African Women in Academia
6 women in the archive worked for women in academia. 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
ModernAyoka Olufunmilayo Adebambo
First female professor and first Head of the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics in Nigeria. Her research on livestock improvement and sustainable farming has contributed to food security and agricultural development.
ModernFelicia Adetoun Ogunsheye
Nigeria's first female professor. She achieved the milestone in 1973 as a professor of Library Science at the University of Ibadan and spent her career modernizing library education and promoting women's participation in higher education.
ModernGrace Alele-Williams
Nigerian mathematician and the first woman to become a Vice-Chancellor of a Nigerian university. She spent her life fighting for girls to study mathematics and science at a time when most people believed those subjects were not for women.
ModernJadesola Olayinka Akande
First Nigerian female professor of Law and Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University. A respected authority on constitutional law who held the national honours of CON and OFR.
ModernMaimuna Waziri
Nigerian professor of chemistry and the first female Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Gashua. She emerged from a field of 47 professors to lead the institution in 2021.
ModernTomilayo Adekanye
First female professor in any agricultural field in Nigeria and the first professor of agricultural economics in Africa. She also served as Commissioner for Trade and Investment and Commissioner for Agriculture in Oyo State.