impact. He did exactly that. 

Often representing those who couldn’t afford his services, Fawehinmi quickly became known as “the people’s lawyer,” taking on a great number of pro bono cases over the course of his career. 

Fawehinmi played the role of human rights campaigner for 40 years, constantly provoking over-mighty military rulers and defending their victims. His brushes with the authorities earned him frequent detentions and beatings. His passport was confiscated several times, and on one occasion his books were seized and his library set on fire .

He believed in media freedom, contributed avidly to newspapers, and often took on journalists’ cases. Most notable of these was the still unsolved case of Dele Giwa , a magazine editor killed by a parcel bomb in 1986. Fawehinmi sought to re-open the Dele Giwa case, and called on the present federal attorney general to be removed for his indifference to corruption; all from his sick bed. 

“Since independence, each successive government assumed power either by rigging elections or by military usurpation,'' he once said . ''Each rolled out tonnes of papers or promises only to settle down to the business, not of governance, but of serious looting, brigandage, perversion of values, ethnic politicisation, insensitivity, spurious economic and financial maladjustments, useless task forces.''

He died in 2009 after a long battle with cancer, still resilient as ever. 

4. Lola Omolola (Women’s Rights advocate)

“Our community has become a lifeline. We have spent hours on the phone talking people off the ledge.”

In 2014, when almost 300 girls were kidnapped from a secondary school in Northern Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist group, Lola Omolola was one of the millions of women shocked by the news. To her, the incident represented the worst form of patriarchy: men were targeting young women for getting an education.

"Whenever I turned on the radio and television, everyone was talking about the terrorism angle," Omolola, who grew up in Lagos but now lives in Chicago, told NPR in 2018.

She wanted to be a part of her country’s mourning and healing so she turned to Facebook and started a group now called Female In (formerly Female In Nigeria). 

"I didn't know what I was going to do," she said. "I just knew I wanted to find them at the very least, so that I wouldn't be by myself, because I felt really lonely."

She invited friends who invited friends and in a short time the group grew quickly. Soon she started holding real world events where women could represent themselves and share a unique community; a sort of confessional space, where women share stories that they might be uncomfortable — or even afraid — to tell in person.  

"It's a safe place, for a woman who has something to say," Omolola told the BBC in 2017. "You don't have to agree but it is her story, she can say it."

Today, the group is nearly 1.7 million-strong and has members from several countries all over the world, but the majority are Nigerian women. It is one of the most powerful online movements in the world. Now, that’s how you turn a devastating moment into positive action. 

5. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Women's rights Activist, Pioneer African Feminist)

“As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. I am beyond their timid lying morality and so I am beyond caring.”

There are few women in Nigerian history who are as commanding or accomplished as Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. A founding mother of Nigerian independence (she was part of delegations to discuss the proposed national constitution), her contributions to Nigerian society as a feminist and women’s rights activist are immense and present to this day. 

In the 1940s, she co-founded the Abeokuta Women’s Union which led a women's protest against colonial taxation in 1946 and consequently, the abdication of the Alake of Egbaland (traditional ruler of Abeokuta). The AWU later recorded membership of some 20,000 local women, later going national as the Nigerian Women’s Union. But that was just the beginning. 

Ransome-Kuti also co-founded the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) with her husband Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in July 1931 — and she was in the company of people like Nelson Mandela and Pablo Picasso as winner of the Lenin Peace Prize, which was awarded to her in 1970.

She established many schools around Southern Nigeria and constantly remained a resilient force for women’s rights throughout her life. 

Ransome-Kuti also raised successful children (her husband died in 1955), most famous of whom is Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the Afrobeat pioneer and legendary activist. Her other children Beko and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, would all go on to play important roles in education, health care, and political activism.

She died from coma complications in 1978 after soldiers threw her from the second floor of her son Fela’s Lagos home during a 1977 raid. 

