Women of HerStory Africa
197 women across the archive. Search, filter, and explore.
ModernAbike Dabiri-Erewa
Nigerian politician and former broadcaster; Chair of NIDCOM (Nigerians in Diaspora Commission). Advocate for diaspora engagement, accountability, and women in public life.
Pre-ColonialAbla Pokou
Ashanti princess who led a breakaway people west across the Comoé River during an 18th-century succession war and founded the Baoulé, today one of Côte d'Ivoire's largest nations. Her legend of a mother's terrible sacrifice at the river is one of West Africa's most retold origin stories.
ColonialAdelaide Casely-Hayford
Sierra Leonean educator, Pan-Africanist and women's rights advocate who founded a vocational school for girls at a time when girls' education was considered unnecessary. She spent decades teaching African women that their culture, identity and intelligence were things to be proud of, not erased.
ModernAdelaide Tambo
South African anti-apartheid activist and wife of ANC president Oliver Tambo. While her husband led the ANC in exile, Adelaide was an activist and organiser in her own right, supporting liberation networks, raising her children alone under constant pressure, and dedicating her life to the freedom of her people.
ContemporaryAdenike Oladosu
Nigerian climate activist and the first African woman to lead a Fridays for Future climate strike. Campaigns tirelessly for the drying Lake Chad basin, a slow-moving environmental disaster affecting 40 million people across four countries. Named one of the most influential climate voices of her generation.
ModernAdenike Osofisan
First Nigerian woman to earn a PhD in Computer Science (1989) and first female professor of Computer Science at the University of Ibadan. Pioneer in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computing education in Nigeria.
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.
ModernAgbani Darego
First Black African to win Miss World (2001). Model and advocate; used her platform for HIV/AIDS awareness and girls' education in Nigeria and Africa.
ModernAisha Buhari
First Lady of Nigeria (2015–2023); advocate for women's and children's welfare, health, and education. Outspoken on governance and women's participation in public life.
ModernAisha Yesufu
Co-convener of #BringBackOurGirls; prominent voice in End SARS protests. Nigerian activist for accountability, human rights, and good governance.
ModernAlbertina Sisulu
South African anti-apartheid activist and nurse who kept the resistance alive while her husband Walter Sisulu was imprisoned for 26 years alongside Nelson Mandela. She was banned, arrested, and surveilled for decades, and never stopped.
ColonialAline Sitoé Diatta
Diola spiritual leader in Casamance, Senegal, who led resistance against French colonial rice requisitions during World War II. Arrested and deported to Timbuktu, where she died at 24.
ModernAma Ata Aidoo
Ghanaian author, playwright, and poet who spent over five decades writing some of the most important African literature in the world. Her work put African women at the centre of the story at a time when they were almost always pushed to the edges. She also served as Ghana's Minister of Education.
ContemporaryAmeenah Gurib-Fakim
Mauritian biodiversity scientist who became the sixth President of Mauritius (2015–2018) and the first woman to hold the office. A world-leading researcher in medicinal plants of the Mascarene Islands, she has bridged science, politics, and advocacy for women and the environment.
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.
ContemporaryAmina J. Mohammed
Nigerian diplomat and UN Deputy Secretary-General since 2017. Formerly Nigeria's Minister of Environment. One of the chief architects of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global framework guiding international development until 2030. The highest-ranking Nigerian in the history of the United Nations.
Pre-ColonialAmina of Zazzau
16th-century warrior queen of Zazzau (modern Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria). Led 34 years of military campaigns, expanded the Hausa kingdom's territory to its largest ever extent, and built the defensive earthwork walls still called 'Amina's walls' today. The most celebrated female military leader in West African history.
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.
IndependenceAndrée Blouin
A Pan-African organizer from the Central African Republic who turned the death of her small son, denied malaria medicine reserved for Europeans, into a fight that helped free Guinea and put her at Patrice Lumumba's side in Congo.
ContemporaryAngélique Kidjo
Beninese singer who refused to perform propaganda for a dictatorship, fled to Paris in 1983, and became a five-time Grammy winner, UNICEF ambassador, and the first Black African artist honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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.
IndependenceAoua Keita
Malian midwife, politician, and activist who became the first woman elected to Mali's National Assembly. Campaigned for women's suffrage, healthcare, and independence from France.
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.
ContemporaryAsmaa Mahfouz
Egyptian activist whose video blog posts in January 2011 called on Egyptians to protest in Tahrir Square and helped spark the Egyptian Revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. She was 25 years old. Her four-minute video is considered one of the most significant acts of citizen activism in the history of the Arab world.
Looking for someone specific? Browse all women A to Z