The women history forgot to teach you.
An archive of African women who fought for equality, rights, and change.
Newest in the Archive
View all
ContemporaryDestiny Ayo Vaughan
Founder of Mind the Gap Ireland and a survivor of child trafficking. Brought from Nigeria at five and held captive in Ireland for five years, she came through the foster care system, earned her degrees on scholarship, and became a TEDx speaker and United Nations delegate. She turned her own silence into a place where hundreds of others can speak.
ContemporaryAgathe Uwilingiyimana
Rwanda's first and only female Prime Minister, a chemistry teacher who abolished ethnic quotas in schools, stood against Hutu Power extremism, and was assassinated with her UN guards in the opening hours of the 1994 genocide.
ContemporaryAminatou Haidar
The 'Sahrawi Gandhi', a nonviolent resistance leader who survived four years of secret detention and torture, and whose 32-day airport hunger strike in 2009 forced Morocco into a rare public climb-down before the eyes of the world.
IndependenceAnnie Jiagge
Ghanaian jurist who became the first woman judge in the Commonwealth of Nations and the principal drafter of the 1967 UN declaration that grew into CEDAW, the world's bill of rights for women.
ContemporaryAsha-Rose Migiro
Tanzanian lawyer and diplomat who became the first African woman to serve as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, after breaking a 45-year barrier as her country's first female foreign minister.
Articles & Explainers
The Girl They Tried to Keep Hidden: The Story of Destiny Ayo Vaughan
Shipped from Nigeria to Ireland as a child with the promise of a better life, Destiny was held captive for five years. She was not supposed to survive. She was certainly not supposed to speak. She did both.
Raising Children at the Crossroads: How Gender, Culture, and Power Meet in African Homes
The lessons that shape girls into future wives and boys into men who expect service do not come from one place. They are built at the intersection of gender, culture, class, religion, and history. Understanding that crossroads is how we raise people instead of roles.
When Men Go to War, Women Suffer: The Rwanda Genocide and What Was Done to Women
In 100 days in 1994, between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped in Rwanda. This is the story of why it happened, what the world did about it, and how Rwandan women rebuilt an entire country from the ruins.
Ten Years in Prison for the Pill That Keeps Nigerian Mothers Alive
Nigeria's Senate is debating raising the punishment for supplying abortion drugs from 3 to 10 years. The pill at the centre of that law is the same one keeping women in villages from bleeding to death after childbirth.
6,400 Miles Past the Moon and Still Not Far Enough
Christina Koch just became the first woman to travel around the Moon. The comment sections proved exactly why that milestone still matters.
Browse by Region
43 countries, 197 women — tap a country to explore.
Explore by Cause
What did they fight for?
Across the Centuries
Key moments in African women's history
