Dr Yvonne Sylvain was the first female doctor from Haiti and the first woman accepted into the University of Haiti Medical School, earning her medical degree in 1940. She played a vital role in providing improved medical access and tools for Haitian citizens and was a leading advocate for the physical, economical, social and political equality of Haitian women.
Alice Nkom is a Cameroonian lawyer, well known for her advocacy in decriminalizin homosexuality in Cameroon. She has been a lawyer in Douala (Cameroon’s largest city) since 1969 when, at age 24, she became the first black French-speaking woman called to the bar in Cameroon.
Queen Tiye was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. Amenhotep III reputedly relied heavily on his wife’s political advice, being more interested in sports and the outdoors than in his royal duties. She was an important power during both her husband’s and son’s reigns. Known to be wise, intelligent, strong, and fierce, she was able to gain the respect of foreign dignitaries, and foreign leaders were willing to deal directly with her. She was the first Egyptian queen to have her name recorded on official acts.
During her son’s reign, Akhenaten’s correspondence speaks highly of the political influence she wielded at court, and she continued to correspond with people of influence herself.
Between Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, who may have had an incestuous relationship with his mother, many shrines were built for Tiye, most of them during her lifetime. She is shown on the walls of the tomb of Huya – a “steward in the house of the king’s mother, the great royal wife Tiyi” – depicted at a dinner table with Akhenaten, his wifeNefertiti, and their family and then being escorted by the king to her sunshade. In 2010, DNA analysis confirmed her to be the mummy known as “The Elder Lady” found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in 1898.
Valerie Muriel Rodway was a composer of Guyanese cultural and patriotic songs, inspired by the events surrounding Guyana’s independence in 1966.
Binao was a queen of the Bemihisatra group of the Sakalava people of Madagascar from 1881 to 1927. She controlled a relatively small territory on Madagascar’s northwestern coast, consisting of the island of Nosy Be and a stretch of the mainland coast. In the early years of her reign, she faced threats from the ambitions of the mainland’s dominant power, the Merina Kingdom.
Binao allied with France when it intefered in Malagasy politics during the first Franco-Hova War (1883–85), but when the ear ended with France taking de facto control of Madagascar’s foreign policy, Binao was to be disappointed by the French recognising the Merina as the dominant native power on the island.
In 1894–95 France took complete control of the island and established the Malagasy Protectorate, exiling the Merina monarch, Ranavalona III. Binao supported the French and opposed the Menalamba rebellion against the European power two years later. She was confirmed by the French as gouverneur principal of Nosy Be, which had effectively been converted into an internal protectorate within colonial Madagascar under the French politique des races.
Relations with the French deteriorated dramatically in 1918 when a major dispute arose over levying corvée labour under the traditional practice of fanompoana, in which Sakalava subjects paid their respects to their deceased ancestors and reconfirmed their loyalty to the monarch. Binao had been required to obtain French permission for maintenance on the royal tombs but had sought to evade this by sending a request timed to reach colonial authorities after the work had already begun. The plan failed and led to reprisals against subjects who participated in the fanompoana and against Binao herself, who was evicted from her doany (royal palace) and made to pass it on to her half-brother Amada. She was forced to live instead in the town of Hellville (now Andoany), a humiliating blow against the monarchy.
Jemimah Gecaga was the first woman to serve in the legislature of Kenya. In 1952, she founded Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, an organisation that continues to advocate for women’s rights and gender equity in Kenya to this day. In 1958, she was nominated to the Legislative Council in Kenya and became the first woman to serve in the country’s parliament of the country, serving until 1962. She later served as President of the YWCA in Kenya, lectured in home economics at Jeanes School (The Kenya School of Government) and worked as a director at Skyline Advertising. In 1969, she was again nominated as a member of parliament in 1969, serving until 1974.
Tatiana Rusesabagina is a Rwandan humanitarian who, with her husband Paul Rusesabagina, helped protect 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees in the Hotel des Milles Collines during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Their story was used as the basis for the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. When Tatiana was working as a nurse, she had faced discrimination because of her Tutsi ethnicity, and her mother was murdered in the genocide along with other family members and their bodies were thrown into a pit with many others. Her father had forged all of her family’s identification cards to say that they were Hutu, but the militia had other ways of tracking Tutsis, which the Hutu people were killing in mass in an attempt to make the Tutsi extinct. The conflict between the two ethnic groups dates back centuries in Rwanda. Paul’s family was of mixed Hutu and Tutsi which meant he was less of a target than a full Tutsi.
Paul had Tatiana come to the hotel, which he managed, for safety with the children. He tried to smuggle them out of the country by hiding in a truck that would take them to the airport, but the militia figured out their plan. Tatiana was a target for brutal beatings because the militia knew that she was the Tutsi wife of the hotel manager. She narrowly escaped death and made it back to the hotel, where she was bed-ridden for several days because of her injuries. The people taking shelter in the hotel were all saved because of Rusesabagina’s careful diplomacy with the government, which included bribing them so they would not enter the hotel and harm anyone
Once they were able to leave the hotel, Paul and Tatiana went to a refugee camp to begin looking for family; they were reunited with Tatiana’s two nieces, who were starving and covered in dirt when they were found. The family escaped to Tanzania and later settled in Brussels, where they often received threats. Paul received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, with Tatiana by his side. The family is still active as advocates for genocide survivors and for the betterment of the Tutsi people in Rwanda. They created the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation in 2005, with a mission to “prevent future genocides and raise awareness of the need for a new truth and reconciliation process in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region of Africa”.
Alba Roballo was a prominent Afro-Uruguayan lawyer, poet and politician, who was Uruguay’s first woman Cabinet member, first woman Culture Minister, and first woman elected to the (then collective) Municipal Council of Montevideo, Uruguay.
As Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa led the Asante in a war against British colonization between 1900 and 1901, known as the War of the Golden Stool or the Yaa Asantewaa War.
Empress Taytu Betul ruled the Ethiopian Empire from 1889 to 1913, and she founded Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Even before she was named empress, she wielded significant political power, leading the conservative faction at court, which resisted the modernists and progressives who wanted to develop Ethiopia along western lines and bring modernity to the country. Her opinon was highly valued by her husband, the often hesitant Emperor Menelik II, and she was a key player in encouraging her countrymen to stand up tp the Italians, of whom she was rightfully suspicious and who wanted to make the kingdom and Italian protectorate. When the Italians invaded, the empress marched north with the Emperor and the Imperial Army, personally commanding a force of cannoneers at the historic Battle of Adwa. The battle resulted in a humiliating defeat for Italy in March 1896, which was the most significant of any African army battling European colonialism.
When her husband’s health began to decline around 1906, Taytu began making decisions on his behalf, angering her rivals by appointing favorites and relatives to most of the positions of power and influence. Due to political maneuvering, she was forced from power in 1910, and a regency under Ras Tessema Nadew took over. After her husband’s death in 1913, Taytu was banished to the old Palace at Entoto, next to the St. Mary’s church she had founded years before, and where her husband had been crowned Emperor.
Many believe Taytu may have played a part in the plot that eventually removed Emperor Iyasu V (Menelik’s grandson from a previous marriage) from the throne in 1916, replacing him with Empress Zauditu. Zauditu, Menelik II’s daughter by yet another previous marriage, had always been close to her stepmother and invited Taytu to live with her. Although Taytu declined, she resumed her role as a political advisor.