6. Aisha Yesufu (Political and Women’s Rights Activist)

Bring Back Our Girls activist Aisha Yesufu speaks during an interview in Abuja, Nigeria, Oct. 14, 2016. Bring Back Our Girls activist Aisha Yesufu speaks during an interview in Abuja, Nigeria, Oct. 14, 2016. Image: Sunday Alamba/AP

“Whatever I am doing today, I am fighting for that little girl that I was, that yearned for help, that begged to be helped with a textbook so that I can read and pass my exams. If I ever give up that fight, I will be giving up on myself.”

Recent profiles of Aisha Yesufu have revealed how much her outspokenness got her into trouble as a child and her brand of activism backs up those accounts. 

In 2014, after 300 girls were kidnapped from a secondary school in Northeast Nigeria by the terrorist Boko Haram group, Yesufu, alongside Oby Ezekwesili, launched the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign to demand the release of the girls. 

The campaign was one of the biggest Nigeria has ever seen and attracted global attention from people like Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and a host of celebrities. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trended across multiple platforms worldwide and it sparked physical protests in various countries. 

Thanks to the efforts of the BBOG group, 154 of the girls have been released and the campaign is still ongoing . Yesufu has continued to remain a vocal critic of lax government policy and frequently advocates for the accountability of political office holders. 

7.  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Writer, Novelist, Feminist)

Bestselling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at Howard County Library System, HCLS, Miller Branch in Ellicott City, Maryland. Bestselling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at Howard County Library System, HCLS, Miller Branch in Ellicott City, Maryland. Image: Geoffrey Baker/Howard County Library System

“Your feminist premise should be: I matter. I matter equally. Not “if only.” Not “as long as.” I matter equally. Full stop.”

“We should all be feminists” is the title of the now famous TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The phrase made it onto Dior t-shirts (a collaboration with Adichie), a Beyoncé song , and has been adapted into a book of the same title. In 2015, the book was distributed to every 16-year-old high-school student in Sweden and has remained on bestseller lists all over the world. 

Her first novel Purple Hibiscus , the coming-of-age story of Kambili, a 15-year-old whose family is wealthy and well respected but who is terrorised by her fanatically religious father, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Adichie has often named Nigerian literary icon Chinua Achebe as her earliest inspiration. 

Half Of A Yellow Sun , Adichie’s second and most famous novel, about the Biafran war , has been made into a film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton. Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions , an extended version of a letter to a friend who asked Adichie’s advice on how to raise her daughter to be feminist, was published in 2017.

Through her work, Adichie has been able to bring global attention to the inequalities women face in Nigerian and global society. 

8. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Musician, Activist)

Nigerian musician and composer Fela Anikulapo Kuti performs on September 13, 1986 at the "Party of Humankind" of the French Communist Party at La Courneuve in Paris, France. Nigerian musician and composer Fela Anikulapo Kuti performs on September 13, 1986 at the "Party of Humankind" of the French Communist Party at La Courneuve in Paris, France. Image: Laurent Rebours/AP

“I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself. For everybody.”

Nigeria’s most famous musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, used words as a form of protest and resistance and also as a means of reflecting and commenting on political events. As he rose to prominence throughout the 1970s, he caused a change in the relation between music as an art form and Nigerian socio-political discourse.

Fela performed three times a week at his Afrika Shrine club from Friday to Sunday, with the Friday show, dubbed the Yabis Night, drawing the largest crowds. On Yabis Nights, Fela would diligently point out a new government effort, typically a different effort each week, highlight its failings, and then break into his legendary free-flowing Afrobeat.

Due to his opposing views, he was routinely arrested and beaten, with soldiers frequently conducting raids on his Lagos commune — which Fela had named the Kalakuta Republic. In 1977 soldiers raided the Kalakuta Republic under the pretext of an anti-drug operation, burning several houses and beating up occupants of the commune. 

Fela’s mother — Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti —was thrown from the second story of one of the buildings and after she died months later from complications of the fall, Fela put her body in a coffin and took it to the gates of Dodan Barracks in Lagos, which was the seat of power in the military regime, in an incredible act of defiance. 

