African Women Who Built Public Health
6 women in the archive worked for public health. They came from different countries and different centuries, but each of them saw a wrong that others accepted and set out to change it. Read their stories to see how the same cause looked from very different lives.
6 women in the archive
ModernAmeyo Stella Adadevoh
Nigerian physician who identified and contained Nigeria's first Ebola case in 2014, preventing a wider outbreak. She died of the disease; honoured as a national hero.
IndependenceCarmen Pereira
PAIGC political commissar who commanded the southern front of Guinea-Bissau's liberation war and, in May 1984, became the first woman ever to act as head of state of an African country.
ModernDora Akunyili
NAFDAC Director-General who cut counterfeit drugs in Nigeria from roughly 70% to under 20%. Survived assassination attempts; later Minister of Information.
ContemporaryMamphela Ramphele
South African doctor, academic, activist, and former World Bank Managing Director. She was the life partner of Steve Biko, survived apartheid harassment and banishment, and went on to become one of the most accomplished South African women of her generation.
ContemporarySamia Suluhu Hassan
Tanzania's first female president, sworn in March 2021 after the death of John Magufuli. She shifted the country's COVID response, reopened diplomatic relations, and liberalised the media.
ContemporarySpecioza Wandira-Kazibwe
Ugandan doctor and politician who became Africa's first female vice president when she was elected to that office in 1994. She served for ten years, championing public health and women's rights from one of the continent's highest political positions.