Kuti was a blunt supporter of human rights, and many of his songs are direct attacks against dictatorships, specifically the military governments of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a social commentator, and often criticised Africans (especially the upper class) for betraying traditional African culture.

Since his death in 1997, Kuti’s legacy lives on and has birthed a new generation of activists who idolise his resilience in fighting the tyranny of the system. 

9. Chinua Achebe (Writer, Novelist, Social Critic)

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe holds press conference following his appointment as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Jan. 7, 1999. Nigerian author Chinua Achebe holds press conference following his appointment as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Jan. 7, 1999. Image: Evan Schneider/UN Photo

“Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am — and what I need — is something I have to find out myself.”

One of the most acclaimed novelists of his generation, Achebe is famous for his unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation that follows the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African society. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Achebe also openly supported the secessionist Biafra movement and even took a position as head of the Biafra Broadcasting Service at great risk to his life and career. After the civil war, he became active with the left-leaning People's Redemption Party (PRP). 

In 1983, he became the party's deputy national vice-president and continued to pull discourse toward Nigeria’s corrupt polity, notably in his book The Trouble with Nigeria . 

Achebe says in the first page of the book: "The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility and to the challenge of personal example, which are the hallmarks of true leadership."

Through his work as a writer and as an educator (he lectured at more than 10 universities in his career), Achebe remained a resilient champion of the ordinary person and equality in Nigerian society. He was a champion of fairness in society and constantly advocated for a more equal Nigeria through literature, despite being paralyzed after an accident in 1990. 

Achebe died after a short illness in March 2013 in Boston, United States.

10. Kiki Mordi (Journalist, Women’s Rights Activist)

“Once we begin to see women as humans with as much right to occupy spaces as men. We would have removed the foundation upon which gender-based violence thrives.”

Today one of Nigeria’s foremost young activists, Kiki Mordi’s Sex For Grades documentary (released with the BBC in October 2019) turned the country on its head. 

The documentary showed lecturers in Nigerian and Ghanaian universities sexually harassing students for marks and admission opportunities. A day after the documentary was released, the Nigerian senate re-introduced the anti-sexual harassment bill.

Since then Nigerian state governments have declared a state of emergency on rape and sexual harassment, while a handful of states have launched sex offender registers. The documentary was also nominated for an Emmy in 2020. 

Mordi has been doing similar work and advocating for women's and children rights as a journalist and broadcaster for about six years. In 2019, she produced the film Life at the Bay in Lagos, Nigeria. The documentary tells the story of the inhabitants of Tarkwa Bay and the survival and struggles of their women as they faced eviction from government authorities.

Back in 2017, she started an online petition to end police extortion and exploitation after some Nigerian policemen invaded her home and accused her and her boyfriend of being cultists, a crime which carries a five-year jail term. She has been a constant voice against sexual harassment and gender-based violence, and works with non-profit organisations to support victims and disadvantaged women.

Through her documentaries and campaigns, Mordi has risen to the forefront of her generation’s efforts to  build on the foundations laid by those activists who came before them to continue to build a stronger Nigeria for the next generation.  

Goodbye Mummy. A Bittersweet Funeral in Nigeria

I knew it had to happen at some point of course. It’s the cycle of life. You’re born. You live. You die. Simple. Tell it to the heart though and it’s not so simple anymore. A curious thing happened to me one night a few weeks ago. For some reason, I went on YouTube and watched a video l had not seen in over two years. It was a video of stills l had put together of one of my niece’s wedding 7 years ago.

My mum was on it and seemed to be waving (really holding her hand up in prayer) and l was cracking up my MIL and Federico with my dance moves. I even put it on FB that night. The next morning, my brother called to tell me that mummy had passed away a few minutes before his call. I have to believe that she was trying to say goodbye to me. Here are some of my recollections of this remarkable woman who was lucky enough to have a long life.

Nigerian tribute to a mother:

My mother was born over ninety years ago in a tiny village somewhere in Ijebu, the capital of Ogun State in Nigeria. Her parents were really, really poor. Yes, her school was miles and miles away from home and trekked it everyday. After school, she also sold little condiments from a little tray atop her head. She definitely had a tough life. She, along with my uncle were the only 2 children out of a total of 13 (including 3 sets of twins) who survived past the age of 15. There was a span of two weeks where she lost 3 siblings, all complaining of headaches and dropping dead. The first time the pastor comforted my grandmother. The second time, he tried as best as he could. The third time he just left the bible at her bedside because he had no words. Imagine burying eleven out of your thirteen kids. I am surprised my grandmother never went insane. Faith really is a strong thing.

My mother went on to become a teacher and a lot of people at her funeral had plenty of stories to tell about how tough she was. I always delighted in telling people that she was just as tough on her kids as she was to others.

She was married at 25 to my father and they went on to have eight kids together with a marriage that lasted over 40 years before he died of cancer. She was the one who taught my dad how to read and write in his late teens (his family could not afford to send him to school). Once he started his business and started to prosper, he decided on an experiment.

He asked her to come and work at his company. Within months, she had re-organized the whole place in her own way and the profits soared, allowing him to go on to other ventures. Soon enough, a lot of businessmen started doing the same. I am forever grateful that l was born when things were going well for them. My oldest sister till today will not eat eggs because the family had a few chickens and lived off eggs basically for years in a one-room apartment. One room!

My love for travel comes from both her and my dad. They traveled together and alone. In addition to visiting us kids in whatever countries we were in, she also racked up numerous visits to Israel (she just loved that place), Canada, Japan, Kenya, U.K, Mexico, Italy, Spain among others. I hope to visit as many as she has in my lifetime. There was a big turnout for her funeral despite the fact that she had wanted a solemn one. In addition to the kids she raised, we had so many cousins, extended relatives, and children of friends who lived with us growing up. She was the one parents threatened the kids with. “Keep misbehaving and l’m sending you to Mummy’s house”.

No matter how tough you thought you were, she was tougher :-). Nope, she did not spare the rod at all. In fact, she had canes stashed all over the house so you didn’t have to go far to go get the stick she would beat you with. I always used to resent her for one reason or the other, but when l got older, l came to realize that if l had kids, I would discipline them in exactly the same way. She loved kids, but she didn’t let them get away with anything. Till today, I still have trouble deciphering between blood relatives and friends as we all were raised together and if one was older than you, then it was brother this and sister that.

Here is a snippet video with my cell phone by one of my cousins. This was after the church service.

Nigerian funeral procession:

The funeral was a celebration of her life and so there was happy music and a lot of storytelling over 3 days. I have to admit that l broke down a lot over that time. I know she was old and that l am 53 already! :-). The most annoying part to me was people asking me why l was crying, that l should be happy..blah..blah..blah! I’m like f**k off! This is my mummy. Even if she was 200 years old, I would still cry and be emotional.  Her health had deteriorated badly weeks before her death, so l think my siblings had some time to get used to it and we’re thankful she was spared more suffering. This is one of the hardest things when you live away from family and tragedy happens. I shared some images of her 90th birthday on the roundup post for last year. I am so happy that l got to see her.

Tribute to mother at her funeral:

After the church service, we sent everyone to the reception so we could bury her privately. She has now joined her husband who has been waiting some twenty odd years for her in the front of our family house in the same village where he grew up (hers is less than a mile away). The family spends every Christmas in the village and will continue to do so.

So, this is where I’ve been for the past 6 weeks. Nigeria. Celebrating my mother’s past life. Celebrating my nephew’s new married life. Reminiscing about my early life. Bonding and re-bonding with family and friends. If you follow us on Facebook, you know that it was bitter and sweet because shortly after the funeral, we celebrated my oldest nephew’s wedding and l posted some images and a video from that event. I was just not ready to share this one as l was feeling very verklempt, trying to process the whole thing. We visited Romania shortly after her death as it had already been planned. We had a wonderful time and will tell you about it soon. I think the fact that she wasn’t young and l had seen her recently made it so much better. I was lost for months after my sister’s passing , but it also galvanized us to start living the life we wanted. Early retirement.

One of my biggest regrets in life is that l never achieved the level of success of my parents. They came from nothing and made their marks in the world. In those days Nigeria was a much more powerful nation. One dollar was equal to 59 of our cents. Now, $1 equals 358 of our Naira! A reversal of fortune indeed!!!! Truthfully, I never had the ambition, perhaps because l did not have a hard life growing up like they did and the comfort made me less ambitious. What l did learn from them was hard work pays off. They sent all of us to school and told us to make our own way in life. They made and spent their money while alive. Good for them. My thirty years of hard work that lead to my early financial independence makes me happy. It’s enough for me and wouldn’t have happened without their sacrifices.

Goodbye Mummy:

Thank you mummy for everything. Even though you never said it, I still say l was your favorite (will never understand why my siblings keep fighting me about that! 🙂 ). You were a force of nature, a stubborn, educated, charitable soul who always fought for what was right, no matter the consequences, and made many fear you (much to my delight). I will miss you always. Rest in peace.

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24 thoughts on “goodbye mummy. a bittersweet funeral in nigeria”.

Hi Kemi. Sorry for the news. RIP. Hold on to these memories xx

Thanks so much. I surely will and l am glad she is resting.

Sorry about your lose Kemkem – I just spent a week in Budapest with my mom and I know the day she leaves (assuming I don’t go first)) it will be difficult whatever the age. She obviously was tough being 2 out of 13 that survived (or the others were just incredibly unfortunate). Its great however that she brought success to the family and was able to enjoy travel later in life. Great story.

Thanks Frank. I certainly hope you don’t go first and that she has a long and happy life. We are always their babies no matter the age. Yes, she was one tough woman and felt invincible. In our culture, her position (the second one born after twins) is considered to be the strongest and she believed it wholeheartedly and was fearless. Thanks for the kind words.

So sorry for your loss. I think you looked so much like her <3

Thanks Lola. I’m chuffed that you think l look like her..yeah! 🙂

Such a lovely tribute to you mother, Kemi and I can still feel your sadness, even after all these weeks of your mother’s passing. I’m so sorry for your loss. What a joyful celebration, though of your mother’s life and it sounds like she left an indelible mark on so many people. Thank you for sharing the clip of the procession as it helped to show some of your country’s traditions. (Your dresses are beautiful.) One thing though – there are all sorts of ways to measure success and it seems to me that independence and happiness count for a great deal. You’ve realized that life is precious and have chosen to make the most of it. That seems like a success story to me! Anita

Thanks Anita. I still have my days. I remember after my dad died that it took me almost 2 years to talk about him in the past as my mind couldn’t handle it for so long so l expect it will take a bit of time to adjust to this, even though it was to be expected. Yes, she certainly left her mark on loads of people and it was funny to hear people giving testimonies and the audience cracking up as they totally pictured her doing things and adding their own snippets. Thank you for last bit about success. It makes sense as l do realize l am a bit hard on myself about that. I have have found success that works for me, and yes.. I am indeed proud of that :-).

Amazing writing, Kemkem! It’s a beautiful tribute to your mother and I can only imagine how difficult it was to write this. But your mother had indeed an amazing life story, one to be proud of and one that I am sure most people would have a lot to learn from. There are some people who simply manage to make it big out of nothing – it’s their own sheer will, courage and intelligence that drives them forward.

It is difficult to replicate that kind of success when you don’t start from scratch, but you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself either. I was lucky enough to meet you in person and I would have no hesitation to describe you as an incredibly successful person. You are in a place in life where you have achieved much, much more than most of us will ever achieve and you have all the reasons to be extremely proud of yourself too. And I’m not the kind of person to say things just for the sake of saying them – I truly believe that.

PS: Watching that video clip was truly an eye opener and I really appreciate the traditions in Nigeria. I think every person should end their life with a celebration of life, good stories and laughs from the guests. The close ones will cry no matter what and that is just how it should be.

Oh C, you always know the right thing to say and l do appreciate it. She led by example and her legacy lives on. I see values she instilled in us being played out constantly and it makes me proud. You’re right, it is difficult to replicate the success when it’s not an identical starting point. Yes, I certainly do believe you’re not the kind of person to just say things having spent time with you :-). One of the in-laws who is from a different tribe in the eastern part of the country was surprised at how my culture celebrates life because theirs is usually very somber, no matter the age and to see people celebrating, laughing in remembrance was also an eye opener for her which surprised me as l thought everyone celebrated the same. Somber ones are more for people who died too young. There were definitely loads of laughs as we remembered her. I managed to laugh through my tears. Thanks for this most awesome comment :-).

What an amazing tribute to your mummy. She sounds like a wonderful person and someone I would have enjoyed spending time with. The woman knew how to “rock” a headdress! Many blessings.

Thanks Suzanne. She was indeed a wonderful woman and cracked me up a lot because she always had something to say. Yep! She certainly knew how to wear the geles! The higher the better was her motto, and yes.. I think you would have enjoyed knowing her. All my friends in L.A still have stories to tell about her years and years later :-).

KemKem, this post is a beautiful homage to your mummy. Nothing can ever prepare you for this kind of event, I can totally relate since I lost my mother in 2001, she was very unwell, in a lot of pain, had no quality of life. But even when it is expected it is incredibly hard. I loved how you all celebrated and reminisced about her life with family and friends, a great send off to a great woman. Her legacy will certainly live on and be carried into the next generation by you and the rest of the family. I am sure she would have been very proud of you Kemkem. Thinking of you 🙂

Thanks for the kind words Gilda. Right you are that no matter how expected it is, it is still unprepared. Even when they are in pain and suffering, our selfishness wills them to live on. It was indeed a nice send off. One l am sure she enjoyed watching from wherever she is (hopefully with her loved ones). She lives on in her family and for that l am grateful. She worked hard to make sure that would happen and l am proud to say she succeeded :-).

What a lovely tribute to your mother. I know there are few words that truly can convey the sentiment but I truly believe the memories imprinted in one’s heart speaks volumes of joy. 🙂

Thanks so much Christine. You’re right, the memories really do help in easing the pain. She lived long so there are plenty of them to hold us :-).

I’m so sorry for your loss KemKem, and understand completely what you mean about missing your mother, regardless of how old she was!

I felt the same about my grandmother. I first met her when she was 74 years old, and she died of natural causes at 94! She had a great life, but I was still very upset!

We had planned to visit her and she died two weeks before we arrived, so they postponed the funeral date until we got there. This was before our son was even born, so my German boyfriend at the time was a little over-whelmed with all the festivity and attention.

It looks like a great celebration of your mums’ life. I really like the drumming and dancing, and I saw a glimpse of you at the end of the video. You look so elegant, and did your mother proud!

p.s. Your mum’s headgear is wonderful, and she looks so pretty, right until the end of her wonderful life.

Thanks Victoria. I feel the sadness still at the loss of your grandmother. Good you got to know her, even late in life. She lived a long life also, didn’t she? It’s hard not to miss them, no matter how old they are. I’m sure even though she had passed by the time you got there, she definitely knew how much you loved her. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must have been for your boyfriend at the time :-). They don’t play when they celebrate life do they, especially the Yorubas! That was pretty much my look for the day..alternating between tears or near tears or struggling to smile. It hit me harder than l thought, maybe because l wasn’t there to witness her pain at the end. Ohh..she really loved her high genes..right till the end :-).

The struggle to keep a smiling face is real, but I’m sure that your mum wouldn’t have wanted you to be unhappy, but to remember her, which you will, and to celebrate her life, which you did.

I forgot to mention, that I consider you to be one of the most successful bloggers that I have ever met! There’s really no need to compare yourself to your mother, as the time and situation was so much different.

You’re hardworking, honest, open-minded, eager and ready to help your siblings, funny and clever to boot. I feel honoured to be one of the lucky people to have met you (more than once) in real life. And having a great career then walking away to retire at such a young age, is enormously inspiring.

That’s a huge success right there.

How many people can say that?

Yes, it is :-). Thanks so much for such a wonderful comment No, for sure, she wouldn’t have wanted us to be unhappy, just celebrate her long and wonderful life. I guess it’s hard to be objective about oneself. It sometimes takes an outsider to make the observation and l thank you for that :-). I just try to live a life that would not bring shame to me or my family. I feel honored to have met you too and you know it’s a mutual admiration society..haha! Juggling kid, hubby and travel is not easy but you do it with aplomb. It’s true we all plot our own way to “success” and watching you go is quite fun to watch.

Hiya KemKem. I really loved that video; I want a marching band at my funeral too, so I enjoyed that video. Those are strong young men :-). Is this a typical Nigerian funeral?

I enjoyed the story and the peek into your family and their history and Nigerian culture. It’s always tough when people tell you how to feel; but they mean well…

Thanks again for sharing this. *hugs*.

Thanks so much Kerwin. I think l would like a marching band too. It is common to have that in the middle to upper class circles. I had assumed it was common in all the cultures, but it seems my tribe, the Yorubas do it, but not Ibos and Hausas (the other dominant tribes). I said the same thing about those guys, very strong indeed..at times l thought they might drop the coffin with the moves they were doing, but that is their job. This would be typical for someone who lived a long life. If they died too soon, it would be solemn, the church service and internment, but rarely parties. I know people mean well, but l think it got to me after the 20th person :-). I kept wanting to shout.. It’s my mother!!! like a big baby :-). Thanks for reading and for your kind words.

I came over from Anita and Richard’s blog and I’ve been reading a few of your posts. So sorry about the loss of your wonderful Mom and your sister. Your Mom sure must make you proud, she was a tough, hard working and intelligent woman well ahead of her time. Looking forward to reading more about your travels. Thanks for sharing your story.

I’m not ashamed to say l had tears in my eyes while reading your comment :-). She does indeed make me proud and instilled that in all of us (and most listened to boot 🙂 ). Thanks so much for that. Pleasure to see first thing in the morning. I’m really glad you found the blog. Anita and Richard are tops and we’ve had the pleasure of both staying with them and having them stay with us and have enjoyed it thoroughly. They are the real deal.

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Primary in Pennsylvania is here: A 2024 election guide from ballot issues to House races

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have essentially clinched their party’s 2024 nominations for the White House. But Pennsylvania voters on Tuesday will cast their ballots in a slew of contentious and potentially decisive congressional and state races that are still sure to make waves as the campaign chugs toward November.

The primary results in this pivotal swing state are certain to reveal insights about the major issues shaping the general election, namely on abortion and the Israel-Hamas war.

All 17 members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation are running for re-election in 2024 and three of those incumbents are facing serious primary challengers. Several others are also watching to see who their opponent will be in the fall. And, in some cases, the outcome of Tuesday’s races could determine which way those seats swing on Election Day. 

While it's a far-flung possibility, which party has a majority in Pennsylvania's congressional delegation also could have major implications on the presidential race. If the 2024 White House election is contested or tied, each state’s congressional delegation will have a single vote in deciding the winner. Currently, Democrats have a 9-8 advantage — meaning one general election race in November could make all the difference.  

At the state level, Democrats are hoping to hold on to their majority in the state House and take control of the state Senate. Republicans currently hold a 28-22 majority in the Senate, and Democrats are hoping to flip at least three seats to make it 25-25, giving them the majority via a tie-breaking vote from Democratic Lieutenant Gov. Austin Davis.  

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Five Democrats and two Republicans are also battling for the open state attorney general position, once held by Democratic Gov.  Josh Shapiro . Michelle Henry, who is completing the remainder of Shapiro’s term since he was elected governor in 2022, is not running for the position.   

Candidates across these races are running on some of the biggest issues facing the country — from abortion to the war in Gaza to election integrity. And the candidates whom Democratic and Republican voters pick on Tuesday could give larger insights about their views on topics that appear central to this fall's general election.  

Here's a look at what to expect in Tuesday's primary. 

Abortion at play in Pennsylvania races  

Abortion has roiled down-ballot races across the country, and Pennsylvania is no exception. Reproductive rights have been a major topic in the attorney general’s race and in the Republican primary for the 1 st Congressional District.  

All five Democratic candidates for attorney general have committed to protecting the right to abortion and access to FDA-approved medications such as mifepristone . Meanwhile, the Republican candidates have said that they do not believe the state constitution guarantees the right to an abortion. As attorney general, both would leave the issue for the state legislature to decide. 

In Pennsylvania’s 1 st Congressional District, longtime Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick is being challenged on his right flank by a candidate who believes abortions should be banned in nearly all circumstances — including in cases of rape and incest.  

Mark Houck, Fitzpatrick’s opponent, was acquitted of criminal charges stemming from an altercation at an abortion clinic.  The incident reportedly inspired him to run for public office. A devout Catholic, Houck co-founded the men's religious group The King's Men. He's worked as an author, motivational speaker and human resources manager.

Fitzpatrick is a moderate Republican. He is one of a handful of Republican representatives serving in districts that Biden won in 2020.  

The primary race could demonstrate just how important the issue of abortion is for the Republican Party’s base.  

Pennsylvania Democrats clash on Israel-Hamas war  

In Pennsylvania’s 12 th District, which includes Pittsburgh and some of its suburbs, first-term progressive Rep. Summer Lee, is facing a primary challenge over her opposition to the Israel-Hamas war. Bhavini Patel, a more moderate Democratic congressional candidate has tried to closely align herself with President Joe Biden. 

Lee, who is affiliated with the “squad,” was among the early advocates in Congress calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. She has been an outspoken opponent of providing U.S. military aid to Israel. 

Patel is a 29-year-old municipal council member who also describes herself as a progressive. She has framed the incumbent's criticism of Israel as detrimental to Biden’s re-election efforts and unrepresentative of a district that is home to a large Jewish community. 

The election on Tuesday could reveal just how salient the issue of the war is for Democratic voters — particularly in swing areas of the country. It may also forecast how other progressives facing similar challenges from moderate Democrats could fair in their races.  

What are the key Pennsylvania House races to watch? 

There are several other high-profile House primary races to watch in Pennsylvania.  

Six Democrats are competing for the chance to challenge GOP Rep. Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, which includes Harrisburg and Hershey.  

Perry was a former chair of the Freedom Caucus, one of the most conservative factions of the Republican Party, with members including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Perry was also a key figure in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

While the area leans Republican, Democrats say they can win over independents and moderate conservatives in the area with a message centered around protecting democracy. They plan to tie Perry to Trump and conservative extremism.  

Out of the six Democratic candidates running to unseat Perry, news anchor Janelle Stelson and former "Top Gun" fighter pilot Mike O’Brien appear to have the best shot. The other candidates include Harrisburg City Council member Shamaine Daniels, progressive businessman John Broadhurst and former radio executive Black Lynch.  

To the northeast of Harrisburg, in the Lehigh Valley, three Republicans are competing to take on Democratic Rep. Susan Wild. Her seat, in Pennsylvania’s 7th District, is a top target for Republicans in November.  

Wild barely eked out a victory against her Republican opponent, Lisa Scheller, in 2022. She won 51-49.  

Pennsylvania’s state legislature hangs in the balance  

If Pennsylvania Democrats hold their narrow majority in the state House and win the state Senate in November, it would give Gov. Shapiro enormous power to pass his agenda in the last two years of his term.  

It would also mark the first time in three decades that the party controlled the state Senate; Tuesday’s elections could determine whether that’s possible.  

Because the local districts tend to lean Democratic or Republican, the results of the primary elections can have a large sway on the race.  

Democrats currently hold a two-seat majority in the state House, and Republicans hold a five-seat majority in the state Senate.